I mean, use the current drive. TBH, if I could make AIC current drive I would without even blinking. Its a pretty damn different sound and presentation style. HD800S will get all sorts of fucked with a cool, but even with a planar that wont get a FR change yuo will still get some cool presentation changes
I know IEMs aren’t really for everyone, but I carried a P6P + Inf MK2 and now Fourte OG in a Seahorse case to my work everyday. It’s not anywhere close to my 2ch setup, but it sure beats a lot of setups… and it fits in my carry bag.
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P6P + mk428 fit in a diana V2 bag
P6P fits in a D8KP case
Like 37 daps, 16 portable amps, 4 IEMs, and 5 sets of cans fit in a backpack if you dont mind permanently destroying your back
don’t forget I have the D8KPLE case 
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Now correct me if I’m wrong but wouldn’t the game of tradeoffs also fall under hit or miss in the sense that on some pairings the tradeoffs are worthwhile vs the ones that aren’t, I think assessing it only using the current drive out (since that’s where the magic lies), a lot of headphones on the current drive either absolutely kill it or really don’t sound great without much in-between imo. The voltage output is consistently middling and an afterthought imo
It’s not as good as a tt2 for sure and I’d rather take a qutest as well but that’s just something worth mentioning if you want to go full battery imo
Would agree
I think the 13r was very very different from the 21 or 01m tbh, so I wouldn’t really bet on the 23rm being all that similar
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I get where you are comming from. IMO, “look at the tradeoffs” only really works when you have kinda equal data points on each side. IMO, HM-01m was a "pick it for like 4 things ignore it for everything else)
Yah, I also wouldnt guess its true, just giving Soo In the benefit of teh doubt with this one tbh
which would you say work well and which don’t?
might find out I don’t even like the 23rm much if it doesn’t get me what I want from that house sound tbh
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IMO, try 800S and sus on it. I am personally pretty damned hype for the amp tbh
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From my experience it’s awesome with something like 800s or 650s, lcd 2, potentially th900, and some of the hifiman. Otherwise, others just don’t mesh well
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650 wouldnt have even crossed my mind tbh. For LCD-2.1 its quite good, but IMO also not realy displaying what makes the amp shine IMO. TBH, 900 on HM-001M was a very hard pass for me (quite quite bloated and boomy). Ill also add T1.2 and adx5k here as being worthwhile demos. Ive heard most beyers work but 1.2 is the only one I tried myself.
Also, hard pass on focals on current drive. They just become pure mud tbh.
I was thinking the 23RM would pair nicely with the Mojo2 since the Mojo2 is a bit more forward than the Qutest (to my ears). I don’t think that would be too smooth as that’s not really how the Mojo2 come off for me.
I’ve actually been looking at this pairing for a ‘portable’ setup since that’s been my focus recently. You can even add a Poly if you wanted wireless from your source.
I’m still deciding if I want this, or just go full DAP.
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I like your thinking!
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I think it’s a bit too dry with the 600 but found it nice with the 650, and would agree the current drive aspect is really basically made for 800 lol
It’s something that I think can potentially work depending on preference and dac pairing, but yes that one is def going to be a more niche pick lol
I was going to say t1.2 but personally I wasn’t super impressed with it on either output. 5k was very nice, forgot about that lol
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It could be an Asian thing given Enleum is a Korean brand, a lot of people there build a pretty high end system for their office which they affectionately call it the “mistress system” as opposed to the “wife system” at home where space is not a constraint.
Granted, it’s not the sort of cubicle officer worker, I think the target customers are more like governmental officials or senior positions in companies who have their own closed-door office with bathroom and bed and whatnot
Edit: just saw @Draaly’s comment above regarding the same thing, spot on
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Don’t feel like making a dedicated thread or anything but the koda preamp is absolutely fantastic, easily the best preamp I’ve ever had/heard, honestly beating out the lamm in all of my setups outside the speaker setup with the lamm amps (those amps really only shine with their matching preamp), and no tubes, no dual volume control, no massive 4 chassis design, it’s absolutely great. I also typically don’t comment on build but it’s the most solid piece of audio gear I’ve felt lol
That paired with the riviera really is fantastic with whatever I can throw at it, easily a definite upgrade over the fm power + pre for all my headphones and speakers (but I still think that stack had a lot of merits but wasn’t exactly to my preferences but more importantly didn’t shine with headphones as much as it did with speakers)
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What’s the best portable dac/amp out there for headphones and IEM’s?
Edit: okay I should probably clarify. Looking for a portable amp (I guess they’re called DAPs) that can power my D8kp and Atrium well while still sounding good with my IEM’s. Budget is probably around 2k but I wouldn’t mind spending a bit more, I didn’t realize these things can cost so much lol
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Are you looking for a single dac/amp device or go the portable dac + amp route? What main headphones and iems would you want to prioritize?
If you’re looking for a dap around 2k I’d really personally look for a used p6 pro (considering they’ve come down so much) or a lotoo paw gold touch, like both with the d8kp (depending on what you want out of them that is), not heard the atrium but if I treat how it drives like other zmf that I’ve heard another dap worth considering is a questyle qpm imo. While rarer to find if you can grab an ibasso dx300 max ti or regular max that honestly might be what I pick over the paw gold for a headphone focus (and p6 pro still might carry forward due to the dac though)
If you’re looking for an option that’s not a dap and a combined dac amp I think you have less high quality options but things like a hugo 2 (although personally synergy wouldn’t be great with the d8kp from my experience but still worth mentioning), centrance hifi m8 v2, alo cdm (hard to find though).
I’ll throw the woo wa8 eclipse into the mix because I think that’s a really cool option with the zmf (and d8kp as well tbh depending on what you like) and technically a dac/amp but the dac is weak in comparison to what I’d want so I really see it more as a portable amp only (or at least that’s how I use it)
If you’re willing to go for a dap + portable amp, I think that’s where it’s pretty interesting with a headphone focus, although I think you’d really be pushing budget there depending on what you went with (although if you got one of the aforementioned daps, you could just get a nice portable amp to upgrade it later down the line)
Really would come down to the sound you’re after though
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P6p will run both of these quite well. More than happy to send you mind to try once I get my chain back from @DanMellinger in a couple weeks
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I’m looking for a warmer sounding portable dac/amp. I’m still not exactly sure what the difference between a portable dac/amp and a dap are.
The P6 Pro sounds like what I’m looking for. What’s a good price to get for one?
Also, are there any other DAP’s I should keep an eye on besides the two you mentioned? Are there any recent or upcoming releases that have been getting lots of attention?
P6P is a very solid choice then, a good price to get one in recent memory is around 2.3k ish but I think they’ve even gone lower lately, haven’t really kept up with the current prices lately
A DAP is a digital audio player, basically a combined transport/source, dac, and amp. So basically a self contained music player where music is stored and played on the device. A lot of modern daps honestly operate like android phones but there are still those (like the p6p) with dedicated custom OS for their music playback
A portable dac/amp is just a combined DAC and amp that takes a digital input from a PC or phone and can’t play music on its own without a source, so like a portable DAC amp combo that can’t operate standalone
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