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Please Help: Recommendation for Headphone Amp/DAC w/ USB and spdif

post #1 of 5
10/8/10 at 2:30pm
Thread Starter 

Hi, this is my first post on your forum (I hope I put it in the right place, sorry if I did not).

 

First, let me say that head-fi seems like a wonderful community of very nice and knowledgeable people.

 

Second, let me apologize for my ignorance with respect to the variety of headphone amp/dac combos on the market.

 

I have been reading your forum for about a week and trying to figure things out on my own, but I figured I should go ask the experts, who definitely know more than me.

 

My Situation: Right now a have a pair of ATH-M50 headphones and I am using an EMU 0404 usb as my DAC and headphone amp.

It sounds alright, but I would like to take my sound to higher, better level. Imho, which might be way off, the DAC of emu is very good, but the headphone amp is not the best.

 

I ordered a nuforce udac-2 to see how a $130 option would sound, but it had that constant high frequency noise on all the time and so I returned it.

 

I have been thinking about maybe getting a Musical Fidelity V-CAN Headphone Amplifier and using it with the EMU 0404 usb, but part of me thinks it is just better to get a new combo headphone amp/dac.

 

I also though of the pico amp but it is only usb and analog and I want a spdif in (either optical or coax).

 

I thought of maybe going for the StyleAudio Carat-Topaz DAC and headphone amp, but for that price I might as well buy the Nuforce HDP. The HDP is $450 ... and I might do that, but I am wondering if any good $300 options exist.

 

I can get an AUNE Mini USB DAC + Headphone Amp [Special Edition] for $165 but I dont' know if that is much better soudning dac/amp than the EMU's dac/amp.  (The Aune specs: USB controller chip Burr-Brown PCM2707; Digital input receiver chip DIR9001 with: OPAMP chip: Burr-Brown OPA2134 Headphone AMP: Burr-Brown OPA2604+TIP41C*2+TIP42C*2)

 

I'm lost and don't know what to do... and I humbly seek your advice.

 

Question: Not wanting to spend more than $500 dollars, what is my best option for a headphone amp/dac with usb and spidf in (either optical or coax) that will beat the sound quality my current EMU 0404 usb? (I am using ATH-M50 headphones.)

 

Thanks so much for your help,

HG

 

 

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post #2 of 5
10/8/10 at 7:37pm
Thread Starter 

Anybody?

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post #3 of 5
10/9/10 at 4:25am

Have a look at Mav-audio.com.

Lots of threads on here about the D1 dac and A1 amp ;-)

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post #4 of 5
10/9/10 at 7:00am
Thread Starter 

Thanks! The D1 seems very interesting... How good is the headphone amplifier on the D1?

 

Also, any other suggestions?


Edited by higainguitar - 10/9/10 at 7:33am
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post #5 of 5
10/10/10 at 4:19am

I'd comebine the A1 and D1. The D1 Dac and the A1 headphone tube amp.

The D1 HP amp isn't the greatest in its stock form but after some simple opamp rolling it's a whole lot better, I did it as well

 

I'd also check out the AUDIO GD FUN which gets good reviews on here

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