[NamebrandHipster]

I have an old FiiO X5 Gen 1 DAC.

I'm upgrading my monitors to the HIFIMAN Sundara.

I'm seeing a lot of mid grade portable DAC Amps like the IFI Hip-DAC or the FiiO Q3.
But all of these come with the price tag of an integrated DAC.
(I've seen the portable amp ranking post, but it's severely outdated (2004) and many of the decent products are not available, even on Ebay.)

It's surprisingly hard to find an Amp that doesn't have a DAC built in.

What would you suggest as a portable stand alone AMPs that won't be a bottleneck between the X5 and the Sundara?

Thanks!

 

[iFi audio]

I have an old FiiO X5 Gen 1 DAC.

I'm upgrading my monitors to the HIFIMAN Sundara.

I'm seeing a lot of mid grade portable DAC Amps like the IFI Hip-DAC or the FiiO Q3.
But all of these come with the price tag of an integrated DAC.
(I've seen the portable amp ranking post, but it's severely outdated (2004) and many of the decent products are not available, even on Ebay.)

It's surprisingly hard to find an Amp that doesn't have a DAC built in.

What would you suggest as a portable stand alone AMPs that won't be a bottleneck between the X5 and the Sundara?

Thanks!

Just a thought, but you could use your FiiO X5 as a transport that would send digital audio (via its coaxial output) to a separate DAC/amp's coaxial input. And yes, portable amps aren't as popular as they used to be

 

[everyusername]

This will do the trick (just don’t look at the price tag): https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/cayin-c9-totl-tube-solid-state-portable-amplifier.24966/