Schiit vali or any other suggestions

Equipment / Electronics / Gear / Accessories Headphone Amps
1

Hi there,
I have a pair of the Beyerdynamic DT 990 250ohms and i am looking at buying an amp to pair with them under about 250nzd i am looking at the schiit vali and am wondering if i can buy just that or do i also need other things to run it, i am also open to any other suggestions. Thanks

2

What will you be using as your source? You might get by short term without a DAC, but will probably want one at some point.

3

i havent got anything to power, what would i need to do this?

4

Is this a computer system that you are looking to improve? If so then you could plug into it with the vali I believe using a adapter cable, But just the amp alone will not work without a source of some kind… Inexpensive dac Like the topping e30 would work… computer to e30 then from there to vali?

Really need more info in order to help here… You have the headphones but how do you listen to them now? Do you have a pc or mac? or is this a home stereo? Where are you located etc? EU or US
Actually your budget, NZD? New Zealand?

5

Hi there, sorry for the lack of information, yes it will be just for my headphones unless my speakers will benefit from it too. i currently have the headphones going into a fiio btr5 then into my pc, but they arent getting very loud this way which is what im hoping to achieve with an amp of some sort, i have a pc and im located in nz, but i can get most things from amazon or other places so thats not a problem

6

i got this reply from a qustion i put on the darkvoice 336se on amazon, is what he is saying true?
Thanks

A fellow customer answered your question,

“I have some dt990 250ohms, if i got this is it just plug and go or do also need something else”

BruceC answered:

“Basically Plug and go, if you have audio out (not digital out), as in 2 RCA output jacks from some device, then you just connect the audio out to the audio in of this amp with 2 RCA cables and plug in your headphones to the amp’s input. If you have a stereo mini 3.5mm output then you need a 3.5mm to 2 RCA mono converter (https://www.amazon.com/3-5mm-Mini-Stereo-Audio-Cable/dp/B0032JAG4G). If you have only digital out (like from a USB) then you need a Digital to Audio Converter (DAC) in between your digital out and this amp. But I’m not convinced that any headphone amp, including this one, noticeably improves the sound quality. If you feel you need more volume because your headphones are at a moderately high impedance of 250 ohms, then yeh, get it. I have headphones from 35, 250, and all the way to 600 ohms and only noticed a bit of a volume aid for the 600ohm cans. But this tube amp looks cool, lol.”

7

Is your BTR5 set to high gain? While the 3.5mm output is not as powerful as the balanced one, it should be able to get reasonably loud.

8

yes it is, its loud enough for music but when it comes to games it just dosent get quite loud enough

9

A few questions here: Is this a desktop or laptop? Does it have a headphone jack? If you have the headphone jack then you should just be able to get a adapter cable to go from there to the Vali and use your phones. Preferably you should consider a dac to plug in to your pc via usb then run a rca cable from the dac to your vali… Schiit Modi and the Schiit vali would work well together or you could go with the Topping e30 Dac

https://www.schiit.com/products/modi-1 Good simple little Dac.

https://www.amazon.com/Topping-E30-Optical-Coaxial-Portable/dp/B0865Y9F6R

Another option would be the IFI Zen Dac/amp combo

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=ifi+zen+dac&crid=XZYTB79J5MS2&sprefix=ifi+zen%2Caps%2C222&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_7

I do not know what power you have there 115 or 230 so make sure you check those first…

10

Go on eBay and get a used schiit stack. You can get used magni 3/modi 3 stacks for less than 100$ US

Edit: the vali will drive them fine. But used stack gives you better dac then built in PC dac.