New user intro + 2 questions. | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

psladkov · Oct 28, 2014 at 5:13 PM

Hi guys!

Bear with me please, since I am new to all this you might encounter a rhetorical question.

After hours of searching and trying to wrap my head around what headphones to buy (Sennheiser HD 598 it is) and should I use DAC and AMP or DAC and no AMP or vice versa with my Macbook I can't take this anymore.

So here is the question.

1) I want to mostly use my Sennheiser HD 598 with the Macbook Pro Mid 2014 and wanted to know what should I buy to improve the quality of sound. Taking in account that apparently the new macbook pro's can push out 96kHz/24bit and have some mambo jumbo built in. DAC or AMP or DAC and AMP and what kind, nothing to expensive.

2) In the near future I want to get a Vinyl player. That means I will need a proper desktop Amplifier? (Denon PMA-520AE) < on a budget so nothing fancy. so the questions is: Am I better of getting the Denon amp and use it with my mac rather than the small AMP/DAC?

Thanks in advance

mikesale · Oct 28, 2014 at 8:29 PM

psladkov said:
...
1) I want to mostly use my Sennheiser HD 598 with the Macbook Pro Mid 2014 and wanted to know what should I buy to improve the quality of sound. Taking in account that apparently the new macbook pro's can push out 96kHz/24bit and have some mambo jumbo built in. DAC or AMP or DAC and AMP and what kind, nothing to expensive.

2) In the near future I want to get a Vinyl player. That means I will need a proper desktop Amplifier? (Denon PMA-520AE) < on a budget so nothing fancy. so the questions is: Am I better of getting the Denon amp and use it with my mac rather than the small AMP/DAC?

1) If you're looking @home, then I would start with Schiit Magni and Modi for DAC & AMP -- gets you out the door at about $200. If you want to head up to a great upgradable DAC, go with the Schiit Bifrost. The MBP can use the Toslink connection to send the digital signal to the Bifrost. It is upgradable as well out of the gate or in the future. Great idea IMHO

2) I'm not your guy on vinyl setups, but even without knowing exactly what you should do there, I would say absolutely you can, and I think should, go with an outboard DAC connected to the phono setup. In many cases, this could replace your Headphone amp, but I find you're giving up quality. If you get the right Headphone Amp, you can combine computer and and phono into one system. I have dreams about getting the beast RAGNAROK that will rock your world for inputs and outputs for Headphones and small efficient near field speakers.

psladkov · Oct 29, 2014 at 4:06 AM

mikesale said:
1) If you're looking @home, then I would start with Schiit Magni and Modi for DAC & AMP -- gets you out the door at about $200. If you want to head up to a great upgradable DAC, go with the Schiit Bifrost. The MBP can use the Toslink connection to send the digital signal to the Bifrost. It is upgradable as well out of the gate or in the future. Great idea IMHO

2) I'm not your guy on vinyl setups, but even without knowing exactly what you should do there, I would say absolutely you can, and I think should, go with an outboard DAC connected to the phono setup. In many cases, this could replace your Headphone amp, but I find you're giving up quality. If you get the right Headphone Amp, you can combine computer and and phono into one system. I have dreams about getting the beast RAGNAROK that will rock your world for inputs and outputs for Headphones and small efficient near field speakers.

1 and 2 - So did I understand you correctly that I can use the Schiit Magni and Modi with a vinyl player?

mikesale · Oct 29, 2014 at 11:22 AM

psladkov said:
1 and 2 - So did I understand you correctly that I can use the Schiit Magni and Modi with a vinyl player?

No. A DAC (Digital to Analog Conversion ) is irrelevant to a turntable because it is already analog, and the Modi headphone amp has only one input.

What I did say is that there are other headphone amps with multiple inputs that would be suitable (Schiit RAGNAROK is one example). Apologies if I was confusing. Depending on the turntable cartridge, you may need/want a phono preamp, but again, I'm not your guy for vinyl rigs.

psladkov

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psladkov

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