Upgrade time! Recommendations for DAC or amp?

[MD1032]

Well, it's the holiday season and my mom has finally asked what will probably be a regretful decision - what do you want for Christmas?

Given that my parents bought me a $550 camera last year, I'm in no mood to make them spend that amount of money this year, but it is still a good indication that I have a flexible budget with which to upgrade my system, which until now, has been very low-budget.

I am currently using an Echo Indigo source from my laptop, which cost $50 if I remember correctly, and a small portable amp a friend made for me a while back which he customized and vaguely based on the Meta42 design. Considering the price I paid for it ($60), it sounds very, very good, but I've had it for at least 5 or so years now and I am thinking it might be time to take it up a notch. They are feeding my Grado HF-1's, which I personally use with flat pads (this adjusts them to more of the RS-1 with flat pads timbre... I think the bowls are too bright!).

I'm a huge Grado fan, and a huge fan of classic rock (Led Zeppelin, The Who, Kansas to name a few), blues (big fan of good electric guitar... think SRV, Buddy Guy, etc), pipe organ music, and a variety of other things. I value an exciting performance with plenty of bass, even if the soundstage may not be outside my room.

I would love to get your recommendations on either a dedicated DAC for my computer, to eliminate the Echo Indigo, or an amp, to replace my portable amp.

So far I've seen some interesting options. The headroom Micro line is definitely on my consideration list. I heard the home-based Micro Amp at the first national meet and it blew me away, and I heard the Micro DAC at a Philly meet. Both impressed me with a more neutral, wide-open performance, and tons more bass than I'm used to, although the bass was not quite as tight as my current amp.

I've also been looking at some other amps. The Meier amps seem to be well regarded as well, think Move and Arietta in my price range, but I don't know how they would synergize with my Grados.

And as always, The Gilmore Lite is on the list due to its supposed synergistic nature with Grados, but judging by the reviews, it might not be for me, because I make it no secret that I love plenty of tight, deep bass with lots of impact.

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated, and if you think I should dedicate myself to either upgrading to a DAC or an amp, either way, let me know.

 

[alleyezon_d]

Why not look into DAC/Headamp combos and kill 2 birds with 1 stone?

If its just for headphone amping there are plenty of choices. Good luck and have fun in your search!

 

[texashorn91]

THE PREDATOR

 

[manaox2]

$550 for a portable amp you say? What about the craziness that is the LISA III?

http://www.triadaudio.net/Products.html

Honestly though, that would cost a lot after batteries, mini to RCA cable, etc.

The predator is a very good suggestion at that price range and its the DAC/amp combo. You can still sell that echo indigo on ebay or here for at least $80.

 

[compuryan]

If its not a portable setup, I wouldn't get a portable amp. If you get a dac/amp combo, you won't be able to upgrade JUST your amp or JUST your dac, you'll have to wait until you can shell out enough money to upgrade both.

So there are a ton of options out there. It sounds like, from the cans you have and the music you listen to, you would go for a solid state amp rather than a tuber. But just get what you like, I don't want to sway you into something that won't sound good to your ears. You will probably want to spend more on the dac than the amp though.

 

[alleyezon_d]

I'm sure there are DAC/amp combo's (maybe not portable) that have non-amped outputs as well.

 

[MD1032]

Quote:

Originally Posted by compuryan /img/forum/go_quote.gif If its not a portable setup, I wouldn't get a portable amp. If you get a dac/amp combo, you won't be able to upgrade JUST your amp or JUST your dac, you'll have to wait until you can shell out enough money to upgrade both. So there are a ton of options out there. It sounds like, from the cans you have and the music you listen to, you would go for a solid state amp rather than a tuber. But just get what you like, I don't want to sway you into something that won't sound good to your ears. You will probably want to spend more on the dac than the amp though.

My thoughts exactly. It will not be a portable setup, and I am looking at this point to concentrate on DAC or Amp individually. I would rather spend more for a good, dedicated amp or DAC now than buy a combo and have to upgrade the whole deal later. I'm not sure which to get, though, honestly.

I am not partial to solid state or tubes, honestly. The best amps I've ever heard (to my ears) were the RSA Raptor and the B52, and those were both tube amps. Absolutely amazing sound out of those.

