[Justin0505]

Hi everyone!  I've been occasionally lurking the Head-Fi forum on an off for a few years, but never took the plunge down the rabbit (or ear?) hole beyond a pair of se425's and an HTC one for traveling and a pc / dedicated sound card (fatality pro w/ headphone amp) and Senn PC350's for home. 
 
I spend most of my forum / expensive hobby time over at kittenknifeforums dot com knerding out on fancy knives and special rocks,  but the news of  the Alpha Dogs was just too cool for me to resist any longer.
I'm a huge sucker for community developed stuff, small companies / innovators and the rise of "Davids" in a global market once controlled solely by Goliaths. I've also been a rapid-prototyping nerd for years and am so excited to see the technologies started to become a viable small / semi custom production tool.  
Anyway, the Mr. Speaker's  Alpha Dogs check all those boxes for me.  
 
So, I'm definitely planning on pre-ordering a pair of AD's  (balanced xlr) and have been trying to figure out the rest of the setup.
 
I'll primarily be using these at my home PC workstation,  which has a dedicated sound card.  The card has it's own DAC and headphone amp, but it certainly wouldn't do justice to something like the AD's. However,  the card does provide TOSLINK out, and I'd like to use that rather than by-passing the card and messing with USB.  The card does a great job of EAX for games, and I actually really like the EQ features for music and some of the other processing tweaks for media.  
 
So,  that leads me to look for a DAC with TOSLINK in and an AMP with single 4-pin balanced XLR out. 
Another Head-fi project that I've been following seems to meet those criteria exactly:  the CEntrance HiFi-M8 LX XL4.
I love the community-sourcing they did with the development everything I've heard / read about them and their products over the years, and I'd like to support them.
 
From my reading, it seems like the amp would be adequate,  but that the DAC is good enough that it I later upgrade to a better, true desktop AMP (to support some even crazier head speakers), I can still use the M8 as a DAC.
The M8 has the added benefit of being portable so I could use it when traveling (which I do a lot of for work), and while the HTC one does a good job with the 425's I know that I'll eventually end up with some customs from JH audio and wanting an IEM DAC/amp to get the most out of them. I like the idea of going right from digital out to DAC to AMP vs the AMP that   
 
I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of the knowledge that's out there and feel like there's a good chance that I may be totally off / missing some key consideration.
 
So here are my questions:
- Will the M8 even be adequate for the ADs?
- Is the DAC in the M8 good enough to consider using it with a better,  dedicated desktop AMP down the line/ as I lose more sanity?
- Is there a desktop DAC/amp combo (for similar $600 or less price)  that would meet my current needs as well as support future upgrades better than the M8?
 
If you think that there is a better TOSLINK to balance XLR DAC / AMP setup for use with the AD's for roughly the price of the M8,  then please let me know.  
Thanks for your time in reading and responding to this!
 
-Justin

 

[belisk]

from what i've read,
M8 provides upto 700mW per channel, the AD needs a minimum of 500mW/channel, but the AD's were benchmarked on 1W/channel
i could be wrong, its just what i read.

i'd like to hear the pair myself, see if the mid bass is strong like a good amp should be.

 

[Justin0505]

Thanks Belisk,   I know that there's often a pretty big gap between "minimum"  and "optimal" .
 
In Drew's head-fi tv video on the AD's both the amps he was using cost more than the headphones.  Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part that I could find a cheaper DAC/ amp combo that would work. 

 

[Makiah S]

I'm in a simmilar state you are in, I'm getting my first balanced set up. Although I went with Audio GD. for about $600 you can get the Audio GD 10.33, which is a balanced dac and Amp [with TosLink optical] input

 

[Justin0505]

Yeah,  I'm also considering the  Audio-gd NFB-10ES2 based on this review:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/678445/three-dacs-four-videos-audio-gd-nfb-10es2-andio-d2-and-resonessence-invicta
 
I also read some good things about the ibasso PB2 + DB2 combo with HiFlight topkit upgrade
http://www.ibasso.com/en/products/show.asp?ID=71
http://www.hiflightaudio.com/
 
All 3 options are within $100(new) in price. The Audio-gd would obviously offer the most power,  but  I don't know enough to know if that's needed.  The iBasso combo would offer more power than the HiFi-M8, (http://centrance.com/store/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16189&category_id=264) but less portability and tuning.  
 
