Using Z9X with wired headphones

Thanks for this!
In my limited experience "Gaming" stuff tends to add their own tweaks and changes, which makes output somewhat different from the original track.
I'm looking at "budget" headphone amp/dac boxes with minimal distortion.
Proper stereo downmix track (emphasis on "proper") can be quite spatial (not as real 5.1 of course).

 

Those "gaming" branded DAC's i mentioned are not cheap, because the DAC chips and other components have proper quality.
They also both have a "pass-through" mode and wont touch the audio at all. So they work as well as a entry level "Schiit" DAC.
If you don't need spatial audio, my personal pick would be a "Schitt" Fulla/Magni, since those are build like tanks and are well know in the headphone/dac community.

Ofc this depends on your setup/cost (headphones impedance). Makes little sense to spend 100$ on a DAC for 30$ headphones

 

Ah btw in EU there is also the new Feintech Headphone HDMI extractor:
https://feintech.eu/en/collections/...c-audio-tv-adapter-fur-kopfhorer-und-soundbar
This box will only directly work with easy to drive, low impedance headphones.

There is also the older/cheaper version, you may find clones on amazon.
https://feintech.eu/en/collections/...arc-audio-tv-adapter-mit-lautstarke-steuerung

 

Thanks! I might check it out. Any of these have SPDIF (Optical) Input? If I am to use DAC - I'd go for digital input.

This one doesn't seem to have eARC, so no TrueHD or DTS-MA passthrough.

I'm now looking at Philips OLED 806/807 TVs, which seem to have (rare thing these days) a 3.5mm headphone out. If I were to connect Z9X to TV and then connect TV to AV receiver or soundbar via eARC I suppose I will get a nice automated setup, wouldn't I?

 

My Hisense TV has one too and its absolute crap, it so finicky that a slight cable movement results in scratching distortion's and i'm not even sure i get a proper 5.1 stereo downmix.
Than the cheap DAC can only drive very low impedance headphones.

So you need to test if it actually work's properly.

 

We don't have Hisense in the EU (as far as I know), so can't speak to their overall quality.
My current all-round Sennheiser HD 569 have quite low impedance of 23 Ohm
Not many option for closed over ear headphones unfortunately and open headphones defy the purpose of watching movies at night without any noise bleeding out.