[garcon]

The primary audio source will be my 2010 iMac, and occasionally I would listen to songs on my iPod Classic, iPod nano & iPhonee 4 too. I might also buy & try some other portable sources like Sansa Fuze+ or some Cowon playes.

I understand that I can bypass iMac's internal soundcard and use a DAC instead. 4 USB ports on iMac are hardly sufficient but I guess I still can assign one for DAC.

Should I buy a DAC with an inbuilt headphone amp? or buy them separately? and why?

I'm interested in these products, but not sure how well they can drive those headphones I mentioned, especially the 600ohm DT880:

-Little Dot DAC_II
-Little Dot MK IV
-Yulong D100
-Fubar III MK II
-Zero DAC
-NuForce uDac2

If you think something else is very good priced below US$400, feel free to tell me about it. Ohh by the way the product has to fulfill some criteria:

-Must have USB input (DAC)
-Must have analog input, be it RCA or 1/8 jack (So that I can use my iPod via line-out)
-Must have analog output, RCA or 1/8 (So that preamp signal can go to my Logitech Z-2300 speakers)

That's pretty much what I think will get me started! Your feedback is very much appreciated!

Thank you!

 

[garcon]

Forgot to mention about my music collection. I have a lot of Electronic (Trance, Techno, House ...) but I'm starting to collect more genres now. For examples classical, smooth jazz, bossa nova, vocal, acoustic, a bit of pop, easy-listening ...... 95% of them are MP3 and more than 50% are 320kbps CBR. Some have mentioned that tube amps are not ideal for electronic music because of slow decay. I tend to listen more to non-electronic nowadays but I still listen to dance music once every few days. What type of amp do you think is suitable? Solid state or tube? You might say DT880 isn't suitable for me but I fell in love at first autition and I'm willing to only listen to music that shines with such phones. Credit card ready, can't wait to purchase some gear! Feedback needed, thank you!