Hi, I’m looking to buy a neutral/clear/uncolored amp around $100 to use with an smsl m100. I was primarily looking into buying a magni 3 heresy or maybe an atom (though as I’ve understood it they sound pretty much identically, so I’d opt for the heresy due to it’s build).
Here comes this issue, I’ve not found any reseller for these products in the EU. Neither the atom or heresey are on Amazon. Schiit eu and schiit uk are both out of stock (and I’ve read that they can be a pain, even when their products are in stock, which is rare).
So, what to do? Does anyone know any other sellers in Europe? If not, is it worth it importing these and paying around $150-$200 because of shipping and import fees, or would I get more for my money if went for an amp costing around $175 which is available in the EU?
Unfortunately its not very easy to get one of the more well regarded amps in this sort of range in the eu from my experience, you can get the atom from hifiheadphones but its usually out of stock.
From what I have seen, usually the best in that sort of price range are the iFi zen products but they are a bit more expensive.
Personally I decided to spend a bit more and go for the Asgard 3 direct from schiit US which actually ended up about £6 more than if I had got it from the EU store and it came in 3 or so days.
It may also be worth a look at used stuff as you can sometimes get some pretty good deals on amps that have already been imported.
I would go with Topping L30 for 140 euro off Amazon.de
I just bought an Atom (amd and dac) from JDS USA and paying for shipping and VAT. This worked out about 20 euro cheaper than buying E30/L30 stack off Amazon.de or audiophonics.fr with import fees considered.
Also looking at the prices of Schiit and other similar brands in their euro stores, it’s very similar to just buying from their USA store (which actulaly has anything in stock) and paying for the shipping. Just going to take a week or two.
However as you are buying a single unit, the shipping and import admin fee will hurt you, hence L30 is the way to go and as good if not better than all the other at 100USD (it measures the best anyway and reviewers put them all together)
Interesting, though looking at some reviews it seems the L30 is a bit lacking in the bass frequencies and has a little less power, which would make it scale less well.
I guess I’ll look around other amps in the price range…
I read similar things, and that is why I bought the Atoms as much as I craved a nice metal case to have on the desk. However the real takeaway I got from the reviews is they are practically indistinguishable and your decision should be purely on other factors such as price, availability etc.
The L30 measures cleaner than the Atom. Has nice switches on front with full metal case and more palatable power brick. And if you’re really worried about scaling, well once you get into the big boy cans that start pushing the 1W output sonically, you really want to be coupling it with more than a $100 amp anyway.
