Looking for a desktop stack… I have an xd05 plus that’ll be my mobile now… headphones are hd650 and nighthawks and I’ll be buying a sundara as well eventually…
So do I start with the highly recommended d10 atom/liquid spark? or buy an enog and play with various amps?
What your experience with this budget gear? What did you find enjoyable and/or beneficial?
Thanks peeps
Ps I listen to everything and I’m always open to new music (not a fan fan of country though)
I mean in the price range there are lots of options imo. I think if you wanted to maximize your budget you could use your 05 plus as the dac with a standalone amp. I think you already have a pretty nice amp with the xduoo tbh imo, so personally I think you would want something with perhaps more power or something with a fair bit more refinement. I think something like a schiit asgard 3 would be pretty sweet imo. The enog 2 pro and archel 2.5 pro is a really nice stack. Personally I wouldn’t suggest going higher than those unless you wanted to make the jump to around 500 for an amp (and more for a dac)
I was thinking the xd05 was pretty nice too but not sure how it competes with the budget stuff so that’s helpful… the geshelli stuff has looked pretty appealing to me for awhile and I dont plan on spending over $500 usd anytime soon… geshelli is more musical than analytic correct?
Geshelli is more transparent imo, but leaning towards natural, but it is pretty clean and if you are looking for something warmer it might not be the best idea.
Also… have you considered a tube for that 650 lol?
All the time lol
That might be something to consider lol. I think personally I would actually just stick with the xduoo for now unless you really don’t like using it on a desk. I think getting like a darkvoice 336se or something for the 650 might really give you something different. If you wanted to also use the nighthawks, you could look for a used massdrop eddie current if you can find one
If you wanted a killer powerhouse dac amp stack, grabbing an asgard 3 and finding a used bifrost multibit would be pretty awesome if you wanted a dedicated desk powerhouse.
The dac in the xd05+ is good enough to pair with the darkvoice? I’m not too worried about tubing the nighthawk atm… if I buy a tube I’d want an otl
Imo yes, more than fine. You would just line out to the darkvoice
I guess I dont truly appreciate how good the xd05+ is
It’s a fairly solid unit overall. I am not claiming that it competes with some of the aforementioned desktop stacks (I would say it gets somewhat beat out by the topping d10 and magni heresy stack, but it does hold it’s own), but personally I think you would get bigger gains from the tube for the 650, and the nighthawks and sundara really aren’t that picky
This is good to know 
Darkvoice over the ta-03s or little dot?
IMO yes if you have the budget
Sure do… thanks m0n