Birthday cash, buying first amp and DAC, $400 limit, need advice

So, I’m young and it’s my birthday, which means my parents just gave me some spare cash. That means it’s time to buy my first amp and DAC. I just recently bought some Fidelio X2HR’s for my lovely video games and HD 650’s for everything else, and I’ve been driving them both with a Sound BlasterX AE-5 sound card from my dad’s old pc. But I want to upgrade to a big boy amp now.

I’ve got $400 to throw at a new DAC and amp, and there are so many different suggestions out there, I need more direct advice if anyone can give it. I want to get the most bang possible out of these four hundred dollars, but options I’ve found that push up to that boundary have been difficult. For example, I was looking at the SMSL SP200/THX 888 and an OL DAC (good because I want both SPDIF and USB), which would fit nicely in my budget, but I don’t trust the 888 not to drive my X2’s off a cliff. I need something that will drive both headphones at 50 and 300 ohms respectively, and do so happily, while making the absolute most of these $400. If that ends up being a $200 stack and I keep the rest, then so be it, but I’d love your thoughts.

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I recommend looking at the Schiit Modius & Asgard 3. Each unit is $200. IMO, the Asgard is a superior amp the SP200.

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Yeah pretty much everyone will recommend the Asgard 3 over the SP200 for a first amp. Though I would just go with a topping E30 for the DAC since I don’t care much about matching hardware

Is $400 a hard budget? Tax and shipping may bring the cost if the Asgard to something like $240

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I picked up an IFI Zen Dac, HD650s and a balanced cable for my current “just getting into this hobby” setup. No complaints and the Zen DAC and HD650s with a balanced cabled are an excellent paring.

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As far as using all 400 goes, I’d recommend looking at the Asgard 3, Geshelli Archel 2.5, and Geshelli Erish for the amp, and for the dac, Schiit Modius or Geshelli Enog2 Pro for a balanced interconnect and topping e30 for a single ended interconnect. Whatever would have the best synergy with the headphones you have now and what might get in the future should work best. I personally wouldn’t be able to help you much in deciding what has the best synergy. Fair warning that the Erish requires a balanced dac and balanced cable, so if you have to get a balanced cable, which now that I think about, you probably do, then it will ultimately make it not such a good choice when you add the cabling costs for your budget. It might be doable if you knew how to make your own cables, which I don’t know how to personally, but I’m assuming here, that it would cost a lot less for cabling then and make it a feasible option. There is also the Topping D50, D50s, and Smsl Su-8 v2 for dacs, but I don’t see the Toppings recommended much, and the D50s and Smsl Su-8 v2 is pushing it in price if you were to consider those at full mrsp. These are the all the options I personally know for your budget, but there may be more I don’t know of. Also for future reference, people usually recommend you spend more on the amp than the dac.

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Fellow Zen Dac and HD650 user as well. Best purchases I’ve made. Also good for experimenting with cheaper stuff like the KPH30i and IEMs, especially balanced.

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Going to second the recommendations here for the Asgard 3 as it’s a fantastic unit. However, if you are looking to budget your money to potentially use it towards another item you could always just pick up a Magni 3+ or Liquid Spark + either a Topping D10 or E30. Otherwise yeah Asgard 3 + Modius would be nice for that budget and I don’t think you will have issues with them due to how well rounded they are for headphones.

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Another option if you wanted could be getting a tube amp around 200$ to drive the 650 and a solid state around 100$ for the Fidelio and then a dac around 100$. Someone else would have to answer if the Fidelio can play off a tube amp as I have no idea. If it can, then you could simply ignore above and just look for a tube amp around 200$ - 300$ and then a dac for 100$ - 200$. I won’t bother listing anything unless you want to think about a tube amp over a solid state.

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How about a tube buffer into a ss amp? Been thinking about this lately…

+1 for modius asgard combo

I will refer you to these threads. I don’t really have anything I can say about it myself.

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I’m looking at Schitt Audio and I might use this combo for a stack of Schitt. I have heard these are excellent units.

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I have the asgard 3 personally… definitely my favorite solid state so far though I don’t make use of the modius as I have the Bifrost 2 multibit. I do most definitely recommend asgard 3 it’s fantastic

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I’m taking everyone’s recommendation of the Asgard to heart, and I’m also super interested in whatever you recommend for tube amps. That sounds like a neat idea since I’m looking to enjoy these 650s for a long time, and I know people like tubes for them. Seems worth some thought

I’ve heard the Bottlehead Crack DIY kit goes on sale for 100$ off infrequently (reg 315$) which is what I’m waiting on. Otherwise the DarkVoice gets a solid recommendation from what I’ve seen for the 200$ budget.

There is also selections from little dot, other than that, those are all the ones I know of personally at this moment.

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If you’re interested in a Jotunheim with the AK4490 Dac Module, we could talk in a PM

Some bodies here give a good option with the Asgard and the Topping E30.
With this option you are flexible in this point.
Keep the Headphoneamp change the Dac for example.

When you wait a little bit Topping bring a Headphoneamp in July/August.
The L30 who can go in little price range.

Or buy a Dac/amp Topping dx3 pro,Somonwhat from Aune or Smsl not sure for the Burson play but it don‘t know the price for it.

Thanks for all your replies, this was super helpful. I’ve decided to buy the Asgard with a topping E30. Out of all the things y’all pointed me toward, this looks like the best setup for my current needs and circumstances!

Happy listening!

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I think you will really love that asgard. It’s great, I have tried to find alternatives but for it’s price tag especialyl if you get it cheaper like a B-stock it’s absolutely amazing. E30 is really nice too for it’s price tag if you want a bit of an upgrade imo and to complete your Schiit Stack I would switch that out to the Modius at a later point. Glad to see you were able to get the help you need to make your decision. Enjoy yourself with that equipment and definitely feel free to come back and let us know what you think on it!

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