[cel4145]

I don't know much about the Dragonfly other than people like it and it seems like a good product. Depends on whether or not the Dragonfly can bypass the internal headphone amp and just send line level output directly from its DAC for use with an external amp. If it can't, I would get separate DAC and headphone amp so you can unplug the headphone amp and plug in your speaker amp.

 

[blueangel2323]

  The FiiO X3 does sound appealing; I may be able to find a used one a little cheaper than the £160 on Amazon which would make it completely worth it to me. I have a FiiO E5 but that is very cheap stuff, probably wouldn't help at all.
 
All in all, I'm currently thinking about getting the Dragonfly (although at this point I'm not too fussed about which DAC to use with my laptop, this one seems to have very good sound and is very small, however I now understand that I need a headphone amp too if I choose something other than the Dragonfly), the FiiO X3 for the DT770's and still not sure about the speakers.
 
One question I have is, if I have the passive Diamond 9.1 speakers and an Indeed t-amp, are they compatible with the Dragonfly DAC? Or would you perhaps you need a DAC on it's own, combined with an Indeed or Topping t-amp, used with the Diamonds 9.1s.

As far as I know, the 3.5mm output on the Dragonfly could be used either as a headphone amp or a pre-amp for an external amplifier. Maybe you need to flip a switch or something. To connect to the T-amp you will need a 3.5mm to 2x RCA adaptor like this or this.

 

[Ridai]

Hmm okay, interesting. I'll do a bit of research and see what I can find regarding the Dragonfly.

 

[Ridai]

How good are 4th gen iPod Touch's (or even a 5th gen) in terms of sound quality in comparison to the FiiO X3, assuming I have a £200 budget for an amp?
 
Also, which one out of the ATH-M50's and the DT770 80ohm has the least sound leakage? If I replaced the pads on the DT770's would they leak less sound (although I'm aware they don't leak that much already, I'm a bit OCD about sound leaking).

 

[blueangel2323]

The X3 has a very good DAC section - in fact, that's the best thing about it. I've lost track of all the iPod generations, but generally speaking they tend to have good quality DAC chips with just ok implementation, not really up to X3 level. If you use the X3 with an external amp it will sound excellent. However iOS7 now supports USB digital audio streaming, so you can connect an iPod to your choice of DAC.

 

[Ridai]

  The X3 has a very good DAC section - in fact, that's the best thing about it. I've lost track of all the iPod generations, but generally speaking they tend to have good quality DAC chips with just ok implementation, not really up to X3 level. If you use the X3 with an external amp it will sound excellent. However iOS7 now supports USB digital audio streaming, so you can connect an iPod to your choice of DAC.

Oh I see, the USB digital audio streaming sounds handy. I am also relatively interested in owning an iPod touch for the apps and such too. I guess I will grab whatever I find on deal first.

 

[cel4145]

The X3 has a very good DAC section - in fact, that's the best thing about it. I've lost track of all the iPod generations, but generally speaking they tend to have good quality DAC chips with just ok implementation, not really up to X3 level. If you use the X3 with an external amp it will sound excellent. However iOS7 now supports USB digital audio streaming, so you can connect an iPod to your choice of DAC.

The X3 should also probably have a better headphone amp than the iPod, shouldn't it? It's based on the E17.

 

[Ridai]

The X3 should also probably have a better headphone amp than the iPod, shouldn't it? It's based on the E17.

What if I had the E17+iPod with the L3 Cable? I could then use the E17 for my laptop too?

 

[blueangel2323]

The X3 should also probably have a better headphone amp than the iPod, shouldn't it? It's based on the E17.

Yes it should. But I think the X3's DAC section is more impressive than its amp section, which is no slouch either.
 

  What if I had the E17+iPod with the L3 Cable? I could then use the E17 for my laptop too?

Yes, but you would be using the E17 as an amp only with the iPod. The L3 is a line-out dock which extracts the line-out signal from the iPod's DAC. But with an iPod running iOS7 and the Camera Connection Kit (for 30-pin iPods) or Lightning to USB Camera adaptor (for Lightning iPods) you can use the E17 (or any other USB DAC) as a DAC as well.