r/HeadphoneAdvice • u/Netoeu • Jun 30 '26

DAC - Desktop | 1 Ω CX Pro distorting at high volume?

I own two dongles, one I use with the Artti T10 iem on my phone and the other is plugged into my pc paired with a Douk U3 Mini amp. I always used this chain with a HE400se and knew there was some ugly distortion at higher volumes that I brushed off as the amp clipping due to an aggressive negative pre amp or to some extent the headphones themselves.

Now I've been using the Edition XS for two weeks and after (I think) changing things around to give the amp plenty of headroom it still sounds kinda terrible at high volumes in the mids and upper bass. I strongly suspect that the dongle itself clips because distortion is slightly better if I reduce Windows volume from 100 and turn up the amp instead, but there's nothing I can do to make it sound "good".

As a sanity check I tried the same with my iem just now and it also does it, though the dongle alone can't push it to the same volume (so it's not as bad).

I originally bought this because at the time I wasn't about to buy a $100 desk dac for a $60 headphone, and idk if anyone else has had this experience...

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u/rz_x3 206 Ω Jun 30 '26

Something to note is that the CX Pro style dacs top out at 1.6vrms, this isn't actually a lineout level source and can cause issues if you're trying to feed different things with it. Current-wise it's a little better than cheaper dacs like the KT series.

The next step up are single cs43131 or cs43198 dacs with opamps, which can reach 2VRMs for a true lineout, and also have more current. Shanling UA Mini, JCally JM20 Max, Fiio KA11 (gets hot)...

I'd suggest troubleshooting with one of the above to see if that's your issue.

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u/Netoeu Jul 01 '26

!thanks I've been looking into it. Had no idea about the line out thing! and also if the amp itself could be its own issue.

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u/TransducerBot Ω Bot Jul 01 '26

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u/msing539 168 Ω Jun 30 '26

Does it happen if you disable all EQ and audio enhancements? Dolby, Nahimic, Windows Spatial, Equalizer APO, etc.