Another well reviewed stack is Topping A30/D30 pro if your not bothered about MQA.
Lots of power and clean sounding dac
Personally although I would love to eventually have a stack I am plumping for the Xduoo Xa 10 as it’s tiny form factor will allow me to take it room to room rather than be fixed to a desk
Is it OK to run these balanced headphones of an unbalanced amp? I got the balanced mod in case I ever wanted to use it in the future but didn’t think it HAD to be run balanced.
I have read that it is OK to plug anything into a regular amp but only balanced headphones should ever be plugged into a balanced amp. Is this correct? I can’t be breaking my gear as I didn’t understand.
I am honestly not really into DAC/Amps (yet anyway…), I just want to make sure I have something to power them decently. I know Zeos and others say you need insane amounts of power but Ryan at Modhouse recommends just 1W at 50 ohms so that will suffice for me but I need to make sure I am not doing anything stupid by running them on a regular connection since I ordered balanced. I may well be being paranoid now as I’m fairly sure this way round is fine, it’s unbalanced headphone into balanced source that it the problem. For instance it I get an regular amp without balanced then I could also use it for my DT770’s and HD598’s but It’s balanced then it’s Argons only?
Its pretty clear its either Xduoo or Liquid platinum. If you’re okay with less power the Xduoo is a high gain design and tonally sounds super smooth. The TA-20 is the sweetspot. [Replace the stock tubes with some E80CC tubes they’re amazing]
The liquid platinum does deliver huge power… But I haven’t heard it personally and from the reviews I’d say it 10000% needs a tube swap from its stock 6922 tubes.
From what I’ve read and im sure someone can confirm the stock Dac isn’t too crash hot. I’d probably wouldn’t go for that combo unit and just from the amp.
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That is correct about the balanced amp. If you got a balanced only amp you’d have to convert the other headphones to run balanced. Often people will get their headphones converted to balanced then have adapters for single ended amps.
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If you want to get your DT 770’s balanced there’s people on Etsy that offer the services to change the headphone to balanced. Something like 3.5mm connectors would be good.
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I don’t want to change any of my headphones. Should I cancel the balanced mod on the Argons instead? I want to use the same amp for anything I currently have without more mods or anything breaking.
I’ve got my Argons balanced they can be used with the included single ended cable. No problems. Its easy to use balanced headphones with a single ended cable.
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Into an unblanced amp?
Yep that will work fine. I use them with my single ended Xduoo TA-30 With the E80CC swapped tubes. Sounds incredible. Id say for a Hybrid if you’re okay with less power. Go straight for the Xduoo
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Thank you, I have been getting so many conflicting answers. So if I get a regular unbalanced DAC/Amp then it would be fine with my balanced argons and my other non balanced headphones?
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Absolutely go for it. I’d recommend your best middle ground would be a hybrid amp as a swiss army for all you’ve got a TA-20 or TA-10 would be excellent. The built in Dac is excellent. As good as my Geshelli Enog 2pro
Swap those tubes to the tubes linked below and end game hybrid stuff
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Is there anything you can recommend without tubes? I would rather stick with solid state combo.
Wait that’s a balanced amp? I thought you should’t use unbalanced headphones on a balanced amp?
Hmmm. I personally have sold everything that’s solid state. I’m tubes only at this point unless I got an Singxer SA-1
But something like the liquid spark is an excellent starter or the Zen amp you have or had.
Getting out of the starter amps the Flux labs 12s is excellent and finally the Singxer SA-1 would be the upper end.
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The TA10 is a single amp ended with a balanced for convenience but its a single ended signal coming out. and the TA20 is a balanced amp with a single ended port.
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LakePeople G103-S does well for T50RP’s, then you just need to find yourself a DAC.
The measurement chasers (THX amps, Topping, etc.) may make the treble overly sharp on the Fostex/Argons.
The “Moar Powa”-Meme needs to die already. More power is only worth it when it does not come at the cost of quality.
You are right, avoid balanced into unbalanced.
Thanks for the reply. I got a message from Ryan at modhouse and he said to it me i was perfectly fine to run them on an unbalanced amo with the single ended v moda cable provided. I’m curious, can you run balanced headphones on and unbalanced amp, using a balanced cable or is that also bad?
I mean any headphone, with any lead to an unbalanced amp shouldn’t be a problem right?
You only risk problems with a balanced amp?
Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
An unbalanced headphone with an unbalanced lead (cable) should not be plugged into the balanced out connection on the amp as you run the risk of shorting the amp. An unbalanced headphone will never have a balanced lead end (I’m pretty sure).
A balanced headphone can have either a single ended or balanced end to the lead. A balanced headphone with a balanced lead end can be used on the single ended out of an amp with a balanced to single ended converter.
You can have an amp that has both single ended and balanced out, but still need to plug into the correct out based on the end type of your lead. Hope this helps a little
It does thank you.
The main confusion with the Argons I had is that they have a 3.5mm jack which is unusual for balanced headphones and I knew it came with a single ended cable.
I decided to go with a Schiit magni. If I ever get a balanced amp then I just have to get a new balanced cable but for now,everything I have can go straight into the magni with their single ended stock cables.On quite low of course, only the argons will need turning up much but I am eager to see how different my 770s will be on it too.