bcowen
Headphoneus Supremus
Going to-and-from with speakers and headphones is a different experiences extirely, musically, speakers is hard to beat! If you have the right room and environment, speakers will always sound 'better'! As for headphones, source/amp is crucial to getting the most out of your headphones! Synergy is still key here too! Vali 2 is a great little 150 dollar tube hybrid amp but ymmv with your gear that you are using. The K701 maybe do better with a solid state amp and the Meze 99 can be happy at home running off a phone/dap, it probably wouldn't do much other than to drive it with the Vali 2!
The debate between onboard audio compared to external DAC has been done to death, but Vali 2 is just an 'amp', it will only amplify the signal. How good/decent is that signal is up to the user to decide! A Schiit Modi is 99 dollars, can't hurt to experiment??
All the best!
Volly!!!! Been a while. Great to see you here again! How are things?