Telegram chat friends who have A/Bed both ss and ds commercial versions are finding power requirements to be essentially the same even though ds is supposed to be 1 to 3 db/Mw more sensitive. So it seems if the dac/amp can’t drive ss well then it will likely also struggle with the ds.
I have a d30 pro - great dac. Looking over the specs briefly though, it appears to put out just 4 Vrms, which might not be a great fit in this scenario. Finding a hotter dac may work better plus having a built-in pre-amp / better volume control may also give more options later on.
It’s potentially tricky because of the voltage and gain requirements. For example, some report even the Bliss with 12 Watts at 32 Ohms and Spring 3 (5.8 vrms) sounds soft and lacks headroom partially due to insufficient gain (amp lacks a high gain mode), which my ears tend to agree with.
Luckily though, my dac has a pre-amp putting out a max 11.6 vrms, which the Bliss hungrily accepts, providing a much different experience - greater dynamics, better low end etc. A number of Tungsten owners report wildy varying impressions listening to the same amps (Oor, CA3, Mjolnir 3). I’m guessing this is likely due to differences in the input voltage received from their dacs.
Awesome headphones. Been enjoying the ds version quite a bit the last few days. They definitely punch above their price range.
Being insensitive, high impedance planars they are a bit picky as to which amps pair well. A minimum of 20 vrms is generally recommended.
Understandable considering there’s probably not many more than 50 Tungstens floating around excluding pre-production versions. Mine arrived just last Friday with a card indicating it was one of the first 20 double sided.
Should soon see some reviews coming out on yt from Zeos and others. There’s also currently a fair amount of discussions going on in telegram audio channels, which is how I first found out about it 4-5 months ago.