Help me spend my £1k budget

Headphones Headphone Discussion / Help
1

Hello all!

Whilst I’ve always been into great sounding speakers/headphones/earphones, i’ve never really had the budget to do much other than dip my toes into the hobby with my current setup as below but, I guess one of the advantages of getting older, I’m now beginng to have a little bit more disposable income to play around with so here we are - looking for advice!

My current setup:
AKG K712 Pro
Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 (3rd Gen)
Arcam Delta 290
JBL LSR305 & LSR310s

Situation:
I’m currently using the Output from my headphone jack of the Scarlet 2i2 audio interface at 100% volume and using a 3.5mm to RCA cable into the back of my Arcam amp. This is causing a ground loop issue which I’m trying to figure out as I can’t use it when gaming or use my computer whilst listening to any quiet song as I hear a noise every time I move my mouse or the computer does anything (any advice on this would be great also for the short-term).

This feels kind of jankey and whilst the Arcam amp makes a big difference over just using the Scarlet 2i2, and was like £500 back in the late 90s when my dad bought it, I’m not sure if it’s really considered a great option?

So… I’m looking at spending circa £1,000 - could stretch if worth it. For this I’m ideally looking for some amazing headphones (love the look of the Focal Clear MGs but would be pushing the budget) and, I assume, a better DAC/amp combo or perhaps just a 2nd DAC (and/or amp) exclusively for my headphones and I’ll still just use the Scarlet 2i2 for my speakers/sub & microphone (or one that does it all?). I assume I could just change drivers on my PC to input from the 2i2 and output to the new DAC/Amp for the headphones. Or I can continue to use my Arcam amp so the new Dac would maybe output to the Arcam amp? Lots of possibilities and I have no idea what the best option is. I asked this kind of info in ‘What Hi-FI’ forum and it confused people but I feel this will be a better forum.

People recommend the Ifi Zen Dac V2, would that likely sound better than my Aracam Delta 290, or would I want to go from the Zen V2 into my Arcam amp; or is that pointless?

Headphones wise, I like the idea of the Focal Clear MG (and I guess the Pro ones as cheaper but don’t know if they sound as nice), Hifiman Edition XS, Sundara, Monolith, Andanda, LCD-X, etc - basically any well reviewed open back headphone.

I do make music with my AKG K712’s as they are pretty analytical so good for mixing/mastering and soundstage is great for gaming but I really want some phones that I put them on and just sink into my chair blown away by the sound. If it’s relatively accurate that would be great so I could use them to produce alongside my AKGs and comfortable so I could game with them. However they don’t need to be super accurate, as I plan to keep the AKGs, but the comfort level is an important factor - the AKGs are vurry comfy, though sometimes warm ears.

So yeah… any help is greatly appreciated, I’ve spent circa 10 hours watching Z’s reviews and I’m not much closer to knowing what I want haha. Headphone wise I’ll try richersounds to demo them if I can or other hifi shops in the area as I realise that’s always hard to recommend for each persons needs but a good idea of what ones to look at would be great and help with the amp/dac situation in particular would be awesome.

Also i don’t have to spend £1k with your recommendations a I understand diminishingreturns, it can be less hah

Thank you in advance for any help!

2

You might be able to find the Focal Clear OGs (white) second hand for £600-800. Most people even prefer its tuning over the Mg. The Focal Elegia also goes on sale at Adorama for $379, which even with a shipping proxy and import tax is still a quite competitive price (see the deals thread). Expect to have to EQ it though, I really didn’t like it stock, but a lot of people do.

Outside of Focal you could try the Sennheiser 6XX which still today is ridiculous value at $240 (shipped to the UK around £230). Beyerdynamic are also popular with their DT880/990 but I haven’t tried them.

A mid tier amp/dac combo like a Schiit Magni/Modi, Topping L30/E30, or the JDS Labs Atom Amp/DAC will work fine with any of the headphones mentioned so far.

I also had a similar ground loop issue using a E1DA 9038D into a Schiit Asgard with a 3.5mm to RCA cable. Given the 9038D is a portable device it wasn’t designed to handle ground loops, and the 2i2 may be similar. You can use a optical/toslink connection, since there’s no ground or power at all to be noisy. If your PC motherboard has toslink out, you could use one of the above DAC recs with toslink in and your existing amp.

I ended up fitting the Asgard with a DAC card, which solved the issue as it has sufficient power isolation on its own.

3

sounds like usb noise (I have the same issue with usb on my pc) currently using the topping usb filter which helps a lot I tried the IFI one but it didn’t help as much
getting a cheap sound card with a toslink out or a usb reclocker with toslink out feeding a desktop setup would also work
personally I have some $500 range headphones and still find myself using my k7xx enough to have gotten a k702 as a backup (waiting for a new DAC to arrive to figure out if I’m either downgrading my setup or selling my lower end gear)
if you can try eq to see what you like and then look for something close to that it’ll help :wink:

4

Thanks for the inputs, food for thought indeed. Curious to hear other people’s thoughts also :slight_smile:

5

Last time I checked, there was a Lake People G111 for sale in the classifieds thread for a shy under $300 US. At that price paying to ship it would still be getting a pretty good deal. If you went the Adriana Elegia route, that would leave quite a lot of room in the budget for a great DAC. Something like a Geshelli J2 should leave sufficient budget to grab any cables, interconnects, etc. Or, with the strength of the Pound vs the Dollar, it’s not inconceivable that you could squeeze a Bifrost 2 in.

6

Think the Topping EX5 is going to be my pic for a DAC/Amp combo.

I do have question though; can I use the RCA output of these to input into my other Arcam Delta 290 amp, so essentially use the EX5 a just a DAC for the times that I want to swap between amps for certan occasions? The EX5 may blow the Arcam away in every mannor but there’s a chance the Arcam might suit certain circumstances you know?

7

the rca is a output so you could use it as a preamp for another amp

8

Is that a popular behaviour and yields good results? I’m sure I saw Z do something like that in one of his vids