So my current 2 DACS are an iFi Zen, and a Grace SDAC. My amps are SP100, SP200, Emotiva a100. Does it make more sense to upgrade to the A90 first for the most improvement, or will the Topping make a bigger difference given my setup?
Personally I would honestly say stop at the d70 if you have to have a topping dac, I think in the range that the a90 sits it’s pretty mediocre compared to competing offerings, and it’s only a more marginal upgrade from the d70, so for what it costs imo it’s hard to justify the a90. The dx7s is nice but I don’t know if I would say it’s worthwhile as a dac only
Not that I have to have a Topping DAC, but what else at $350 or less is good? The Project S2 looks interesting, but don’t know a tonne about it
I really like the allo revolution dac recently, it’s pretty dang sweet, def worth a look for sure imo. The s2 digital is a nice sounding dac, it’s a bit warmer leaning, and has mqa if you use that often. For balanced the schiit modius is pretty great for something warmer and smoother leaning, or the enog 2 pro for something pretty clean, neutral, and no nonsense. Although tbh I think the enog 2 pro or modius would be upgrades, but not a really large leap forward in performance or anything imo
I’ll take a look at the allo and one of the features I use the most on my Zen is MQA. People can say what they want about it, I like it, so the Pro-Ject interests me- maybe add some warmth to my SMSL/ potentially future A90. I do like that the Topping has 2 outputs, but could live without that or get a splitter. Would feeding something like an A90 or other similar tier Amp that is balanced SE gonna make enough of a difference I should lean more towards the Topping or another balanced DAC?
Yeah that would be nice, and if you use mqa then a dac that supports it makes a good bit of sense
So ideally it’s not the best, there is a slight quality drop running unbalanced in, but it’s not super large (def not as large as running unbalanced out on the a90), so it is something to think about
Also hold on I just misread this thread, it’s about amps lol, disregard what I was saying, I thought you had an a90 and wanted to upgrade your dac
What headphones do you currently have and plan to run? In this case I think you might get more out of upgrading your amp first since you already have some of the solid budget dacs that you can roll with and be a ok for the time being
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Sorry for the 3 day delay. My setup is
DACs: iFi Zen, Grace SDAC
Amps: SMSL SP100, SP200, and Emotiva a100
Headphones: kph30is, Sundara, DT 770 80Ohm, DT880 600s, OneMore Triples, Dekoni Blues, Meze 99 Noirs, IMR R2 Aten, BLON 03s and 05s, R&P Audio Spring, T60RPs arriving in September
Edit: I referenced the A90 because that was what I had in my sights to potentially replace the SP200. I’d have to compare the SE of the A90 against the SP200, and if the 200s is still better I’d probably just keep it
Hmmmm, so imo if you are looking to go for something more neutral and clean, I might suggest the lake people g111 for what you have imo, it preforms extremely well for what you have and imo outperforms the a90 in some respects (even vs the a90 balanced). Generally a neutral, clean, detailed, but also not harsh or overly sharpened amp that does a great job recreating space with a pretty interesting presentation and impact. Also no need to worry about balanced
Dac wise, I think what I mentioned above with the allo dac would be pretty killer with the g111 for the flexibility you would have imo
I will keep that under advisement and do more research. Thanks for your time
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Also I have never heard of the R&P Audio Spring, what is it? (just curious)
Edit: I’m stupid, it’s the spring iem lol
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Hey, would the g111 be able to replace my SP200 and my BassX? Either? Do you expect all my headphones to sound better on it than my current setup? I don’t need to sell anything, but if I literally never reach for an amp for any of my headphones why keep it
Imo it would easily replace your sp200, but regarding the basx it cannot power speakers lol. But imo it’s def a more capable headphone amp than the basx (although the basx is moreso a speaker amp than headphone amp)
Personally yes, I think it would be a noticeable improvement for most of your headphones and also some of the iems imo
Hahaha yeah, I don’t see myself owning a pair of speakers until I get a room big enough to get a pair of Harbeths that also do bass… not to mention the funds, so yeah, for all intents and purposes the Emotiva is just a really big Headphone amp
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