I’m contemplating buying or saving up for a dac/amp combo for my home. I’m currently using an e10k which is mostly for portability, buy I’m thinking of buying something that I can just leave at home so I don’t have to unpack and connect the e10k everyime.
However, I am very lost. I am only using IEMs (Fiio FA1, Tin T2) and a Koss Porta Pro at this point and I don’t see myself buying over-ears any time soon though I might get some new speakers at some point. I was looking at the Ifi audio zen dac, but there is a big hype around the hip-dac, which costs only a little bit more. Is the hip-dac better than the zen dac or is it mainly good because it’s portable?
Also is there any advantage over getting a separate dac and amp over something like the zen dac when I’m not using 250+ ohm headphones? I was looking at a combo of the Topping D10 & A30 (200eur) or the Schiit modi + magni (270eur).
This is a bit of a vague post, I’m sorry. I just don’t really know how to compare these things especially for IEMs.
Thanks
I have limited experience with dac/amps. I also own the e10k, and have upgraded to the Fiio K5 Pro and found the quality and noise floor to be a nice upgrade. Then, I just picked up a used Gen 2 Schitt Stack, and that is what I will be keeping. I prefer the sound, and Schitt’s customer service is unreal.
The Gen 3 Mode / Magni Stack would be around $200, but maybe the Fulla 2 would meet your need? I have no experience with that product thought, so someone else would need to weigh in.
Unfortunately it’s much more expensive where I live :(. If you convert it from euro’s it’s about $305, making it almost twice as expensive as the zen DAC. Should I be worried that the Schiit magni doesn’t come with a balanced output? This seems to be beneficial for IEMs if I understand correctly.
I’ve never had a balanced output, but I never felt I had an issue. My experience is as long as the amp has a no noise floor – you’ll be good. Were you able to see any reviews by someone using the zen DAC with IEMs?
Noise performance is good at max power, but not so at low power levels which may be used with sensitive IEMs.
According to audiosciencereviews. Maybe I’ll just save up a bit a wait until I understand better what I need before I buy stuff. At this point the Topping D10 and A30 seem like a nice combo, the only thing it’s missing is the balanced headphone output.
If you only plan to use Iems the ifi hip DAC is IMO the best option, you can use it static, on the move, it’s balanced (extra power is always good). And also has a good bass boost. And is decent money.
I’m planning to upgrade to a btr5 at some point as my dac/amp on the go since I want something that can do Bluetooth as well as USB. How would one go about comparing something like a hip-dac to a combination of the D10 and A30? D10 + A30 is about 20Eur more expensive than the hip-dac where I live.
A30 is not balanced but is quite powerful so no problem. The main gurus are asleep now in the US. In a few hours will be here with more informed opinions that mine. Something powerful that can be use portable is the xDuoo Xd-05 plus. I’ve got one and this thing is moving everything I have with no problem. It is also not balanced though. Cost around 250 euros.
IMO I enjoyed the hip dac, if you want the performance of the Zen dac but a bit warmer sound, then the hip dac is for you
If you wanted something wireless, small, and clean, the btr5 makes a fair bit of sense to go with
With both of these I would suggest buying balanced cables to take advantage of the amps Bal output
It depends on the headphones. I personally wouldn’t recommend the modi whatsoever but the magni heresy is nice, topping d10 is also pretty nice. What are you planning to power?
I would prefer not too warm a sound, I care mostly for detailed mids.
I’m planning on getting this one at some point, but for now I’m mostly curious to find out whether getting a bigger (stationary) set up for home makes sense, but I find it difficult to find out what equipment works well for IEMs.
At this point two IEMs (FiiO FA1 and Tin T2) and a Koss Porta Pro, and I probably won’t get over-ears soon because of physical discomforts wearing them. But I might get some P1s or other more high end IEMs at some point. I’m not even sure I will get any benefit from a better set-up at this point, but I mostly find it very hard to figure out whether I would since most reviews about DACs and AMPs are more geared towards over ear headphones, which isn’t very helpful to me.
Hmmm. Well if it’s mostly iems and moderately easy to drive headphones, perhaps consider something like a chord mojo if you wanted something with desktop quality that’s still portable (also not balanced so you don’t want to recable), but imo that would end up being overkill and I would suggest you to put more of your budget into new iems or headphones
So for a desktop stack, you would want something with a low noise floor and low output impedance to power iems well on a desk. I think something like the magni heresy can do that just fine (but be careful with the volume lol)
It really bugs me that schiit-europe is so much more expensive than the american shop. Maybe I’ll try to get family living in the states to buy one next time they come over, it’s about 30% cheaper if my calculations are correct.
Based on californian sales taxes and 0.89 euro to a dollar
($99 + 6.5% ) = $105.44
105.44 * 0.89 = 93.84 euro
Schiit-europe asks 135 euro
Yeah story of my life, it kinda sucks to buy stuff where I live and the used market is a bit of a joke as well. I can buy Topping and SMSL stuff from the German Amazon though, some stuff is available there that isn’t available where I live.
