Hi Am looking for some advice re above. I got into the hifi hobby again during lockdown. So please treat me as a newbie.
I Acquired quite a bit stereo gear (incl some valve gear) and speakers. Had a bit of a wow experience listening to different dacs on headphones. So started a journey exploring different dacs and headphones. Mostly midfi headphones initially. Recently, on a trip, I took a plunge a little deeper down the rabbit hole. Bought an Audeze LCD-X (which came only with 6.3mm cable). Then could not resist a combo offer of a Sennheiser HD820 with the matching HDVD800 amplifier (this set of headphones came with balanced and unbalanced cables).
So after listening for a month or so - I prefer the LCD-X sound profile over the HD820 (warmer profile good sub bass and vocals and treble more rounded vs much wider open and less veiled but also IMO clinical HD820 despite being closed back vs open back Audeze)) . However it is much softer than the Sennheiser due to the higher output of the balanced out.
Key question is - does using balanced out on the headphones improve sound quality or is it just volume ?
Equipment used - Roon on Mac to-Denafrips Gaia DDC- Denafrips Pontus DAC-Sennheiser HDVD800 headphone amp-headphones
Regards
I Acquired quite a bit stereo gear (incl some valve gear) and speakers. Had a bit of a wow experience listening to different dacs on headphones. So started a journey exploring different dacs and headphones. Mostly midfi headphones initially. Recently, on a trip, I took a plunge a little deeper down the rabbit hole. Bought an Audeze LCD-X (which came only with 6.3mm cable). Then could not resist a combo offer of a Sennheiser HD820 with the matching HDVD800 amplifier (this set of headphones came with balanced and unbalanced cables).
So after listening for a month or so - I prefer the LCD-X sound profile over the HD820 (warmer profile good sub bass and vocals and treble more rounded vs much wider open and less veiled but also IMO clinical HD820 despite being closed back vs open back Audeze)) . However it is much softer than the Sennheiser due to the higher output of the balanced out.
Key question is - does using balanced out on the headphones improve sound quality or is it just volume ?
Equipment used - Roon on Mac to-Denafrips Gaia DDC- Denafrips Pontus DAC-Sennheiser HDVD800 headphone amp-headphones
Regards
