CutiePieHole

16m

Im in bed at 4pm

Tuneout

15m

this song f***s me up. its so unbelievably good, it hasnt left my head for days

Bruuiisees

13m

I like this one

And this one

Orangutan

20m

??

The beautiful Chinese have spent the last decade splintering into dozens of different audio labs all undercutting each other to make the most affordable good audio products

Without them, great audio would still be reserved for rich old men paying european giants and american boutiques thousands of dollars for snake oil

Now you can get genuinely good sounding IEMs for like $30, and great sounding IEMs for like $150

Same s*** for all the various audio gear. A portable tube amp like this would've been like $1000 a decade ago and now it's 1/10th of that

Tuneout

17m

this is really interesting damn
does using it on your phone like that really make a difference?

i always imagined you using those huge headphone jacks and stuff for it to make a difference instead of an aux

Bruuiisees

16m

Probably? So you didn't test it?

If someone bites that you're screwed

Orangutan

10m

Yeah tubes make a difference for sure. They add even order harmonics to the music, which adds a pleasant "fuzz" to the edges of sounds, which the human ear often perceives as more "3D" and "real"

But as far as using dongle dac/amps go, a lot of that s*** is snake oil. There are exceptions to every rule, but as long as your dac and amp are competent and your headphones/iems are getting enough power, it will sound indistinguishable from any other dac/amp

The only reason to use a dedicated dongle is if you're using a headphone that needs a lot of power, high current delivery, or good voltage swing. For most in-ears, the $9 apple dongle will sound as good as anything else. Kind of an open secret in the hobby the the Apple dongle is the best deal in audio. If you want to use most over-ear headphones or IEMs that need crazy current delivery (like planars or exotic multi-driver setups), then you def want to get a dedicated DAC/Amp though

Tuneout

9m

its ironic and funny the apple dongle is the best deal i love that

Orangutan

5m

Yea that's one thing I appreciate about the younger generation in the audio hobby, which is shockingly large (it always came off as an old man interest to me). They don't go for all the over-romanticization or snake oil that gave audiophiles a bad rap in the past. Everything is starting to become about real price-to-performance ratio. Nobody my age is buying $500 cables or vibration absorbing stones.

Orangutan

5m

Yea that's one thing I appreciate about the younger generation in the audio hobby, which is shockingly large (it always came off as an old man interest to me). They don't go for all the over-romanticization or snake oil that gave audiophiles a bad rap in the past. Everything is starting to become about real price-to-performance ratio. Nobody my age is buying $500 cables or vibration absorbing stones.

Bruuiisees

5m

Vibration absorbing stones sounds freaking sick

Orangutan

5m

Yea that's one thing I appreciate about the younger generation in the audio hobby, which is shockingly large (it always came off as an old man interest to me). They don't go for all the over-romanticization or snake oil that gave audiophiles a bad rap in the past. Everything is starting to become about real price-to-performance ratio. Nobody my age is buying $500 cables or vibration absorbing stones.