philcheon
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2011
- Posts
- 29
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- 0
Calling all Head-fi members!
Just kidding.
Alright, so I'm getting more and more immersed into the world of high end audio, and for practicality, have chosen headphones over speaker systems.
Ultimately, I'm going to eventually want to build a proper system for high end headphones, but I have only a few clues for where to start.
I've looked at some desktop amps, DACs, and things like that, mostly around a price range that falls below 200-300 dollars. In that range, I've found the Audinst HUD-mx1, Schiit Asgard, FiiO e7 and e9, AUNE, and various other equipment that I can't name off the top of my head.
Sooner or later, I'll have a pair of K701's, and I'll also have a PA2V2 for portable listening, which will also be used with the K701's until I have a dedicated amp. It is to my understanding that the K701 is an extremely picky headphone that works very well with a few specific amps, and that the majority of them are vacuum tube amps.
All I have right now is a sound card that was bundled with an ASUS Rampage motherboard (for those of you that are computer geeks/nerds/whatever you want to call yourself like me, or perhaps computer specialists). It works fine, but it isn't the best card. Most of the desktop amps take RCA, so I figure that if I have a USB DAC, I can get a "purer" digital signal than when it goes through the sound card. "Purer" being used very lightly, since it's all just binary 1's and 0's. Once it goes through the DAC, I could output into an amp. Most DACs to my knowledge appear to have built in amplification, which is why I'm looking for advice. It's too much to ask for a beginner's guide when there's so many kinds of headphones, amps, DACs, etc., but I figure it won't be too much to get some help with a basic set up.
I'm lurking the forums an awful lot and it's very interesting to hear comparisons between different gear, such that tube amps tend to sound "warmer" and that OPAMPs tend to not be as good than an all-transistor/solid-state amp or tube amps.
TL;DR
Noob wants to build decent desktop setup for high fidelity audio. How do?
Just kidding.
Alright, so I'm getting more and more immersed into the world of high end audio, and for practicality, have chosen headphones over speaker systems.
Ultimately, I'm going to eventually want to build a proper system for high end headphones, but I have only a few clues for where to start.
I've looked at some desktop amps, DACs, and things like that, mostly around a price range that falls below 200-300 dollars. In that range, I've found the Audinst HUD-mx1, Schiit Asgard, FiiO e7 and e9, AUNE, and various other equipment that I can't name off the top of my head.
Sooner or later, I'll have a pair of K701's, and I'll also have a PA2V2 for portable listening, which will also be used with the K701's until I have a dedicated amp. It is to my understanding that the K701 is an extremely picky headphone that works very well with a few specific amps, and that the majority of them are vacuum tube amps.
All I have right now is a sound card that was bundled with an ASUS Rampage motherboard (for those of you that are computer geeks/nerds/whatever you want to call yourself like me, or perhaps computer specialists). It works fine, but it isn't the best card. Most of the desktop amps take RCA, so I figure that if I have a USB DAC, I can get a "purer" digital signal than when it goes through the sound card. "Purer" being used very lightly, since it's all just binary 1's and 0's. Once it goes through the DAC, I could output into an amp. Most DACs to my knowledge appear to have built in amplification, which is why I'm looking for advice. It's too much to ask for a beginner's guide when there's so many kinds of headphones, amps, DACs, etc., but I figure it won't be too much to get some help with a basic set up.
I'm lurking the forums an awful lot and it's very interesting to hear comparisons between different gear, such that tube amps tend to sound "warmer" and that OPAMPs tend to not be as good than an all-transistor/solid-state amp or tube amps.
TL;DR
Noob wants to build decent desktop setup for high fidelity audio. How do?