Hey! Im looking for a good dac/amp for my U12t. Been looking at Topping, Khadas T2pro and Luxury & Precision W2. All of them measures excellent.
I want a completely black background and that can be connected to an Rpi
Thanks
take a look at the options from iFi. they have gain buttons just for IEM’s.
What kind of budget are you looking at, and what’s your use case? Do you want/need it to be portable, or is this for your desk? Do you want to be able to drive full sized headphones too, or is it purely for the U12t? What OS are you using on your RPi (honestly not sure if this matters as far as what USB compatibility considerations there might be)?
This is my usecase: Laptop(roon core) >DAC AMP to Rpi with f. Ex Ropiee> using my V40 and tablet as remote. This is gonna be a bedside table setup. So Roon core is stoved away. Rpi with dac/amp is gonna be on my bedsidetable and speak to the Rooncore via RAAT.
Desktop or portable doesnt matter. Budget is 300usd.
I cant try anything before i buy and Amazon is unfortunately not in my country.
Been looking at the ifi stuff. The ZEN dac/amp. But the ZEN DAC measurements arent exactly impressive. Been also reading on different forums that people got issues with it also.
Its my U12t that im using the most these days and want to build around that one. Is a match made in heaven for me🙂!
Solutions:
Ultraportable:
The Luxury & Precision W2 seems like excellent engineering! Measures incredible good due to its size. But im not very familiar with the brand at all and want to know more about experience owners have with their products. It also cost 299 USD. I have a very good feeling with this one, But want to wait for review. I think the releases is today, 05.03.
Portable:
The Khadas Tone 2 Pro seems like a swiss army knife:) That little device has alot of features and very good measurements. The original Toneboard was/is very popular. It also has DSD512, MQA, PCM 768Khz, different outputs, can run balanced via 4,4 and also has balanced RCA, But need to buy a balanced RCA cable. It also look pretty COOL and the size is like a Creditcard!!
ALOT of functions for 199 USD + that Khadas seems to really back UP their product with firmware updates etc.
Desktop style.
Topping E30 /L30
This set seems very much as plug and play. Very easy! Measures also very good. The issues with the amp seems to be solved with the newer production units.
IT will cost me 370usd to buy it in my country.
This is the 3 ive been eyed latelely. But very hard to choose. But it is for IEMs only. But it needs to work with Roon.
The W2 is for sale today, But W1 has been on the markert since December. Has anyone tried on of the se dacamps?
What has been your favourite dac/amp with U12t or with IEMs ?
Thanks!
PS:
LG V40 is really great and im using it all the time when im not home(No need for a DAP when u got LG V phones). Ive also been using my LG V40 with Roon uptil now. The issue is that Roon doesnt bypass the Android OS mixer, so i cant take advantage of the quad-dac inside it. Therefore i need a separate dac/amp.
Sorry for the delayed response. I don’t have direct experience with any of the gear you mention, but I’ve been super impressed with the quality of L&P (I have the P6 Pro), and I’m hoping I might be able to try the W2 for when I want to be a bit more portable. From what I’ve read, it should be good. I’ve also heard good things about the Lotoo Paw S1 for a similar form factor.
iFi makes some quality gear, so I wouldn’t worry too much about the measurements. Perhaps someone else here can speak to how it does with IEMs, but I know some of their stuff has IEMatch built in.
So you have the L6Pro? Damn! Thats one piece of a Luxurious DAP! How is it? It looks WAY much better than A&K stuff if u ask me.
L&P seems like an incredible good company when it comes to supporting their gear! Just what they did with W2 is awesome. They sent out prototypes to many of their fans and also to people who test gear objectively. They was very serious with their response and even had a firmware releases few hours an phase issue was discovered. Thats just brilliant and makes me as a customer wanting to try their products!
So im VERY keen on the W2. If it Just had a volume dual, it would be perfect. Haha
So I’ve got the P6 Pro. The LP6 is similar level, but stronger amp section. There are a couple of quirks, like a 12k song limit and capping the DAC mode (for plugging into a PC or other source) at 16bit. Hopefully they’ll address those things in a firmware release soon. For being a DAP, though, it outperforms any desktop DAC I’ve had previously (SU-8, iDAC-6 MkII, Soekris 1541), and has a very solid amp. I pair it with a Romi Less Fox BX-2+ when I need the power for something like my Diana V2, but it’s super impressive.