Enjoying my first foray into headphones.....

shawn474

So, without getting into too much detail, I have temporarily relocated to a townhouse and didn't want to pay for cable / wifi as I am trying to keep expenses to a minimum. I found that after living in a single family house on a 3/4 acre lot that my listening habits were not conducive to townhouse living. So in an effort to appease myself and the neighbors, I decided to spend a bit of money on headphones and equipment. I have a pair of Harman Kardon NC headphones that I use for travel but decided to try a more "critical listening" pair. So I bought the Shure srh840 headphones from daboyz in the flea market. Then I purchased the Topping TP-30 Mark 2 headphone amp / dac off of ebay for $65. I never listened to headphones at home before because I already had the freedom to crank my rig up whenever I wanted.......but I am definitely enjoying the headphone experience. I find now that I dont mind at all not having cable (i can watch netflix on my phone hooked up to the TV and get a few OTA HD channels). The music definitely is therapeutic and with Spotify I am able to get a diversity of playlists to satisfy my mood.

Any advice from the headphone crowd on how to optimize listening? Used gear to look out for" Any upgrades that are within reason?

Thanks in advance,
Shawn

EndersShadow

Whats your source? If a laptop, adding a USB DAC is nice. They even make DAC's that can be used by iOS devices in the case of your phone.

A great place to do some reading/learning is headfi.org. They LIVE for headphones there.

Best suggestion is similar to speakers. Getting a seperates rig can make a difference if your source is good enough. They make really nice dedicated headphone amps and I've run a bunch and they always are nice to play with. Same w DAC's.

shawn474

EndersShadow wrote: »

Whats your source? If a laptop, adding a USB DAC is nice. They even make DAC's that can be used by iOS devices in the case of your phone.

Right now my only sources are my samsung galaxy s5 phone and my microsoft surface........not ideal but without wifi in the townhouse, I can't use the surface and am relegated to playing my offline playlists on my phone from Spotify. I may look into a better source at some point but hoping this is a temporary situation and can et back to using wifi at my house and my home rig to integrate.

DaveHo

Your s5 can output audio over USB. Are you feeding the TP30 an analog signal from your phone's headphone jack? If so, pick up an OTG cable & feed the Topping via USB. Will likely be an upgrade over the phone's DAC.

shawn474

DaveHo wrote: »

Your s5 can output audio over USB. Are you feeding the TP30 an analog signal from your phone's headphone jack? If so, pick up an OTG cable & feed the Topping via USB. Will likely be an upgrade over the phone's DAC.

ok ordering it now......is there a setting i need to change on the s5?

DaveHo

I didn't need to change anything on my Nexus5.

DaveHo

Oh, & you'll need a USB A-B cable to go from the OTG cable to the DAC. You probably have a bunch of those lying around. They're nothing out of the ordinary.

shawn474

DaveHo wrote: »

I didn't need to change anything on my Nexus5.

Ok cool, thanks.

DaveHo wrote: »

Oh, & you'll need a USB A-B cable to go from the OTG cable to the DAC. You probably have a bunch of those lying around. They're nothing out of the ordinary.

Yes, I have one. They are like the printer cables I have for my home computer. So I ordered the OTC to hook up to my phone, but actually just listened via USB on my Surface and it is definitely way better than using the headphone plug / RCA cable. Thanks for the help.

DaveHo

Glad I could help. I had the first version of the TP30 for a bit. I don't know if it was my sources or what the TP30 does to analog sources, but the USB input blew away the analog one for me as well.

One more tweak you can try is an upgraded power supply. The improvement is more subtle but still noticeable. This is the one I used with the MKI, check to make sure the II is the same.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TUMDWG?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

shawn474

The mark II has a different power supply. Looks like this one:
amazon.com/12-Volt-Power-Supply-Standard/dp/B009ZZY28M/ref=sr_1_11?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1449242227&sr=1-11&keywords=12v+6a+power+adapter

The stock one seems very cheaply made.......what would a good power supply cost and is it as simple as buying the one linked?

DaveHo

Aside from the 3 prong vs two prong AC cord, the power supply specs look to be the same: 12V, 6A, 5.5mm outside, 2.5mm inside, tip positive. I bought the one I linked because it was recommended by someone else on another board. Are those "good" power supplies? Well, It was better than the stock one to my ears. If you want to spend more, way more: welbornelabs.com/cat/digitalamppowersupplyupgrades.htm

shawn474

Ok good, would rather keep it on budget and I think I can afford the $8. It absolutely CAN'T be any worse than the supplied power cord.....