I just started my HiFi journey. I just recently bought the Liquid Spark, and I am looking for a DAC to pair with it. My headphone rotation right now is the Grado SR 225, DT 770s, IEMS, and ATH-M20x.
Since I am just starting on my adventure I don’t want to spend too much money, because I am also planning to buy a new set of cans at the end of this month. (Sennheiser Jubilee)
My budget is around 100-150 USD. I’ve been doing a bit of research through the forums and I was looking into getting either Topping D10, D30, and E30. But, I was wondering if there are other budgets DACS on the market that are good quality? or what pairs well with the Liquid Spark?
Sent you a pm about the Lite DAC-AH. I think it’s ever so slightly better than the enog, but I need xlr outs for my erish. Otherwise I’d sell the enog and keep the lite dac.
Other options are the Enog2 Pro (I own), Topping E30 (haven’t owned), Schiit Modi (had, it broke), JDS Labs Atom DAC (haven’t owned).
In regards to which one? I think the $100 ones are supposed to be all pretty on par. I personally think the enog is head and shoulders above the modi. If you stretch the budget you could grab a Schiit modius though, which is supposed to be on par or better.
In the end, if it’s your first dac the specific one doesn’t matter too much. Try whichever one you find most interesting / whose features will work best in your setup. After you have an idea of what you want to improve and how you want to change the sound, then it’s time to think about pairings. Gotta get a baseline first . I’m of the opinion that the specific intro dac doesn’t matter all that much.
@Pr3ssAltF4 is right, you just need a DAC at this point. There are very slight differences in sound signature for <$200 dacs, but not big differences in sound quality. The Topping E30 comes with some filter options to subtly change the sound too. That might be useful for you just learning. Spend some time with each filter setting and see what you think.
Get the Topping E30, call it a day and only upgrade that when you’ve upgraded your amps and cans to the $500 dollar or higher level. At this point DACs are not where you’re going to notice much of a difference. The E30 if you play your cards right can serve you all the way up to mid fi tier. If you’re thinking of using balanced in the future. (some things just sound much better that way) The save up for an extra week or two and get the Enog2.
Thanks for all the help. I think I will be going with the Topping E30. Only because I know nothing about balance.
But, here is a little bit of a odd question but can a DAC support multiple Amps? Because I want to try out other Amps but don’t want to keep on changing them. Can you use a splitter between my DAC to other Amps?
. I’m of the opinion that the specific intro dac doesn’t matter all that much.
Only because I know nothing about balance.