So, I ended up with a headphone system. How did that happen?

uglymusicuglymusic
in Systems
For years, Colin has been on at me to give the headphone amp in the TQ Listen pre-amp a go. I've not had a pair of cans for decades, always preferring loudspeakers. Well, by a fairly circuitous route, I finally got to experience the Class A headphone amp in the Listen.

A couple of weeks ago, the Listen stopped recognising signal at its phono sockets, after being a bit pernickety for a while. It dawned on me that the SMSL DAC can also do a pre-type thing - it has a volume control and a remote - so I pulled the system apart and gave the Listen a good clean. But before putting it back in the Big Rig, I realised I had everything I needed for a headphone system for the side of my bed.

With a pair of Sennheiser HD 599 Special Editions (61% off during Amazon Black Friday annoyances), the RPi 4 I scored off of eBay recently and my pensioned-off Young DAC/PSU partnering the Listen, the system sounds more warm and cuddly than the Big Rig, yet wonderfully detailed at the same time. I've not had much time to listen (sorry!), but I think I may get the taste for headphones. More thoughts in due course.

I believe there could be something similar headphone amp-wise in the current EWA Q pre-amp, too (sorry, Col, if I've got the name wrong).

Comments

  • uglymusicuglymusic
    So I've been giving it a listen (sorry) and I find that the system is sitting in a wifi black spot and keeps dropping the signal, especially when my wife is watching Christmas movies on the TV  ;) ...which is when I want to escape to my headphones, of course.

    The Ethernetting of the household (see another thread here on Chews) has been put off until warmer days (it's literally freezing outside this evening), so I've ordered a wifi extender (the ISP's router supports mesh wifi). I hope it does the trick!
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    The wi-fi extender did the trick - and has done for a good few weeks now. It's made all of the wi-fi more reliable, and because I sited the extender on a shelf above the headphone system, I've connected the RPi to it with an ethernet cable. I was a little concerned I wasn't going to get much for my money, but the extender was £150 well spent.

    I've also swapped the RPi 4 for a 3 with a Hi-Fi Berry Digi + HAT (the one I used to use in the main system until I bought the Digione Signature). Never believe anyone who tells you an RPi 4 USB outlet is a good thing. The SPDIF HAT is in another world.

    It's a nice system. The biggest weakness is the headphones. But there's little chance of an upgrade there.
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