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Author Topic: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?  (Read 14977 times)

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Offline achalsey

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relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« on: October 31, 2011, 02:24:51 AM »
With christmas coming up and having finally gone forward with fixing my headphones (re-cable very nicely done by Ted) I'm looking into getting them powered right.

I'm using an older version Beyer DT 770 pro 80 ohm and pretty much always plugged into my (2010) macbook.  Not really sure where to start.  I looked through some google searches that brought me to the FiiO e7 but it seems like the bass might be over powering.  Any way to improve the chain after the stock sound card?  I thought I remember seeing a listing for a amp/external sound combo but can't seem to find it again.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.  Thanks.

Offline page

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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/DAC?
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2011, 09:46:44 AM »
price range?

I found a DAC was the biggest bang for buck in improving the signal:noise ratio when using low impedance and high(ish) sensitivity headphones. So I'd look at a combo unit.

I have the e9 which is just the amp section, but I don't have the e7.
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Offline gkatz

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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2011, 01:12:09 PM »
Once again, I will fluff the Topping TP30 -- I got it for 90$ from this website http://www.hifidiyshop.com/topping-tp30-class-t-digital-amplifier-usb-dac-ta2024_p221.html?zenid=ac72e91e662526a7d19c51b2697c88df  It took about 2 weeks to arrive. It works great with my 64 ohm Sennheiser HD280 pro's and also powers my 75 watt bookshelf speakers just fine with the 15 watts per channel specified. It has a USB connection which I can succesfully kernel stream at 16/48 through foobar. It also has RCA auxiliary inputs for a CD/Tape/Ipod what have you.

Chuck here on taperssection has one as well. THe only problem I have had was some static caused by the volume knob, nothing some DeOxit wouldn't fix.

Offline achalsey

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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2011, 08:19:24 PM »
I was hoping to find something for 100 or under since it'll be this and a pair of C4 hypers hopefully under the tree.   ;D

That Topping does look pretty sweet.  THanks!

Offline jbell

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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #4 on: October 31, 2011, 08:29:47 PM »
Did you get both your C4's working??


I was hoping to find something for 100 or under since it'll be this and a pair of C4 hypers hopefully under the tree.   ;D

That Topping does look pretty sweet.  THanks!
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Offline page

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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #5 on: October 31, 2011, 09:43:02 PM »
I was hoping to find something for 100 or under since it'll be this and a pair of C4 hypers hopefully under the tree.   ;D

That Topping does look pretty sweet.  THanks!

That or an ibasso unit. I know BigPerm just got one for about that price.
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Offline achalsey

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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2011, 11:10:32 PM »
Did you get both your C4's working??


Its just one of the card caps thats making a funny noise, bodies seem to work fine with the omnis.

Offline achalsey

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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #7 on: October 31, 2011, 11:54:10 PM »
That or an ibasso unit. I know BigPerm just got one for about that price.


Oooh, been reading up on the D-Zero reviews, also very interesting.  Thanks.

Offline acidjack

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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2011, 04:51:53 PM »
Here's a vote on what NOT to get: The Firestone Audio FUBAR IV.  I bought one, based on a rec from here, and it is garbage.  Less than 1yr old and has serious grounding issue.  Chinese junk, so not easy to get serviced.  I love the Toslink and USB inputs and the form factor, but the interference caused every time I even touch the volume knob has gotten really, really annoying.  Too bad as it would otherwise be a nice solution.
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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #9 on: November 01, 2011, 05:13:43 PM »
Here's a vote on what NOT to get: The Firestone Audio FUBAR IV.  I bought one, based on a rec from here, and it is garbage.  Less than 1yr old and has serious grounding issue.  Chinese junk, so not easy to get serviced.  I love the Toslink and USB inputs and the form factor, but the interference caused every time I even touch the volume knob has gotten really, really annoying.  Too bad as it would otherwise be a nice solution.

(whew, for a minute i thought it was something I'd suggested)

There is a lot of chinese junk floating around....

In my experience and what I've seen on head-fi, the ibasso stuff is generally pretty good as is audio-gd. I liked my ibasso D10 when I had it. There are some ibasso units which fit within $100 or are close, but the audio-gd repository is generally in the $300 range (but works with much more then just low-impedance, high-sensitivity stuff).

