[Zoltan99]

I have been convinced that a Dac/AMP is the proper move for me to make.  So far I have only considered the Audio-GD Fun Basic and Sparrow Basic USB as well as the Zero.   Are there any other Dac/Amp combos that compete with these in terms of value for the money?  I mainly listen to rock/metal and watch tv/movies.


Also what type of music does the Zero shine at? as I hear it is tube sounding.

 

[TheWuss]

tell us...  what kind of cans do you plan on using with the dac/amp?
 
here are some other budget dac/amps that are pretty interesting:
 
maverick audio tubemagic --  $199
hifiman ef2a -- $169
audinst hud-mx1  -- $179
 

 

[Zoltan99]

Audio-Technica ATH-A700.

 

[Zoltan99]

I have read that the Audinist hud-mx1 is not as good as the Audio-GD Fun/Sparrpw.  But how does the maverick audio tubemagic compare to the Fun/Sparrow from Audio-GD.

 

[audiofil]

The differences between the two are rather small and more visible when using particularly hard to drive headphones.
This is generated by the amp sections, where the FUN has an edge. The DAC sections are pretty much a tie.
 
For easy to drive cans these differences are hardly visible and given the big price difference there's very little in favor of the FUN.
 
I don't know the Maverick or Zero, except from reviews here. I don't think they can match the performance of either Fun or Audinst, but this is just a "guess-timate" (I can be wrong).