Quote:
Originally Posted by
eamrhein 
I've just bough my fourth set of "real" headphones and figures its time to improve my audio chain a bit and I need some advice.
IMy Headphones:
Sennheiser 280
Grado sr80is
Audio Technica - ATH-M50
Shure SE215 Cl (IEMs)
My Source(s):
Built In Mother Board Audio (Realtek HD) [This is my main listening source)
Sansa Clip
I-Pod Classic 160gb
My Question is this:
I have a budget of around $300 (including cables), what would be the best way to spend my money in order to improve my source sound and also get an amp that can power the headphones that I mentioned? a DAC/AMP combo would be one way, but would a seperate dac and amp get me better results?
A separate DAC and AMP might be better if and only if your budget would be higher. At you budget I reckon the best thing to do is get a DAC/AMP combo, such as the Audio-GD NFB-12. It's a good DAC/AMP, especially at it's low price.
Another possibility is selling some of your current headphones to buy a better one, such as a K701 or an HD650. Then I think you would still have sufficient money to buy an Audio-GD NFB-12.
And you mentioned 'including cables'
I don't really think you need to buy any cables, as most amps and DAC's supply their own cable. That is, unless you need long cables, such as me; I needed 4m (13') USB cable for my DAC. Gonna upgrade to a (cheap) coaxial s/pdif cable. But ideally I don't want to spend more than $10-15 on that.
It is debatable whether better cables even have an audible effect at all, so let alone be a considerable upgrade at their price.
