I've got the CA Andromedas (12 ohm impedance, 115 dB/mW sensitivity) and HiFiMAN Sundaras (47 ohm true impedance, 97 mW required to reach 110 dB) and am looking for a portable setup that I can strap to my phone with rubber bands (as I don't want to be tethered to any one source) and can drive both with low noise and no clipping. Being battery-powered and having a slim form factor would be strongly preferred. My budget is a soft $200 for used but preferably lower than that.
Ideally, I would like a low-noise-floor (minimum -105 dB, preferably -110 dB) portable DAC/amp with ~1 ohm output impedance that can output at least 300 mW at 32 ohms, although at least 400 mW would be preferred. I would prefer suggestions, if possible, from people who have used the DAC/amp with sensitive IEMs and can attest to them being low-hiss, since no manufacturer seems to want to publish noise floors and reviews seem to be all over the place.
Alternatively, something cheaper (as the iFi EarBuddy and an impedance adapter would cost $30 total) with a higher noise floor (max -100 dB) and/or higher output impedance could also do, as long as it has lots of power, a flat frequency response, and no audible distortion. It should have better specs/measure better than the $10 iPhone dongle I'm using.
I am considering the iFi iDSD Nano Black Label as a baseline, but it is expensive, blocky, and can only do 283 mW at 32 ohms, and the iBasso Bushmaster D14 can do 400 mW at 32 ohms but is also bulky and expensive, so I am looking for an option that would better suit my needs.
As an alternative, I could go with a portable DAC and amp stack. My baseline for an amp is the FiiO A5 (~$100 used), which looks like a smaller, more powerful Objective2, but I would like recommendations for anything that would be a better fit for me.
For the DAC portion, I either want something cheap with a line-out, preferably one with a separate charging port or the ability to filter out PC USB noise, or a DAC/amp with a sufficiently low noise floor (~-110 dB preferred) that I can skip using the amp altogether with the Andromedas.
My baseline is the SMSL iDEA, which is a cheap DAC/amp that has a -110 dB noise floor and appears to be resistant to PC noise, but it draws a lot of current and may have an output impedance too low to be ideal for the Andromedas. The FiiO Q1 Mk II is also looking nice, but I've read reports that it picks up PC noise. I would like suggestions for DAC choices that are superior to both of these for my use case.
Ideally, I would like a low-noise-floor (minimum -105 dB, preferably -110 dB) portable DAC/amp with ~1 ohm output impedance that can output at least 300 mW at 32 ohms, although at least 400 mW would be preferred. I would prefer suggestions, if possible, from people who have used the DAC/amp with sensitive IEMs and can attest to them being low-hiss, since no manufacturer seems to want to publish noise floors and reviews seem to be all over the place.
Alternatively, something cheaper (as the iFi EarBuddy and an impedance adapter would cost $30 total) with a higher noise floor (max -100 dB) and/or higher output impedance could also do, as long as it has lots of power, a flat frequency response, and no audible distortion. It should have better specs/measure better than the $10 iPhone dongle I'm using.
I am considering the iFi iDSD Nano Black Label as a baseline, but it is expensive, blocky, and can only do 283 mW at 32 ohms, and the iBasso Bushmaster D14 can do 400 mW at 32 ohms but is also bulky and expensive, so I am looking for an option that would better suit my needs.
As an alternative, I could go with a portable DAC and amp stack. My baseline for an amp is the FiiO A5 (~$100 used), which looks like a smaller, more powerful Objective2, but I would like recommendations for anything that would be a better fit for me.
For the DAC portion, I either want something cheap with a line-out, preferably one with a separate charging port or the ability to filter out PC USB noise, or a DAC/amp with a sufficiently low noise floor (~-110 dB preferred) that I can skip using the amp altogether with the Andromedas.
My baseline is the SMSL iDEA, which is a cheap DAC/amp that has a -110 dB noise floor and appears to be resistant to PC noise, but it draws a lot of current and may have an output impedance too low to be ideal for the Andromedas. The FiiO Q1 Mk II is also looking nice, but I've read reports that it picks up PC noise. I would like suggestions for DAC choices that are superior to both of these for my use case.
