[Nextinline77]

I just purchased a pair of Shure SRH1440's and I'm looking to get the best listening experience out of them within my budget of course. Right now I'm looking into either getting the Magni/Modi or O2/ODAC but I've encountered a bit of a problem. I'm a musician and it's important to me that I can use this setup not only for listening but also for playing guitar as well. I'd love to be able to just pick up an Audio Interface like the Apogee One, Focusrite Scarlett, or Presonus Audiobox but I'm wondering how the amp/DAC in these audio interfaces would compare to the Magni/Modi or O2/ODAC? Thanks for help

 

[billybob_jcv]

IMHO, I think the big difference is that the audio interfaces focus primarily on the *input* side of the equation. The headphone jack is just there to let you monitor the inputs. They are more concerned about the A->D than the D->A. I think the audiophile stack would be much more concerned about the output impedance and low-noise of the headphone jack. However, with all that said, at one time I used an old MAudio USB interface as my DAC, and it worked fine. I typically used the line-out to another headphone amp rather than using the MAudio headphone amp - mainly just because I already had a headphone amp.

 

[Headzone]

I would buy the audio interface and then later upgrade to O2 amplifier if I was in your situation. I think the DACs in those interfaces are pretty good these days. Wouldn't drive an SRH1440 off the headphone jacks though.