[BoogieWoogie]

I've recently taken it upon myself to improve all of my audio gear. I've always been a fan of quality, and I believe I have the ears for it, but only I've recently had the financial freedom to do so.
It's lacking detail, put simply, especially in the lower-end.
I listen mostly to Rock, Metal, acoustic and some techno/trance, I praise allot the vocals, I will give you some examples RadioHead,Tv in the radio, The mountain Goats, beatles.

Have lurked around too and I found a used RS1 for 312€ that I have been tempted but I believe DAC would be wiser yes ?
I currently have MS-1's. My price limit is $300. I would like something that will provide a large jump in quality over my current onboard laptop sound, but also be sufficient when I plan to upgrade phones. Ideally, I'd like to get something where, in general, the sound is good enough that upgrading from it would provide big jumps in quality. I've only juts begun researching DAC's, so I'm sorry if this is a little too bright eyed, pie in the sky for $300.

 

[Drubbing]

For a bit more, you get the DACmagic, which is a very good value dual DAC. Don't know about any of the offerings at around $300, and given you've a laptop, soundcards are not possible.

That's a big outlay for the MS1 though; I wouldn't have spend that much on mine, but I had other phones, so it was worth it. But if you were still keen on something like the RS1, it's a DAC that will serve you well with phone upgrades.

At this stage I wouldn't buy RS1 for laptop sound, unless you were going to get a decent DAc for them down the track. And an amp is worth it, even though they technically don't need one.

 

[debitsohn]

research musiland monitor 02 dac. i just bought one yesterday and have only heard great thingsa bout it. its on ebay for like 130 before bing cashback. then u can look into headphones.

 

[BoogieWoogie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drubbing /img/forum/go_quote.gif For a bit more, you get the DACmagic, which is a very good value dual DAC. Don't know about any of the offerings at around $300, and given you've a laptop, soundcards are not possible. That's a big outlay for the MS1 though; I wouldn't have spend that much on mine, but I had other phones, so it was worth it. But if you were still keen on something like the RS1, it's a DAC that will serve you well with phone upgrades. At this stage I wouldn't buy RS1 for laptop sound, unless you were going to get a decent DAc for them down the track. And an amp is worth it, even though they technically don't need one.

How much is the Dacmagic ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by debitsohn /img/forum/go_quote.gif research musiland monitor 02 dac. i just bought one yesterday and have only heard great thingsa bout it. its on ebay for like 130 before bing cashback. then u can look into headphones.

I went to the review here and it sounds good for the price
I checked here the compass too and seems to have allot of good reviews too wouldn't the compass be a better choice or would be to much overkill?
edit:Musiland monitor 02 DAC isn't an option anymore, doesn't work on seven 64 bits.

 

[tim3320070]

Compass has a lot to offer for the money.