[urakur]

Greetings all.
 
I am new to this wonderful world of personal sound pleasure. Previously my mobile sound needs have been meet successfully with a pair of in-ear B&W C5 as the source was mainly iPhone and Mac Airbook during plane travel.
 
Anyways I decided to step up to a decent pair of over ear units and to cut a very long story short I needed up purchasing a pair of AKG 551.
 
After a short period of time I have come to the realisation I am in need of a portable amplifier/DAC unit to enhance/correct the sound from my source to provide a far more pleasurable experience with the 551's. 
So in short I am seeking some direction on this forum to a portable and ease of use solution at a cost effective price.
 
Cheers Stephen

 

[jodgey4]

Howdy! And welcome to the forum! What's your budget and necessary features? The K551 is a pretty neutral/borderline analytical closed headphone, The Massdrop K553 is more warm. They are all on the easy side to drive.
 
Cam you do open headphones?

 

[urakur]

Thanks for the response.
 
I already have the 551's in my stable and have found that they are picking up some of the deficiencies of  my source material.
 
I reside in Australia so there are some limitations to my supply chain. I have been looking in the sub AUD$200 range to keep it all real and inline with the cost of the headphones.
 
I have been looking but am unsure of what combination of amplifier or DAC I should head towards.
 
I personally like a sound that leans towards neutral but must have the power to provide a nice sound stage. My main gripe at present is not neccisarrily that of the 551's but the presence of background noise/hiss with some recordings that are acceptable on my HI FI system.
 
Edit: I should add that most of the source material is ALAC.

 

[cel4145]

A dac/amp is not going to solve your problem. If anything, it may aggravate it by improving detail resolution and thus making you notice even more the difference between good recordings and bad recordings. You should look instead for headphones that are more forgiving of bad recordings, although I don't think they are going to eliminate the ability to hear background hiss in recordings.