I have mixed feelings about standalone USB dac/amps these days. Back in the early days of digital audio, they made a huge difference. For example, when the Cowon U2 portable audio player came out:
The iPod basically couldn't output bass because their dac couldn't maintain anything close to a square wave. (There used to be online comparisons of this thing with the iPod, similar to what you linked.)
However, that was 20 years ago, and it hit -95db of hiss, 20-20khz frequency response, with way more power than is needed for in-ear monitors (which is my use case). Apple ended up shipping an iPod with a non-terrible DAC the next year (I think the touch was the first one? Can't remember).
Anyway, now you kind of have to go off the beaten path to find consumer stuff that's perceptibly worse than ideal. In particular, you can get a USB-C -> headphone dongle from apple that's actually a decent DAC for $9 (look at the THD graph. They use the $9 Apple as the cutoff between "yellow" and "green"):
These days, if you're getting noticeably bad performance out of your laptop DAC, it's probably a shielding or grounding issue. The standalone USB DAC will fix that, but only if it's externally powered + grounded (or if you get lucky with how your laptop is wired / shielded), but so would bluetooth (which even supports lossless audio as of 2021).
> couldn't output bass because their dac couldn't maintain anything close to a square wave
Isn't the defining characteristic of a square wave the fact accurate reproduction of it requires the ability to produce high frequencies? Why would that be particularly problematic for bass?
My ~2021 laptop is ok with noise but isn't powerful enough for my 32ohm headphones. My desktop's too noisy, especially for recording onto tape decks which I want to do sometimes. Also not entirely powerful enough from what I recall.
A usb/bluetooth dac for my laptop/phone (standard phone usb-3.5mm adapter's not powerful enough either) and a toslink dac for my desktop solved all my problems. Toslink's an awesome nuclear option to buzz/noise because it's 100% isolated by virtue of being light.
I also enjoy being able to boost the bass/mess with the EQ easily.
Various kinds of noise have been problems too even on modern computers, like ground hum or interference. Often I can hear the interference on a desktop change with the screen's brightness. I think on laptops I've had the issue depending on if the charger is plugged in or not. Problem's eliminated with an external DAC/amp. Motherboard DAC's must be cheap/lazy because there's no technical reason this couldn't be done with an internal one.
The $199 is why most people will question if you really need it.
My laptop costed me a little bit over that, so maybe there is something in the market that goes 80% of the way for about 20% of its price?
The USB-C headphone adaptors sold by Google / Apple / Samsung / etc are DAC + headphone amps. They're inexpensive (under $20, some under $10) and can have better components in them than a phone, laptop, etc. These should also work on laptops / desktops.
Do some research first for your use case, but I suspect one can find one that will work for your machine + headphones.
Does the Apple usb-c version have the same issue as the lightning version where very slight movements will cause it to interrupt playback with various accessibility messages? This was an issue for both my last iphones making the cable entirely unusable in any situation where your phone might move. Frankly I'd say it is so bad that Apple's lightning to headphone adapters shouldn't be allowed to be sold.
I have one. I have used it pretty much every night on my phone at bedtime for a few years. If it is plugged in properly it works perfectly every time. I have a few others xduoo, moondrop etc. But I always use this one in my room.
Do you move the connector while it’s plugged in e.g. if you have the phone in your pocket plugged in and then connected to wired headphones? The lightning connector works fine when you don’t move it, but not when you do.
I have used the lightning headphone adapter on my iphone almost daily for a couple of years. Whenever I have problems like you describe it's because the lightning port has dirt/pocket lint in it. I have a plastic tool that I use to clean it out and it works fine again. The only other issue I have is that the thin wire does wear out over time.
I've used entirely new adapters in an entirely new phone and had the issue. Many I know have experienced the same (before giving up on using the adapter wile moving). But it's true I've also heard from people like you who haven't had issues so I can't personally say it's always a problem.
But really what I don't understand is how Apple can't just add an option to turn off the damn accessibility options entirely. Why does dirt or temporary bad connections cause this problem at all? They could just let you turn off the setting that it triggers so that it really doesn't matter. The fact that they don't care enough to do that tells me enough of how much they care about making their headphone adapter a good product. I never used to have to worry about issues like this with a regular headphone jack, but I certainly do with Apple's adapter. It's simply a poor product.
