🔷 Focal Elegia

I’m getting into audio and just bought my first headphones: Focal Elegia. Did I hear something about a badge and french fries? :smile:

I am connecting the Elegia directly to my PC jack and I feel they are underperforming, so I was thinking of buying a iFi Zen Dac V2.

I read @WaveTheory 's review on iFi Zen Dac v1 and I’m reconsidering.

I don’t know how to quote from another thread so I’ll post the link and quote directly from WaveTheory below.

“The Zen As an Amp
As good as the Zen sounded as a DAC feeding the Asgard and then into the Elegia, plugging the Elegia directly into the Zen’s headphone output was not a pleasurable experience. That pairing was harsh, compressed, aggressive, and metallic sounding. (…) I don’t know why the Elegia and the Zen didn’t play nice in this way, but it’s worth mentioning. Truthfully, this is about all the testing I did with the Zen’s amp section. I’m just not personally interested in using it that way.”

WaveTheory also mentions that the Elegia + Asgard 3 + Zen Dac sounds great, even playing harsher genres like metal and hard rock.

My question is do I need more power? Elegia’s impedance is 35 ohms so iFi Zen Dac should be enough to power it and get a good performance, right?

Thanks!

Edit: I wanted to spend $200 on a Dac / Amp combo but I live in Europe so some equipment is more expensive here (eg. JDS Labs Atom+ and Schiit).