This comes in handy
im saying that the ones that are balanced are the ones that have higher capacitance due to having two circuit modules. The questyle stuff is another great choice, for sure. All abyss have pretty wonky treble due to them deliberately breaking the seal to allow greater driver excursion, so smoothing that over isn’t the worst idea.
@mynameistoolongforth @JeffreyJhons
The Flux looks very good!
I do have a few questions if you don’t mind:
- What is the difference between the 10, the 12 and the 10 pro? Their site does’t really specify other than the 12 is balanced and that the pro has a remote… What would you recommend for the Diana?
- How important is it to use a balanced cable? Cause I got a 3.5 cable with the Diana and a new one from Abyss costs 500$…
- There is an FC-10 version which has a DAC using the same AK4493 chip I have in the Fiio, will it sound better or can I just use the Fiio as a DAC?
- Out of curiosity, what dac did you use with it?
Thanks!
The difference between the normal fa-10 and the pro is component selection being better on the pro. There is a review for the pro where he had both and said the pro was an improvement. The fa-12 is fully balanced, but has dramatically less power than the fa-10, with 2.6 watts at 32ohms, while fa-10 has a ridiculous 16 watts. There is a version that has pre outs that is not available for the fa-10, but that one isn’t balance and is the weakest of them all at 2w at 32 ohm. I think it would be best to ask abyss what they believe would be sufficient output to power these, as the fa-12 unbalance is cheaper than the fa-10. However, i have no idea what the differences there are in their topology, so the fa-10 might still be the better choice even if you use a 5th of its available power (i mean, not even a he6 would consume 16 in standard operation).
yes it is a dramatic upgrade from any sub $400 dac. That’s the one i was using, but it only has usb input if you are not using it as a streamer. My main dac is a cayin i-dac 6 mark 2, but that is a tube dac, so it sounds drastically different from anything else. The unbalanced amps never need a balanced single going in or out as they are all routed into the same single path, but it is worth noting that most modern amps will have very little difference between using unbalanced and unbalanced inputs through their balanced output do to them having better single chain conversion. Maybe a Khadas Tone 2 Pro would be a good choice if you can’t afford the dac module, but that’s what I would go for as an all-in-one solution.
Thanks for the detailed answer!
I must say that the FC-10 seems like a great choice for me.
I’ll sleep on it and see if anyone else has any thoughts. If not I might just order it 
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yea, i think it’s a good fit as it is the only example any of us have shown that doesn’t require a balanced cable to get the full potential out of the amp.
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Well, I ordered the FC-10 but then things got interesting. Apparently Flux will ship a new FA-22 this week which is a mix of their FA-10 Pro and the FA-12 and will have 2.5 watts on 32 Ohm which sounds very good.
I just contacted Abyss about how much power they recommend and the actually recommended the lower powered one. They say it will be more than enough for the Diana and even that it will be safer for the headphone speakers.
So I think I’ll go with the FA-22, which leaves me ~550$ for a dac. Any recommendations?
oh nice choice. Apparently, the gustard x16 sounds smoother and less thin than smsl and topping stuff. Would you be comfortable buying used for a dac? A denafrips ares ii is honestly one of the best dacs under $1500, and would probably never need to be replaced. It’s used market is around $500, but they are quite rare.
The Soncoz SGD1 would be another great pick over topping or smsl stuff in that price range imo.
oh i also forgot the schiit bifrost 2. That’s a really fun sounding dac, which is rare at this price point.
You mentioned you tried the FA-10, did you also try the FA-12?
The denafrips ares ii sounds excellent! It’s currently my first choice if I don’t hear about anything else.
I saw many people compare the Flux to Burson, so how is an FA-22 (the new FA-10 pro + FA-12 merge) with the Ares ii compares to a Burson composer + soloist or a conductor?
Let me add ifi neo idsd to the question as well
No only the fa-10. As a rule of thumb, if a manufacturer is selling two products around the same cost, but one has better specs, it usally means the other one has better internal components because they can inflate the cost of the better speced one as it would be more desirable. You dont need the power of the 10, so I would say the fs-22 is a better amp for that power requirement.
Burson makes much better amps than they do dacs. Also isn’t the conductor like $1300? We have strade very far from your original budget 
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I think the ares and fa-22 would be a better combination. The composer is a $200 dac + $500 amp + $500 preamp. You dont need the preamp, so you are cutting yourself short of why you would buy an all in one like that. The flux is a purely a headphone amp that i think hits above its $750 price point and the ares 2 is cheaper than it should be because manufacturers are being forced to compete with cheaper made saber and akm designed models.
Indeed
But I assumed that would be the case as my goal is to find one good overall solution and be done with it. I’m not looking to have several headphones or amps and switch between them.
As the fa-22 + ares is $1500 I wanted to see if there is something better at this price point.
Could go small and portable 
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I don’t really need the portability and I assume the portability hinders the performance no?