It's not really an issue with the cable, but with the iphone's use of the cable. If the iphone allowed you to just turn off the specific accessibility features so you would never be asked by this misinterpreted signal, the problem would go away.
Apple does not generally have the best performance / price: if we use passmark benchmarks[1], the 16-core M3 Max gets 10CPUMark/$, while the ASUS ROG Strix G17 gets 25CPUMark/$.
If we look at the low-end, it is much worse: the cheapest Macbook Pro ($1600) gets 12CPUMark/$, while the Dell Inspiron 15 3535 ($420) gets 45CPUMark/$.
I know there's much more to laptops than their CPUs, but I think my point is still valid.
Okay, go ahead. What does a good display cost? How many Joules per megaflop does the CPU draw from the battery? The claim is a bit baseless as-is; you seem to know the answer already but how?
Apple prices are comparable to the competition for comparable gear. If you don't want to spend much money, PC vendors will happily sell you garbage -- Apple won't.
I've had an Apple device from work until ~2 years ago. It laid on my desk most of the time, not even in use so wear and tear are at a minimum. A region of the touchscreen broke around the same time as the charging brick stopped charging (2-3 years after purchase; the brick was only plugged in when in use), the keyboard didn't support swyping or having a number row or any symbols on its face whatsoever, the browser is ancient and gives me headaches as a developer constantly (and you can't even tell users to install a proper browser - remind me, what did the EC think of that when Microsoft pulled this with MSIE?), the idle battery life was worse than an eight year old Samsung I've got, of course it needed a custom cable, it kept turning on things I had turned off such as Bluetooth (see the recent Bluetooth attack), and my device was the only one that had hard-to-reproduce issues with Wireguard VPN.
(I never had a charger or touchscreen break on me before, nor a battery wear so fast, so combined with the unusually low use, I'm pretty sure it's not my particular usage pattern that caused them to break way before due.)
Credits where they're due, though: it had a headphone jack and I loved the earphones that came with it! But what a piece of trash otherwise.
I'm sure there's good apple phones out there and our resident apple fanboy assured me I had an outlier, but I can attest that apple does in fact sell you garbage and not all the issues are hardware
This is a myth, only supported by looking at nothing but spec sheets.
I admit, I was one of these people, but when you look at incidentals (ironically the DAC such as this thread, but also things like keyboard, calibrated display, the nebulous concept of “build quality”) Apple is comparable in price to contemporaries.
The issue is that Apple computers are built like higher end business laptops, and people dont typically buy those: they look at the spec sheet and try to buy the best bang for the buck which makes all of the quality run out the door.
Apples lowest end machines generally are priced cheaper than equivalent machines, but Apple price segments (read: gouges) on upgrades.
A high end Macbook pro 14” and a Dell XPS (55xx) are comparable in price.
I'm partial to this Head-Fi review [1]. It's a really interesting read, just from the perspective of comparing a $9 USB DAC to ... pretty much anything else an "audiophile" might get.
> There is absolutely no reason at all to pay more for a USB DAC, at least when it comes to pure sound quality with headphones.
It does mention the possible desire for more features, of course. And it's possibly worth mentioning the power output is half of what you get from other DACs, but you should consider whether that means anything to your setup. I have a pair of Hifiman Edition XS connected to a Schiit Magni and the Apple USB C DAC, and I never put the Schiit volume above about 30%.
(As to the amp: I do hear a bit of an improvement connected to the amp vs just the DAC. It's not huge, though; mainly I like having a physical volume knob.)
I must be missing something because that page doesn't have any reviews, it's just a list of 5 adapters with one sentence each about "why it's great" and giant Amazon referral links.
Although I must admit I did not expect the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapter to be so affordable. I don't have any Apple devices but I wonder if will work with Android/Linux.
I have used the USB-C apple adapter with linux and it works fine. I used it for a year hooked up to an older dell laptop (Xubuntu and later Manjaro) for my home sound system (spotify client on the laptop). Works great for the money. I eventually moved to a standalone dac. Not sure it sounds any better but is more versatile.
This exactly. As a former PA/recording engineer I like good audio quality too, but it is hard to know which devices are worth it when most lists are made by people that always like the $200 (or $2000) option better than the $2, $20 and $199 option. I know for a fact from actually using audio equipment where good quality is needed that the expensive options are often not worth it at all, but more often than not swap a tiny (if any) bit of extra quality for a monstrous price hike and worse hardiness.
