[B-Dawk20]

I am looking to invest in an amp within the next 6 months and I was wondering what should I start off with? I want one that is an Amp/DAC, not overly expensive, but can still power the major flagship headphones. Any type of amps that fit my prerequisites?

 

[AmpCity]

Hiya.... Can you specify what headphones you will potentially be using? Matching yourheadhpones and amp correctly is very important... some amps work well with certain heapdhones while others may not.

I assume you will be using your computer as the source if you are using an DAC/Amp ? Will you only be using a USB or do you require coax and optical inputs as well?

Lastly, what exactly do you mean by overly expensive? If you mean under $300 then there are still plenty of entry options.

Zero Tianyun DAC
Headamp Pico
Ibasso d10
Head direct EF2

^all are good starting points

 

[tintin47]

"powering the major flagship headphones" and "powering the major flagship headphones well" are quite a ways apart. Which headphones do you mean and how much are you actually willing to spend.

If you expect to eventually get into the true flagship phones like the 800 etc you're going to need a good amp to drive them, and probably one that is more expensive than you are thinking.

 

[plonter]

I don't know if it is right or wrong...but you can save yourself a lot of money and time by making a shortcut and get an upscale level amp at the very beggining. I know that part of it it mainly throwing words in the air, and I am one of the best examples of someone that always went step by step (so who am i to talk

), but maybe you can be smarter and go in that shortcut...if you have a little money to throw out ofcourse.

so how much money are you willing to spend?

 

[nyjets28]

the higher end phones will definitely require much higher quality amps. you might be better off buying separate dac and then slowly upgrading your amp as you get new phones (if that's what you want to do) or as plonter suggested just spend more now and get a higher quality amp now.

 

[Stoin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tintin47 /img/forum/go_quote.gif "powering the major flagship headphones" and "powering the major flagship headphones well" are quite a ways apart. Which headphones do you mean and how much are you actually willing to spend. If you expect to eventually get into the true flagship phones like the 800 etc you're going to need a good amp to drive them, and probably one that is more expensive than you are thinking.

Agreed. A good first amp is probably quite a cheap one, and you'll just have to accept that it won't power the more demanding 'phones. If you're seriously thinking of the top-of-the-line cans then either stretch your budget to include a high-end amp, or go for cheaper 'phones and a reasonable amp. There is no point having expensive cans that you can barely power.

There are plenty of DAC/Amp combos out there, but I'm not sure of how suited they are to driving high-end cans. As suggested above why not try a DAC and separate amp?

If you're set on a comined unit then the Audio GD Compass DAC/Amp seems to be well thought of on here so I'd add that to your shortlist, but it does all depend on your budget.

Also what are you used to using for playback? Coming from a speaker based hi-fi I went for decent mid-level 'phones (sr325i) and a cheapish amp (Creek OBH-11). Adding to it as budget allows. If this is your first forray into hi-fi then you'll find loads of great gear at sensible prices and you'll start to see what seem to be crazy prices for things you never knew you needed.

 

[Mr C]

Your really have to define what overly expensive means, for many people around here a not overly expensive amp would cost more or less 500$.

 

[B-Dawk20]

Thanks, and sorry for the late reply, been working on lots of music as of lately and been passing out pretty much right after I'm done lol.

Well, as far as budget goes, when I buy it I will be good with the $400-500 range for myself. My source will be my computers sound blaster audigy which has normal headphone jacks but it was through my understanding I would need a DAC to make it sound better since it is still coming from a PC but if that isn't the case then I'm sorry for wasting your time. I will also seldomly be using my RCA stereo which I don't remember the name of for now but it was some cheap $100 thing I bought like 3 years ago.

The headphones I have are AD700s, Portapros, and PX-100s but I want the amp for the two headphones I plan to buy which are the AKG K-701s and Sen HD650s. The reason I want those two are because they seem to be very different from each other but they are still both put in high regard in all the reviews I have read so far. That and I kind of want a popular set of cans for my first pair of high tier headphones. So is there an amp that can power these both well?

Thanks for all your help here guys, I'm really new to this a lot of this stuff here. I am well versed in composing music as that is what I do in my spare time, but I don't know a lot about headphones, amps, and such. Thanks for helping another noob out.

 

[AmpCity]

First things first, does the audigy have coax or optical out.. I dont understand how you planned to connect the DAC / amp to the card. Imo, you should bypass the soundcard altogether and connect the DAC/Amp via USB using Foobar w/ASIO,WASAPI etc....

There is a lot of debate on what amp to go for with 650's, Headamp gilmore lite or gs-1 is a popular choice, though there are laods more.... Darkvoice 332 and Woo Audio 6 is rated highly and so are some of the Little Dot series..... though you would also need a DAC to connect your computer with the amp.

Maybe the Audio-gd Compass DAC/Amp is a good starting point for you?

