[HKondor]

I'm in need of some long term thinking-advice regarding the purchase of a DAC to match a HD600 + Bottlehead Crack combo. 
 
I currently have a XiangSheng DA-03A DAC/amp and I'm persuaded that it's not doing justice to the HD600s. I have a tendency to be strongly averse to previously bought gear once I get access to better stuff and can see this spiralling out of control with lots of useless phones, amps and DACs lying around the house so I'm aiming at harm-reduction here.
 
In short, my goal is to have this setup be as close as possible to endgame for the HD600s. At the same time, the DAC should:
 
-be capable of Hi-Fi,
-play well with the Crack, and
-not need to be necessarily upgraded down the road as I inevitably move to other amps, higher end dynamics, orthos and speakers.
 
My budget is USD 500.
 
Is this possible? 

 

[Pirakaphile]

Schiit Bifrost is an upgradable DAC that starts at $350, with USB starting at $450. Odac is also pretty popular, and I think it's $150. Schiit also has a $100 and $150 Dac called the Modi.

 

[HKondor]

  Schiit Bifrost is an upgradable DAC that starts at $350, with USB starting at $450. Odac is also pretty popular, and I think it's $150. Schiit also has a $100 and $150 Dac called the Modi.

Thanks man. I thought the ODAC and the Modi would be at the very entry level and therefore more or less overlap with what I have.
 
The Bifrost woud be an upgrade, but there seems to be better options available in that price range spec/feature-wise think Concero, Gustard X-12. I'm trying to establish which are the pound for pound contenders in that range. 
 
Any takers?

 

[billybob_jcv]

Hmm - maybe one of the Audio-gd units? Like the NFB-1S or NFB-10.33? I've never really understood the differences between all the audio-gd models. Excellent products, lousy web site!

 

[tomb]

  I'm in need of some long term thinking-advice regarding the purchase of a DAC to match a HD600 + Bottlehead Crack combo. 
 
I currently have a XiangSheng DA-03A DAC/amp and I'm persuaded that it's not doing justice to the HD600s. I have a tendency to be strongly averse to previously bought gear once I get access to better stuff and can see this spiralling out of control with lots of useless phones, amps and DACs lying around the house so I'm aiming at harm-reduction here.
 
In short, my goal is to have this setup be as close as possible to endgame for the HD600s. At the same time, the DAC should:
 
-be capable of Hi-Fi,
-play well with the Crack, and
-not need to be necessarily upgraded down the road as I inevitably move to other amps, higher end dynamics, orthos and speakers.
 
My budget is USD 500.
 
Is this possible? 

 
Speaking of spiraling out of control ... you are already admitting the Bottlehead is in that spiral. 

  The HD600 will take upgrades and reward them with better listening for quite awhile.  Your journey is just beginning, most likely.

 

[dannybgoode]

Ifi iDSD Micro? Awesome for the money or even the iDSD Nano then you can use that when on the move and hook it in to the Crack when at home. Hugely capable little box of tricks and capable of decoding all HR formats including DSD files.

 

[HKondor]

Hmm - maybe one of the Audio-gd units? Like the NFB-1S or NFB-10.33? I've never really understood the differences between all the audio-gd models. Excellent products, lousy web site!

Thanks. Agree with you on both counts. Lousy site for an already messy lineup. I had them shortlisted initially as they look great on paper, but what turned me off was the reports of driver issues, particularly when connected to Macs.
 
I guess I'll have to keep searching.

 

[HKondor]

   
Speaking of spiraling out of control ... you are already admitting the Bottlehead is in that spiral. 

  The HD600 will take upgrades and reward them with better listening for quite awhile.  Your journey is just beginning, most likely.

Guilty as charged 

. I am positively sure that I'll keep buying amps, phones and speakers, and I look forward to it. I would like to build a collection of good amps/phone pairings. 
 
I just thought the DAC shouldn't have to be paired to specific amps/phones and therefore I could just get one I could use for a long time for all conversion needs.
 
I've been reading some more and what I'll do is: 
 
-hold my horses for a bit longer
-increase by budget to up to 1K in order to have less restrictions
-shoot for a flagship dedicated DAC in that range with the hopes of not having to upgrade it again, unless there is a significant technological change.
 
Arcam, Ciunas, something along those lines perhaps... 

. 

