[Sophonax]

Hello all,

I'm pretty new to the higher end of the Head-Fi scene. I've had some decent mid-fi headphones before, and I've always run them from my Yamaha RX-497 stereo receiver, which was good enough for my purposes. However, I'm ready to upgrade to some nicer headphones (probably either the Beyer T1s or the Senn HD800s -- the jury is still out on that one

), and I seriously doubt my Yamaha will be able to drive those headphones to their full potential.

So at some point in the not-so-distant future, I'll be looking to get a nice amp/dac combo. Originally I was looking at Headroom's BUDA/UDAC system, but I wanted to see if there were some other options that might be better for me.

Here are my requirements:

--The amp must be solid-state. I don't really have any love for tube electronics...
--The amp/dac combo should be about $3k or less. I'll consider more expensive setups, but my wallet would really appreciate it if you guys could keep the price under control

--Should be a good match for the Beyer T1s and the Senn HD800s (I suspect these present similar amping challenges). A secondary objective would be that it also be a good match for a pair of Denon AH-D7000s (a very different amping challenge), since I'd also like to keep a good pair of closed headphones.

Any recommendations would be much appreciated. Thanks for the help!

***Edit: oops, I forgot...I'm looking to go balanced too!

 

[Zombie_X]

Get a Audio-GD Phoenix and Reference 1 DAC. This combo is said to be king (well that's what scootermafia says..)

I have the Roc and it's awesome amp that can drive my 600Ohm DT880's very good.

 

[Sophonax]

Thanks for the recommendation, I was looking at the Phoenix earlier. Any idea how much the Reference 1 goes for?

Also, does anyone know what the power consumption is like on the Phoenix? I've read somewhere around here that it gets quite hot, so I assume it eats a fair bit of electricity

***Edit: never mind, I found Audio-GD's price list. That's probably about the price point I'm looking for. Also, does anyone know what the difference between the Reference 1 and Reference 7 is? They seem very similar...the only obvious difference I see is the input selector and optical input.

 

[Il Mostro]

There are great deals now on PS Audio Digital Link III's with Level 4 Cullen mods. $1,200.00 or less and it will absolutely *smoke* everything at that price point. Plenty of scratch left over for the amp of your choice and if you wind an extra $400 or so you can grab a nice used SA8001 for SACD playback.

 

[jaycalgary]

Is the Phoenix considered better than the Phonitor?

 

[Sophonax]

Hmm...also an interesting option, thanks for pointing it out. Anyone know how the modded PS Audio compares to the Reference 1 from Audio-GD? They're at a somewhat comparable price level.

 

[DC5Zilla]

B22 / Buffalo combo?

 

[Sophonax]

I've read a bit about the B22, but not the Buffalo...a cursory examination of the Buffalo shows that it might be similar to Headroom's UDAC, since it's based on the ESS Sabre chip (which has some pretty impressive specs).

Anyone know how the Buffalo stacks up against the aforementioned PS Audio or Audio-GD DACs? Or the B22 vs. the Phoenix? I could be wrong, but I suspect there aren't too many people who've had extensive experience listening to at least two of the above...a lot of people probably just pick up one good amp and DAC and don't upgrade for several years, which is exactly what I plan to do