Recently got the Dekoni Blues after hearing my coworker rave about them for a while and came to realize my Sennheiser GSX 1000 doesn’t put out quite enough juice. Looking for an Amp that will make the Blues really sing for around the $100-150 price point. I’ve been eyeing the JDS Labs Atom and Monolith Liquid Spark but I wanted to get some input before I pull the trigger on anything.
I probably also need to get a new DAC as well but that’s a whole other discussion on its own I imagine.
there are a number of options, but if you want to get a combo unit at your $150 budget, then the Fiio K5 Pro would be it.
if you can budget a bit more, $100 for the DAC and $100 for the amp, then your horizons open big time. The most popular combo is the JDS Labs Atom amp with the Topping D10 DAC.
The K5 pro is great and imo better for the blues then the atom
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Amp gets $150 max on it’s own, DAC is a different expense so around $100. Topping D10 looks great but the Topping MX3 also catches my eye because it lets me use Bluetooth if I’m feeling lazy and want to hook up my phone instead of my laptop.
You could get something like the ifi Zen blue for a streaming dac and a monolith liquid spark amp
If you did want a killer aio, the schiit Asgard 3 with the regular dac module is 300 USD with very strong power output with good sound
Asgard is a bit out of my price range, I’m thinking max price for DAC + Amp will be around the $250 mark cables included.
Does the Zen Blue function as a USB DAC in addition to Bluetooth or is it solely BT?
No, unfortunately it is only wireless output, my bad. I thought it had an optical in
I’m looking at the Asgard 3 and now I want to up my budget a tad. I’m partially tempted to get the Asgard 3 as just an Amp due to it’s sheer power and grab a Modi just for flexibility down the road.
That would work too, as you can get it without a dac
Or the Zen Dac?..
But the main issue is that to really take advantage of it you would want a balanced connection. I wouldn’t suggest it imo if you didn’t plan on using balanced
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Well that’s great, glad you like it 
. The T50’s really shine with a great amp
I’ve used the JDS Atom, the Liquid Spark, and the THX AAA 789 to drive the Dekoni Blues. They all work fine. The Atom needs to be cranked more than the other two.
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