which headphone jack sounded best?

[mindmenglish]

just curios which of these supposedly sounded best.

1. cd player + headphone

2. cd player + amp + headphone

3. rip cd to laptop + dac + headphone

4. rip cd to laptop + dac + amp + headphone

what you think?

 

[quadpatch]

This is a rather odd question. Adding a dedicated dac and amp to a laptop is pretty much always going to improve the sound, but it depends which ones you add as to how much difference it makes. Your 3rd option is odd because, without an smp, a DAC's output is pretty low, so unless you have very sensitive headphones you'll struggle with volume and if you change the volume digitally you'll degrade the sound in an undesirable way. Although some DAC's do work this way - Audioquest Dragonfly, HRT Headstreamer etc. Your 2nd option is going to be better than the 1st, but, again, it depends on the amp and CD player you use as to how much you'll notice. I'm curious why you didn't suggest an option for a CD player + DAC + amp + Headphones as well. In theory that should be the same as option 4, but some will tell you otherwise. Personally the only thing I think is valuable in a CD player is it's DAC.

 

[mindmenglish]

wait what? how do you connect cd player to external dac? does cd player has optical/coax? ext dac i know only have usb/opt/coax input and rca/head out. am i missing something?

 

[Sizzers]

If it’s a rhetorical question then personally I find it totally pointless: the permutations you’ve listed are frankly ridiculous.

If, however, you’re trying to either set-up a headphone system or improve on an existing one then please be more specific.

 

[abacus]

Providing they all use the same quality components than the shortest path should be the best, however if you use an amp with a poor built in headphone output, then it will easily be beaten by a CD player with a quality inbuilt headphone output. (And vice versa)

Ripping a CD will make no difference as a DAC will use the original digital signal.

As with all things audio, demo a few and see which one suits your ears? (Preferably in a blind test so that you do not know which is used until the end and you have made your decision)

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[quadpatch]

wait what? how do you connect cd player to external dac? does cd player has optical/coax? ext dac i know only have usb/opt/coax input and rca/head out. am i missing something?

Yes, most CD players I've seen have had digital out, optical or coax. I've recently used a Blu-ray player (that will play CDs) that has a USB output as well.

Initially I thought you were talking about headphone amps when you meant amp, but if not then their headphone output can vary a lot since some don't care about it at all.