[klinic]

I want a reasonably priced amp to drive the DT990s to their full potential, or at least close enough without breaking the bank. Playback will be from a MBP most of the time, otherwise from an Xbox 360, so I'm not sure what sort of DAC I might need for that.
 
Thanks for taking the time to make a recommendation, let me know if you need more information.
 

 

[Hifianddrumming]

 You should check out some audio-gd stuff.    http://www.audio-gd.com/En%20audio-gd.htm

 

[audioken]

Quote:

I want a reasonably priced amp to drive the DT990s to their full potential, or at least close enough without breaking the bank. Playback will be from a MBP most of the time, otherwise from an Xbox 360, so I'm not sure what sort of DAC I might need for that.
 
Thanks for taking the time to make a recommendation, let me know if you need more information.
 

I have the same headphone as yours. It requires a powerful amp to get its full potential. I have the Burson HA160 to drive these cans, and it drives it with ease. I'm using a Rotel CD player as source, can't compare the very good PRaT of the Burson to anything else. If you want something with built-in DAC, you should try the HA160D, or the new HA160DS http://bursonaudio.com/HA_160DS.html for better value. Cheers, and have fun with those cans!
 

 

[Gwarmi]

Violectric V90 as an amp - affordable, potent, very well built. $590AUD
 
Cambridge DAC Magic or Arcam rDAC - $400-ishAUD and $590AUD
 
Otherwise if the budget is tight ~ the Matrix M-Stage $269.00AUD (may power it)
and it's corresponding DAC ~ Matrix Mini-I $389.00AUD
 
Which also has a built in amplifier but I sincerely doubt it will power a pair
of 600ohm headphones without a major struggle.

 

[Dubstep Girl]

+2 on the dacmagic.
 
and definitely get a dedicated amp for the dt 990 unless you get a good dac/amp combo like the benchmark dac1 or something like that.
 
i use my WA6SE for the dt990s and it has more than enough juice to power them, but it will "break the bank" for most people who want something cheaper.
 
perhaps a Schiit amp would work good. 

 

[Gwarmi]

Quote:

+2 on the dacmagic.
 
and definitely get a dedicated amp for the dt 990 unless you get a good dac/amp combo like the benchmark dac1 or something like that.
 
i use my WA6SE for the dt990s and it has more than enough juice to power them, but it will "break the bank" for most people who want something cheaper.
 
perhaps a Schiit amp would work good. 

Doubt the Asgard would be up to the task but the Valhalla and the Lyr - no probs.
 

 

[klinic]

 
Wow. I can't say I was expecting over $400 for the DAC alone. xD There still might be some saving ahead of me.
 
The DAC Magic sounds great... But I am skeptical of some of the features. The up-sampling for example just sounds unrealistic. I fail to see how it could provide higher quality sound by taking samples of something that just isn’t there. All the other features sound good though, being able to connect all my devices simultaneously sounds great, especially as it looks like this sort of setup will be very, very hard to move from room to room should I feel like moving it into the living room to use with the xBox. I have a feeling I might need to leave my whole setup in the study and invest in a nice chair and game and listen to music from there.
 
That Schiit Valhala looks very, very nice. What’s the consensus on those guys? Perhaps it’s paranoia coming from buying Guitar Tube amps, but I can’t imagine an amp that’s cheaper then a SS being good just because it has some tubes thrown in.

 

[Draygonn]

That Schiit Valhala looks very, very nice. What’s the consensus on those guys? Perhaps it’s paranoia coming from buying Guitar Tube amps, but I can’t imagine an amp that’s cheaper then a SS being good just because it has some tubes thrown in.

The 600Ω beyers love tube amps, tubes give the voltage they are hungry for. My 880/600's transformed when I switched from an E9 to a WA2.

 

[Gwarmi]

Quote:

 
Wow. I can't say I was expecting over $400 for the DAC alone. xD There still might be some saving ahead of me.
 
The DAC Magic sounds great... But I am skeptical of some of the features. The up-sampling for example just sounds unrealistic. I fail to see how it could provide higher quality sound by taking samples of something that just isn’t there. All the other features sound good though, being able to connect all my devices simultaneously sounds great, especially as it looks like this sort of setup will be very, very hard to move from room to room should I feel like moving it into the living room to use with the xBox. I have a feeling I might need to leave my whole setup in the study and invest in a nice chair and game and listen to music from there.
 
That Schiit Valhala looks very, very nice. What’s the consensus on those guys? Perhaps it’s paranoia coming from buying Guitar Tube amps, but I can’t imagine an amp that’s cheaper then a SS being good just because it has some tubes thrown in.

The Schiit range is excellent value ~ if you're in North America.
 
