If you are looking for a tube amp, is a eufonika h7 or h5 attainable and in budget enough? If not, the dark voice is solid after a tube swap. For solid state, you could consider a lake people g103s which drives them very well for the price imo
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Never heard of these but from the reviews they seem really nice. Now I only have to choose between an otl or a ss amp. Thanks a lot!
Itās somewhat an alternative to something like the bottlehead crack which is well loved but hard to get outside the US for a reasonable price, these amps go for a somewhat similar sonic signature and are still high quality (although I slightly prefer the bottlehead but you have to build it yourself)
It will come down to the type of sound you are after. If you want to add more warmth and richness, and relax things a bit, the otlās are the way to go, if you wanted to remain neutral, controlled, and tight without being harsh and a bit of treble smoothness the g103s is the way to go
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Might I ask, when you say you slightly prefer the bottlehead, in what state is that? Is that for just the bottlehead by itself plus any other mod done to it as well or is that after certain modifications such as the speedball have already been done to it before you have a preference for it?
I easily prefer it with the speedball along with other mods like cap or pot upgrades, but stock crack I think itās on par or in similar range with the eufonika when it comes to technicalities, but I think I enjoy the tuning of the crack a bit more than I did the eufonika, it would also depend on tubes
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What about a setup like this dt 880 + Topping E30 + g103-s ? And is the little dot mk3 as good as the DV? Because at least in Italy the darkvoice is unavaible and the eufonika h7/h5 is quite a bit out of my budget
Sounds great 
The mk3 from memory was a bit more controlled than the darkvoice and most likely on equal footing, but didnāt sound as organic
Ah damn ok
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I see, I will probably wait until the DV is available, and if it gonna take too much Iāll buy the lakepeople.Thanks a lot for your advices @M0N!
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Got mine in earlier this week. Donāt have a lot to compare it to besides HD6XX, Koss kph30i, HD558 however: I like them. They have more detail retrieval than the 6XX by a lot, with more controlled sub-bass and restrained mid-bass, Iāve been loving them on dance music. Infected Mushroom really shines with them. The strings on a lot of the tracks from the Halo OSTs are a highlight as well.
Glad I got an Asgard 3 before trying them as they sound awful and shouty on a Magni.
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Which gen magni do you have?
I have a magni 1, and other HP sound great on it the DT880ās are awful on it.
A3 is definitely a solid option for them.
Magni 3 non plus model.
Would these 600ohm headphones sound good on Topping L30? How does it compare to the Emotiva speaking of sound quality? I know Emotiva would drive them louder
Not really, better choice and amp able to deliver at least 200mW at 300ohm or 100mW at 600ohm
Hi! Welcome to HFGF!
For DT880 600 the Monolith Liquid Spark is the best entry-level amp, IMO. If you live in the US, the next level up would be Schiit Asgard 3. The DT880 scales up ridiculously well too, squeezing out more and more performance with higher tier amps and dacs. If youāre looking in the mid to upper hundreds, it sounds really great on some of the tube amps in the range (Bottlehead Crack w/ Speedball, Shortest Way 51+, Cayin HA-1Amk2).
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The Emotiva a-100 sounds warm so it gives the dt880 a little elevation in bass while making them sound a bit more intimate since the soundstage isnt presented very well with the emotiva compared to a dedicated headphone amp like the Asgard 3. Emotiva sounds a tiny bit bloated, not as clear, and not as full compared to the asgard 3. Asgard 3 is much better at soundstage presentation compared to the emotiva and doesnāt sound as warm but still has a warmth to it imo. I prefer the asgard 3 but I switch to the emotiva if I want something less technically good and for something more in my face.
Emotiva and Asgard both settle down the highs a little if you find them sibilant but thats only if its something your looking for. Havent heard the L30 with the dt880.
as @WaveTheory mentioned, the dt880 is amazing on the bottlehead crack with speedball and the asgard 3 would be the level up in the 200$ range.
