I’m selling my Schiit Magni Heresy and Schiit Modi 3+ cause I didn’t find them worth it. But I’m still thinking of getting something cheaper and smaller that will be able to do the job good enough.
I’ve had the Schiit stack for like 2 years now, and just never seemed to have used them. But I compared the audio quality to me just plugging in my HD 6XXs into my AT2020 USB+ mic…and honestly, didn’t see that much of a difference. Especially not enough considering the Schiit stack costs more than my headphones.
But I’m still thinking of getting something a bit cheaper and even easier to use. I was thinking of something like the FiiO BTR5. Is there anything you would recommend? I’m aiming for something around $100.
ES100 for Bluetooth and a ridiculous amount of eq and options. After that probably any nice dongle if you have a USB source.
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You could check out the ifi dac/amp combos or maybe some of the cheaper topping stuff. Your best bet is probably going to be the Ifi Zen DAC V2. I hope this helps.
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depending what you’re using as the source
Phone/Tablet - BTR5 or similar would be good
Laptop/PC - could also consider things like FIIO E10K or a refurbished/secondhand IFI Zen Dac
Seconded. Just get a Zen DAC V2 and call it good. It’s a good price, it’s got balanced and unbalanced. It’s got a fun button to play with sound a little. It’s simple yet has a good amount of outputs. It’s also a headphone AMP - It sounds great, and you can power it entirely off USB from a laptop.
You will have a hard time doing much better unless you spend a hell of a lot more or get supremely lucky on the used market.
Honestly, i think people could get perfectly great experiences from hardware like the Zen DAC V2 and never need to go any higher. Audio equipment suffers from a huge diminishing returns problem. You have to spend a LOT more to get improvements at each step up. Does it get better? yes. But the cost… it gets crazy, and the return is not worth it for 99% of the population.
I am guilty of being the person who zeos pointed at in the end of this video… (even though my name is not john)…
I have one of the very few headphones that will not work on the Zen DAC. Argon’s if you have Argon’s, you can’t do the Zen DAC. But do you need Argon’s to get a great experience with audio? no. No you do not.
Honestly, if I did not have Argons, I would just get a good pair of easy-to-drive good quality headphones and a Zen DAC. And if I wanted to drop obscene amounts of money on audio gear, I would just spend the extra I saved from buying the Zen DAC on something like an 1800 dollar pair of headphones or really good powered monitor speakers instead and just run them through the Zen DAC.
Some suggestions if you want to spend money on headphones, for 150$ you can get some pretty great headphones these days.
- Specifically these if you want some good bass cannons. (they come in black too if you are not a peanut butter fan)
- Or these if you want less bass and just great quality sound.
- And there you go, that would be a very kickass audio experience for under 350$ total.
And if you want to drop all the money on high end headphones, here is a good choice for 1,600$
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why not just get a schiit fulla? its pretty good for a $100 and more powerful than a btr5 or es100 or really any dongle DAC
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Truth!!! I completely forgot about the fulla.
89$ on sale atm. zen dac v2 costs almost as much as schiit stack. may as well keep the stack at that point.
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Ah, so you already have the cheapest amp and dac that Schiit makes? umm… and you have cheaper headphones too? hmmm… Sorry, I did not really check the pricing on the items he mentioned, and my mind automatically defaulted to where I am currently, forgive my error.
So he is really serious about what he said and 100 dollars is more of a hard limit instead of a soft one. Hmmmmm… That makes this significantly tougher.
I still stand by what I said about the experience being quite good in my earlier post, but yes, he needs something even cheaper than my proposed total of 350.
I’ll have to dig a bit more, My own ‘low end’ would be the Zen DAC/Amp combo I listed, i don’t think I would let myself go for anything less. At that point you might as well stick with the built-in amplification that comes default with your computer and just focus on getting good headphones. Like the SV012’s or the Rhode NTH-100’s I mentioned. You would still get a good experience simply from the headphones, and honestly built-in audio in pc’s these days isn’t too terrible. It’s actually really good compared to what it was even 10 or 20 years ago
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Refurbished Zen Dac V1’s go for like $120ish
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Thanks for the suggestion! The Zen DAC does look good, really my two main issues holding me back is that it is not that much cheaper compared to my Schiit stack ($200 with tax for the Zen, $260 for my Schiit stack, well technically $290 cause I bought a Snake Oil MIni-link for the stack). My other issue is that I genuinely could not tell that much of a difference in quality when running my HD 6XXs through the stack, vs just through my mic that is connected to my PC. So while I do want to have my headphones run the best they can, if there isn’t a big enough of a difference what’s the point?
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if your just as happy with the mic as the stack, then use it. theres not going to be a ton of difference in anything we suggest.
I will say that i enjoy my zen dac a lot more then the schiit stack collecting dust i stopped using because of the zen dac.
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Since you’ve had the stack for 2 years why not just keep it in case you pick up something that’s more difficult to drive. Personally I don’t hear a huge difference in sources with the 6XX till I use it on tubes.
The biggest thing a basic DAC/Amp gives is removing the potential for interference with other things in your system. However the Zen Dac does give an improvement over that, just for the boost button, which actually works surprisingly well. Of course this will vary based on the headphones you currently use, some won’t need that boost, and others will benefit greatly from it. But most of the time, it is a benefit to have.
Normally I don’t like posting Ebay links, but here is an example of the V1 version of the Zen Dac (which is still quite good) being sold at a decent price from what looks like a reputable seller for $129.95.
If I were in the market for a Zen DAC, I would feel safe enough purchasing that one from that seller. And it looks like you have 30 days to return it and get your money back if you don’t like it.
This is why I usually suggest amazon, because they eat shipping costs and give you your money back if you don’t want an item you purchase through them. But it looks like Ebay is doing that too, and this seller appears safe enough to order from based on a cursory inspection.
- But the biggest thing is your headphones. You will get the largest audio improvement there. Things like DACS and AMPS are much further down on the scale. I think of them separately, because a DAC and an AMP are really two different things. But combo units can do a good enough job, and they can cut down on the cost quite a bit. They also give you a device you can take with you from one computer to the next, your audio system will likely outlive whatever computer you hook it up to. And a good set of headphones is definitely the most important thing. So i suggest putting your money there, and don’t worry too much about dacs and amps until you have a very nice set of headphones already.
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This is also a great option. I suggest watching a video to learn what’s different and if it will work for you.
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