How’s your experience w the v2 and ef400? Was the synergy good?
How was your experience w the v2? I prefer a musical amp/dac.
I’ve heard that dude is somewhat sketch lol.
EF400 pushes HekV2 very well for a unit in its price range. It certainly doesn’t maximize it, but I can’t name anything near the price that will be as good or better.
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Lovely. Beautiful cans. That said, it was in a limited environment. My wallet communicated with my mind that I would not need to pay more than the Arya to get what I wanted. Also - though the weights of those two models are extremely close — something about the Arya felt lighter and comfier for me. SO, I’m not remotely as good a source as WaveTheory whose primary cans seem to be HEKV2, who extensively has reviewed them and their synergy with a number of source chains - and very specifically the EF400.
This guy sounds fishy indeed….
Just watched your review on the hek and ef400. Keep up the good work 
My question is for a budget of 600-700 usd would that be enough for me to run the heks well since I’m on a budget and eventually might upgrade in the long run like the burson soloist or violectric. I know it wont maximize it as much but im no engineer or such but as long as its on a reasonable hearing level then maybe that’s okay?
I listen to music from Norah jones, daft punk, khruangbin and parcels to name a few
I was able to get the heks bnew for the price of a bnew arya (originally was going for that).
EF400 is a solid start amp for HekV2, yes.
Hey wavetheory, I was thinking on upgrading my ef400 to potentially a “end game” worthy of an amp. I was thinking either the burson soloist or v281. What would you recommend between the two.
cheers!
(Disclaimer Edit! I typed up this whole massive thing before realizing the original poster had made this thread nearly 2 months ago and now already has bought a different DAC/AMP. - this is what I get for not reading the entire thread and typing up posts at 4 or 5 am right before going to sleep!)
Joshua_Amon1 Welcome to HiFi Guides! =) Glad to help with your question.
Consider this offering. It’s just a tad over your current budget, but it’s about the best dac/amp that comes anywhere close. and it’s really amazingly good.
- I have been through the wringer of spending money on audio equipment - I wish I had found out about the RME ADI-2 DAC FS many years ago, would have saved me several headaches and a fair bit of cash… If you get several different things to do the same job for less, you will end up replacing it later anyway, and spending even more. This will save you that headache.
This is endgame for the ‘1k or less’ market.
The RME ADI-2 DAC FS
Don’t be scared of all the options, they are great to have, and not confusing once you have used them for a while.
You can buy it here for a good price. It’s cheaper through Thomann than you will find through any other reliable company. Almost everywhere in the USA will be charging you 1300 for this unit. Thomann only costs 942 shipped to the USA.
It has a switching power supply that will work in many different countries, but you will need to get a plug to operate if you are outside the EU.
I ordered one and I live in America so I had to buy a US power plug to go with it. You can buy that here at BHPhoto for 11 dollars (+$3.99 shipping)
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/517363-REG/RME_NETZ_CB_NETZ_CB_Replacement_Power_Cable.html
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A very important perk of this unit, RME has an actual office with actual people you can call if you have problems. And they have many offices around the world. And these are real offices with staff hired to work in each one, not just a fake message service that tells you to send them emails or re-directs you to some overseas support line…
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There is an RME office in Florida for example, which means no overseas costly shipping charges if you need service. RME makes professional audio equipment and they are a German company that makes their own products in Germany. No offense to those companies working from other countries, but German products have a very good reputation for durability, precision, and quality. Turns out - country culture does have an effect on the goods made in those countries, because culture effects the work ethic and attention to detail and quality made in those countries. And the German reputation for precision, durability, and quality is well earned & deserved.
I checked with UPS - the import fees are very tiny (under 10 dollars on this item from Germany) They ship via UPS and Thomann is a reliable company, they are one of the largest music companies to order from for the EU - that’s why the price is so much lower through them, they work directly with RME.
And it comes with a good warranty. 2 years from RME no questions asked, and they pay the shipping. Thomann extends that warranty to 3 years if you order from them although you would have to pay the shipping back to Thomann if you send it back to them, so use the manufacturer warranty first if you ever need to. You will have a hard time finding a better warranty at this price point. Most of the Chinese stuff for example only has a 1 year warranty - that short warranty tells you everything you need to know about ordering cheap/inexpensive Chinese manufactured goods… Of course they are not all this short when it comes to warranty, but below 1,000 dollars a lot of those products also come with short warranties…
- I was personally burned by an SMSL DAC in this way, the unit only lasted a few hours before it failed. brand new, out of the box, worked great for 4 hours and conked out. Was very disappointing. Of course it was one of those 1 - year made-in-china warranties. And the company wanted me to ship it back to China at my dime- Eff that. I just returned it and got my money back on that one. Searching around the net it appears SMSL has some problems with their manufacturing quality - but I digress… Just beware of the cheap made-in-china stuff.
The power supply can also be purchased there, but the one included with the unit should work fine with the proper plug attached.