If audio quality with all 3 is equal, or close enough that I couldn't tell then portability would be the tie-breaker.
I'm just leery of making a decision based on paper and it would be helpful to hear from someone who's heard them with the mad or alpha dogs.  

 

[Makiah S]

I wouldn't know... but I'm willing to bet the Audio GD 10ES2 has the most power and sound quality... honestly. Desktop is usally cheaper and better quality over portable, 
 
granted in the portable market, yea the iBasso is GREAT, but in desktop gear there's the cheaper and more likely better sounding Audio GD units, and hell man with 8W into 25ohm I think you'd be set for a good number of years out of that thing xD [I know I'll b] 

 

[Justin0505]

Yeah that totally makes sense / I'd assume that was the way of it too,  I just don't actually KNOW.  
 
Sock Fostex's have a MAX input is 3W,  (so I'd assume that means that anything over that could potentially damage them), but the GD 10ES2 can deliver 5950MW in balanced mode at Fostex's 50 ohm impedance.  So does all that extra potential power actually do anything ?  I'm assuming that at normal / safe listening volumes,  the Alpha Dogs will never draw anywhere near to the 3W max. 

 

[Makiah S]

Quote:

Yeah that totally makes sense / I'd assume that was the way of it too,  I just don't actually KNOW.  
 
 
Sock Fostex's I think have a MAX input is 3W,  (so I'd assume that means that anything over that could potentially damage them), but the GD 10ES2 can deliver [size=small]5950MW in balanced mode at the Fostex's 50 ohm impedance. [/size]

YEAP, but again to drive that much power the volume would be deafening, and thankfully the with Audio GD 10ES2 you will NEVER accidently crank the volume to high, as the buttons make volume changes rather slow, not to mention it remembers your last volume setting, or starts back at 0 

 

[Justin0505]

Yeah i do really like the idea of the relay and resistor setup for the volume control... cool to use the gain as a quick half-muting too...

 

[Wyd4]

Funnily enough I am actually trying to offload some of my gear to buy the M8 before I get my AD's.
I need a portable rig that has the potential to drive the alpha's and any other headphones I might purchase down the road with some authority.
Hope its a good match.
 
I currently have an AudioGD NFB 15.32 that I use @ work with my alpha dogs and it powers them easily, and that is single ended.
 
Hoping its worth the coin to get this CEntrance.

Scott

 

[Monsterzero]

  Funnily enough I am actually trying to offload some of my gear to buy the M8 before I get my AD's.
I need a portable rig that has the potential to drive the alpha's and any other headphones I might purchase down the road with some authority.
Hope its a good match.
 
I currently have an AudioGD NFB 15.32 that I use @ work with my alpha dogs and it powers them easily, and that is single ended.
 
Hoping its worth the coin to get this CEntrance.

Scott

dont know if this matters much but I tested the HiFi M8 with the following cans

HD600-sounded great w/ plenty of volume overhead
HD650- same as above
Beyer T1-sounded great,lacked enough volume,at least to my ears which enjoys thundering rock and metal at high volume

And with easier to drive phones it was just downright intense.

 

 

[Wyd4]

  dont know if this matters much but I tested the HiFi M8 with the following cans

HD600-sounded great w/ plenty of volume overhead
HD650- same as above
Beyer T1-sounded great,lacked enough volume,at least to my ears which enjoys thundering rock and metal at high volume

And with easier to drive phones it was just downright intense.

 

 
Thanks for the heads up
 
I currently just have an e12 FIIO amp and it powers the Mad Dogs louder than I would care to listen to them, I would hope this thing packs more punch than that though.
Alpha Dogs into Balanced at 700mW per channel.
 
Thanks for the advice!!

Scott

 

[Justin0505]

Thanks for the replies.  It sounds like the M8 would be an acceptable place to start and something that I can continue to use when traveling even if I eventually end up with a more elaborate desktop setup.  

 

[dc-k]

  Thanks for the replies.  It sounds like the M8 would be an acceptable place to start and something that I can continue to use when traveling even if I eventually end up with a more elaborate desktop setup.  

Are you now using this combo? I have some AlphaDogs on the way and I'm thinking of the M8 as my amp/DAC on the move.