[Fly2High]

I have up to $800 US to spend on a DAC and amp for a pair of Sundara headphones. What do you recommend or have experienced? Feel free to also report what you felt did not work.

 

[Lamby90]

I have the Sundara and I power them with (way under your budget) a Topping E30/L30 stack (be careful of the serial number, must be 2012+) and I think is a good match. I have no experience with any other dac/amp sorry

 

[529128]

Get either the Topping stack as @Lamby90 suggests or the Schiit Magni/Modi or JDS Labs Atom stack and you're all set for the foreseeable future. Do you need portability? Then go for Chord Mojo.
There's no need to spend $800.

 

[Fly2High]

I do want some future-proofing. Also I will want a more bass centric headphone for rock music in the finest future.

what does the extra money over those suggestions get me anything? I always hear you cannot have too much power.

was thinking possibly on the Singxer amp but that eats almost $600 of the budget.

is it better to focus money on the DAC or the amp once you have headphones?

 

[529128]

I do want some future-proofing.

These options are future proof.

I always hear you cannot have too much power.

You will have plenty of power.

what does the extra money over those suggestions get me anything?

You will have a very hard time distinguishing between amps let alone DACs. The mentioned DACs are already overkill. And the amps are clean and powerful. That's all you need.

 

[mjavate]

If I had a $800 budget for a dac/amp. I'd opt for the ifi Diablo. It has a lot of power. Balanced out and it's portable. Especially if you like to keep it simple.

 

[rlanger]

If I had a $800 budget for a dac/amp. I'd opt for the ifi Diablo. It has a lot of power. Balanced out and it's portable. Especially if you like to keep it simple.

Would really love to hear this with my Sundara. I'll have to wait until this damn pandemic lets up a bit more and I can make the trip to Tokyo though. And unfortunately, here in Japan it's almost US$900 on the second hand market.

 

[dunring]

I have the Sundara for a daily driver, and tried many combos (I get to test everything that comes through for a week or two). The best combo I've heard is the Sound Blasterx AE-5 line out to the JDS Atom amp. It had more front to back sound stage, and mini-thumps of sub bass since it has a warmish profile. The best detail is the Atom amp and Atom dac which I've got now. The Topping D30 sounded like it was limiting bass and treble was pushed forward. Adele didn't sound as powerful, that range was moved higher, but singers like Sia and Ellie Ghoulding sounded like they always do. For amps the Magni Heresy was not a great treble experience, it matched really well with the Sennheiser Jubilee 58x though. I think the Heresy is best with warmer headphones.

I'm probably going back to keep the Atom amp and get another AE-5, in direct mode it just fit so well with the Sundara and when gaming I could hear farther away things in front and behind me. It's a big deal because on the Sundara the front back sound stage was about halfway between the 400i and the Amiron Home when I had them in the same room for comparison. I learned not to go too neutral or bright or the treble on the Sundara isn't as smooth. The Blasterx G6 wasn't as good, I know the dac measures great, but at 79% volume to prevent distortion it was too much of a reduction to avoid going into high gain on the Atom amp, also not as warm or the same sound stage (different chipset).
If it's music only, the Atom has plenty of power in low gain for the Sundara, with a dead silent noise floor. The Atom dac is really transparent, to the point you can notice the treble bump at 8.5khz, but the warmer dac in the AE-5 I never noticed. Just what I've tried (avid gamer but spend just as much time listening to music while working).

 

[iFi audio]

If I had a $800 budget for a dac/amp. I'd opt for the ifi Diablo. It has a lot of power. Balanced out and it's portable. Especially if you like to keep it simple.

Yes, micro iDSD Diablo has enough juice to drive pretty much everything out there effortlessly, is very simple to use and transportable on top of that.