Also Topping E30 is 190 eur and SMSL Sanskrit is 160 eur here in my country.
Gotcha. I would advise starting off a little more nuetral than the Zen stack together, then. Personally I struggle to recommend the Zen CAN amp (scroll up to see my probably-too-long review to see why). The Zen DAC however, is a little quirky but a solid product at its price point. If you can stretch your budget a little I think a good approach for you is to get a Lake People G103-s amp and pair it with a Zen DAC. The G103-s is neutral sounding. The Zen isnāt quite neutral but itās also not way off neutral, but it comes with a bass boost that you can route through the G103-s to add some oomph to your hip-hop listening. The combo will be over 300 euro, but not terribly so. You can also go in stages. You can buy the amp first and plug it directly into the analog output of your computer to start. Then, when funds recover, add the DAC.
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Thanks for the advice, iāll check it out. When i first looked into amp/dac devices my budget was around 200 eur but then i was like ah fuck it ill stretch the budget to 300 eur for zen dac + can if its good. So iāll probably do it in stages.
QUICK EDIT: Damn Lake people g103-s is 300 eur here.
This is why went the route I did, as everything else was either really expencive or just impossible to aquire aka Schiit. Ended up the best option for me and must say im enjoying it more and more each day. Also if no like cos its amazon you can just return it. Loving the 3D feature with jazz just makes me feel in the room with them so weird.
Yeah I get it, glad that youre enjoying it. How long have you been using your amp dac combo, reliable? Well the good thing is that I have around 2 weeks 'till my cans arrive so lots of time to think about it. Either way Iāll be spending more money than i wanted to.
Hahah yeah same here didnt expect to spend around Ā£270 but have been quite happy with it. Had them arond a week now and been perfect. Both of them have worked flawless as I put in the review. The sanskrit im also really happy with. Have nothing to compare them to apart from my M3 PRO and they miles better for sure. Wave defo knows more than me tho. But im happy 
gonna be my endgame for a very long time haha, Got an IEM and headphone adventure to go through and think these should be great for most of it.
I retrospec could of probably got a better deal with an all in one but again I dont mind as these should last a long time I hope . Also Lucked out abit as I do like the warm sound though I wouldnt say its changed it too much. Over all the other just improvements of a proper dedicated AMP and DAC. The Dac has been a real quality of life improvement as it just works and when switching sampling rates it doesnt pop which is nice.
Thatās the most important thing, if you are happy with it just roll with it 
. I also plan to keep the amp/dac that i decide to buy for a very very long time and hopefully not have any problem with. The endgame build. Itās just such a shame that sometimes availability in my country is very poor so most of the stuff has to be imported so the prices get bumped real good, well most of the times 
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Same here living in the UK. Tho the IFI price was quite good and SMSL so they much have pretty decent distribution to here. If you cant find anything else im sure you will be happy with them
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iFi is fair here too, SMSL on the other hand is almost 50% more expensive, also has to be imported so even more hassle. Weāll see, maybe iāll get some more recommendations, maybe i just go for the amp first 
. Thanks for the help lads.
Btw if I go for the Zen DAC should i power it through usb or get a separate psu?
getting the PSU is beneficial, especially if youāre going to used the balanced output.
Iām gonna be honest i still donāt understand what are the differences between balanced and unbalanced, and is it much better to use balanced output?
the short answer is yes, itās much better to have balanced output.
the long answerā¦sometimes / maybe.
read this:
a well executed single ended output found in the higher priced amps will be as good as balanced output in a lower priced amp. the se in the lower priced amp usually suffers as they usually take shortcuts to create it.
by higher priced amp, I donāt mean units that are $1000. there are some really good oneās at the $200 price point, like the Schiit Asgard 3.
balanced output provides more power which is what a well done singled ended output will also provide.
the hangup is that headphones with attached cables are usually se and cannot be used on a balanced output. doing so will likely ruin your amp due to the different wiring structure. headphones with detachable cables can usually have a a balanced cable connected and headphones with attached cables can usually be modified to be detachable, in which case, you can likely use a balanced cable as well. thatās why you will find the 2.5mm, 4.44mm pentacon and XLR / mini-XLR are almost always balanced while the 3.5mm and 6.5mm connectors are always se.
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Can this be used with the e30? or do I need a balanced dac?
Yes. It has 2 SE inputs.
ahh thanks!, and I can still used the more powerful(I think) balanced out?
Yes. Should be fine.
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So I got the Zen CAN to pair with the Zen Dac to run the GL2000, which had ārecommended at least 2 watts of powerā Honestly, iāve been testing plugging straight into Zen Dac, and than plugging straight into Zen Can and trying my best to volume match, seriously donāt really hear much of a difference that I couldnāt attribute to placebo lolā¦
Zen Dac can easily power the GL2000 in low gain, what is the point of the Zen CAN? I definitely donāt hear āscalingā or the benefits people talk about getting a more powerful amplifier. Any thoughts?
I have a few thoughts, with disclaimer I have not heard the GL2000:
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how much time have you listened with GL2000 On each amp? Iād listen to each exclusively for a couple days at least and then start quick switching.
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The GL2K is not particularly hard to drive. Itās rated at 60 ohms and 99db/mw sensitivity. Also, itās a planar which means its impedance will be more or less constant over the entire frequency range. Where the Zen amps struggle is mostly in the low end with dynamic driver headphones where impedance can get quite high. Planars donāt attack their weaknesses in power delivery quite like dynamics do.
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the recommended amp power spec is likely more of a power handling spec, you put more than 2W through there you probably pop the driver.
Even after long exclusive listening situations you may not notice much of a difference. If each amp can drive the headphone comfortably youāre talking about 2 products from the same model line from the same company. The designs are going to be quite similar. The point of the CAN is to bring that Zen sound to headphones the Zen Dacās internal amp doesnāt have the power to drive. In my review above I pointed out the CAN doesnāt do a great job with high impedance dynamics, but it does fairly well for planars and low impedance dynamics.
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- I been listening Zen Can for like 5 days, Admittedly Zen Dac not too long
- Yeah I know its easy to drive and agree with the planar impedance. Because of that, the main question was, does a more powerful AMP actually make the GL2000 sound better? Right now I donāt hear it.
- They recommend at least two watts which is hilarious. Well Zen can output 1890mw @ 64 ohm, so def enough to meet that spec
Thanks for your reply! Iāll continue listening, I actually do think I hear the Zen Can presents less bass than Zen Dac volume matched but will continue listening.