visia
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2004
- Posts
- 589
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- 11
I am planning to put together an office set up and trying to figure out what makes most sense. I have about 900$, but I want to set aside about 300-350$ for upcomimg E500 or smth good for rock music (maybe Grado), hence I am looking to spend ~500-600$ right now. I am thinking of using my EMU optical out and I like SM3 a lot, so I am thinking about dedicated DAC. I could also get some higher level headphones, smth like RS1 or smth else, but I would not have time for very critical listening and I am very content with the ones I have (I hope K701s will get here some day before I retire).
Reading some posts here, I was pretty struck by Presonus Central Station and for 400$ it sounds like a very sweet deal. I have no idea whether its amps will be any upgrade/change from SM3 (I doubt it), but the dac alone was compared favorably to DAC1. Plus I can hook up active speakers to it as well.
Other options might be VDA2 or Dack! or maybe even Aria or Micro DAC (although in this case EMU will be pretty useless). In the latter case, I could get the whole Micro Stack, but that does not seem to make any sense as I already have SM3. It does not sound, though, like any of these DACs would necessarily be a big improvement over Central Station, but would cost more for less options.
Alternatively, I could get a stationary amp, maybe Millet or Gilmore or one of Headroom amps.
Anyhow, I am looking to get some variety in my listening, that's my first preference, and maybe having Millet plus SM3 will be a good deal, while DAC would really not do much? Or maybe Central Station is a way to go? Let me know.
Reading some posts here, I was pretty struck by Presonus Central Station and for 400$ it sounds like a very sweet deal. I have no idea whether its amps will be any upgrade/change from SM3 (I doubt it), but the dac alone was compared favorably to DAC1. Plus I can hook up active speakers to it as well.
Other options might be VDA2 or Dack! or maybe even Aria or Micro DAC (although in this case EMU will be pretty useless). In the latter case, I could get the whole Micro Stack, but that does not seem to make any sense as I already have SM3. It does not sound, though, like any of these DACs would necessarily be a big improvement over Central Station, but would cost more for less options.
Alternatively, I could get a stationary amp, maybe Millet or Gilmore or one of Headroom amps.
Anyhow, I am looking to get some variety in my listening, that's my first preference, and maybe having Millet plus SM3 will be a good deal, while DAC would really not do much? Or maybe Central Station is a way to go? Let me know.