Of course, I'm not saying it isn't worth it at all. That depends on one's budget and ears. But most lists see the expensive option as the best, while most peoples needs and ears have zero use for the expensive option.
I'd go so far as saying you could get 95% of the way for 10% of the price.
If you need both good measurements that should by ample margin be audible transparent, as well as enough power for virtually any headphone save those that need a special amplifier (electrostats like STAX's), you'll find it hard to go under $200.
This device is actually a gem for the price, and most popular recommendations will go higher in price and give you less. I have been there and done the digging, you're welcome to repeat the process.
At some point, new devices or new prices will change this. But, as far as I am aware, this is how it is right now.
Not if you want decent sound quality. I think my absolute minimum recommendation would be the Fiio K3 dac-amp with a pair of headphones like the DT770 or the SHP9500 if you can find them cheap.
I bought a few of these (different brands) off Amazon a while back while trying to get my desk audio setup sorted and the audio output on them usually sounds okay. Some of them have noticeable background hiss at any volume.
The four-pin versions (with mic input) tend to fall down pretty hard, though. Either the volume is so low you have to yell to get anything into the PC at all, or there is severe cross-talk where any audio coming out gets induced into the input. (Turns out people on zoom are not fans of hearing echo of themselves with a 1-second delay!)
PP probably refers to those very cheap USB soundcards, usually shaped like a dongle, with two mini jacks, sold pretty much everywhere. I tried a couple in the past (can't confirm if the chipset is the same) and they definitely sound better than expected from a device that cheap, however be aware that manufacturers often save on parts number or quality to reduce costs therefore it can be a hit and miss, with some of them making noises or offering inferior quality.
* USB soundcards used to work on Android but in recent tests they failed again for some reason
* Avoid any dongle that supports "special effects", "gaming", etc. Even if they can be disabled, it's such a pain.
* Dynamically adding/removing soundcards can affect your computer's notion of "default microphone", particularly relevant for video chat. Some apps this takes effect immediately, some after quitting the app.
If portable isn't needed, about the same money buys that topping, with digital encoder for volume, higher specs and better measurements... but no mic input.
> because the audio outputs of all sorts of devices today simply are trash
As a staunch objectivist audiophile, I empathise with this view. But there's also too much of an obsession with achieving levels of dynamic range precision far in excess of the best audio recordings. Not to mention far in excess of the best human ears — let alone the typical ears of an audiophile with time and cash to burn. Perhaps most damning of all, being far, far, far, far far in excess of the noise floor of most people's listening environments.
So long as your DAC/amp gives you a solid 100 dB of dynamic range, it's time to put down your wallet and enjoy the content.
I have a Topping MX3, initially loved how knob feels but it bothered me that the tactile feedback didn't actually line up with the adjustments... mostly use the remote now anyways, which is great
I have some headphones with an in-line soundcard that you can reprogram with your choice of EQ or effects. Love em. But they were spendy and it lacks the hacker ethos that I respect in these posts.
> I DO NOT HAVE TO PAY A TAX TO APPLE TO LISTEN TO MY MUSIC
The author paid a significant tax, as documented in their blog post: they had to try several devices and eventually *build custom hardware* to do something so simple. Yes, it’s fun. Yes, it gets the job done. No, I don’t want to do that when I just wanna listen to music.
The apple tax is more than just easy access to music played through marginally higher quality DACs. It’s also a cost that I’m happy to pay to never have to do something like what the author of this article did.
My time is significantly more valuable to me than ideological objections to working technology.
My iPad is simply not capable of running uBlock Origin. Until this changes, switching my main mobile device to an iPhone is a complete non-option. I absolutely must be able to run software I choose, full stop.
I choose software that runs on the devices that I don’t have to mess around with. There are plenty of options that do work across the Apple ecosystem. ublock is not the only option, nor is it necessarily the best one.
The extremely minor inconvenience of finding a different adblocker is one time pain. Attempting to curate the “perfect” computing environment is pain that just doesn’t go away.
I ran many different distros. I ran LFS as my daily driver for several years. I played with all of the desktop environments. What did it get me? Nothing. There is no practical value in sinking the time into that. It’s fun, sure. But I don’t get paid to have fun. My business doesn’t run on fun.
