Amp and DAC help

novaenough

novaenough

novaenough

Associate
Joined
18 Mar 2014
Posts
690
Location
Aberdeen
Hi guys,
I'm looking for some audiophile advice from you helpful forum folk.

Basically I want/need to buy an amp and dac to run my cans, currently some Sennheiser Amperior and HD25-1 II
Hopefully to be joined by some AKG K702 Annies that either: I got for a steal, or someone has taken the **** out of me!

Anyway, I've done a bit of reading up both here and headfi etc and can't really decide what to buy.
I'm tempted to get the Schiit Vali - fancy trying a tube type amp but I've used Creek amps in my last few speaker set ups and am tempted to stick with what i know.

DAC wise, I've really don't know.
Do I just go with a Schiit to match or something else?
Is it possible is to get onethat will take USB and either an optical or coaxial SPDIF inputs - this would allow me to use it with my hifi and run either my cd player or minidisc through it.

Budget - prepared to spend around £400 for the pair but as always if I can "justify" it....
Music wise - pretty much anything and everything. House, trance, female vocal, RnB, heavy metal.....
Sound wise - I like a fairly neutral sound but not clinical or cold but also not interested in anything that is too warm.

Any other questions let me know and thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Paul


tl;dr
Looking for headphone amp and dac for approx £400 combined :)
 
Schiit Modi (USB) + Schiit Modi (optical) + Schiit Sys (switcher) = Schiit Vali

Very nice little stack for £333
 
Well if you want something less warm stay away from any form of Valve amp as that will be warm.
Look at the Arcam rPac is good and worth the cash. Cheaper solution for what you need. But depends what you want to spend. Im not sure a 400 solution with 200 cans is good business to me the other way round definitely (please dont shoot me down but thats my opinion)
 
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rids57 said:
Schiit Modi (USB) + Schiit Modi (optical) + Schiit Sys (switcher) = Schiit Vali

Very nice little stack for £333
Click to expand...

is it wise to spend that type of cash on two DAC's? why not just buy 1 dac/amp?

NAD D 1050 for £400 gets my vote

if he wants passive speakers in the future then NAD D 3020 instead.

otherwise AUNE T1 MK2 for £120 will do adequately tbh should he feel the AMP is lacking he can always buy the Schiit Vali to upgrade the AMP side of things but tbh just go with the D1050 to begin with if he is upgrade happy.
 
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Thanks for all the suggestions guys.
rids57 said:
Schiit Modi (USB) + Schiit Modi (optical) + Schiit Sys (switcher) = Schiit Vali

Very nice little stack for £333
Click to expand...

It did go through my head to just buying a Modi for the computer and one for the hifi.

nuzik said:
Well if you want something less warm stay away from any form of Valve amp as that will be warm.
Look at the Arcam rPac is good and worth the cash. Cheaper solution for what you need. But depends what you want to spend. Im not sure a 400 solution with 200 cans is good business to me the other way round definitely (please dont shoot me down but thats my opinion)
Click to expand...
I'll take a look at the rPAC.
I know what you mean about valves and warm, i kinda feel a bit of an itch to try valves at some point though.
I understand your thoughts about spending money the wrong way round, i suppose its a matter of what you buy first though and whenever you buy/upgrade something is going to be the cheaper part.

Psycho Sonny said:
is it wise to spend that type of cash on two DAC's? why not just buy 1 dac/amp?

NAD D 1050 for £400 gets my vote

if he wants passive speakers in the future then NAD D 3020 instead.

otherwise AUNE T1 MK2 for £120 will do adequately tbh should he feel the AMP is lacking he can always buy the Schiit Vali to upgrade the AMP side of things but tbh just go with the D1050 to begin with if he is upgrade happy.
Click to expand...
I'll have a look into the NAD options and have a proper look at the AUNE T1 mk2
 
Audio-GD NFB-11

Very highly regarded and specced plus it's great value with the high pound to dollar rate.
 
Ryanr1987 said:
If you decide to go for the Annie's then the Vali is a great option. I may sale my Annie's if you are interested?
Click to expand...
Thanks Ryan but my Annie's are on the way.
I'm surprised you are considering selling yours though, I thought that you rated them highly enough that you'd be hanging onto them?

Thanks for all your suggestions, I've got some more homework to do!
 
They do everything amazingly well but I'm just considering selling them to try something new. It's only an interest check really, I'll probably end up keeping them.
 
Shame we haven't done these DAC/AMP tests becuase I'm sure the Essence ONE and STU would meet your needs.

They have arrived finally just waiting for the silverstone one to come back from kitguru :o
 
Psycho Sonny said:
is it wise to spend that type of cash on two DAC's? why not just buy 1 dac/amp?

NAD D 1050 for £400 gets my vote

if he wants passive speakers in the future then NAD D 3020 instead.

otherwise AUNE T1 MK2 for £120 will do adequately tbh should he feel the AMP is lacking he can always buy the Schiit Vali to upgrade the AMP side of things but tbh just go with the D1050 to begin with if he is upgrade happy.
Click to expand...

I agree with Nad as I run my Amperior's with them.
 
As someone who just purchased an Audio-Gd Compass2 I can recommend that to you although it has to come from China. Tbf for me it was dispatched on a Tuesday evening and turned up on a Thursday morning. They have good reviews look on head-fi there's a number of options of what chip you want in it to to affect the sound.
 
Thanks ethan and Mason. Haven't managed to do much more research into the Nad, although I've heard of them. Audio -Gd was new to me till you and rids both mentioned them.
Hopefully I'll manage to get some more investigation done at the weekend.
 
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