[tkimages]

 

I've just sold my Meier Corda Cantata headphone amp and need to replace it with one that has an optical input. The Meier was driven by the analogue out from my Meridian G08 CD player, but since I've started streaming I want to use headphones from my Sonos. The analogue out from the Sonos is not so good so that only leaves me the optical out to go to a headphone amp as the Sons SPDIF is used for the Meridian DSP speakers. My initial choice was the Gatorised Beresford Caiman as this has an optical in and an excellent headphone amp built in - allegedly. Before I buy it, I just wondered if there was any other headphone amp I should consider about the same price bracket? I'm using Alessandro MS1 headphones at the moment, but will upgrade when I get the amp sorted out. Cheers.   Tillman

 

 

[mlantinen]

Without taking the time to look up those amps price ranges, I'd recommend the Peachtree Nova. Fantastic DAC and Amplifier for around $800 used. Using a Creative X-Fi Titanium as the interface makes really nice noises. I'd spend more on this up front then upgrade your cans in a few months.