[soocha2]

Hello fellow head-fiers, I just received my ATH-W5000 and at the moment, I'm enjoying the beautiful performance that these cans are producing. It's pathetic but I'm currently using my iphone 4 as my main device for music. I know I'm not doing justice to the W5000s and would like to match them up with some decent DACs to complement them. I'm thinking of getting the little dot MkIII amps which seem like a good choice as I've heard that W5000s match better with tube amps. Can anyone give me a recommendation on some quality DACs that aren't too expensive? Current budget is around $200-300. Thanks

 

[Elanzer]

Audio-gd's NFB-3

 

 

[jackmccabe]

I would very highly recommend buying a gamma 2 in the for sale section, you should be able to find one for around $300, and I h think it pretty much can't be beaten in it's price range.
 

 

[soocha2]

Thanks for the reply. When I was looking at your rig Elanzer, that was exactly the same system that I was intending to have. I've heard many say that the W5000 matches well with tubes and also the audio GD-NFB12 was well-received by many reviews. How's your system treating you right now?

 

[Elanzer]

Quote:

Thanks for the reply. When I was looking at your rig Elanzer, that was exactly the same system that I was intending to have. I've heard many say that the W5000 matches well with tubes and also the audio GD-NFB12 was well-received by many reviews. How's your system treating you right now?

 
I'm really happy with it, to the point where I haven't been posting or even looking at head-fi too much anymore because I don't see any reason to further look into gear. The T1 itself has great soundstage and detail, and the NFB-12 + MKIII combo is slightly biased towards a warmer signature for more musicality, so there is great detail while maintaining tight bass and reducing the brightness of the T1 headphones to just the right levels. I listen to a wide variety of music as well as games, and this configuration is a real awesome all-rounder.
 
Tubes work well for "bright" headphones in general, and the W5000 seems like it's pretty bass anemic so a DAC like the NFB-3 w/ WM8805 would be well suited for it, it has a warmer signature that smooths out the sound in general. The Littledot MKIII is widely considered one of the best budget tube amps and a few on here have compared it to ~$500 units claiming the MKIII is on par.
 
NFB-3 should be a better DAC than the NFB-12 since it's only a DAC and doesn't have an amplifier section like the NFB-12. If you plan on spending only $300 for both DAC and AMP combined, by all means get the NFB-12 - I think you'll be pretty happy with it, even without the tubes. There just isn't anything else that competes with it on the ~$200 level.