Firestone Cute Beyond or Matrix M Stage for DT880's?

dt880 is a balanced headphone and should sound pretty good w/ all music.

what ohms dt880 did you order?

i think both amps are pretty well regarded.  i haven't heard either.

the m-stage appears to be a step above, however.

you can plug a DAC into the RCA or iPod. 

My setup is iMac>Fubar II DAC>Cute. Then I have y splitters on Fubar II that go to my subwoofer/speakers

The firestone Cute Beyond is a very capable amp with excellent driving power even for the 600Ω version. I have not heard the Matrix, however.

Protip: don't invest in cables at this point. They probably won't make any kind of noticable difference at this level and you can get much more return out of investing more in an amp. Don't get really cheap interconnects, but get don't go above $10 or so. I'm sure Radioshack could supply you.

I haven't heard about the Cute before, but I've read the entire ~45 page thread on the M-Stage. If you can stretch your budget for it, you'll be paying $270 for $600+ worth of amp.

Quote:

Originally Posted by broski 

sorry if this is a noob question, but i am for sure a noob, but what are interconnects? if im not mistaken its the same thing as the cable that plugs into your xbox but with the colored guys on both sides minus the yellow, right?
 

Goddammit, I just wrote a long and detailed reply, tried to add a smiley at the end, and boom.

Interconnects or ICs are cables that link one piece of equipment to another, so CD players or digital-to-analogue converters to amps, etc.

They're often stereo RCA cables (one plug for each channel) and they can be RCA at both ends or terminate at one end in a 3.5 or 6.3mm jack. There are other kinds of high-end cables like power cables for amps and headphone recables, but I wouldn't recommend that just yet, if ever.

Example:

iPod/computer goes in through jack, connects to amp through RCA, amp makes music magically better, wonderful sounds come out of your Beyers.

Smiles and happiness all round. Take a solid-looking cable over a flashy one that looks flimsy.

There are a few good Cute (Firesone Audio) reviews. The only way to go from the Cute to sub/speakers would be the headphone out. The RCAs on the back are for input. I go from my Fubar DAC to the sub, because it has a built in amp and takes the converted analog signal an outputs to speakers. The headphone amp wouldnt really give the speakers a better sound quality. The improvement in SQ comes from the DAC.

As for interconnects, yes - dont get cheap ones. If you get a Fubar DAC they come with a decent set of cables. I use interconnects from Virtue audio.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/audiocandy2/candy_3.html

i use audioquest cables.  and they are sturday, well-made, and reasonably priced.

above a certain point, i'm not sure that i believe substantial differences can be achieved with cables.

so, the audioquest is a good entry point into good cables for me.

they have oxygen-free long-crystal copper, and you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for it.