I’m looking to get a pair of Sundaras soon, but have yet to settle on an amp to power them. I currently have a (somewhat new) Modi for my DAC, so would I be better served by shooting high with the amp, and upgrading the Modi later? Or is there a value pick that would work well with them? Not too picky about the price point, so any suggestions welcome 
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My backup amp is the Schiit Magni Heresy. It fits my needs VERY well and can power the Blon B20’s very well on low gain, but I flip the switch for high gain anyway. For higher impedance headphones, The Magni’s actually have better single ended power output than my THX 887. Biggest question is do you want a neutral amp or a slight tinge warmer? For $100 you can get a lot of amp with Schiit that you enjoy. If you want an amp/dac combo… I’d really look that the monoprice THX amp/dac combo since it has dirac which is a really neat feature but that is $500 all together.
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what’s your budget?
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Hmm… I honestly hadn’t considered a DAC/Amp combo, nor had I heard of Dirac before. Sounds interesting, and I have considered a THX amp before. Is Dirac worth it though?
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Very flexible, but I’d rather not get into the realm of diminishing returns lol. But I am willing to wait and save for a great product (see my comment on THX AAA amps haha)
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I would not consider thx imo, I would seriously take something like a magni heresy over a thx amp. I would personally say an Asgard 3 offers the best bang for buck pairing for the sundara imo
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Would the Sundara hold the THX back too much? Or is to just not a good match for the sound signature?
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So personally, I’m not a fan of thx and feel that there is better in both the higher end and lower end market, I would even argue that something like the jds labs atom sounds more impressive than thx, I just think there is no place for thx in the market. Thx is somewhat harsh and over sharpened, lifeless, lacking dimension to sound, and just overly analytical, it’s a great example of numbers over sound
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but like past a $100 amp wise is heavy dimishishing returns
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I would say it depends on the headphones. With something like a 58x I would agree, but with the sundaras more juice and more refinement is helpful to a point, I personally would say 200 is where it hits a bit harder
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So aim lower, and warmer. Got it. Thanks for your help guys, I’ll do some shopping around!
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Yeah personally I think and asgard 3 or magni heresy would serve you very well, and down the line you could get a better dac like an enog 2 pro or topping d50s.
Actually if you wanted a matching stack, the enog 2 pro and archel 2.5 pro is a really nice setup
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great Roxas profile Pic btw
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I would say yes if you want to mess with your sound and have a unique experience. I say that after loving Q-Surround growing up I miss some of that processing. If you watch movies with headphones or maybe you want some extra tricks for 3D spacial sound with gaming then I would totally recommend researching Dirac to see if it is something you would enjoy. But for a Dac/Amp combo, it’s an all in one unit with the same DAC chip as the Gesheli Labs Enog Pro 2 for about $200 ish more.
Reason why I’ve held off on the AKM 4493 + Dual AAA-788 desktop amp is 1) didn’t have balanced outs on the dac 2) all inputs go analog -> digital -> digital filter -> amplifier -> out, I personally want that all analog through my amp. 3) didn’t know about it until after buying the 887 4) already have a dac I love.
As an THX 887 owner, I can say it’s a great amp, but as MON said there are better out there. If you commit to a THX amp you want lifeless clean sound coming from the amp (Schiit Heresy does the same). If you want color, you search in the dac and equalizer implementation. Just remember the differences you will hear are smol.
Listen to Mon about power with the Sundara’s, for amps I recommend giving this a read: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/schiit-happened-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-improbable-start-up.701900/page-3798#post-15486474
Which is you think it better? the Asgard 3 or the Archel 2.5?
I would say it would depend on the headphones you pair with them
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I want to point out that you are being too harsh and critical about the THX. But then I agree with most of it. 
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That just sounds like thx lol
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I am running Sundaras through a Dragonfly Red, the source being a OnePlus 7t. It is sufficiently loud at 80% volume and I am happy with it. IMHO a value priced, compact and no fuss arrangement.
I am reliably told that it does not get any significantly better than this without spending silly money. (I am a newbie myself and bow to greater wisdom and experience always on these matters).
What do the Gurus advise?
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