Hey all!
I have not posted anything here before but been reading for a long while but now i need some advice.
Gear background: My previous headphones have been the Grado Sr60 and and for the last 3 years i been using the Sennheiser HD650. My source has been my computer using a Creative soundcard. For the last year i i have been exclusively using Spotify for music and i will likely not be changing this behavoiur. I know people talk about about flac and lossless music but for me the availability of these solutions is just not worth it for me. Spotify will be my main source for the time being. Obviously the weakest link for me has always been my lack of a amp and dac.
Music preferences: I listen to a lot of electronic music and also lots of "commercial artists" in my current playlist you can find artists like: Deadmau5, Robyn, Nine Inch Nails, Daft Punk, Lykke Li. I also listen to alot of rock but my taste tends to go in cycles.
For the last 3 months i been looking at upgrades, after listening to a lot of high end head phones i was most impressed by the Sennheiser HD800 so im gonna buy those but i need help finding alternatives for dac+amp combos, one box or seperates.
I live in Stockholm Sweden and i will not buy something i can´t audition first so my options on available brands are quite restricted.
For the majority of auditioning of the HD800 the retailer used the Musical Fidelity M1 HPA which is around 600 Euro or 800$
I was very happy with the sound of this setup but before i buy this just wanted some alternatives. My max budget for Amp+Dac is around 1200 Euro or around 1500$ but the M1 HPA seems very worthy.
Some other models available but not auditioned are:
HRT Streamer II+ 350 Euro
SPL Auditor 900 Euro
Nuforce HDP 450 Euro
Musical Fidelity M1 Dac 500 Euro
Lead Audio LA-100 450 Euro
Devil Sound Dac v2.1 300 Euro
Benchmark DAC1 USB 1550 Euro
Hegel HD10 1000 Euro
Lehmann Linear Usb 1100 Euro
Heed Canamp 350 Euro
Naim Headline 460 Euro
If some other swede who lives in stockholm knows other alternatives then feel free to suggest something.
I tried reading other similar threads but most talk about amp or dacs that are not available in my region.
Be gentle!
Edited by Nicklasb - 1/6/11 at 4:14am
