Headphone Heights

Welcome to Headphone Heights, the place for all your ear bud discussion

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.
You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login

By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username: The Name that you picked or by default, your email. Forgot Moniker?	Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".
Password:	Forgot Password?
	Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:
Your Email:
Subject:

Message Comments

Original Message

The Audioengine D1 is a DAC/amp combined - so it's a bit of apples and oranges. Though I will say this...

Posted by willkayakforfood on March 29, 2013 at 19:06:49:
Since the Audioengine D1 can't have its DAC and amp sections separated, there's no way to directly compare just the DAC part of it vs. the Modi DAC, using a common "headphone amp".

At the same time, it's interesting to note that both the Audioengine D1 and the Modi DAC use the same D/A chip: AKM4396. That said, given their different implementations, they do sound different, and my preference is clearly in favor of the Modi sound.

It should also be noted that for whatever reason(s) (perhaps something to do with the fact that the D1 is entirely USB powered--for both DAC and amp?), the D1 just didn't seem quite up to the task of adequately driving my HD600 headphones. The Modi/Magni combination suffers no such limitation. I suppose this alone could play a major role in determining one's perception of overall "quality of sound", but I'm sure there's also more to it than just that.

With just the $30 difference in cost of the basics (Audioengine D1 vs. Modi/Magni combination), it's a crystal clear "no brainer" in favor of the Modi/Magni combination -- certainly at least with my HD600 headphones.

With just my headphones as the common component in the comparison, the Audioengine D1 is two dimensional, rather lifeless, dynamically challenged, and congested/confused in "busy/complex" passages. Now imagine the opposite of that rather unhappy list, and you've got an idea of how the Modi/Magni combination compares. :)