[NewOne]

Hello everyone!
 
I recently discovered the joy of high quality music, and I am now in the process of setting up a nice system for my pleasure. I have around 2000-2500e to invest. Unfortunately, I am in no situation to tryout and see what works best for me, so I must rely on other peoples' experience and technical (as far as I understand them) or otherwise reviews.
 
So far, I have read a lot that I could find about headphones and my choice are HD800 ones. I listen to all sorts of music, from classic to metal, with occasional trips to trance land. Basically anything that fits my mood at the moment.
 
Now it's time to decide on an amp and a dac. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) too much information on that subject, so I need some... well, a lot help there. HD800 leaves me with 1000-1500e to invest in the rest of the system. New equipment too, used ones are sort of limited here. So, fire your suggestions for a good amp and dac for these headphones

 
Also, I will be playing music from my computer (started ripping all the music to flac recently) and, as far as I learned, the soundcard does not really matter if I'm going to output digitally to dac? Any with sp/dif would do or should I go for better/high-end class there? If so, please explain why.
 
Looking forward to your responses, dames and fellas!

 

[rgs9200m]

I think you ought to get a tube amp for the 800s. I use a B52 for them but I'm guessing you could get by with something cheaper, especially used.
They really need an amp that calms them down, but when that happens, they are spectacular. If you are looking to buy new, call Ray, he's really
helpful with prospective customers.

 

[NewOne]

Hey man, thanks for the response!

I'm in the process of contacting every hi-fi store in the reasonable distance. I have found a store that has Senns, however they don't have any headphone amps. They do have a stereo amp Yamaha AS1000 which has built-in headamp, for 1175e. As for the DAC, they have Advance Acoustic MDA503, for 680e. Any opinion on the latter?

There are two more stores that I will check out in monday and I will get back here with results. I will also contact Ray and see what are his suggestions and if he ships his products to Montenegro.

This search is driving me insane, in a positive way. I can't imagine what it will be like when I complete the system and, after some time, start searching for upgrades

 

[NewOne]

I just got an idea. What if I were to buy Asus Xonar Essence STX card, use it's DAC, spend all 1500e on the AMP, and later in the future, get DAC? Would it make more sense then spending the money on both the DAC and AMP?

 

[rgs9200m]

I agree, start with the amp, get one you like, and then deal separately with the DAC. Getting an amp&dac at the same time introduces too many variables into the equation.
If you can deal with tubes (some heat, maybe 10 minutes warmup time, and an occasional replacement and the urge to tube roll), go for it. Also, tube rolling gives you some flexibility in tailoring the sound to your needs,
and later on if you have more money to spend, you can "upgrade" your sound significantly with better tubes.
I guess there are lots of good tube amps around, but I am SO HAPPY with my B52, that is why I refer you to Ray. And his customer service is A+++.
I have not heard Ray's other tube amps, but I'm sure there is info about them around here. If I wanted another tube amp, that's what I would be doing.
 
As far as DACs go, that's an area where used makes sense. And this is not a headphone-specific area,
just digital in general, so research/query on the major audio sites for advice and what's for sale (most used stuff in these sites can be shipped worldwide).
Good luck!

 

[NewOne]

Thanks man. I will see with Ray what he suggests. I see B52 is way out of my current budget. Perhaps I should go for solid state (that's the 'normal', no-tube amp, if I understand correctly?) and go for tubes when I make a major upgrade, then get some really quality ones. Of course, I will be more familiar with the sound and what I really want by then, and surely I will find a way to demo before purchase.

I've got an e-mail from one of the stores. This is what they offer:

Lehmann Audio Black Cube Linear USB
M1DAC 24bit/192k DAC
M1 Headphone amp
Arcam rdac

It's all in my price range, meaning I can get both AMP and DAC. They have Stax and Ayre equipment too, but that's currently out of my budget.

If I do go for Lehmann and M1DAC, for example, would the soundcard make any difference? Would I get anything from STX that I wouldn't from any other card with optical out?

 

[NewOne]

Scratch that last, I see that this is USB amp, and, most likely there's no difference with going optical or USB, meaning, soundcard doesn't make a difference.

 

[MacedonianHero]

The best amp I've heard with the HD800s is the 3-channel B22.

 

[dallan]

Best amps i have heard are balanced B22 or my Zana Duex.  It has been confirmed at several meets too.  Otherwise the Woo 5 setup sounded good to me, warmer than the Zana Duex but maybe not as quiet and transparent.  But you have a lot of tube changing to deal with, the one i heard the guy had gone around a lot with searching out good tubes to match with the 800s.
 
I am blown away every time that i go thru the Zana to the 800s and at the last meet several people put the 800s back on their list due to the sound that came thru the Zana Duex to them.
 
As far as dacs go, i did an insane mod to the PSaudio Digital Link lll with RAM.  The mod cost twice as much as the dac cost new.  It is highly personalized in your taste, maybe more so than the amp.  I was lucky enough to find a dac with a somewhat lower mod from RAM done to it, loved it and i just did the full deal so I would be done for good with that end.