It is a warm, smooth, and semi-detailed sound that goes great with everything but fast trance, large orchestras, and some dubstep. More on it below. I want a good Headphone amp, and a bit of future headroom in terms of file support. The Questyle CMA600i is a contender (1300 euro out here), the Marantz HD-DAC1 is for sale in a local webshop for 539 euro here, which seems like a steal... I wonder how much better the Questyle is compared to the Marantz for more than double the cash... Or, I could save a bit longer and go for a Hugo 2, Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ (for MQA support) or a T+A DAC 8 DSD... Knowing that investing in these pieces will delay the next upgrades quite a bit... ITunes, Pure Music, Amarra, Audirvana, AudioGate, and Audirvana Plus all worked with the D1 without any ergonomic or compatibility issues. Most critical listening was done through Pure Music for standard resolution and MP3 files while Audirvana Plus was employed for higher resolution files. Pure Music and Audirvana Plus were used because both have provisions for changing output devices that only require about fifteen seconds for the changeover, making them most convenient for matched-level A/B listening tests. Please note: TV and larger floorstanding speaker deliveries are not available to Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Scottish Islands, and Channel Islands. Dynamic range, or the gap between the smallest and largest signals that the DAC can produce. Dynamic range is often seen in decibels. The Final Word: AudioEngine D1

If you have a Mac, it’s all just plug and play. I assume that with Windows you have to do some sort of driver stretch. I also assume that if you’re in the market for a DAC/headphone amp, you know how to do it.Thanks for stopping by, if you enjoyed our review and want to surf around and read about other related subjects, you’ll enjoy taking a look at the Best Bookshelf Speakers here or browsing our Top 10 Absolute Best Headphone Albums. Plugging this in via USB will bypass your PC/Laptop’s internal Soundcard and provide you with eye-opening clarity. In addition, B1 can also act as a Bluetooth connector for wireless connection from the audio source device to other decoders or preamplifiers. You can use B1’s internal decoding by connecting the RCA output or use their decoder for decoding by connecting the fiber output. Is that tiny device really capable of powering my audio equipment? Chances are, you’re already somewhat aware of the night and day difference that a USB DAC/Amp combo can make when paired with the right pair of speakers or headphones. We reserve the right to refuse installation should our engineers think that the existing electrical or plumbing points are unsafe and in need of maintenance or if they are unable to install to existing furniture.

I encourage any older men who are reading this and thinking "not me my hearing's great!" to go see an audiologist and have your hearing tested. You might be surprised at what you cannot hear.

Is the D1 still worth a purchase today or is the K5 Pro the better option? I would love to hear from you.

Native MQA support on the Dragonfly Red is nice, but I don't like the fact is doesn't have a physical volume knob so I won't use it a my primary DAC... I still have much less local High-Res files than those I can access through Tidal. I will build a library over time (I tend to buy what I really like), but right now, having MQA is a bit of a plus while I rely on Tidal so often, I think... The Audioengine is essentially a plug-and-play device. With its built-in driver, both my Mac and PC recognized the D1 almost instantly and it could be selected from my control panel’s list of audio output devices. For most of the review the D1 was tethered to my Apple Mac Pro tower via its supplied USB cable. The D1 has a standard USB connector so I was able to use it with premium USB cables from AudioQuest, Wire World, Locus Designs and Synergistic Research without any issues. The D1 sounded a bit less detailed by contrast but still sounded very good. Caroline Pennell – Drive Me Home The low resistance has a hidden downside -- most headphone amps have output circuits designed for much higher impedance in mind for all the old junk plastic drivers on the market, making amp matching more challenging than you'd be led to believe if you listened solely to non-audiophiles on places like Reddit. The output impedance of an amp should be at least 1/8th of the impedance of the headphones. In particular for these Fostex drivers, current mode amplification synergies strongly with them so that Questyle would be a very good option. The Bakoon amps which are also current mode apparently do amazingly well with Fostex headphones so I would expect similar performance with your Nighthawks -- although obviously they are much more expensive. For one, you will need high-quality sound files. You can’t expect digital content that is stored at 128 kilobytes per second to have astounding sound quality. In much the same way as having an ultra high definition TV will make low-resolution videos look better.