The Lyr is the only one I can report on ~ it is extremely powerful but armed with the stock tubes, it's a little grainy and not the most refined
sounding amp. Still, for $550AUD - you cannot expect a 'reference killer'.
 
The other option which gets very little exposure on here is the Lehmann Rhinelander - little sibling to the Lehmann black cube.
 

 

[klinic]

Quote:

The Schiit range is excellent value ~ if you're in North America.
 
The Lyr is the only one I can report on ~ it is extremely powerful but armed with the stock tubes, it's a little grainy and not the most refined
sounding amp. Still, for $550AUD - you cannot expect a 'reference killer'.
 
The other option which gets very little exposure on here is the Lehmann Rhinelander - little sibling to the Lehmann black cube.
 

 
I'll do some heavy reading on those Schiit amps and the other recommendations you made. Thanks for the advice.
 
Also, I was wondering whether it would be worth while to get a pretty lowend amp to use for just in the bedroom when watching a movie in bed or something as I don't really want to move my whole rig every time I want to relax to a movie in bed. On the other hand, I may just get a recliner in the study, what are the sort of options for a secondary rig? From the way you guys talk I'm getting the feeling that these amps aren't exactly high end anyway. Oh what an expensive hobby I've gotten myself into...

 

[Dubstep Girl]

Quote:

I want a reasonably priced amp to drive the DT990s to their full potential, or at least close enough without breaking the bank. Playback will be from a MBP most of the time, otherwise from an Xbox 360, so I'm not sure what sort of DAC I might need for that.
 
Thanks for taking the time to make a recommendation, let me know if you need more information.
 

also while i was reading this, make sure you play lossless music whenever possible, slowly i've been noticing on my dt 990s that whenever something isn't played in lossless or whenever i play something that isn't mastered/recorded well, the beyers will punish you for it. the recessed mids come out and everything gets veiled. besides just having a decent amp, you gotta pay attention to the source. beyers are well known for being very revealing, so any flaw in your system will be noticeable. 
 
just a tip
 
 

 

[klinic]

Quote:

also while i was reading this, make sure you play lossless music whenever possible, slowly i've been noticing on my dt 990s that whenever something isn't played in lossless or whenever i play something that isn't mastered/recorded well, the beyers will punish you for it. the recessed mids come out and everything gets veiled. besides just having a decent amp, you gotta pay attention to the source. beyers are well known for being very revealing, so any flaw in your system will be noticeable. 
 
just a tip
 
 

I've been going back and re-ripping all my cds in apple lossless, but not all of my tracks are from CD, a lot are purchased from iTunes. So I've been doing a lot of CD buying in preparation. 

 

[Dubstep Girl]

Quote:

I've been going back and re-ripping all my cds in apple lossless, but not all of my tracks are from CD, a lot are purchased from iTunes. So I've been doing a lot of CD buying in preparation. 

thats good
 
and dw, itunes purchased AAC sound pretty good, spectral analysis of most of the files shows the typical compression, but it looks alot better than mp3 or regular AAC. so i guess they have a special program/algorithm that better differentiates between frequencies that are important or not. their idea was to make itunes purchases sound as close to CD quality as possible. 
 
only problem with itunes purchases is some songs have had their volume adjusted and may be a tad loud sounding, but its not too bad, either way, it still sounds better than a 192kbps mp3 downloaded from a ringtone site or something lol.

 

[Gwarmi]

Quote:

 
I'll do some heavy reading on those Schiit amps and the other recommendations you made. Thanks for the advice.
 
Also, I was wondering whether it would be worth while to get a pretty lowend amp to use for just in the bedroom when watching a movie in bed or something as I don't really want to move my whole rig every time I want to relax to a movie in bed. On the other hand, I may just get a recliner in the study, what are the sort of options for a secondary rig? From the way you guys talk I'm getting the feeling that these amps aren't exactly high end anyway. Oh what an expensive hobby I've gotten myself into...

 
Here's a great little cheap amp, that also has a built in USB fed DAC. Just plug this into your laptop, iPad and listen away.
 
Price $85AUD (i-enjoy.com.au)
 
Fiio E10 - it is fairly new
 

 

 

[klinic]

Quote:

 
Here's a great little cheap amp, that also has a built in USB fed DAC. Just plug this into your laptop, iPad and listen away.
 
Price $85AUD (i-enjoy.com.au)
 
Fiio E10 - it is fairly new
 

 

Excellent. Thanks for that. Hopefully it will drive the DT990s at least a bit.
 
 
At this stage, I plan to buy the Valhalla from Schiit and the E10, just as an easy to move amp. Assuming the Valhalla will be enough to drive it, but the webpage specifically states that the Beyer 600ohm headphones love those amps.
 
I'll have to do some more research before investing in a good DAC. Will the Valhalla still be able to take input from a MBP or anything for a while before I can get the DAC?