(link to a replacement power supply)
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1288513-REG/rme_nt_rme_2_2a_power_supply_for.html
I doubt you will find anything better for under 1,000 dollars.
Here is another review if the Zeos review doesn’t tell you everything you need to know. This is a newer review than zeos’ review - 2021 compared to 2018.
- both reviews come to the same conclusion - still the best DAC/AMP combo at 1k or less.
And if you want to go higher than 1k someday? this will still work, because you can just get a dedicated AMP and keep using this as a DAC with all the same features.
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One last thing, you can easily get a simple and inexpensive adapter to plug balanced headphones into an unbalanced DAC/AMP and it will still work fine. And it is safe to do so. Likely your headphones already came with those sorts of adapters. SO don’t be scared of the RME ADI-2 DAC FS just because the headphone outputs are unbalanced, it will still work great for your headphones. And if you want to go full balanced eventually, you can always add a dedicated balanced AMP to that unit later on.
Ah - it appears I was too late on my reply, I just noticed your first post was nearly 2 months ago. I’ll still leave in my suggestion, because it might be useful eventually later on. I wish you good luck with your setup! I hope you don’t go through the upgrade treadmill I went through. x_x
To be honest, I’d have a hard time suggesting an adi 2, especially as an all in one for something like a hekv2. Dac wise it’s not impressive for it’s price, I think you can get better performance for the money, and the internal amp is lackluster. It does have great features if you care about them, and the fit and finish is also great, but I think you end up paying a lot for that for something sonically mediocre for the money.
If you wanted to build a chain at or under 1k, I’d rather look into something like a schiit bf2 + Asgard 3, geshelli j2 + cayin iha6 or monolith liquid platinum, or perhaps an allo revolution dac with a Shanti lpa + lake people g111. All of which I’d find to be at a generally higher sonic level than using an adi 2 as an all in one.
In terms of other options as a pure dac, I’d personally say the adi is more on the level of something like the aforementioned geshelli j2 admittedly (a bit higher than that in technical performance, but falling behind other options at it’s price point)
Really though for a hekv2, I’d want to be higher than any of the options mentioned anyways to maximize the performance of that headphone
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I was thinking of a do-all combo unit, but he already has bought into the game, so it’s changed now and he’s on another path. I typed up that whole thing before realizing he had already bought a DAC/AMP, that purchase was not in his original post >.> I am guilty of not reading the entire thread before responding. (as I noted in my third post) - I should probably put that into an edit in the first of my posts to avoid further confusion.
I have not heard the Soloist so I can’t comment on that one. I know the V281 handles HekV2 well - if you can find one - if you like, warmer, wider, punchier sound. V281 is a bit DAC picky though and is best paired with a neutral, incisive, DAC that has very tight spatial control. Soekris and Chord usually match those well.
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Is there a preferred/recommended 
% when it comes to source/chain and transducer…If I was about to buy or own a $3K set then I’d be looking/buying/planning similar+ for the chain.
Is that just me or 
As a general rule I think you should at least shoot for some reasonable level of balance between cost of chain and cost of headphone/speaker. If you get too out-of-balance you can get a false impression of what a really good piece is capable of. For example, the OG Focal Utopia received many meh reviews from folks who were using things like iFi iDSD portables to power it. Those iFi portables are fine products, but they don’t deliver power in the way that the Utopia needs it to sound like it’s supposed to sound. And especially with amps, power delivery is often the biggest thing that changes with increasing price. More expensive amps, despite having similar specs to cheaper stuff on paper, deliver power more quickly and accurately, which more resolving headphones will reveal with, you guessed it, more resolution.
Clear as mud right? Lol. I don’t think there is one hard-and-fast rule here other than spend enough on each component that the system is reasonably balanced in performance ability between source gear and headphone/speaker.
Now, if you’re going extreme hi-end it gets a bit different. Headphone prices top out (currently) around $6000 for the Susvara. But, Susvara, Utopia, and some other TOTL models are also known to scale up really well, sounding better and better with more and more expensive source gear. At that point there is some benefit in spending $10k+ for each piece of source gear and still spending only (haha) $6k on a headphone.
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Got it! Currently using the he1000 v2 with the ef400. I’m more than happy w/ the cans, but the amp not so. I need more punch/slam and bass in my music. Thats why Im planning on upgrading either to soloist + supercharger or v280/81 + a dac like the d90 to pair the amps or something along that price.
What would you suggest? I listen to music lets say like daft punk, would the amps above would solve that or would you suggest a different pairing for the he1000?
Thanks again!
If going with the soloist I’d go with a different DAC than the D90. With higher end headphones you can really start uncovering the shortcomings of the D90.
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There are two schools of thought when it comes to audio gear.
A large part of the ‘audiophile’ community is about purity of reproduction of sound.