A general word of warning. Most cheap USB implementations are limited to 16/48, while better stuff can handle 24 bit outputs. Since your using a macbook, grab something that handles optical-in if possible as the DAC chips are rarely limited to 16bit. best of luck.
"This is a common practice we have on the bus; debating facts that we could easily find through printed material. It's like, how far is it today? I think it's four hours, and someone else comes in at 11 hours, and well, then we'll... just... talk about it..." - Jeb Puryear

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Offline acidjack

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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #10 on: November 01, 2011, 05:32:10 PM »
page, do you (or anyone else) have any recs in around the price range of the FUBAR ($350) that are better?

I run MacBook Pro>Toslink>headphone amp.  Externally power via AC adapter.

I'd like something that works that I can "grow" with and ideally has a small footprint; that said, I don't know that I should move to the Grace 902 considering I'm using ATH-M50s as my headphones  :) 

A buddy also told me that there are guys on head.fi that are sort of like our many fine custom manufacturers here and can actually make one of these things for you.  Anyone have any experience with that?
Mics: Schoeps MK4V, MK41V, MK5, MK22> CMC6, KCY 250/5, KC5, NBob; MBHO MBP603/KA200N, AT 3031, DPA 4061 w/ d:vice, Naiant X-X, AT 853c, shotgun, Nak300
Pres/Power: Aerco MP2, tinybox v2  [KCY], CA-UBB
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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #11 on: November 01, 2011, 05:46:19 PM »
page, do you (or anyone else) have any recs in around the price range of the FUBAR ($350) that are better?

I run MacBook Pro>Toslink>headphone amp.  Externally power via AC adapter.

I'd like something that works that I can "grow" with and ideally has a small footprint; that said, I don't know that I should move to the Grace 902 considering I'm using ATH-M50s as my headphones  :) 

A buddy also told me that there are guys on head.fi that are sort of like our many fine custom manufacturers here and can actually make one of these things for you.  Anyone have any experience with that?

look at the sub-500 audio-gd (global delivery I think is what the abbreviation stands for). They have some quirky names for their models, but those get a lot of praise. I'm not sure I'd pick one of their >$500 models though. Not that it's bad, just I think there is better stuff for what I'm interested at that point.

Another one to consider is Schiit Audio (pronounced as in the cow patty), which is a new American outfit that people seem fond of. Their Asgard model is solid state and might be of interest but I think you would need a DAC where as the audio-gd stuff is a mixed bag in that realm.

Both companies trend toward desktop amp/dacs and are generally boutique operations that have been responsive to the head-fi community.
"This is a common practice we have on the bus; debating facts that we could easily find through printed material. It's like, how far is it today? I think it's four hours, and someone else comes in at 11 hours, and well, then we'll... just... talk about it..." - Jeb Puryear

"Nostalgia ain't what it used to be." - Jim Williams

Offline kindms

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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #12 on: November 02, 2011, 10:50:36 AM »
page, do you (or anyone else) have any recs in around the price range of the FUBAR ($350) that are better?

I run MacBook Pro>Toslink>headphone amp.  Externally power via AC adapter.

I'd like something that works that I can "grow" with and ideally has a small footprint; that said, I don't know that I should move to the Grace 902 considering I'm using ATH-M50s as my headphones  :) 

A buddy also told me that there are guys on head.fi that are sort of like our many fine custom manufacturers here and can actually make one of these things for you.  Anyone have any experience with that?

I own the audio-gd FUN and love it!. I have had it for a year or 2 now. I use it daily. I have the older unit which was limited to 16/48 on the USB. The new version does 24/96 on the USB. Has toslink and coax in as well. DAC out, Pre-Amp out etc. 2 gain types as well. I use mine as just a DAC. No remote. You can mix and match chips etc that they offer on the site.

I had no problems dealing with them in China and the unit was delivered quickly.
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Offline acidjack

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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #13 on: November 02, 2011, 02:45:45 PM »
page, do you (or anyone else) have any recs in around the price range of the FUBAR ($350) that are better?

I run MacBook Pro>Toslink>headphone amp.  Externally power via AC adapter.

