Interesting that you both recommend the SMSL products. I take it you feel their reliability and build quality is at least on-par with JDS and Schiit? Or do you just feel that they're cheap enough that it doesn't really matter if they die sooner? If you HAD to reallocate your vote from the SMSL...

Hello everyone, I promise this is my final post. You have all been very kind, and I don't want to take advantage of the community by spamming threads (more than I already have). With the community's help, I have narrowed a choice of amp and DAC stacks to a few brands, For use with Sennheiser...

Thank you for following me along my absolutely nonsensical stumbling journey, and for your detailed reply. I want to touch on point 2), because you and others are rightfully commenting on how strange it is to EQ 15 dB. I should mention that I won't always be doing this. When listening to...

For me, going the route of using the Rag 2 would mean I don't buy a separate DAC at all for the foreseeable future, as the Rag 2 and its DAC card are already more than my budget.

Hello everyone, I'm trying to find a solid-state DAC and Amp stack for around $900 USD, with plans to add a power amp in the future (so the headphone amp needs to double as a preamp with a switch for the preamp outputs). I've identified a few good companies: Schiit, RME, Topping, SMSL...

TBH a part of me is even considering buying a Ragnarok, now that it's on sale. I mean, at $1000 for a balanced headphone AND SPEAKER amp, with a dac card upgrade, it comes in at roughly the same price as a full stack. Can't seem to find much in the way of comparisons or reviews of the Ragnarok...

So, I don't know if I'm leading myself astray with this, but my thinking is that the Jotunheim 2 has more power over all, which for a pair of harder-to-drive headphones like the HD800s, gives me more headroom for EQ, which is fairly important to me, as I intent to run a fairly strong EQ curve...

Yeah, Schiit is the brand I was most seriously considering for a long time. I would be buying a Modius DAC (ES9028 or AKM?) and a Jotunheim 2 Amp, and then one day adding the Gjallarhorn power amp. I know the gjallarhorn isn't the most powerful amp in the world but that's okay, it's just for a...

I'm okay mixing and matching so long as the products go together visually. Don't want a silver round and bubbly amp sitting atop a black square DAC, for example. But something like a Topping amp on top of an RME DAC is possibly okay. I must stress though there will never be an upgrade. This is...

Ah, in that case it will be too far beyond my budget.

Lol we all must live within our means. $900 is more than enough to get a good DAC and amp.

Hey yeah, I've seen this recommended a lot. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's just a DAC, right? No amp? I'm confused because the literature mentions only a DAC, but it has a volume knob and headphone outputs. Yeah, like I said Schiit is the brand I was most seriously considering originally...

If I were to go the Jotunheim route, it would only be with a Modius DAC, as that's approaching the limit of my combined DAC-amp budget.

Hello everyone. I want to start by thanking everyone on this forum for all of the great discussion and education you've all provided me. I have learned a lot, abandoned a lot of old, mistaken ideas, and have really changed in what I'm looking for in an audio setup. I don't want to take...

Hello people, I've noticed, in my pursuit of better audio gear, that a lot of stuff doesn't seem to be designed with constant on-off cycles in mind. Like, for example, a Lyr+ amp from Schiit has its power switch on the back. And it takes 30 seconds or so to actually turn on, once it's turned...