[ionblastoid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kees /img/forum/go_quote.gif For what it's worth: For me the ranking in headphones for electro is: 1. PROline 2500/750 2. (headphile) AKG K340 3. ATH AD2000 Key words: spacious, detailed and dynamic.

I know I only have an HFI-700, but I feel like the Prolines are going to be quite similar and although I LOVE how the HFI-700 sounds with electronic music, I want something different anyway.

Yeah, I'm thinking it will be the AD2000, although after researching the Denon D5000 a little bit, I am very tempted by that pair. Skylab mentioned that the Denon's are hard to drive and require an amp, though.

I'll probably end up getting a cheap "beginner's" amp anyway. I think the best way to connect to it would be through my Mac's optical out, right? Either way, I'm going to get the headphone first, check it out and see how it sounds, then upgrade if necessary.

- Shutup wallet, get back in your pocket. -

It's going to be like the time I came home with an extremely decent pair of Polk audio floor standing speakers and no subwoofer. Yeah, that was a fast upgrade.

 

[hYdrociTy]

well if you connect to the optical out, there are a few nice integrated amp/dacs. Some have usb, some don't. Take the aria for example- it has only usb as a dac, so while you can still use it perfectly with your mac, it won't work with stuff like say airport express or some kind of cd player with coax/optical. Just something to keep in mind since you say you want to go budget first.

There are some inexpensive dacs that do fairly well if you are willing to use separate boxes which might be inconvenient. Take a look at the lite dac-ah which has optical and coax, and is relatively inexpensive. Then after you set aside money for a dac go look for headphone amp... Better spend more on the dac...but just leave enough so you get an actual desktop amp, not a budget portable one...