BlueFireZX
New Head-Fier
Hey guys,
I'm basically looking for an amp and DAC for my DT 990 Pros. I've been researching for a good month now, but I've been unable to draw a conclusion on what is the "best" option in the budget of ~$250 USD, so I decided to finally post here. From the information I gathered, there seems to be a lots of pros and cons to each stack, which I'll label below (not technical).
Schiit:
Schiit as a company apparently has pretty bad QC (misaligned boards, knobs) and OK customer support. Previous models including the Modi 2 have quite a few widespread issues, however, a decently sized portion of people have had zero problems and strongly recommend. The Magni 3 on the other hand, looks like it has moved on from Schiit's not-so-great past and flaunts is power and features without complaints.
JDS O2 + OL DAC
A solid choice with great customer support. It's not a powerful, but it will drive the DT 990 Pros and most headphones fine. The the only issue that popped up a couple times in a few situations was clipping. The price is pretty high when configured as "desktop" in JDS when you take in factor its age.
Topping A30 + D30
No real complaints for the price, D30 is supposed to be really good. The one thing that turned a few people down is its higher output impedance in the A30. It's also currently on Massdrop.
Due to what i found on the Schiit stack, i'm looking at a Magni 3 and maybe a Dragonfly Black, or even a D30 rather than the Modi 2 Uber, but i'm not completely removing it as an option. I'm not looking for a future proof combination, rather one that will work for only what a have now and nothing much more. The reason is If I'm upgrading, it will only be to something top of the line, where a higher end amp + DAC would be appropriate.
So - people who have experience or knowledge on these components, what would you recommend? Are there any other options I missed? (The Monoprice Cavalli Spark looks interesting but it's coming out in two months)
I'm basically looking for an amp and DAC for my DT 990 Pros. I've been researching for a good month now, but I've been unable to draw a conclusion on what is the "best" option in the budget of ~$250 USD, so I decided to finally post here. From the information I gathered, there seems to be a lots of pros and cons to each stack, which I'll label below (not technical).
Schiit:
Schiit as a company apparently has pretty bad QC (misaligned boards, knobs) and OK customer support. Previous models including the Modi 2 have quite a few widespread issues, however, a decently sized portion of people have had zero problems and strongly recommend. The Magni 3 on the other hand, looks like it has moved on from Schiit's not-so-great past and flaunts is power and features without complaints.
JDS O2 + OL DAC
A solid choice with great customer support. It's not a powerful, but it will drive the DT 990 Pros and most headphones fine. The the only issue that popped up a couple times in a few situations was clipping. The price is pretty high when configured as "desktop" in JDS when you take in factor its age.
Topping A30 + D30
No real complaints for the price, D30 is supposed to be really good. The one thing that turned a few people down is its higher output impedance in the A30. It's also currently on Massdrop.
Due to what i found on the Schiit stack, i'm looking at a Magni 3 and maybe a Dragonfly Black, or even a D30 rather than the Modi 2 Uber, but i'm not completely removing it as an option. I'm not looking for a future proof combination, rather one that will work for only what a have now and nothing much more. The reason is If I'm upgrading, it will only be to something top of the line, where a higher end amp + DAC would be appropriate.
So - people who have experience or knowledge on these components, what would you recommend? Are there any other options I missed? (The Monoprice Cavalli Spark looks interesting but it's coming out in two months)