- The goal for them is to have the original recordings reproduced as faithfully as possible. So they aim for equipment which gets as close to that as possible. However, each person is different, some people like certain types of sound more than others, this is where part of the extreme variety of equipment comes in. For what they really want, but are not admitting to themselves, is the type of sound that they personally like. They end up chasing the ‘perfect sound’, and so they experiment with many different types of headphones, digital audio converters, and amplifiers forever chasing the one that sounds the best to them.
Then there are the people who decide they want control over how the sound is presented, so they commonly aim for EQ’s so they can tinker with the sound signature till they get what they want out of their equipment.
- Of course there are differences in the quality of components as well, and the structure of each type of DAC and AMP (and of course Headphones) that you can get. But at a certain point, it’s not so much about quality, but if that particular equipment sounds good to you personally.
Then the other shoe eventually drops - because there is basically a limitless amount of money you can spend on audio gear. It ranges from the extremely cheap, to the insanely expensive. Like - you could literally buy and pay off a house with some of the ‘top end’ audio gear that is out there. And not just a cheap house - a very nice house.
So everyone has their limit there. For me, after I spent a several thousand dollars on audio equipment I started to notice a pattern - a treadmill I was on for audio gear - And that’s when I said ‘fuck it’ and started to look for a good quality piece of equipment that would give me the power to change the sound to anything I wanted. That’s when I went on a search for the ultimate tweaking DAC that was also not insanely expensive.
And if you have watched the videos I gave, you will realize that it is a heck of a lot more than just a simple EQ - this is far beyond the types of audio equipment we had in the 1970’s or 80’s, even the expensive stuff from back then couldn’t do anywhere near to what can be done with modern technology.
(there are a couple exceptions)
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First exception - the Headphones. You will want a good quality headphone that offers great sound-stage and very high quality sound reproduction. I would say you already have that part done.
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Second exception - The amplifier. You will also want a high quality amplifier that can properly power those headphones. This is where you can certainly do better than the amplifier built into the RME ADI-2 DAC FS. While it really is quite a good amplifier, if you want to spend even more, you can get very good amplifiers, such as the new Topping A90D (Discrete), that is a very good amplifier for it’s cost. But you can always add a nice AMP to the RME ADI-2 and have the benefits of both.
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Third exception? - Tube amplifiers are an entirely different animal and do things with sound that we can’t emulate with DAC’s. So perhaps you may want to dip your toes into that world also. (of course, any Tube AMP will still need a DAC - and so the RME ADI-2 is still a great choice there too)
But the true beauty of the RME ADI-2 DAC FS, it is a DAC that gives you ultimate control over your sound. - again there are so many ways that you can alter sound using that DAC it is insane.
- However - this goes against the first type of audiophile - they search for purity of sound, so to them you should never tweak the sound on your own. Yet they will dump massive piles of cash into the search for better sound, and eventually what they are doing is finding the equipment that leads to the sound they are after - essentially tweaking through buying an endless variety of equipment till they hit what they want.
I disagree with that philosophy however, because of the money thing I mentioned earlier. Why should I continue to spend obscene amounts of cash for equipment that I will likely end up replacing eventually? Or at some point I would just give up and end up keeping something I was fairly content with?
- The RME gives me the ability to change practically anything that has to do with sound reproduction, thus allowing me to take my already good quality gear, and customize it to sound perfect for my personal needs. It also allows me to change settings for different outputs on the DAC, so if I have a home theater system that sounds a bit better one way, I can change to fit that, and have completely different presets for each of my sets of headphones. It allows for up to 20 different presets to be saved and switched to at any time. That’s a lot of equipment I can customize the perfect settings for - or I could even have presets for different types of music as well.
The amount of power to tweak your audio it offers is insane. I suggest watching the videos I posted to get a better idea.
That’s what decided my choice. I already have an really great amplifier that can easily power any headphone I own currently, or will ever own. So i’m set there. And i really love my headphones but these things I can still easily change later if I wish.
- So I’m done hunting for the perfect pre-made audio equipment. I took the power into my own hands with the RME ADI-2 and i’m getting off the endless upgrade treadmill for the foreseeable future.
That’s the process I was trying to help shortcut for you with my suggestion.
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and then there’re people that say f* it i want decent sound and start listenig to my music, because i know myself if i start with EQ my listening time will suffer 
Oh yes, it will take some time to tweak sound to perfection, but that’s where the presets come in, you tweak for your gear, then tweak a bit more for various types of music, and save the presets, and you are done.
So it comes down to a question of how much your time is worth. If you are into the thousands of dollars per piece of gear, and you aren’t making thousands of dollars per hour, then you can easily justify spending an hour or two tweaking, then the tweak time is worth the cost of your labor. And how many of us who claim to be audiophiles make thousands of dollars per hour of our labor? I’d wager, not many.
For most people this equipment comes very dear, we save for a long time to buy each component. So the shortest path to get off the gear improvement treadmill is a great way to go.