The irritating thing is that the software I want to run works perfectly fine on my mac mini. That's in the Apple ecosystem and yet respects enough of my freedoms to not be a problem. But the iOS devices are entirely locked down.
The ad blocker thing one tiny example; what I actually want to run is Real(tm) Firefox and its rich extension ecosystem. There are dozens of little accessibility enhancements I run on top of just the content blocker. The iOS versions of Firefox are heavily gimped, aren't allowed to run the Gecko rendering engine (purely because Apple said so) and can't do the things I need. My iPad basically doesn't have a good browser, just a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Mozilla. All of my other devices do, so it's the odd one out.
It's not just Firefox, but that's the example everyone's heard of, so it's what I tend to lead with. I'd also like to be able to run weird media software, background file syncing services that aren't iCloud, and (gasp!) retro game emulators on the devices I own. All disallowed by app store policy, and unlike Android which supports sideloading and alternate app stores, on iOS I have no recourse as an end user. So I choose not to be an end user; I won't purchase hardware that refuses to respect my wishes.
I mean, that's fine. My argument about adblockers applies to other software too: the Apple ecosystem has some of the basics (like sync, browsers, etc) figured out for me so that I don't need to fiddle with it. While I'd like to use Firefox, I don't need to, and the tradeoffs that come with accepting Safari instead are worth it for my specific situation. Forcing myself into a different ecosystem so that I can use different software that does the same thing isn't a good tradeoff for me. It sounds like that's not the case for you - glad you've found an ecosystem that works for you.
There are a couple of things you might want to be aware of though:
It’s funny how so many Apple users insist their Apple device does everything they want, until Apple releases a new update that does something more that other devices have had for years, and then they’re not just using it all the time but boasting about it.
One of the most classic examples was Copy/Paste or Apps. I remember so many Apple users telling me that Copy/Paste was unnecessary on an iPhone or that WebApps were good enough (something I completely disagreed with) only to see them change their tune completely once Apple released those functionalities.
I remember how 5G was supposed to be an albatross of a feature until Apple released their phones supporting 5G.
Or how digital pens weren’t needed at all, until Apple released an iPad with a digital pen and then it was just raves about how digital pens are awesome.
How can one forget larger screens! I remember how 3.5” was THE perfect phone screen size and now you can’t even buy a phone that size from Apple.
Multitasking!
I’ve tried switching to Android but never been successful. I simply don’t like it and enjoy iOS too much. That doesn’t mean I need to be blind to all the missing iOS functionality and pretend my I wouldnt be happier if they weren’t missing. I just find that the upsides are more than worth the downsides. That doesn’t mean I need to pretend those downsides don’t exist.
> It’s funny how so many Apple users insist their Apple device does everything they want, until Apple releases a new update that does something more that other devices have had for years, and then they’re not just using it all the time but boasting about it.
Isn't that normally the case? You have a device that does X you're happy with, and they add a new feature. You didn't know how useful it would be, so you're excited and show it off.
I'd imagine there are plenty of examples of his with Android, or your favourite car brand or all sorts of things.
It's well built, sturdy, battery life is great and sound quality very good.
But...
After some use it appears crystal clear that they cobbled together parts without testing them properly, which is normal in cheap devices with no or minimal quality control. FM radio audio level is completely different from recorded music, and at minimum level (that is, 1) it is still too loud for relaxed listening in environment without loud ambient noise, and if you go from say mp3 to FM without adjusting levels be prepared to jump. Touchscreen is badly arranged: some functions are in the way (playing speed to name one) and could be activated by mistake when changing tracks. Navigation can be tedious in crowded directories because advancing by pages doesn't work as it should. Last but not least, as with many other cheap players, the preset based equalizer is a joke. That is not how a proper equalizer should work; just give me a damn graphic one but please stop that useless Jazz-Rock-Classic-Disco-etc. thing that never, ever works. Etc.