 

[slwiser]

Consider the Lavry DA10 DAC. It has a reasonable headphone amp built-in that can do you for quite a while till you deside on which amp to get. Other DACs in the catagory are the Benchmark DAC1, miniDac from Apogee and some others.

 

[kg21]

OP does that mean that if you spend lets say somewhere a little under 550 on a DAC or Amp you will spend close to an equal amount on the other later? If you are going to stay with the same setup for a long time I recommend splitting the budget on both. They don't have to be a combo but there are a lot of decent bang for the buck dacs say you get one used 100-200 range, and then you can spend the rest on the amp and it will sound way better than if you spent all your money on a dac and fed it through that portable amp or if you spent all your money on an amp but it was fed by the echo indigo. Micro dac and micro amp is a solid combo btw, I would definitely go with that if you can't decide but if it was me personally I would get a dac lite-ah, zhaolu, or beresford and buy a tube amp probably. Melos and Mapletree amps are said to be well matched to the grados.

 

[facelvega]

Well, if you want to go just dac or amp, you've got to be more specific about the budget, as there are just way too many options well below $550. If you'd like to get both for under $400 and then still have room to upgrade either side later, then you're the perfect candidate for my new thread on the subject.

 

[mrwinick]

I bought an emu 0404 usb (about $150) and a Meier Corda Arietta ($240) to go with my hd600's and I've been very happy. By tomorrow I should have a lunchbox2 to go with my 701's. I can't imagine you'd have any problem selling any of the above when you are ready to try something else. My main advice would be to pick some stuff that you are interested in and just go for it. Hanging around head-fi can make it hard to make a decision because there is so much information and so many opinions.

 

[manaox2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MD1032 /img/forum/go_quote.gif My thoughts exactly. It will not be a portable setup, and I am looking at this point to concentrate on DAC or Amp individually. I would rather spend more for a good, dedicated amp or DAC now than buy a combo and have to upgrade the whole deal later. I'm not sure which to get, though, honestly. I am not partial to solid state or tubes, honestly. The best amps I've ever heard (to my ears) were the RSA Raptor and the B52, and those were both tube amps. Absolutely amazing sound out of those.

Oh I thought you wanted to carry it with your laptop.

Quote:

Originally Posted by facelvega /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, if you want to go just dac or amp, you've got to be more specific about the budget, as there are just way too many options well below $550. If you'd like to get both for under $400 and then still have room to upgrade either side later, then you're the perfect candidate for my new thread on the subject.

haha, I was going to recommend your thread, but thought he wanted portability.

Its a good one.

 

[manaox2]

sorry, double post.

 

[MD1032]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kg21 /img/forum/go_quote.gif OP does that mean that if you spend lets say somewhere a little under 550 on a DAC or Amp you will spend close to an equal amount on the other later?

Precisely. I would rather spend $500 on a DAC or amp now and then get another $500 DAC or amp (the other) down the road. Both of my components right now are "decent" by my standards - they perform deceptively well for the price, so it's not like upgrading only one component will cause the other to severely bottleneck its performance.

And yes, I might just go with the Micro if I run out of ideas, but this community sees hundreds of components and I'm convinced there's something else out there that's better for me. While headroom may make excellent stuff, their perspective comes from the Sennheiser HD650 side of things, while I obviously use a headphone that couldn't be any different.

facelvega, your thread is excellent, but honestly, I want to use this opportunity to truly push past that lower-budget combo upgrade option and simply plunk down some serious cash for a more serious component that will stay with me for a long time. Since the overwhelming majority seem to be recommending DACs and I'm all too eager to get back the small amount of sound quality I lost when I went from my EMU 0404 to the Echo Indigo and then some, I am guessing that a DAC option is the best upgrade at this point.

I suppose then the hypothetical final question would be: What are the best DAC options for under $500 given my headphones and preferences?

 

[facelvega]

Ah, yes, now I see what you're looking for. A sensible path to choose so far in advance. Someone (edit, it was alleyezon_d, who's joined us here too, down below) just pointed out on the thread I was mentioning that MSB is having a ridiculous %50 off sale now, which means that the Link Dac III is only $249, and the Full Nelson upgrade version is a cozy $498. Never heard one myself, but judging from the reviews I've read, either of these should be a spanking good deal if hifi components are what you're after. You'll have to warn your folks to shop now, though, as the sale is only on "while supplies last."