[aszental]

Hey.

Well i'm looking at purchasing a nice amp, Dac and set of headphones... atm i'm using sennheiser HD497's, looking at upgrading to the HD650's or the KG701.

I'll only be playing music from my computer, so i'm looking at purchasing a dac as well.

I'm considering either the Little Dot MK V SS amp, + a dac, or just buying the Little dot_dac II which also includes a headphone amp as well.

What do you guys reccomend? I'm also considering just buying a Xonar Essence STX as i heard that it's able to run those headphones quite well.

Also, looking at the Pico Amp (with Dac) and the Headirect Amp + Dac

So confusing!

Thanks

 

[aszental]

Also Looking at the Audio GD- FUN Headphone pre-amp and Dac

 

[CountChoculaBot]

I'd go with the Nuforce HDP.

Of your suggestions:
DAC_I + MKV is good, but I feel that the MKV is the weak link in terms of C.
DAC_II is a DAC_I with a MK 1+ amp, which reigns over last place on Skylab's portable amp ranking
Pico Amp w/ DAC I've read is beat by $100 uDac.
EF2 would seem to be on a lower level in general.


Audio GD FUN is the only competition you should possibly worry about. You could probably get both and test em; HDP at least has a 30day return.

 

[Sasahara]

The STX will not power either of those sufficiently iirc. Also, those 2 headphones are quite different, what music are you listening to?

 

[aszental]

Will be listening to Classic Rock, acoustic Guitar, a little jazz. Thanks

 

[Sasahara]

Oh ouch. That is gonna be a close call for the headphones. Best I can say is just try them both out if possible. But if you do get any of them I am not sure the STX will do them justice.

 

[stang]

STX definitely won't be enough. What is your budget for both combined? Something like the uDAC + MKVII. $599 for the pair of them, if you can afford it. Pretty pricey though. The MKV is a great amp, but why not take it one step further and not worry about upgrading ampes for ages? If you get the MKV, you will probably always want to upgrade it to something like the MKVII. The uDAC is wonderful for the price.

 

[moodyrn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CountChoculaBot /img/forum/go_quote.gif DAC_II is a DAC_I with a MK 1+ amp, which reigns over last place on Skylab's portable amp ranking

You are incorrect. Skylab has neither reviewed nor rated the MKI+. His rating was for the micro which was little dot's entry level portable. The MKI+ is a completely different amp, and is about three times the price of what the micro was. It has been received very favorable around here.

 

[aszental]

Is the little dot Dac_II enough to power those phones? Will i notice a big difference even if i just bought the DAC for my current HD497's?

 

[stang]

Well the HD497 aren't exactly an audiophile can like the HD650 and K701. I wouldn't bother about getting a good amp and DAC for the HD497, unless you plan on definitely buying a new set of cans very soon. Any kind of DAC over something like onboard sound will improve the overall sound quality, but not enough to really justify the cost IMO. You really do need a better set of cans

 

[aszental]

OK so i've narrowed it down to these two amps, probably going with the HD650's

Either
The zero amp/dac with the opa627 op amps
ZERO (Tianyun) 24/192 DAC + Headphone Amp (OPA627+USB) - eBay (item 260435246535 end time Mar-21-10 18:51:48 PDT)

Or the Maverick Audio one.

Maverick Audio - Tube Magic D1 DAC + Headphone Amplifier + Tube PreAmp

What do you think?

 

[lordsegan]

Sorry about your wallet

 

[EddieE]

I listened to the Zero at a recent meet and wasn't too taken by it, neither was the owner who was looking to upgrade. It gets good marks for convenience, and certainly for cost being an amp and dac though, but think it is one you'll be looking to upgrade from before too long.

Haven't heard the Maverick though.

According to little dot, the DAC_II does not compete with the MK V as an amp, so will be limiting as to what you can run on it.

Don't close the book on the MK V, it's a powerful amp that will do some great business with your planned HD650s and is not that expensive.

Bit higher up in cost, but Meier Audio does some dac/amp combos that are very highly spoken of, if you were looking for an all-in-one. They have cross feed too. I am currently very tempted to try the Cantate 2 myself.

 

[stang]

I own the Zero and love it. I am sure there are much better DAC's out there, but for $120 (cheapest I have seen it go for), it is a damn good deal.

 

[EddieE]

Feel I should qualify my above statement…. But I find it very hard to describe sound quality, well without sounding pretentious at least.

All I will say is that it seemed to me the worst amp in the room at the meet. We had a power amp with an adapter to run headphones that was pretty exciting (and perfect for orthodynamics), an MK V and an MK VII.

For my money the power amp with orthos and MK VII for everything else were most exciting. The MK V was mine so obviously hard for me to get an impression of as I'm so used to it, as you'd expect it was out performed by the MK VII which seemed to offer a much more three dimensional and gutsy sound (< see what I mean about sounding pretentious?). The MK V is a very clean and analytical amp. It will power most headphones and just show you what they are. I guess transparency is a good word to use, whereas "fireworks" might better describe the MK VII.

The Zero, while absolutely fine and not obviously deficient in any way, just did not excite at all. It seemed flat. The MK V could be called flat but a better term is neutral whereas the Zero just seemed flat. The MK V will show emotionality and musicality if your phones have it to show, the Zero just seemed a bit unemotional and unmusic whatever you threw at it (< jesus, now I sound really pretentious!). The owner was talking about upgrading too, so I don't think it was just me.

I don't want to "dis" the Zero - it is obviously a capable amp, my comments are very much based around personal subjective preferences.