 

[Necrolic]

Audio-GD Compass for sure as a starter amp/DAC. It outperforms many products twice it's price easily, and is a fantastic entry point into hi-fi audio.

However, it is NOT an extremely neutral amp, so your choice is going to depend heavily on what type of music you listen to and what headphones you have.

If you listen to rock, metal, rap, electronic, etc., then by all means pick up the Compass. It is SUPERB for these purposes. It will work best with these types of music with headphones similarly tuned for that type of music, such as Denon and Grado. That doesn't mean it will sound like crap with something like K701 or HD650, it just means that less detail oriented music through the Compass will sound better with "fun" headphones rather than reference ones.

Now, if you listen to classical, vocal, jazz, or other types of detail oriented music, and you are using your setup to sit there and analyze music, not be absorbed by it, this is not the amp for you. What this amp does fantastically, with any type of music, is let you be absorbed by the music. It is forgiving of poor headphones and recordings, allowing you to be less perturbed by flaws and just sit back and enjoy some fantastic music.

It does classical and such fine if this is what you like in your equipment, but if you want a reference setup to see all the flaws in recordings and headphones, a much better entry point would be the Little Dot DAC and any of their amps, which is a more neutral (and expensive) setup.

 

[B-Dawk20]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmpCity /img/forum/go_quote.gif First things first, does the audigy have coax or optical out.. I dont understand how you planned to connect the DAC / amp to the card. Imo, you should bypass the soundcard altogether and connect the DAC/Amp via USB using Foobar w/ASIO,WASAPI etc.... There is a lot of debate on what amp to go for with 650's, Headamp gilmore lite or gs-1 is a popular choice, though there are laods more.... Darkvoice 332 and Woo Audio 6 is rated highly and so are some of the Little Dot series..... though you would also need a DAC to connect your computer with the amp. Maybe the Audio-gd Compass DAC/Amp is a good starting point for you?

Hmm, I guess I misunderstood what a DAC was used for then. I just thought that if you were listening from a computer that you needed to DAC to make it sound better. I never use coax or optical outputs, just the normal 3.5 jack on my soundcard. Well thanks for saving me some money I guess.

And to be quite honest, I am not trying to be overly analytical. Sure there is a big part of me that wants to analyze the sound of the recording to see how good it is but I am more focused on the sound itself than the actual qualit of the recording. So I guess for me their needs to be a balance between the two. But, if I had to side with one side or the other, it'd be the fun side of things.

As far as my music goes, that is a bit tough. I know you hear people talk about how they listen to all different types of music but seriously, I do. My music is on shuffle right now(out of 10K or so songs) and the last ten songs genre's consisted of Instrumental Rock, J-Pop, Jazz, Choral, and R&B. So I think I want something that can work well with anything that also has some fun to it.

 

[Azi]

Mate do yourself a favour change your sound card to the ASUS Xonar Essence STX soundcard. Seriously just check it out. I have the sennheiser HD600's ,
Triple fi.10's, SR80i's and my favourite the Etymotic ER4-P(analytical like the K701's) just to name a few in my collection! with this card they all sound brilliant. It drives any headphone from 30-600ohm, you can change the opamps to suite your music and taste which is alot of fun ! Plug your headphones straight into the back of the sound card no messing around there !

 

[B-Dawk20]

Really? How were they able to get a sound card to drive headphones so well? Does it connect to the PSU or something? Now I'm extremely interested seeing as I am on my PC constantly as that is where I spend my time working on my Hobby and I sometimes even bring my tower from place to place.

edit: Just looked it up on Newegg, seems pretty good and is actually one of the most expensive sound cards I've seen to date. It says it outputs 600ohms just like you said. I seriously want to consider buying this now.

 

[Azi]

Yep same here I'm always on my PC. It has a pretty good headphone amplifier and DAC on board that's how it powers your high impendence headphones like the HD650. It comes in two flavours PCI-e that is the STX which will need additional power coming from your PSU into the molex connector and the ST version which goes in one of the expansion slots just PCI this takes power from the motherboard. Both are exactley the same just the way you connect them to your motherboard. You get some decent music edditing software too that might be of use to you. I have had it for just over a year now I havnt felt the need to upgrade honestley it sounds that good with all my headphones. Trust me just go with this card mate you will not regret it ever ! that I promise you. Check out some reviews on it but at the end of the day you gonna have to hear it to believe it. By the way im not saying this is better than any of the amps anyone else has reccomemded you but its a good starting point with its amp rolling and power settings so you get an idea of what some headphones need to sound good or better ! And i will upgrade when i get an even better set of cans but at the moment i dont want to listen to something better because i'll want it. and i cant afford it! for now, for home use, high end is very expensive. Oh and give the card time to burn the amp in. 100hours maybe before it sounds good.

 

[B-Dawk20]

Heh well I read a good amount of reviews and for convenience and money purposes, this seems like the best bet for me. Thank you so much for showing me this hardware buddy. I can finally feel good about making a step up in audio when I get the money.