[headphones1999]

hello head fi.
 
right now the only amp that comes to my mind is the precision 2 from Audio-GD
 
but i wondered if there is underated amp or any other amp that got really good speaker amp headphones output.
vintage is an option as well.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

The only other amp I've tried that was fantastic on headphones (or, well, what I had on hand - which were all high impedance) and nearly every speaker I threw at it was the Cayin CS-55A, but that's already at the same price level as the Ragnarok here (and we usually get Cayin stuff cheaper).

 

Not sure what you mean on whether it may be "underrated," but if what you mean is that it doesn't have as much buzz and hype as other AudioGD products, you have to factor in how they're more known on Head-Fi than on speaker forums, and active monitors are more popular here given the lower tier products have preamp outputs. Also, active monitors are nearfield, so as much as a single amplifier to drive headphones and speakers might save space, tendency is for people to choose active monitors if they only have a desktop system.

 

[headfidelity]

I'm interested to find out more options regarding this too.
 
I do a bit of home recording (using a laptop with a USB interface), and use a pair of active monitors that have two input channels : RCA, and XLR or 1/4 inch.
 
Due to space constraints in my room, I have my CD player on my desk as well, with the outputs routed to a passive volume control (Nano Patch +) before they go into my active monitors. This way I can easily control the volume instead of using the volume knobs on 2 active monitors.
 
I also have a DX90 (containing FLAC files that I ripped from my CDs and hi-res tunes I bought online) that I run into the 1/4 input of the active monitors.
 
Looking to get a more elegant solution to this so I can have one centralized volume control for the DX90 and CD player, be able to switch between the 2 (or possibly 3 in future) audio sources, with the output going into the active monitors' RCA input, as well as a headphone output of good quality when I intend to use cans.
 
Anyway, one option that I came across doing research on this, that might work for the OP is the Centrance Dacmini PX :
https://centrance.com/products/dacmini/px/
 
No experience with it yet, perhaps others can chime in.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

 
Looking to get a more elegant solution to this so I can have one centralized volume control for the DX90 and CD player, be able to switch between the 2 (or possibly 3 in future) audio sources, with the output going into the active monitors' RCA input, as well as a headphone output of good quality when I intend to use cans.
 

 

In your case it's a lot easier because you're using active speakers; the OP uses passives, maybe even tower speakers. For your set-up you can just use any AudioGD DAC-HPamp for a lot less money, like the NFB-15.32, but you'd have to use the CDP and DX90 as transports. DX90 on the coaxial input, CDP on the optical input, and then maybe a computer on the USB input, then headphone hooked up in front and active speakers on the preamp output on the back. it also has a convenient switch in front to select headphone or preamp output, instead of the usual way of disconnecting the headphone to have it automatically select preamp.

 

The downside to these AudioGDs is that nearly all of them use only digital inputs when they have a DAC section. Most other headphone amps don't have more than one input, and those that do tend to have just two. The ones that are made more like traditional audio set-ups are Bursons, where even the Conductor DAC-HPamp has two analogue inputs, but the thing is they cost a lot of dough and are near or well over the price of the DACMini, which has an advantage in size as it's more compact.

 

 

[headfidelity]

Thanks for the suggestions, ProtegeManiac. I'm not familiar with the AudioGD products but will definitely do more research on them. Unfortunately I am not able to try these locally first via a reseller. Not sure if I want to use the coaxial output on the DX90 and just use it as a transport though, as I love its sound. I am perfectly okay with using the optical output from the CDP, and the USB input would definitely be a plus.
 
I was considering the Bursons too actually, looking at the Soloist specifically which seems a very good match for me with its 3 RCA inputs, headphone out and RCA preamp out - only thing is that it is quite costly for me .
 
Let me check out the AudioGD stuff, thanks!

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Thanks for the suggestions, ProtegeManiac. I'm not familiar with the AudioGD products but will definitely do more research on them. Unfortunately I am not able to try these locally first via a reseller. Not sure if I want to use the coaxial output on the DX90 and just use it as a transport though, as I love its sound. I am perfectly okay with using the optical output from the CDP, and the USB input would definitely be a plus.

 
The whole point in how they keep the prices down (apart from the basic chassis with those all too exposed screws) is that they don't have dealer networks that in turn will also need to take profit while spending a large overhead on physical shop locations. Unlike Schiit for those in N.America though that would mean that the cost is potentially shouldered by shared with the customers when they have to ship it back.

 

[aqsw]

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