I'd like something that works that I can "grow" with and ideally has a small footprint; that said, I don't know that I should move to the Grace 902 considering I'm using ATH-M50s as my headphones  :) 

A buddy also told me that there are guys on head.fi that are sort of like our many fine custom manufacturers here and can actually make one of these things for you.  Anyone have any experience with that?

I own the audio-gd FUN and love it!. I have had it for a year or 2 now. I use it daily. I have the older unit which was limited to 16/48 on the USB. The new version does 24/96 on the USB. Has toslink and coax in as well. DAC out, Pre-Amp out etc. 2 gain types as well. I use mine as just a DAC. No remote. You can mix and match chips etc that they offer on the site.

I had no problems dealing with them in China and the unit was delivered quickly.

Looks like a nice product, but that website inspires zero confidence.  Is there anything comparable that's US-made?  Other than the Grace 902/903, which is looking increasingly attractive...?
Mics: Schoeps MK4V, MK41V, MK5, MK22> CMC6, KCY 250/5, KC5, NBob; MBHO MBP603/KA200N, AT 3031, DPA 4061 w/ d:vice, Naiant X-X, AT 853c, shotgun, Nak300
Pres/Power: Aerco MP2, tinybox v2  [KCY], CA-UBB
Decks: Sound Devices MixPre 6, Zoom F8, M10, D50

My recordings on nyctaper.com: http://www.nyctaper.com/?tag=acidjack | LMA: http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/acidjack | twitter: http://www.twitter.com/acidjacknyc | Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/acidjacknyc

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Re: relatively affordable headphone amp/ADC?
« Reply #14 on: November 02, 2011, 03:23:57 PM »
page, do you (or anyone else) have any recs in around the price range of the FUBAR ($350) that are better?

I run MacBook Pro>Toslink>headphone amp.  Externally power via AC adapter.

I'd like something that works that I can "grow" with and ideally has a small footprint; that said, I don't know that I should move to the Grace 902 considering I'm using ATH-M50s as my headphones  :) 

A buddy also told me that there are guys on head.fi that are sort of like our many fine custom manufacturers here and can actually make one of these things for you.  Anyone have any experience with that?

I own the audio-gd FUN and love it!. I have had it for a year or 2 now. I use it daily. I have the older unit which was limited to 16/48 on the USB. The new version does 24/96 on the USB. Has toslink and coax in as well. DAC out, Pre-Amp out etc. 2 gain types as well. I use mine as just a DAC. No remote. You can mix and match chips etc that they offer on the site.

I had no problems dealing with them in China and the unit was delivered quickly.

Looks like a nice product, but that website inspires zero confidence.  Is there anything comparable that's US-made?  Other than the Grace 902/903, which is looking increasingly attractive...?

yeah, I know. it's ugly as sin, but their stuff is well regarded over at head-fi.

If that isn't your cup of tea, an idea I just thought of would then be the schiit asgard and use your usbpre2 as the DAC with the aux outs. I did that with my fiio e9 for a while when I was using headphones which were low impedance and high sensitivity (because the usbpre2's headphone jack hisses when paired with high sensitivity phones).

I actually get more use from my usbpre2 as an audio interface/dac/headamp then I do in the field as a recording preamp/adc. It's the best DAC I had at my disposal (versus the onboard laptop, the zero 192, an ibasso D10, and even better than the Grace 901), and it's not a slouch. I'm not sure it would trump the DAC section of a newer 902 or 903 which have upgraded DAC stages compared to the original 901, but you already own a usbpre2 so the cost is vastly different compared to a 902/903...  ;)

There are two reasons I didn't pick up the Asgard. First was that my current headphones (the Audeze LCD-2) are a lowish impedance but require gobs and gobs of current to drive, the two conditions that SD says are optimum for using the headphone stage of the usbpre2 (low impedance and low sensitivity). The LCD-2s are pitch black quiet with the usbpre2, but I catch the same hiss like others have reported with my Denon 7000s. Second, I already had the fiio which while not my favorite piece of gear, performs well with my Denons for the price I paid. If I didn't have the fiio, I probably would have baught one.
"This is a common practice we have on the bus; debating facts that we could easily find through printed material. It's like, how far is it today? I think it's four hours, and someone else comes in at 11 hours, and well, then we'll... just... talk about it..." - Jeb Puryear

"Nostalgia ain't what it used to be." - Jim Williams

 

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