The Audiolab M-DAC Nano Portable Wireless DAC and Headphone Amplifier allow you to improve your laptop or desktop computer’s sound quality. This wireless DAC and headphone amplifier converts digital signals to high fidelity sounds.

Caroline Pennell – Drive Me Home

If you like a strong low-end presence, but also enjoy being able to clearly hear the other musical elements (sound effects, etc.) and frequencies, you should be satisfied. I did a comparison of the D1 and Objective 2 and came to some interesting conclusions. Let’s get into some of them! It will also be an excellent way to hook up your devices to traditional speakers with RCA inputs. However, if you’re looking for a DAC for your home entertainment devices, the PROZOR 192KHz Digital to Analog Audio Converter might be the better choice.

Then went home and with a frequency generator, equalize my speakers in my receiver to my hearing, very easy to do, custom mode 1 in receiver. HA - no matter how old, good is good, you just have to have train you ears. In the HiFi industry, Audioengine is a non-mainstream brand. You can’t find those bulky floor-standing speakers or huge decoders, preamp, and power amplifier in their product line. Instead, they are all small and good-looking desktop products. However, with these HiFi products, Audioengine has entered the recommended list of professional audio media such as WhatHiFi and The Absolute Sound time and time again. Its active speaker A5+ has been recommended by WhatHiFi five-star. The smaller version of A2+ and decoder D3 were respectively recommended by TAS Editors’ Choice Awards and annual affordable DAC products. And in this post, I will introduce the Audioengine B1 DAC. Both through headphones and line level outputs, the Audioengine D1s overall resolving abilities were also worthy of special note. While not unkind to 320 kbps MP3 music files, with 44.1/16 bit and higher rez files the Audioengine D1 gets right down to the inner workings of the music. On the GoGo’s rendition of “The Cool Jerk” off the band’s Greatest Hits CD [A&M] each drum hit and vocal part has its own phase-shifted reverb trail. The D1 keeps all this low level stuff from homogenizing together. The sound performance can be said to be quite satisfactory. The sound of D1 shows a more modern feel. It can render the overall sense of hearing a bit more intense, the performance of the bass volume is sufficient, and the diving ability is also more acceptable. The overall sound is delicate and smooth, and the control ability is relatively appropriate, giving us a somewhat satisfactory answer. The D1 handled the chorus a lot better. It didn’t seem to get out of control and was less sterile overall.

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The Audioengine D1 24-bit DAC allows you to upgrade your PC audio, bypassing the internal components with a USB-B input connection. Processing audio up to 24-bit depth rate, the D1 DAC delivers high sound quality with a high signal-to-noise ratio and low distortion and a sample rate up to 192 kHz. With a high quality headphone amplifier, hear all your music in stunning detail with any pair of headphones. PH15, PH16, PH17, PH18, PH19, PH20, PH21, PH22, PH23, PH24, PH25, PH26, PH27, PH28, PH29, PH30, PH31, PH32, PH33, PH34, PH35, PH36, PH37, PH38, PH39, PH40, PH41, PH42, PH43, PH44, PH45, PH46, PH47, PH48, PH49, PH50 I noticed that out of the Objective 2, vocals seemed to have more presence, with the Soundstage opening up a bit more. IV1, IV2, IV3, IV4, IV5, IV6, IV7, IV8, IV9, IV10, IV11, IV12, IV13, IV14, IV15, IV16, IV17, IV18, IV19, IV20, IV21, IV22, IV23, IV24, IV25, IV26, IV27, IV28, IV29, IV30, IV31, IV32, IV33, IV34, IV35, IV36, IV37, IV38, IV39, IV40, IV41, IV42, IV43, IV44, IV45, IV46, IV47, IV48, IV49, IV50, IV51, IV52, IV53, IV54, IV55, IV56, IV57, IV58, IV59, IV60, IV61, IV62, IV63, IV64, IV65, IV66, IV67, IV68, IV69, IV70, IV71, IV72, IV73, IV74, IV75, IV76, IV77, IV78, IV79, IV80, IV81, IV82, IV83, IV84, IV85, IV86, IV87, IV88, IV89, IV90, IV91, IV92, IV93, IV94, IV95, IV96, IV97, IV98, IV99