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Which external DAC/Amp for my NH700?

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pedrothelion

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Hello guys!

Can I connect my portable NH700 to an external Amp/DAC using the USB port and/or the headphone out?
Will I've an improvement on sound quality instead of without?

There are a lot of interesting Amp/DAC out like FiiO Q1, FiiO Q1 Mark II and TOPPING NX2s.
I need to buy a new in-ear so here's my question.

Thank you!

 

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Alas there is no digital external out in your NH700 (I have it). USB connection is done for the Net-MD.  I doubt that if you connect your USB to an external DAC you will get something... But this is easy to test : please go to an audiophile shop and ask for a test with one of their demo DAC. In fact this is unusefull as the portable units you are talking about are able to play Hi-Res music (HDD internal or SD card). But in case you buy a MD deck with a digital SPIDF toslink out,thisis another story and yes in that case, the modern external DAC is usefull.

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You can play the music recorded on your NH700 by hooking it up to a PC with an optical output. Other than that there's no direct digital out from the Hi-MD unit. Sony's software plays the HiMD disks nicely.

Legacy (MDLP and SP) you are out of luck as the unit never sends those over USB toward the PC - one-way only.

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@PhilippeC Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately there no audiophile shop around me. But from what I read around the net it's possible to connect a Minidisc to an external DAC also via the headphone output. Is this tue?

So the USB output of my nH700 is not a real USB port thought I can transfer music on PC and from PC to NH700?
Finally, if I had to buy only a headphone amplifier, how do I connect it to the NH700?

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The output from the headphone jack is analog(ue) so a DAC (Digital to Analogue converter) wouldn't convert the signal, even if it accepted an analogue (line level) input, which most don't I think.

It would be best in this case to use a headphone amplifier which would connect with a simple stereo line lead:  3.5mm to 3.5 / 5mm depending on the headphone amp input.

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Yes that would work as a headphone amp with your NH700 as it has a line input. Should be able to drive some decent headphones too, with a respectable 140mW x 2 output.

On your NH700 you'll probably want to turn off the EQ settings and put the volume to around max to send a 'flat' near line-level signal to the amp.

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Note that this DAC has BIG limits

- it could not be used as a  digital DAC if you buy a deck with an digital out (except if you find a SPIF toslink in to USB adaptor)

- also it could be used for MD recording as It only have a headphone out (which is not the same that line out / RCA)

This story of gain of bit range NX2s >> Hi-Res look absolutely a fake to me, just a marketing trick.

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9 hours ago, pedrothelion said:

@PhilippeC Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately there no audiophile shop around me. But from what I read around the net it's possible to connect a Minidisc to an external DAC also via the headphone output. Is this tue?

So the USB output of my nH700 is not a real USB port thought I can transfer music on PC and from PC to NH700?
Finally, if I had to buy only a headphone amplifier, how do I connect it to the NH700?

It's a real USB port. But all you ever get FROM it (TO it there are other options, which is the essence of NetMD) is data. That data can be played back via a PC, but it still needs Codecs, DLLs, whathave you. There is no way to force the unit to "play just the music" digitally, over the USB output. The legacy disks (SP, MDLP) won't give you data at all... for that you need the MZ-RH1 (the only unit which has uploading facilities). You can get optical out from a DECK, the most compact of which is the MDS-PC3. Maybe this suits your needs?

If you need something portable, then you cannot have digital output. If you need something digital, you need at least a PC and that PC's optical or coax (i.e. S/PDIF) output, or perhaps a deck (which will play the MDLP and SP formats but not the Hi-MD). I'm sorry it's so fragmented but that's the way things are.

The only unit that I know which outputs "just USB data" is LUGGABLE, not portable. The HHB-Portadisc 500, I think it's called. And it only does SP, not any of the other formats.

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