Why not give the HD700 a chance with the Magni/Modi and see how that goes. Onboard sound doesn't do justice to any decent headphone and even less to higher end ones.

That's normal. With multimedia speakers you end up paying extra for features not sound. Buck for buck studio pro monitors pack much bigger punch.

You should also look into Epoz Aktimate Micro. They're very good sounding speakers for the price and also come with a good number of features (USB input, built in DAC, iPod dock, etc). The DAC is a very simplistic PCM270x chip, but it can still deliver quite creditable performance compared to...

Enjoy your new setup!

I agree, it's best to read as much as you can about all the options you have available before pulling the trigger. If you have the possibility to listen to a few of them, that would be even better and I'd highly recommend you do that.   Regarding RP8 I will only say this: make sure you don't...

Based on sound alone I'd say KRK. I haven't listened to the new G3, but the G2 was in my view the best I've heard at the price. I also liked very much the ESI near05 xperience especially for it's midrange and imaging but I see they're no longer made. Mind you I did not listen to all monitors...

I had a brief look at the AK240 dedicated thread and I think the OP is best advised to ask his questions there. He's more likely to get relevant answers to his questions there, rather than here.   A few snippets from the thread to put at ease some of the opinions here, I'll just put 2 quotes...

I copy/pasted the manufacturers' published specifications. And I agree, both are misleading. Nonetheless the fact remains the AK240 delivers less "juice" than the Fiio 139$ portable does. If anyone is comfortable to drive their high end headphones with 2.1V rms ... well it's their choice.  ...

There are lots of great active monitors out there inside your 300$ budget. I would bet all of them will have better performance and more extended bass response than A5+. I haven't done straight comparisons A/B but I have personal experience with most of them. The A5+ are a bit pricey, IMO...

Make sure it's also flexible enough and not too thick. Stiff, fat cables are no fun with headphones.

And as a side note, here's what your E17 outputs -->>  MAX output voltage: > 7.3 Vp-p And here's what AK240 outputs -->>  Output Level: Stereo Unbalanced 2.1 Vrms/ Balanced 2.3 Vrms (Condition No Load) 

Just to remind you, the question was:   Quote: The rest is self explanatory.       As to a DAP's driveability of a high end Audeze, I'll leave it up to personal judgement and preference. Technically, yes it's doable and sound will come out of the headphones. But I wouldn't drive a...

  Well, I'm not a fan of soundcards when it comes to driving headphones. But then again I have no idea how easy or difficult Fidelio X1 is to drive. Also, up to 100-150$, soundcards are kind of the only choice. Moreover, you need to spend quite a bit more to really feel substantial...

You are right. I think they made the choice for TPA6120 with power output in mind. Given the low voltage at which the soundcard operates (much lower than O2) it's possible that the TPA opamp would output more mW than NJM4556 for the same gain. But this is just an assumption, I don't have...

From what I read ALO Rx is capable of driving even tougher headphones than LCD-X and it is one of the best portable amps out there. Therefore , it may be one of the best choices for the Audeze. But I have no personal experience with this amp, so I can't say more about it. You can start a...