So, I’m buying a tube amp (Bottlehead mainline) and I would like to know if I should just use my iFi micro black label as a dac to feed it or if it would make sense to get a desktop DAC. Maybe a Topping D70 or a DAC SMSL VMV D1? The Mainline only has RCA inputs btw.
Honestly the idsd micro bl has a great dac and I don’t think you would need another dac, but if you want it for the convenience factor the topping d50s or arist r2r are great picks. D70’s also pretty good if you can get it from a sale. There’s really no need to go for the d1 because you will be bottlenecked by your amp and potentially your headphones anyway
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If you know you won’t need balanced outputs, I’d consider the Topping D50s. It all depends on what extra features you want. I’m guessing you already own a good collection of headphones and a nice solid state amp?
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Well I only have an IEM (CA Atlas) and an HD6xx, I’m gonna buy another set of open backs though (Probably Meze Empyrans) .The only solid state AMP that I have is the iFi micro, I’m not really looking for any features, just really good sound.
I would just say to stick with the idsd if it isn’t too much of a problem, because I still think its an excellent dac (personally I would prefer it over the d50s, but that’s me). Also make sure to potentially consider an impedance adjusting device if you plan to run the atlas on the tube amp like the ifi iematch
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The Empyrans? Wow your going straight to the very top lol. Personally, I’d want a great desktop solid state amp to compliment the tube amp: such as the Monoprice THX 887 (not out yet). If your feeling adventurous with the DAC, you could get this thing: 🔶 RME ADI-2 DAC
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IDK, if you really don’t want the features, I don’t think the rme is a smart buy. I would much rather take a 789 or 887 like you mentioned but with an arist r2r or other dac in that price range
The monolith thx deskop dac/amp combo is also something to look into
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Yeah unfortunately I don’t really believe in upgrading so I just go for the best I can get 
The Bottlehead Mainline is kind of an endgame tube amp btw, so I don’t think it would actually bottleneck anything. I would probably think about the solid state later too but the iFi is a really good and powerful class A/B amp by itself too.
I’m mainly just saying when I say the amp is the bottleneck that spending 2-3k on a better amp (and better headphones lol) will improve the sound more then spending 1k on a dac will if you already have something like the ifi
I have nothing against bottlehead amps lol, they are pretty nice and fun to put together
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I know what you mean, but let’s say I have my end game headphones and amp already, am I gonna miss anything if I just keep the iFi? Is any kind of DAC upgrade gonna improve sound for me? I just don’t want it to bug me later
Ah, well you will always be missing out on something, but I do think a dac like the ifi would be more then capable. With the amp in the ifi, you might be missing out compared to something like the thx, but really the dac in there is pretty good and you aren’t missing out on much. In the future you could get something like the d1 or rme, but tbh I would suggest you get a few more headphones before that
Also with dacs, it depends on what you want. You can get a pretty clean and transparent dac that will give you all the detail you need, or get a dac with a colored sound that might give you a different experience. The ifi has a colored dac that I really enjoy the sound of, because it’s a good balance of “analytical” and more “musical”. There is just a much higher level of diminishing returns with a high end dac then headphones or amps imo
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What exactly is this???
DAC upgrade advice
since they’re considering iFi, perhaps they should look at the new Zen DAC (not the Zen Blue, it’s a media streamer w/DAC) with integrated Amp.
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Oh I already have the iFi, I’ve had it for over a year and I love them with my IEMs, so they are not going anywhere. I’m just trying to figure out if I need a better DAC for my Tube amp.
Ahhh! probably not then…unless you want more warmth or perhaps a cooler sound than what you have already.
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The idsd micro bl is probably very similar in signature to the zen dac (but the idsd micro bl has the better dac(s))
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