Magni 2 / Modi 2 Uber was pretty darn good for the price. It is on the warm sounding side, especially if you get the Magni 2 Uber instead of the Magni 2 standard.
I think @thegunner100 wrote a review on DC-1 vs. Gungnir. The Emotiva was received favorably. I have not heard the DC-1 myself, but I trust gunner. The DC-1 has the AD1955 which I feel is a good sounding chip. Also uses good opamps LM4562 and has a good sized transformer. Based on parts, it's a good value.
I don't like any of the PCM179x DACs. The sound is not offensive, but rather slow and dead. Something happened with BB/TI. Since PCM63, everything DAC chip they make seems to get progressively crappier sounding. Lots of people like the ifi Micro iDSD. I only have the ifi Nano iDSD in my possession, and it is one of the biggest turds I've ever heard. The Micro being more expensive could be better sounding though. But I think this is unlikely if it's powered from USB. I've never liked any USB or small battery powered DAC. The iFi Micro seems to have poorer value than the rest when cost of parts are taken into consideration.
Mousai I have not heard, but my friend LFF liked it. Wolfson chips and OPA627 opamps. In theory shouldn't be bad sounding. Great price on Massdrop recently.
If you live in the USA, Schiit and Emotiva might have service advantages, but it probably doesn't matter because you will get something different within a year.
Personally, I would get the DC-1 from Amazon and try it out.
Thanks for the input Purrin
I concur about trying out the Emotiva- I was planning on auditioning at least it and the ifi- which I love the feature set of, but sonically I have read more and more concerning things about it as time has gone on (at least from the perspective of working with it for any kind of sound design/music production). I would love to hear the mousai, but I don't want to deal with returning it to china- so I would have to find one near me to listen to. Also, the feature set is a bit limited for my tastes/desires, so I will probably only really consider it if the DC-1 and I don't get along for whatever reason.
As far as the Schiit is concerend, I might just scoop the pair up to audition against the DC-1, especially given that this would actually give me four different configurations to try out. I definitely enjoy a warm sound as long as it is not bloated, but I would prefer to have speed and transient accuracy for production purposes.
Cool to hear that you're friends with LFF. I'd love your opinion on his Paradox headphones, as I have all but decided that I'm going to buy a pair to use as production/studio workhorses. I'm actually pretty limited for options as I want closed, accurate (neuteral), production-oriented cans, but they have to be planar magnetic- I have yet to hear a pair of dynamic headphones that I don't find at least a little bit fatiguing (some are ok for listening to music, but for the dynamics involved in production it doesn't work out), much less enjoy as much as planars. Perhaps I'm particularly sensitive to IMD? I'm not sure, but the upshot of it all is that while I might tolerate the limitations of open planars, I'm not going to spend hundreds on a pair of dynamic headphones at the moment.
As far as I'm aware, this essentially limits my options to a T50RP mod, HE-400i/500/560s, PM-3s and EL-8's, (I probably shouldn't budget more than around $7-800). Having heard the LCD-2 and LCD-3, I presume I would really enjoy the EL-8s but I'm not sure if the Audeze house sound is what I want for studio/sound design work. Also, from what I've heard so far it seems that the PM-3s aren't quite at the same sound quality level as some of the other options. I don't really want to go for the HE series as they are open, so that leaves the Paradox and the Alpha dogs/primes as front runners alongside the EL-8. I have heard a pair of DIY-modified T50s that I absolutely loved, but they weren't really accurate. I also listened to a pair of Alpha Dogs at a meet and while the frequency response sounded pretty linear, the highs seemed a bit off somehow (my pet peeve, even with speakers, is highs that either sound quite unrealistic or irritate my ears) and while they sounded 3d, the sense of space seemed somehow unnatural (especially going back to back with HD800s- which I did)
All that being said, based on my experiences and what I have read thus far I expect to probably love the Paradox (I think its the time domain coherence of the "RP" technology in the T50rp drivers that does it for me), and I am immensely curious as to what the EL-8 will sound like. If you have any thoughts about all this, I'd love your input
Thanks again,
MPZ