[zlayde]

I'm shopping for a dac/amp (either stack or 1 unit) and my Lord there are so many options it kind of leaves you spinning.

So....

what's the best for $500 or under?
what's the best for $1000 or under?

My gear: Hifiman Arya / Meze Liric / some higher-end IEMs

Thanks!

 

[kumar402]

I would look Into Ifi DAC amp (lot of option and non are bad) or Schiit Stack (Lyr with Modi Multibit) or Gashelli JNOG 2 with AKM and Eirish 2

Enjoy this discovery phase. It's fun.

I guess for $1000 or 1200 I would take Ifi Diablo as DAC-AMP or Lyr 3 with BF2 or JNOG2 with AKM chip

 

[geek707]

Schiit Lyr and a Cambridge DACMagic 200 sounds good to me.

 

[TrumpOrMonkey]

Modius + Jotunheim 2 is what I'd go for.

 

[Terco]

Fiio K9 Pro it's great if you are looking for all in one solution.

 

[Thomasr]

Unlike many others on this forum, I haven't owned & compared dozens of dac/amp combos. I started with the Aiyima T10 tube dac+amp, but found that it had a high noise floor on headphone-out, while line-out is perfectly fine and dead silent.

So I added the SMSL HO200 dedicated headphone amp. Then I decided I wanted a balanced source so I added the SMSL DO200 mk2 DAC.

That's my chain now: DO200mk2 + HO200, and I have balanced cables for all my headphones. Really happy with everything so far.

 

[dunring]

Best value is Topping d10b and Sabaj A20h combo. The Topping A90 and E50 is the best combo I've heard on the Arya with balanced cables to keep out of high gain mode. You need 2 watts and a balanced DAC to get the most out of the Arya. I didn't like the discreet a90 just because of the tack LED display looks like a highway road sign...Sounded the same and a little more power which you only need if equalizing the HE6SE.

 

[George Hincapie]

RME ADI2. Done.

 

[zlayde]

GRRRR....you destroyed my budget.

 

[jbarrentine]

At 500 I love my JDS Element 3.

 

[KaiFi]

I never hear much about the iFi Neo iDSD, but I've owned other iFi products and had nothing but good experiences with them. Seems like it could be a worthy competitor to the Fiio K9 in the "all-in-one" space. I believe it was also recently updated (internally).

 

[kjason427]

For under $1000, Schiit Audio probably offers the best value for money from my experience.

 

[DukeEllington]

Schiit Lyr and a Cambridge DACMagic 200 sounds good to me.

May I ask what the Lyr (I assume Lyr+) is adding to the DAC Magic other than tubiness? Doesn't the DACMagic have a decent pre/tube amp on board?

 

[dstea]

Jotunheim 2 with maybe external DAC? Or internal?

 

[AnamCeoil]

My first real significant step into this hobby was the Sundara with IFI Zen Dac and Zen Can stack; was a great intro to the hobby, and I still use the Zen stack as my office system to great effect. Also have the Mojo 2 which is a fantastic piece of gear, but I typically use as Dac-only, rather than Dac-Amp- though many others tout its chops in that config as well.