Looks good, but prices are ridiculous.
1 Like
The ODAC standalone is only $120. I assume youāre talking about the ARC? Iām currently working on building an Objective2 amp. The Objective 2 and ODAC outperform most equipment that costs 100s more. Also the O2 is a creative commons design which is pretty cool.
Doing discrete dac and amps is not really a great laptop solution so I donāt see Scott going that way even if it wasnāt over double the price of perfectly listenable dac/amp combo units.
I do appreciate the discrete units setup, and Iāve been curious to compare an O2 Combo with the Magni/Modi stack I have, but at this point my thinking is, if Iām spending $250 for an Obj2 setup, why not just suck it in, and spend a little more for an NFB-11 And call it my 5-year endgame?
Quite a few people seem to like it, and itās reasonably priced for the praise, especially considering itās an all-in-one.
(donāt let the memeād title card dissuade you)
https://youtu.be/Cddv3mLte3M
I ended up buying the FiiO E10K Olympus 2. $75. Not the cheapest option, but I really wanted the hardware volume knob, and I like the form factor otherwise.
I just got it and tested it on my home PC. It definitely works, and it sounds great. The volume knob was a great idea. I heard some people say the Dragonfly was too loud, and there was no way to turn it down. On the FiiO I definitely wontā be cranking it past 3. 4 max. Shit is blasting. I notice a little difference if I hit the bass switch. Maybe turn it on for banginā songs and off otherwise. It gets way louder if I switch the gain from L to H, so Iām keeping that shit on L. Probably never going to use the line out or coax out, but maybe theyāll be useful one day.
Also, itās nice and small. Slightly smaller than 3" x 2" x 1"
I recommend it, but there is probably a better choice for under $75.
Thatās probably a really good bang/buck choice. Itās not the prettiest unit but seems like it has all the right features. And at those dimensions itās smaller than I originally imagined, certainly portable enough. And the price is about right. In any case, physical vol. knob FTW.
Definitely donāt need high-gain unless you come across some really hard to run headphones which, you probably wonāt run into that problem from the sound of it. Unless you go looking for some 600 Ohm Beyerdynamics or something.
Bass switch is a tricky thing. Do what you want, purists will decry them every time, but itās whatever sounds best with your setup at the end of the day.
Once again, fuck the beats X and make it humble. The power button broke and now they wonāt turn on.
At this point all I want is headphones that actually isolate like etymotics, but are also durable and will not break or fail. With all the zillion brands and models out there, are there none that meet these two requirements? Iām even willing to overpay as long as they are legit.
Iād just use etymotics in that spot
All the ones Iāve ever had break.
Is it perhaps inherent to the nature of that particular design format that they are more fragile than other designs? Youāve had experiences with two well-regarded manufactures of that style of headphone breaking on you. Perhaps itās something that cannot be avoided?
1 Like
Well, the etymotic broke in the cable. The Beats broke in the battery/button/wireless part.
If there were etymotics with replaceable cables they would be fine. I might try Shure SE215 because they are the closest to etymotic, but have removable cables. They also come in both wired and wireless.
I thought there were wireless Etymotics as well.
My BeatsX has a power button issue but it was just software. I held the power and volume up button for 10 seconds and it fixed it.
Just tried it. No go.
Oh wellā¦
Shure makes excellent insertion earbuds.
Didnāt you buy some House of Marley earbuds to try them out a little while back? How did they go?
They work and have not broken yet. They isolate even less than the Beats, donāt sound great, and arenāt comfortable.
I do have extra pads for the Shures. You could try them out with a clean set of pads.
I love them.
Thatās unfortunate, Iām sorry to hear that. They work great for me, but thatās the way these things go - with the natural variation of people, when it comes to stuff that goes in and on your ears, what works for me might not work for you. My sister canāt use them either, her ear canals are tiny, and they literally do not fit in her ears comfortably, and constantly fall out.
Still glad I bought them. They were very inexpensive, and they are great to have as backups since all the other headphones keep breaking.