That device could have been a real gem if only they didn't ruin it with junk firmware with no way to upgrade it. Had they sent a couple free devices to the Rockbox folks plus enough technical information on the employed hardware, they would now have a real gem instead of a half assed mediocre toy.
that tends to be my issue with a lot of cheap chinese stuff. if you can replace the firmware it's great, if you can't it's a worthless brick. I hear it's an issue with vending machines you can buy off ali express and such, but I do wonder how hard they'd be to wire up an esp32 or something
If you want a ready-to-use solution: Fiio makes great MP3 players, and also nice USB- and Bluetooth-DACs.
A device like the Fiio Btr3k makes it possible to use good quality wired headphones with one of those modern smartphones without an audio jack. (And it sounds better than the devices that did have an audio jack.)
> If you want a ready-to-use solution: Fiio makes great MP3 players, and also nice USB- and Bluetooth-DACs.
Or get everything from Sony which supports LDAC 990k on both the audio sending and receiving sides of Bluetooth. I love my Walkman!
I also have non-LDAC "neckphones" to carry around: the Beyerdynamic "BLUE BYRD" gen2 are far more practical than Sony or Apple earbuds for one simple reason: you can't lose one since in the neckphone format, the earbuds hang around your neck with a cable (which also provides convenient buttons)
Originally, I got the Beyerdynamic for my Chinese eink device (which don't support LDAC anyway) but it's so practical I use it's now paired with my Walkman and computer too!
Neckphones are not easy to find in the lineup of popular brands, but I've heard great things about the latest Huawei Freelace Pro: it's the same neckphone design, but with magnets on the back of the earbuds and ANC.
I'm getting the Freelace Pro "soon" (3 days from now lol) to see if it's more comfortable than my Beyerdynamics
I use bone conduction Bluetooth earphones to listen to podcasts when I run. I notice a high pitched noise, occasionally accompanying the spoken "s" sound. I suppose it's some kind of aliasing and I don't know if it is introduced in the source material, player, Bluetooth or headset. Luckily it's only moderately irritating.
This is called sibilance. You're sensitive to high pitched sounds around the 5-6 KHz area. You can either EQ it out or wait it out. Once you're past 40-ish or so the brains own EQ kicks in.
For anyone wanting to use their phone with a bit more audio-related Oomph, I strongly recommend looking at an external DAC. The main reason for doing so is because it will allow you to completely bypass Android's audio player, and play audio 100% losslessly.
I use an ifi GO Link (~60), with USB Audio Player Pro (UAPP).
The difference between that and just plugging into the 3.5mm jack on the phone is night and day.
There are obviously much nicer and more expensive DACs, but IMO you're hitting diminishing returns quickly.
The ONE thing I hate about going this route is that USB-C is not nearly as robust a connector as 3.5mm. Even the slightest jiggle can cause the DAC to disconnect, leading to a lot of annoyance because Android requires you to re-confirm every time. Some days it's flawless, other times I have to go through the stupid prompts like 10x in a couple minutes.
I had a problem like that, which turned out to be caused by pocket lint stuck in the USB-C jack. A bit of digging with a toothpick (I had to split it a bit to make the end small enough) got it out and after that the connection was very secure.
I've done the same. The specs of even the cheapest switchmode power amp IC's are excellent, and most of the cheap boards just copy the IC manufacturer's reference circuit. Conveniently, the one I got can switch between a line input and Bluetooth, which improves the convenience factor even if Bluetooth might be of questionable audio quality. But with the line input, it's straight from DAC to the power amp.
At the risk of sounding like a snobbish audiophile, I have found class-D give me listening fatigue. I wasn't consciously aware of it until, after listening to the class-D for six months, one day I substituted a small tube amp I had built. Never going back to digital amplification for relaxing listening to music.
This is a tall claim to make with a single point of data. ie. "I found a class A that sounds better than my class D therefore the topology must be better".
That's true. FWIW, I believe the amp used the fabled TA2022 chip that had all the audiophiles in an uproar for its quality relative to its price. I assumed though, correctly or incorrectly, that it was the topology of that gave me listening fatigue and not the specific chip set.
An amusing coincidence, and not to contradict your experience, but the first review in the first "hit" when I googled TA2022 described it as less fatiguing than a conventional amplifier:
>>> The best way I can describe the Topping compared to the NAD is that the sound is richer and "warmer" (I realize this may sound strange). Listening to music through the NAD for a while got tiremsome or fatiguing. I don't get this with the Topping.
