Looking not to spend over about 800 dollars, I think I've narrowed my choices down to a few things after reading the various useful threads around here. Headphones: Beyerdynamics DT880s at 600ohms - Beyerdynamics DT990s at 600ohms (leaning towards the 990s as I've heard at 600 ohms they are a superior headphone to the 880, despite the opposite being true when comparing the lower ohm version to the 600 ohm 880s) - Amps: Schitt Valhalla (My top choice as of now because the other options come in at about 100 dollars more, those being below) - Schitt Lyr - Elekit Tu882 - Around 90% of my listening is Hip-Hop, other genres that get occasional play are typically rock and rarely classical. They may also find use for movie viewings. I do not plan on using these for commuting. My source would be my computer, and therein lies my biggest issue. I have minitoslink out, and my music is ripped straight from the CD using the Foobar2000 on paranoid settings with the correct offsets to provide FLAC files. (I'm still in the process of converting many cds, so I do have a number of 320kbps MP3's as well.) So my main question lies in the need for a DAC. I could run a 3.5mm stereo to RCA cable straight from the computer to the amp, and let my computer handle the DAC work (using WASAPI in foobar, and I haven't been disappointed with any of the headphones I had on hand, though of course they're not even close to the quality of the above. I've seen DACs for priced anywhere from $40 dollars to fields way out of my budget. Is it worth it to grab a 40 dollar one cheapo and use that until I could upgrade to a different DAC (probably a good 6 months down the road). Should I even get one or just let my computer do it for now? Any other thoughts on the headphones or amp choices are welcome as well. I see all my formatting got messed up, sorry for the inconvenience of a wall of text.