First off I am pretty new to this as my only piece of equipment is a pair of nighthawk carbons I stumbled upon in a local store when they were on pretty big discount last year. Since then I have used them directly with a source and just wanted to get input on which products I should be looking into such as an ampdac or amp dac separates. I have learned these are fairly easy to drive but assume this equipment would take them to another level. Looking more for good deals and good beginner pieces than anything else. Would love to look into and learn about any products you recommend, thanks.
First, welcome to HFGF, and the Hawks are a great piece of kit to get started with! What do you currently use as your source, and what plans do you have for future headphone purchases, if any? What budget range?
Being completely honest I have been plugging them straight into my laptop (pc) and using an apple dongle (usb c to 3.5) for my ipad pro. I am a college student and really don’t have a ton of plans at the moment. I stumbled across these headphones while contemplating whether I should get a pair of speakers in a hifi store. Couldn’t decide (active vs passive) and said screw it these headphones are sick I want them! If the job could get done with 200 bucks plus a little extra or what not that would probably be ideal. I may also be getting some speakers at some point but figured it could be cheaper and maybe more fun to grow my headphone set up first. I am ok with upgrading in the future and by no means need the best of the best right out of the gate.
Due to this and since you are on a budget, I would recommend going with one of each:
- DAC: modi 3, atom dac, topping d30 ,d10, e30, grace sdac, smsl m100
- Amp: atom, spark, heresy
or an all-in-one:
- zen dac, k5 pro
Maybe someone else can speak to which of the above is the best pairing with the hawks, but most will probably be fine and you can probably get whichever you can find for a good price on the used market.
Awesome! I have been laughing my ass of over the z reviews and have found myself pretty interested in the heresy/modi combination. Also have heard him praise the zendac but watched another review which made it sound limiting perhaps in power if I was to get another set of headphones in the future? Thanks for the suggestions I will definitely look into all of them!
go with whatever has the features you need and is the best value and have someone with hawks confirm the pairing if you can. Other than that, if you start reading reviews of the <$100 dacs I listed, you will most likely get overwhelmed and have a hard time telling which is best. 
If you have to choose between two well-regarded dacs that are a similar cost, going with the one with the form factor, features, an aesthetics that you prefer is a totally reasonable tiebreaker
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Zen dac is plenty powerful for the nighthawks and could be used with a set of active speakers and also is a very good dac that you could use with an amp should you decide to buy a separate in the future
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Ya you are definitely right too many options hahah
Cool so that would be a pretty good starting point and It could be used even with a future upgrade. Would you advise against the straight jump to the shiit modi/heresy? Also would this coupling work as well with active speakers or would the zendac do this better? Thanks!
i think that would be fine. Also:
“Both Magnis include preamp outputs. This means you can connect either one to your desktop powered monitors for a complete system—or even connect it to a speaker power amp and use it as a preamp. With its built-in time-delayed start-up and instant shut-down, there’ll be no glitches or pops through either headphones or speakers, either.”
so should be fine with speakers
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either will work due to the pre amp in the heresy not necessarily better or worse (though the heresy has more power) but I should say they will have two different sound signatures… the zen being warm and the heresy being analytical so really its a preference thing unless the need the additional power
what speakers will you be using?
I have had multiple speakers in and just couldn’t decide what I wanted. Had the t1e’s in and really liked them in my larger room at home when I was sitting at a reasonable location. Loved the sound staging on them but it didn’t quite transfer to near field for me. I also had the tuks in but something about their tweeter was really harsh and for me fatiguing. It may have just been my unit as it seems people love them but not for me. Waiting on more reviews of the new klipsch fives but might just go with something more fitting for a desk instead if trying to Kill two birds with one stone and being able to use them in a larger room as well.
Take a look at the Schiit Hel as well. I picked one up to use as a glorified volume knob for a set of actives. This won’t have any issues driving the Hawks and as soon as it comes in I’ll take my Hawks for a spin on it.
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I did actually watch multiple reviews on the hel and really wanted to think it was perfect for me but at the same time I don’t game much and when I do I’m never using a mic. I felt like that would be a pretty big feature to go unused and figured there were features I might use that the hel didn’t offer. Z referenced the hel as not offering very good usability around the preamp. Something about not going back and forth between headphones and active speakers very well. I would rather that be a feature over microphone features just to give me the option in the future. Would love to hear your input about how it sounds with the nighthawks!
yeah the addition of speakers really puts a wrench in this which is further complicated by near field and distant listening lol … could grab the heresy and the zen instead of the modi … would be a little more versatile for future upgrades
Would you mind explaining why that combination would be better? Why would I get a dacamp along with an amp?
When it comes down to it, to have a perfect setup for speakers along with headphones for my use is likely overkill. I barely belong in this forum 
my thought here is you would have two different amps with different sound signatures and I personally haven’t heard the modi but there’s a thinking that the zen is a nicer dac… the heresy is very nice with the nighthawks whereas the zen may help that tweeter harshness should you decide to go with the tuk’s
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Just for anyone that reads this, I may have misspoke above. I found the tuks harsh not the vanatoos I actually kind of regret sending those bad boys back. But ok that does make sense. So just bc I get a shiit amp doesn’t mean I should just get the shiit dac as well to pair together. Would be cool to have two power options as well just to play with and learn about the differences.
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The usability he was referring to is you can’t have headphones plugged in and use it as a preamp at the same time. To me that’s kinda minor. The mic is a big feature goi unused but if you’re like me you have no idea what the future may bring and you might want that input down the road🤷‍♂️. I guess my point is that it’s cheap, powerful and has more features than a stack.
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