[Peco]

After doing some research I soon realised that if i was going to invest some wedge into a decent pair of headphones, i would need a good amp and perhaps a DAC....my initial budget was completely blown out the water.
 
I now have about £600 to spend on everything. These headphones will be used at home, i guess open ear will be the best bet for this. Please suggest a suitable setup around this price range because im really not sure what to put more money into, the headphones and dac/amp
 
Music – I mostly listen to dub techno and other similar forms of deep electronic music (i run www.dubtechnoblog.com so this music is very close to my heart), for those not familiar with this sound have a listen to a few of these tracks (the first one is actually my favourite song ever) to get the idea of the sound
 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be6iIqUyA20
 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQP7z_FN2us
 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJzVIzhZ24I
 
As you will be able to hear it’s heavy in deep organic sounding chords, pads, atmospherics and obviously nice smooth warm bass i really dont like overpowering bass, the music i listen to has very delicate sounds such as background noises and field recordings, i want to be able to hear everything, not just BOOM BOOM BOOM.
 
Other music styles i also listen to (mostly electronic music) – deep house, ambient, jazz, hip hop
 
Would really appreciate your help on this as is a huge amount of money to be spending as im not mega rich, but music is my absolute obsession and if im not at work im listening to music

 

[Peco]

for some reason spacing doesnt appear to be working :/ sorry about that
 
fixed

 

[pb21cyclist]

In terms of headphones I can 100% recommend the Hifiman HE400s for electronic music. They cost me £270 ($400) and they really excel in this genre, as well as being supreme all rounders. The bass is very present but controlled without being overpowering.
 
Also they don’t have great amplification requirements. I am using a Fiio E17 portable amp at the moment and it does do the headphones justice, albeit this is open for upgrading... This cost me £100.
 
So for less than £400 you would have a very good setup for what you are looking for.

 

[Peco]

Quote:

In terms of headphones I can 100% recommend the Hifiman HE400s for electronic music. They cost me £270 ($400) and they really excel in this genre, as well as being supreme all rounders. The bass is very present but controlled without being overpowering.
 
Also they don’t have great amplification requirements. I am using a Fiio E17 portable amp at the moment and it does do the headphones justice, albeit this is open for upgrading... This cost me £100.
 
So for less than £400 you would have a very good setup for what you are looking for.

Wow where did you get the he400's for £270, most shops in the UK they are going for £400 :O
 
so would such a cheapish amp do these headphones justice? have you found any limitations with the amp?

 

[pb21cyclist]

I ordered from head direct which is essentially hifiman themselves. They ship from Hong Kong. Check out the other threads on the HE400s lots of info in there...

On the amp front I haven't noticed any limitations and other have the same set up.

 

[Peco]

Quote:

I ordered from head direct which is essentially hifiman themselves. They ship from Hong Kong. Check out the other threads on the HE400s lots of info in there...
On the amp front I haven't noticed any limitations and other have the same set up.

oh wow you are right, they are $400 on head direct!!  Sweet, that's one hell of a saving!
 
So seeing as I still have approx £200 left on my budget would you recommend any other amp or is the Fiio pretty much the best bang for buck?
 
I guess i could go with that setup and use the extra £200 to get some decent closed cup headphone to use for my general walk around.  With something portable like the Fiio17 i could take it around with me too.
 
hmmm seems like the fiio could be an excellent choice all round

 

[LugBug1]

A great amp you can get thats available (most of the time) on ebay is the Necosoundlabs Bossfet V2.1 Its a very good amp for the money! about £170. Pair it with a Musical Fidelity Vdac (2nd hand go for about £100) and you'll be sorted. It's what I use for my bedside rig.

 

[Peco]

Quote:

A great amp you can get thats available (most of the time) on ebay is the Necosoundlabs Bossfet V2.1 Its a very good amp for the money! about £170. Pair it with a Musical Fidelity Vdac (2nd hand go for about £100) and you'll be sorted. It's what I use for my bedside rig.

The ebay seller neco soundlabs doesn't appear to have any items for sale at the moment, ill send him a message on facebook to ask when he'll have some inventory
 
Regarding DAC - can you get one that will allow you to record from a mixer?  I would love to combine a DAC to be my external soundcard for my laptop and be able to record my podcasts when I DJ

 

[LugBug1]

Quote:

The ebay seller neco soundlabs doesn't appear to have any items for sale at the moment, ill send him a message on facebook to ask when he'll have some inventory
 
Regarding DAC - can you get one that will allow you to record from a mixer?  I would love to combine a DAC to be my external soundcard for my laptop and be able to record my podcasts when I DJ

I'm not too sure about that Peco, most dacs you'll find on here are purely for playback from your digital source. A mixer would be fed straight to the computer, then from the pc to the external dac, then if you wanted to record from the dac.... Tape perhaps?

 

[ostewart]

JDS Labs ODAC + O2 amp