So for now I’ve been using my motherboards amp/dac and I really need an upgrade. So I was looking to buy a stack of a50s and e30. Is it overkill? Zeos in the review said they sound good on anything, DMS said they need more power and I don’t know if its gonna be overkill for no reason. I like to spend money on things I probably won’t replace for example I don’t plan on buying headphones other than sundara. So for that reason I want to buy something that works well with the cans but won’t go to waste if I can get something cheaper i would. Sooo I basically need help choosing something that will work better for cheaper, this setup is about the budget I have (300 to 350 euro).
Do you have access to Monoprice where you are? A Liquid Spark DAC/Amp stack I think would do well and wouldn’t require going balanced to get the best out of the amp while providing power the Sundaras like and taming the brightness a little as well.
it’s really hard to have overkill. you can do silly stuff and mismatch a $40 headphone to a $1000 amp or visa versa, a $40 amp to a $1000 headphone.
have you looked at the ifi Zen DAC? for the price $140 USD, it’s a heck of a deal. it’s what I use.
No, monoprice doesn’t ship to my country.
I have the option to go with a hip dac, since german amazon doesn’t have the zen dac.
I was also looking at the fiio k5 pro, the problem is i can’t try out the sound and how much of a difference it is between a 100 - 150 amp/dac combo and a 320 apm/dac stack, so I could judge it myself. I am scared that if I get something it ultimately won’t be good enough, I don’t want to regret my decision. Also I’ve seen Topping Dx3 pro, Also heard Topping NX4 is a good one, I really have a hard time deciding should I shell out a lot for dac transparency and from what I’ve heard planars get more full, more energetic if they have more power. Any of these option are gonna make the sundaras sound way better but I wanna make them sound really good and not buy something half assed, but also not pay as much an arm and a leg would cost.
The K5 pro is a pretty commonly recommended entry level combo unit that should provide pretty good quality that would hold you over into mid level headphones just fine. For 300-350 Euro, you might also be able to do something like a Lake People G103s and Topping E30. The benefit to getting a stack is the ability to upgrade individual components later on, and generally better overall quality since combo units are generally stronger as either DAC or Amp, not both.