@WaveTheory Hello, nice to meet such a great community here! First of all, Iām from Europe, Romania, and sadly I canāt find good stuff hereā¦ Iām surprised I couldāve find Emotiva (because Iāve heard theyāre very hard to find in the US). The Topping L30 is the only amp I can findā¦ and the A30 too for 10 euros less. Schiit is nowhere to find, more so for JDS or Monolith. My budget isnāt that big for what you listed there 
, plus I wouldnāt find any of them nearby and I donāt want to import (because the post here is a little pittyā¦)
As you can see, Iām not an expert. I tried my best to understand all the things Iād need to know for choosing a great amp for the Beyers, I did a week of intensive research but still confused. I even started relearning school physics haha Anyway, the video that confused me the most is The Beyerdynamic DT 880 (600 Ohms) Does Not Need The Power You Were Told - YouTube (I hope I am allowed to post links here, sorry if I broke the rules). This guy, as Iām sure you all know, says that you need high output impedance to get the most out of the Beyers. It seemed pretty logical, since even Beyerdynamic replied him that the best amp for 880s is the A2 (which isā¦100ohm output impedance), so what Zeos ālearnedā me about the 880s (that they need a huge amount of POWER to sound great) is wrongā¦ well, I then read some comments and there was one professional engineer that explained why what this guy said makes no sense (but tbh I didnāt understand what he really wanted to say, because of circuit technical things I donāt understand at all). Spent days on Reddit asking if x would be better than y or z depending on the output impedance, and it ended with the answer āNo, you donāt need high output impedance, on the contrary, you need as low output impedance as possible. At least theoreticallyā¦ā. Iāve seen Beyerās reply on why the A2 has 100ohm output impedance, and they didnāt say āto work well with high impedance headphonesā, in fact, they didnāt say a word about the sound qualityā¦ they only said that it is in case of a quick circuit occurs, to prevent the headphone out from danger, which makes me think that the high output impedance really makes no sense.
ā¦But that guy heard better sound on higher output impedances and Zeos saidā¦ AGHHHH IāM SO CONFUSED XDDDDDD
Someone please help me
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Amplifier Impedance matters! Why it is important to have a low output impedance (explained) - YouTube there is also this video, which seems to clarify the things. But AFAIK the Emotiva doesnāt have low output impedance, and this makes me confused againā¦
Low output impedance is not always the best thing especially for high impedance headphones, here a thread where there is a list of many shops in the eu
The 880 are not the easiest headphones to drive but the emotiva is pretty exaggerated as power.
The liquid spark is available in Europe
The aune x1s if you need a DAC as well is a valid option
The aune x7s if you want to use the balance out in the future is also a good choice
The ifi zen can (not the DAC) is also a good option and as the the x7s is balanced as well
If you want there are also more āpremiumā options like the lake people g109 g111 Lehman Rhinelander and linear sometimes you can find them used for a good price and they drive them pretty well.
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I would honestly go for a g103s if you can @SirDariusH, it drives the 880 600 ohm pretty well at a fairly reasonable price, a step up from the spark without going overboard. Personally I would pass on the L30 and a30, imo they sound pretty bad compared to other options in the range. A liquid spark might be attainable from audiophonics last time I checked as well
A used rhinelander or drachenfels could be an option for a reasonable price, and if you can find a used linear for a good price thatās a solid pick (same for the higher end lake people)
Well, I was thinking about the L30/A30 because, as I said, they are the only sub 200 euros amps I can find in Romania, so thatās whā¦OH MY GOD Monolith on Audiophonics is 160euros PLUS 130 SHIPPING. Now thatās insane XDDDDDDDD
I see the Lake People g103 on Thomann for 270 euros. Cheaper than the Emotiva (280 euros).
@lafonte Wow! I see the Aune X7S and the X1 PRO in Romania. The X7S is 290 euros, the X1 Pro is 310. Well, now I see they have Topping A50s for 205 euros too(what do you think? The same with the L30 but balanced? Zeos liked it). Looks like they filled the stocks and brought new goods. I see Aune T1se (290), Topping NX4(160).
The g103 is a pretty good choiceā¦ but a friend ordered from Thomann and it took 5 weeks till he got the order (especially because of our shitty post, itās bad overall, not only when you import something from letās say the US)