[Connnorrr]

So I've been wondering as of recent, whether a headphone amp or a DAC would be a better first purchase. I can only afford one or the other at the moment, and I've been looking at ending up with the Fiio E7 + E9 combo eventually. I currently have some SR80i's, HD595's, and ATH-A700's. I'm curious as to which would provide the larger boost in sound quality for what I have at the moment.

 

[hedrick]

What's your current setup? It's question of what your weak point is. The thing is, if you don't have an amp, it's hard to see how you're going to use a DAC. Where will the output go? I have two rooms, one where I use a receiver, and the other a Benchmark DAC-1, which is a good headphone amp as part of it. I got the Benchmark because I was having some issues and wanted to rule out my electronics as a source. But I'm not convinced it was actually necessary. With a reasonably good sound card or a high fi system, I'm not convinced a DAC is going to buy you much unless you have really high end headphones, really good source material, and are a very finicky listener.
 
You need to think carefully whether you're actually going to hear anything from changing electronics.

 

[Connnorrr]

Right now I'm just playing out of my laptop (Dell Studio XPS, not sure of the sound card it has in it.)

 

[Yoga Flame]

Get a DAC first. One of the DAC/amp combo units. The headphones you listed are efficient and known to be easily powered. They should be fine without a dedicated amp. But a decent external DAC will give you an easily noticeable improvement over the built in sound from most (or even all?) laptops.
 
E7 is a fine choice for a DAC/amp, with the E9 being a nice matching upgrade for when you get headphones that need more power. Check out the Amplifier and Dedicated Source forums if you want to look at some other options as well. Best to set a budget for yourself first, as there will almost always be something better that costs more.