Hi
I got a headphone, DAC, headphone amp, system and having never heard a good quality system before our amazed at its sound. Once my headphone amp burnt in the sound got simply amazing to my ears. However I really do not know if even more amazing is possible. On the tube rolling Fred of my headphone amplifier they claim it can sound even better than with the stock tubes. I am skeptical but really need to go to a head-fi meeting to see what is and is impossible because you just can't hear your way into how something sounds with words alone especially if you have little to no experience in listening to different systems.
 
Consequently since I cannot justify the cost of a laptop just to go to ahead-fi meeting and it is better to go there with a complete working system rather than just headphones I am wondering what is the least expensive way to drive a headphone system short of a laptop?

Of course the cheapest player is one that you already have. That may be a smartphone if your DAC
has a USB interface.  I've heard that Android offers the easiest connection to USB DAC.  I believe that 
people with iPads (and the camera connection kit) can also run DACs... not positive.
 
I have seen people bring their desktop system to headfi meets, so I wouldn't entirely rule that out,
but recognize it is a pain.
 
But sure, you can also just show up with your headphones and go from table to table using them to listen what they've
got.  Totally reasonable.

If your DAC is USB, buy a used Netbook. Probably ought to be pretty easy to pick up one of those on the cheap

cel4145 said:

If your DAC is USB, buy a used Netbook. Probably ought to be pretty easy to pick up one of those on the cheap

Click to expand...

Thanks - checking eBay I think you may have something there!