 

[HKondor]

Ifi iDSD Micro? Awesome for the money or even the iDSD Nano then you can use that when on the move and hook it in to the Crack when at home. Hugely capable little box of tricks and capable of decoding all HR formats including DSD files.

I hadn't seen those before, they look good! I'm afraid these would also fall into the entry level too, however. So given my tendencies, would be candidates for upgrading not too far from purchase date ha ha.

 

[jodgey4]

I'm mostly familiar with Audio-GD products, and would recommend the NFB-1 http://audio-gd.com/Pro/dac/NFB12015/NFB12015EN.htm with it's detailed ES9018 chip, and slightly smooth sound. My NFB-28 has a similar DAC implementation, though not as good, and I love it. Throw on TXCO clock upgrades and the screen dimming, and you'd be good to go. Even the NFB-3 would be transparent enough, and you wouldn't have to pay for balanced topology. I'd also recommend, if your budget really is $1K, moving up headphones to Beyer T1's or another Sennheiser- you'll notice a bigger upgrade there, and you'd have money for upgrading your Crack a bit.

 

[Currawong]

A mid-sized Audio-gd unit would do it, or a Geek Out 450. The HD-600s can be pushed pretty far. I found they get more of a kick in the pants with initial upgrades then start to get more spacious as you get very serious, but you'll hit a resolution wall eventually. I wouldn't be surprised if, where you're at, the DAC in that XiangSheng is most of the problem. 

 

[Phishin Phool]

I will have a pair of HD600's on tuesday (according to my tracking number XD ) and I can then tell you how they pair with the DAC I am currently using and have been quite pleased with . It is a music Hall 25.3 and has tube output over the unbalanced RCA and solid state over balanced xlr outputs. I have been using the tube output fed into my Project Sunrise II amp from Garage 1217 and it has been great on most everything so far. The MH 25.3 also has a built in ss headphone amp that uses switchable opamp but I have found it to be okay but lacking in power and "grunt/oomph" so I use my other amp. If curious I will let you know how it does when my 600 arrives .

 

[dannybgoode]

 
I hadn't seen those before, they look good! I'm afraid these would also fall into the entry level too, however. So given my tendencies, would be candidates for upgrading not too far from purchase date ha ha.

Don't judge a book by its cover so to speak.  Whilst they are excellent value they are far from entry level!  Look for some reviews on them and you will see that they compete very well against DAC's cost £1k ($1600) upward.
 
I can atest for how good they sound - just lovely...


Indeed it is cited as very nearly as good as the Chord Hugo. What swung me to audition it was they Hi Fi Plus review of it (available online). They only review the very best kit and they really rate it.

 

[HKondor]

  I'm mostly familiar with Audio-GD products, and would recommend the NFB-1 http://audio-gd.com/Pro/dac/NFB12015/NFB12015EN.htm with it's detailed ES9018 chip, and slightly smooth sound. My NFB-28 has a similar DAC implementation, though not as good, and I love it. Throw on TXCO clock upgrades and the screen dimming, and you'd be good to go. Even the NFB-3 would be transparent enough, and you wouldn't have to pay for balanced topology. I'd also recommend, if your budget really is $1K, moving up headphones to Beyer T1's or another Sennheiser- you'll notice a bigger upgrade there, and you'd have money for upgrading your Crack a bit.

Great advice, thank you! I'll reconsider Audio-GD. Driver issues removed they do make sense so the only thing is whether those issues will manifest or not. I'll read about this specifically for that model.
 
For the phones I'll try my best to hold that itch another year. I'll probably go all out then and get the best dynamic phones I can afford, and the T1 will be on that shortlist along with the other flagships. 

 

[HKondor]

  I will have a pair of HD600's on tuesday (according to my tracking number XD ) and I can then tell you how they pair with the DAC I am currently using and have been quite pleased with . It is a music Hall 25.3 and has tube output over the unbalanced RCA and solid state over balanced xlr outputs. I have been using the tube output fed into my Project Sunrise II amp from Garage 1217 and it has been great on most everything so far. The MH 25.3 also has a built in ss headphone amp that uses switchable opamp but I have found it to be okay but lacking in power and "grunt/oomph" so I use my other amp. If curious I will let you know how it does when my 600 arrives .

Thanks for the offer. The thing about integrated DAC/AMPS is that it's hard to know what I'm paying for. I would like to go the single component route as an attempt to make the choices as objective as possible.
 
I think you'll love the HD600's. Some people still consider these to be endgame, and many still keep them despite owning higher end cans.