Headphone dac/amp

Lakeland · 19 Oct 2020 at 20:59

Does such a thing exist for circa £100?

Headphone dac/amp that will drive hd650s
Needs to have volume control on the front (no remote)
Switchable output - headphone / balanced output to active studio monitors (would make do with rca out if necessary)

Lakeland · 19 Oct 2020 at 21:14

This looks like what I'm after, just 3x too much! Any recommendations for cheaper alternatives?

https://www.richersounds.com/camb-dacmagic-plus-b.html?refSrc=10104

Lakeland · 20 Oct 2020 at 07:59

lucid said:
You're asking for it to do too much for what you want to spend.

Maybe set your sights a bit lower and drop the requirement for balanced outputs. That, or buy some balancing transformers or get far better shielded unbalanced cables if RFI/EMI noise is a real problem.

Is second-hand a viable option for you?

I thought balanced outputs might be too much so I'd be ok dropping that for RCA out. Volume control of the line out would be a huge plus though.

I have a project headbox 2 headphone amp but it is rca in/out only so the only way to run it is from the audio jack output from the motherboard. If I had a dac to rca module I could use the current amp although it's not great sq wise.

Second hand is completely fine. I was using a edirol fa101 but it's firewire and a PITA to keep going so I need to move on!

Lakeland · 20 Oct 2020 at 19:25

NickK said:
It depends on the monitors you want to drive - it may be better looking for a monitor amp with a headphone socket.

I’m just looking at designs for a tube headphone OTL amp able to drive low impedance. Probably a 6SN7 and 6AS7 based as two mono boards, then expand into a tube-DAC later.

The monitors are active - KRK Rokit 6 so just need line in.

Sounds like a nice project, there’s something cool about tube amps.