[DoKwan]

First I want to thank the Head-Fi community for the crash course they have given me by browsing the various guides and general chatter.

Now for some background and a plea for advice..

I am one of the legion of people who ripped their CD collection lossy due to the convenience of digital and the expense (at the time) of storage media. After recently listening to my music instead of filling my ears with background noise, I dug out the piles of boxes and began reripping lossless. (I knew this day would come so I thankfully kept the CDs)

Eventually I will be getting decent separates (DAC, Amp, Headphones), but can't afford to make the jump in one fell swoop. So...

My first acquisition will probably be headphones. I have some Senn eh-150's that can stay stuck in my ipod. Of course the better choices only show their true colors with some amplification.

I could run optical from my Mac to my slightly dated Yamaha DSP-A1. (either directly or via Airport) Use the DSP-A1 DAC and its headphone jack to push whatever new headphones I get. (as well as being able to use my old Sonus Fabers if I want to share sound)

Does anyone know anything about the DSP-A1's DAC ability?
I can't seem to find any information about it.

Would its headphone jack be sufficient temporarily to push a set of decent mid-level cans?

I would assume this would be a much better solution than jacking straight into my hard to reach IMac computer jack.

Would I be better served picking up some reasonable headphones (ie SR-60) and waiting until I have a better functioning Head Amp setup before upgrading?

I assume the upgrade path should be headphones, then DAC, and then Headphone Amp.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

[Jubei]

No really a response to your question ... but I'm pretty much in the same situation where I ripped lossy years ago due to storage costs, convenience and ignorance.

I kept all my CDs and am planning a re-rip into FLAC sometime this year as hard disks are cheap now and have the intention to output from PC to AV amp (Pioneer VSX-D2011) and eventually add a nice soundcard like Asus Xonar Essence STX.