Class D is entirely the wrong topology for mid/high range frequency reproduction. I know you can make it work, but there are other topologies that are essentially guaranteed to provide a higher quality experience and the efficiency sacrifice isn't a huge deal when you are working in this frequency range.
For LFE playback (I.e. subwoofers), absolutely. Use it aggressively. I prefer class G/H topology for my LFE though. I run class AB for my mids & highs.
I feel for the author when it comes to the quest for an ideal zen state with tech. It seems like you’re always making a compromise somewhere.
For so long I’ve avoided emulating games because something was always fucky about it. Visuals, audio, game bugs — you name it.
I recently bought a Steam Deck and outfitted it with retroarch to see if anything had changed in that world and my god everything has changed. The device effortlessly emulated games all the way up to the switch generation and they look and play beautifully. No configuration needed. It’s the experience I’ve always dreamt of with emulation and it’s a total game changer when it comes to my nerves.
I use a Pi with an add-on sound board, mpd and a bit of custom code that effectively acts as a cut-down ncmpc (the protocol is really simple). The nice bit is using a cheap RF remote [0] to control mpd (sets volume, skip forward/back/pause etc) which has the advantage that it works under the covers at night.
That RF remote control comes with a USB dongle; it appears as a HID device so essentially the buttons act as if they are keypresses on a keyboard (cursor keys, enter etc). So the code just receives the keypresses, and uses them to select the appropriate mpd function (forward/back, volume up/down while the power button simply acts as pause/unpause).
This, unfortunately, is on point. It does seem to be getting harder to listen to music, but I also think it's because our expectations around _how_ we listen to music are increasing in scope.
I have an FM radio in almost every room, and a vinyl record player in the living room. This has been (roughly) the state of those two technologies since the 70s. They're simple to reason about and operate.
I also have an extensive digital music collection. And I want to listen to that from...
1. My stereo - so I have Kodi Media Center running on a home theater PC. I control it with my phone. It gets media off my NAS, which means I have to run a backup from my laptop, where I download the music, to be able to listen to it there.
2. My car - which can take a USB flash drive, but can't play back FLAC files, which is how I store them locally. So I have a script which converts them all to MP3s. I need to walk to the flash drive inside, connect it, run the script, then walk it back out.
3. My phone - at least that's click-and-drag.
Listening to a personal music collection has almost definitely gotten more logistically challenging than shuffling around some LPs or CDs, but there are also many more use cases enabled today.
I don't understand why this circuit needs an artificial ground at all, since the power source is two 9-volt batteries in series. AFAIK that could make a dead-simple bipolar power source +/- 9 volts and get rid of about half the parts.
The 10:1 voltage divider is also an interesting concept. It seems to me that what this thing does is attenuate the input signal and then provide a low impedance output to drive the 'phones. I wonder if the writer ever considered something as simple as shunt resistors.
Perhaps a "real EE" can enlighten me.
FWIW, I use a AudioEngine D1 USB DAC to drive headphones from a computer. It was not cheap, but neither is my time. For portable use I am rocking (with RockBox) a old iPod "video" with aftermarket SD card mod.
It's just a couple of buffers - the 10k/1k sets the gain at 0.1, shorting the 10k's would make it 1x. The two op-amps with outputs tied together with 1 ohm are just creating a virtual ground (effectively paralled to double the current handling).
I can't see how this could reduce 'hiss' if it there's something wrong in the first place,all seems very unlikely though. Possibly it eliminates hum (which mobile devices are generally hideous for, when charging) but the details are likely to be setup-dependent. Or maybe RF is leaking out of the phone causing the hiss in those particular headphones, and all this is doing is stopping that.
As other posters mentioned, two of the opamps create a virtual ground. (Op amps generally have optimal performance when the input is halfway between the power rails, and the two batteries in series don’t guarantee that will happen).
The other two each drive one channel. The 0.1 gain is to reduce noise created by the DAC, which is independent (in this case) of the volume control. So the author is turning up the volume on his device, to compensate for the 0.1x gain. Accordingly, DAC noise at the speakers is 1/10th what is was before, but the signal is the same.
Yeah, and two op-amps for the ground filter has me stymied as well.
Slightly off-topic, someone pointed out that MAX232 chips make a great power supply for op-amp circuits like this (using charge-pump capacitors) one because they can hand you +/- 9V from a 5V source (which could be a USB power brick). I'm not sure but I would guess that the current needs of his audio filter would be within what the MAX232 could handle.
