I would like advices for reference quality headphone amp & DAC over/with Apogee Ensemble for reasonable price.
[My current system]
- Macbook Pro 17" -> Firewire -> Apogee ensemble as an audio interface.
- ensemble's balanced TRS phone outputs -> [cable:gotham gac-2 pur] ->active monitor speakers (Fostex NF4A)
- ensemble's headphone outs x2 -> headphones
- HD650, K701, K240 MKii, Shure SRH840, Klipsch Image X10.. and so on
[My Concern]
- I heard Apogee ensemble's AD quality is good, but DA is not good as Lavry DA10 or Benchmark DAC1 especially in mixing/music creation/ mastering, so maybe I should look for other DAC.
- I also heard audio Interface's headphone outs quality and power are generally not good as headphone amp, and ensemble's out doesn't seem powerful enough to drive high impedance phones.
- The priority is on music creation (monitoring,mixing, mastering) first, enjoying audio second, and I want the sound output as neutral (no coloration) as possible.
so, I thought I maybe should look for better DA converter and headphone amps for both music creation and listening.
I'm interested in chinese equipments because these seem to have good quality for reasonable price thesedays.
so far these items seem fascinating…
[DAC / DAC + Headphone amps]
- Yulong D100
- as said in project86's review http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/499562/review-yulong-d100-dac-amp-reference-quality-with-a-reasonable-price , DA quality can be in the field of DA10 / DAC1, and headphones out's quality also seem great with 2 headphones outs.
- however looks like the volume can't control outputs via RCA/XLR, that would be troublesome (or can I solve this by connecting D100's out to ensemble and mixing inside?)
[headphone amps(if I continue to use Apogee ensemble as DAC)]
- Einar Sound VC-01i
- it covers with both trs single-end and balanced headphones
- sounds seem with no coloration
- lovely cube
- looks like the sound is clear and neutral enough for music creation
- has 2 headphones outs.
- it has only unbalanced in, no balanced xlr/trs phones (does this matter anyway?)
- audio-gd products such as DAC-19, NFB-10,
- matrix products such as matrix cube/mini-i
- emotive audio such as XDA-1
- ZERO-DAC Modified...
so, would you give me possible items/alternatives to the purpose above?
I'm happy if the price range is lower than $1000, or even $500.
and, I maybe should continue to use ensemble as DAC in the sense of quality for music production?
Last but not least, excuse me for my poor english, and I am not good at DIY.
Edited by DAi from TOKYO - 12/16/10 at 4:27pm
