Touch controls aren't my favorite.

For in-ear stuff, real estate is kind of at a premium though, and mechanical switches are much larger than capacitive ones.

I don't know about that specific one but computer headphone jacks often have higher output impedance, and the Zero is quite sensitive to that, any significant amount of source impedance will make the make the low-frequency "subwoofer" audibly louder than the other driver.

AFAIK the measurement guys usually use a source that's known to have a near-zero output impedance, like the Apple dongle.

What are you driving them with? The Zeros’s frequency response is pretty amp-sensitive

But where's the part where you buy things, I like buying things

If there's some kind of accessible bootloader/debug port, maybe, but it'd be a lot of work and you'd probably need to obtain the developer documentation/toolchain for whatever DSP they're using - likely not readily available to random individuals (and probably all in Chinese).

Depending on the chip they use, the firmware could also be mask ROM like ye olde video game cartridges and unmodifiable.

It's in the name: for *monitoring*.

ie, to clearly hear the rest of the band or the backing track, and themselves.

wtf do you think Dirac room correction is

Maybe with extreme levels of EQ, like trying to add in 20dB of subbass. You’ll probably hear the driver screaming in pain before you actually damage it though.

the Expanse is the one planar I'm aware of that doesn't have a flat impedance, so you'd probably get some frequency response shift even assuming the amp's frequency response is flat into a resistive load, which isn't the safest assumption for tube amps.

different AAC encoders, maybe some system level EQ/DSP on the android, otherwise no.

Nah, assuming the connectors aren't damaged/corroded, the electrical effect of that bit of extra wire is absolutely negligible at audio frequencies/headphone power levels.

Well, understanding this stuff is basically a chapter of an introductory electronics textbook, so that's understandable.

The front panel jack connects directly to the motherboard. It's intended for headphones, so that should be the right place to connect them. It's possible the rear output will also detect that it's a headphone and connect it to the appropriate amp, but I think it's likely to have the same capabilities. There are also line-level outputs, which *may* give you more voltage than the "smart" headphone jack, but they can't drive much current so I personally I doubt you'd get better results with low-impedance IEMs. These audio chips are fairly complex, they mix multiple functions for each jack, and I don't think you can easily find a spec sheet for them, so unfortunately I can only guess.

What makes you think that’s where the amp is?

I suspect the headphone jack’s impedance detection feature is probably too “smart” for its own good and is artificially lowering the gain to get you more range on the volume knob.

I would caution against using the line out, it’s going to distort the frequency response with the Zero’s.

An amp that is rated to drive 1W into 16ohms oughtta be plenty. The Schiit Magni is plenty of amp for almost any headphone if you're not looking to get too spendy.

If you agree with his tastes, sure. I’m a “technicalities” skeptic but I generally agree with his evaluations of tunings.

People have been researching the audibility of various distortions of audio signals since at least the 50s, we have a pretty dang good idea of what is audible and what is not when measured in controlled conditions in terms of absolute volume, harmonic distortion, intermodulation, phase shift, crosstalk, etc. But most importantly, we know beyond reasonable doubt that human senses are very sensitive to bias, and the humble $9 Apple dongle is unlikely to fare well in a sighted a/b test.

“Sufficient” is a question of what you listen to and how loudly. My normal listening level with loudly mastered music is about 75db peak spl and I can’t remember the last time I needed more volume than what a dongle could drive into the HD600s.

Probably. My old 2014 MBP with ~1.3V full-scale output on the HP jack drives them plenty loud for my needs. I think the newer macbooks have better headphone outs.

Well, moreso how the sound decays. You stimulate the driver with a very short electrical pulse, and see how it responds and how fast different frequencies decay.

I’ve never had much luck correlating it to any audible quality of a headphone, personally.

I don't think that's necessarily true with IEMs. Haven't seen the Hexa measured but the Blessing 2 (which I hear these are knockoffs of) would give you more upper mids and treble with higher source impedance, the impedance rises between 2.5khz-10khz or so.

(could be affecting OP, depending on how shitty his phone is!)

>The US site makes no sense (or am I missing something??):

no, it's gibberish, I think something must have got lost in translation between engineering and marketing (and finding this JEITA standard for power measurement is isn't turning up much).

In practice, less than we'd like. I would apply the same caveats you would looking at a speaker frequency response measured in someone else's living room. The acoustics of the tiny "room" your head/ears create in conjunction with a given headphone (to say nothing of the subjective qualities thereof) could be quite different. But measurements made on the same rig are useful for gauging the overall tonal differences between two cans... to a point - for example, to my ears my AKG K371s have some very prominent peaking near 6khz I don't see on any measurements made on the GRAS artificial heads.

I've yet to see compelling evidence that at normal listening volumes "dynamics" is something separate from frequency response and your usual illusory differences that have nothing to do with the actual sound.

> I don't understand how you would be able to run 1500 ohm headphones

depends entirely on their sensitivity... possibly very easily.

Sennheiser HD6XX (or HD600 if you find it on sale, $350 is a bit steep when the 6xx is $200) is a pretty safe choice.