I made a small PCB based on that idea for experimenting with op-amp circuits on a bread board.
> They mention it buffers with a gain factor of 0.1, but I don’t understand how the four op-amps play together to eliminate the hiss.
I'm not entirely sure, but it appears that this is setup to amplify the ground noise.
I'm also not entirely sure why you would want a gain of 0.1, you would probably want to preserve as much amplitude information as possible.
Also the power circuit on the left shows a resistor ladder with 9V over a 1k resistor on one side, and the same for the other. 9 / 1000 = 9mA, x2 is 18mA. Added with the amplification of noise, I can see where 25mA may come from.
> Yeah, and two op-amps for the ground filter has me stymied as well.
I think this is because it's the ground for both the left and right channels, which is potentially two op-amps worth of power and you don't want this dumped through the headphone jack.
I haven't tested this, but would probably go for a simpler design like this:
It’s not a ground filter, but a virtual ground. The point is to divert current from whichever power rail is further from ground, into the ground from the input device. That makes it so that the two “main” opamps see a common mode voltage of 0V. Opamps generally perform better near that point.
I’m not sure that it’s really necessary here with modern op amps, and the author may have just copy-pasted the circuit from somewhere.
it doesn't. it only works incidentally. The author isn't an EE and has designed a circuit as if an artist (or an AI) drew a picture of what a circuit looks like.
The weird topology voltage divider attenuates the signal. the op-amps buffer the output. The 470R resistors do nothing. The 1k/1k virtual ground does nothing.
The rest of the authors writings smell of /r/iamverysmart
But the sound quality on the laptop is just not quite up-to scratch. I think the output buffer on the amplifier is just not very good and struggles with the dynamic load of the transducers.
In case anyone else runs into something similar: make sure you've plugged in the headphones to a speaker/HP jack instead of "line out", or configured the output as such, since the latter is unamplified and can make the audio sound "thin" and lacking.
(On the other hand, I've had to do the opposite with some very sensitive IEMs where otherwise even the lowest volume setting would be almost painfully loud.)
> When my phone plays certain tracks it makes and explosion of noise when switching songs. [...] Apparently this service has some sort of bug.
Using Chrome on Android and also on my computer, the annoying pop does thankfully not appear between music tracks with my Simple Music Player, called JUkebox with Php and Html5, short JUPH: https://github.com/quimoniz/juph
I tried to make it dead simple, using the HTML5 Audio element.
Now it's been lying around for 4 years... does anyone else know of a similarly non-sophisticated audio player?
Really interesting write-up and some funny rants about Apple/Spotify. I'd never heard the term "PP3 battery" before. Wikipedia tells me that this is the standard rectangular 9V/0.5 Ah battery you can buy at the store (in the US, at least).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-volt_battery
>>> However, I had a problem. When my phone plays certain tracks it makes and explosion of noise when switching songs, or pausing and resuming.
I've experienced this too, with certain audio hardware, on my Windows system. It appears that the system is connecting and disconnecting the audio hardware without muting it. It's not a matter of improving audio quality, but of removing some sort of glitch that's happening.
I'm not sure where why you bought a cheap portable CD player in 2023 instead of grabbing one of sonys mp3 walkman devices. I have one that's 10 or so years old and it's still my primary portable music listening device (I never got into playing music on smartphones, too clumsy).
I bought a $25 headphone amplifier and that solved most problems for me. Around the same time, I also built my own desktop speakers from components, which made me appreciate how everything in my office is basically an RF emitter and receiver.
Eh. Just buy a half-decent DAC. I liked Scarlett 2i2, currently rocking Zoom UAC-232; if you're after a smaller package and don't need an XLR mic, I've heard very good things about Audioquest DragonFly.
> When my phone plays certain tracks it makes and explosion of noise when switching songs, or pausing and resuming.
There was a time when I'd laugh, but in the recent years Apple Music has been doing random crap like that on Mac, iPhone, even HomePods. I'm one subscription price hike away from switching back to BitTorrent.
At the price point the OP is running at I’d say one of the Apple USB-C DACs is your your best bet. They’re volume limited on Android, but the OP’s headphones are very sensitive already so I don’t think it matters.
