[marsupial]

Interestingly enough, when I was getting into home audio for the first time, I posted here on headfi looking for advice : )  .  I figured the cheapest and most effective way to enter into this hobby would be a decent headphones setup, however one thing led to another, and my original plan for a ~$3000 headphones setup eventually resulted in a.... considerably more expensive loudspeaker setup that I love!
 
Having recently been awarded a few thousand cash for a scholarship, I figured I'd finally get around to spending some of the money to buy a set of headphones.  Originally I was pretty much sold on the Audeze LCD-3, but when I really thought about it, it felt like too much of an investment for what I actually wanted the headphones for.  For serious listening sessions, I would certainly want to use my loudspeaker setup, with the headphones mainly being for listening to various forms of electronic music while studying, gaming, or working on the computer.  
 
So enter the Denon AH-D7100!  The price on sale was beyond right, the reviews said they were more FUN than ANALYTICAL, and they looked sweet.  I was sold.
 
Unfortunately this brings me to where I am now.  While these things sound sweet out of the headphones jack of my Mytek Stereo 192 in my main listening room, primarily I listen to these using the headphones out of my computer's motherboard, which uses the Realtek ALC892 chipset.  Basically it kind of blows and is underwhelming.  It gets loud, but that's basically it.
 
And so I respectfully turn to headfi for advice on a headphones amp / dac combo unit that pairs nicely with these!  I'm saving for a McIntosh tube amplifier for my main system, so I'm not trying to spend a TON of money.  Preferably around 5-600$.  I would have liked a tube headphones amp, but my initial research has given me the impression that they are best for high-impedance headphones, whereas the Denons are an easy-peasy 35ohms. 
 
PLEASE HELP ME!

 

[PurpleAngel]

Your Denon 7100 headphones are only 25-Ohm, very easy to drive.
Really just need to stick to amplifiers (solid state) with a very low output impedance.
Some hybrid (solid state/tube) should also work
 
FiiO E10K ($76) or Schiit Fulla ($79), both are USB-DAC-amps.
 
Asus Xonar DX sound card ($65-$85) and a FiiO E11K headphone amplifier ($60).

 

[marsupial]

thanks for the reply! 
 
I just have a couple of followup questions..
 
1) Taking calculus-based physics has been the extent of my education into circuits and electronics.  I understand what terms like resistance, voltage, current, and power mean, but certainly not enough to where I can look at specifications on a pair of headphones and on a certain amplifier and make a determination that it would be a good pairing.  I realize the 7100s have a low resistance, but also the specifications sheet lists the maximum input power at 1.8W, which seems quite high!  I checked the fiio e10 output power and it gives 0.15W at 32ohms.  I'm wondering if this and similar amps would be strong enough to drive the d7100s more commandingly than , say, an iphone or computer integrated soundcard.
 
2) Does headfi take the opinion that da conversion technology has progressed to the point that differences among the various DAC chips available are transparent and negligible?  For instance, my main system uses the ESS 9018 sabre da converter chip.  Do you think using one of the "lesser" chips found in the more reasonably priced dac/headamp combo units would have a noticeable impact?
 
Thank you!!

 

[PurpleAngel]

  thanks for the reply! 
I just have a couple of followup questions..
1) Taking calculus-based physics has been the extent of my education into circuits and electronics.  I understand what terms like resistance, voltage, current, and power mean, but certainly not enough to where I can look at specifications on a pair of headphones and on a certain amplifier and make a determination that it would be a good pairing.  I realize the 7100s have a low resistance, but also the specifications sheet lists the maximum input power at 1.8W, which seems quite high!  I checked the FiiO E10 output power and it gives 0.15W at 32ohms.  I'm wondering if this and similar amps would be strong enough to drive the d7100s more commandingly than , say, an iPhone or computer integrated sound card.
2) Does headfi take the opinion that da conversion technology has progressed to the point that differences among the various DAC chips available are transparent and negligible?  For instance, my main system uses the ESS 9018 sabre da converter chip.  Do you think using one of the "lesser" chips found in the more reasonably priced dac/headamp combo units would have a noticeable impact?
Thank you!!

 
For better damping control, it's preferred to have the headphone to have 8 to 10 times the impedance (Ohms) of whatever source (amplifier) they are plugged into.
So when talking about impedance and damping, it more about how the power is delivered, not how much power is being delivered.
It's really easy and cheap to send power
My $27 FiiO E6 headphone amplifier (a tiny battery powered portable) can easily drive the 25-Ohm Denon AH-D7100.
So getting power to the AH-D7100 is not really an issue, at least to me.
A FiiO E10K can decently drive 250-Ohm headphones, so not an issue with it having enough power to drive the AH-D7100
 
Guess you could say "Head-Fi opinion" is whatever a lot of members agree to.
The DAC chip itself is just one part of many that contribute to audio quality.