In the market for a headphone amp to pair with my Takstar Pro 82s, KPH30I Clears, and will soon get the Beyerdynamic DT880 Premium 600 ohms. Recently sold my IFI Zen Dac as I was wanting something with an RCA input, plus I was just wanting to try something new.
Nothing professional, I just play games, watch movies, and listen to music all day (mostly rock and metal). I like to own just one amp at a time, so this will be used for everything I do at my desk. Regardless of the price differences, I’m torn between the following amps…
- Rebel Amp
- JDS Labs EL Amp II
- XDUOO TA-10R
To be completely honest I just like the way these 3 amps look compared to everything else out there under $500 lol, plus they all seem to be highly praised.
I also don’t have a DAC at the moment. I’ll probably end up getting the SMSL M100 just because I don’t want to spend much on a DAC. Until I get one I’d just be feeding one of these amps straight from the aux out of my computer monitor.
Thanks!
Well, if you like cool looks, JDS Labs does free engravings on new amps/dacs! I kicked myself when I realized this after having received my Element II:
https://jdslabs.com/support/faq/#category-1-question-3
https://blog.jdslabs.com/tag/engraving/
The Atom Dac/Amp stack is also a really good deal if you are trying to save some cash ($210 all in) and it sounds identical to the element II with just a smidge less power —if you can put up with the plastic cases. But at $400 you could get the element II with the built in DAC, and that would still be cheaper than Rebel. JDS’ customer service is also excellent. A couple of days after I received my amp, the power adapter started malfunctioning. Contacted them, received an email right back, and they sent me a new one express which arrived in Canada within a day or two at most.
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Whoooah that is pretty sweet! lol I would have totally missed that in the cart too. I only wish the Dac/Amp combo had an optical or coaxial input. For that reason the standalone amp is more appealing to me.
Well, the bad news is to get that, you would need to get coax and optical you would need the el II DAC. On the plus side, you could get the whole top surface (rather than just the knob) engraved on that one!
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Paying $300 for a DAC hurts my soul… it would look cool tho lol. I was just saying if I was going to buy a DAC/amp combo I would want it to have optical in.
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If you go with the Xduoo TA-10R you do kill 2 birds with 1 stone as its an amp dac combo and you can roll to an E80CC and this combo sounds [See linked below]
I N C R E D I B L E
I’d recommend the Flux labs FA12s over the rebel amp you’re going to need the power if its going to be your only amp for that DT 880 600ohm. Also if you get the DT 880 get Dekoni Choice suedes they’re incredible.
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For 500 I like the Rebel a lot (I like class A)…if you like tubes go a few $ more and get the Hagerman Tuba which is a killer amp for the money.