However much I love DIY electronics (in particular audio/synthesizer-related such) this just seems like a contrived solution looking for a problem. Help yourself out by getting a cheap iPod Shuffle, or a reasonable facsimile of whatever other brand you prefer.
> If anyone reads this post I'm sure loads of people will tell me that my problems are all my own making and if only I invested in an iPhone all my problems would go away. Well you know what? APPLE IS A SYMBOL OF PRETENTIOUSNESS AND IGNORANCE - YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW HOW YOUR PHONE WORKS - I DO NOT HAVE TO PAY A TAX TO APPLE TO LISTEN TO MY MUSIC.
Actually, the OP is right. Because iPods always came with Wolfson DACs, and because of Steve Jobs' sensitiveness on the matter, Apple devices always come with very well built analog audio pipelines.
My Macs, iPods and iPhone's audio outputs always rivaled my Hi-Fi amp's (an Akai AM-2850) and desktop sound card's (an ASUS Xonar D2X) without any extra equipment.
So, while Apple devices are expensive, they don't skimp on such things. Instead they silently pack an entry level high-end Hi-Fi subsystem inside and be done with it.
I can confirm that the DAC on the 2021 M1 Macbook Pro is absolutely fantastic.
You can also rely on the fantastic quality of the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapters [0] as "Neutral, clear, clean and very precise. Basically as audibly transparent, good-sounding and clean-sounding to my ears as a device could be...".
I used to think like this when younger, and perhaps this reasoning was actually more justified in the past. The older I get (and the more ubiquitous Apple devices have become) the more I cringe whenever I see an emotional response from technically minded people about Apple devices.
I think I saw someone on HN say that strong opinions are generally a sign of lower intelligence as there is a lack of consideration of both sides of the argument. I realise this comment now reads like copypasta but there is a lot more nuance than "Hurrdurr I don't want to be a mainstream normie Apple bad!".
>YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW HOW YOUR PHONE WORKS - I DO NOT HAVE TO PAY A TAX TO APPLE TO LISTEN TO MY MUSIC.
(Ignoring the all caps) That's not really apple bad as an argument. It's the fact that you're paying more for music you probably already own, and you have zero idea how that phone actually works.
Tinkering with technology, whatever the reason, should be encouraged?
I don’t like Apple for different reasons, but that capitalised quote seems particularly egregious given what is said elsewhere in the article.
“Although Android is Free Software, meaning I can modify the code, it would probably take me months to learn enough about music decoding and the Android-media-player-service to write a fix.”
Like, mate. You also have no idea how your phone works despite being fully capable of finding out and even having a motive to do so. (That’s what I would say to the author.)
You can use music you ripped yourself and transfer it to your iDevice. I don't understand the argument. I don't know every detail of how my motorcycle works, but I use it frequently and rely on it to get from A to B.
If I had to understand how everything worked in my life before I could use it I would die. How does my gut convert nutrients in my food?!
Something like Doppler is very nice. I use it on both my Mac and iPhone to play local files. The rare times I use the latter, the few albums I have on it are enough. I have apple Music, for convenience when I can’t bother to download an album.
I want to install a binary without a dozen security hoops I can't turn off.
I don't want my local documents being scanned for whatever Apple caved to some government about this year.
I want to own the private keys to the hardware I buy, not a company who can lock me out if they feel like it.
I want to buy third party components, without needing them to be crypto locked to my machine or needing to get corporate approval. again if they feel like it and they're having a good quarter.
I don't want to be forced to discard perfectly working hardware when Apple decides to stop supporting it.
In short, they really, really hate the idea of you owning something they don't control from the atomic level to the cloud.
He doesn't know how his "righteous" Android phone works either. It's the leading premise of his entire article. An iPod Shuffle costs very little and there are open source tools for putting music on them outside of macOS/iOS.
Ah, the wailing cry of an inverse fanboy. Like the fanboy, but with extra dollop of smug and righteousness.
I’d estimate that 99% of people don’t know how their phone works, and I’d further wager that there’s no strong correlation between such knowledge and the operating system of their phone.
Yes, these devices are needed, because the audio outputs of all sorts of devices today simply are trash.
Topping DX3 Pro+[0] is my current recommendation, by the way.
As for headphones, Sennheiser HD600 really are solid.
0. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/t...