So I can see where he is coming from, my personal advice is to grab something cheap and good that does the job well for the price until you can save up for something in that 800 range where stuff starts to be more than a marginal upgrade, I think there is a performance gap from 200-700 for dacs imo
Imo it’s only a slight upgrade in detail and technicalities, and also is pretty bright which I would be concerned with from what you have said, so I personally would stick with the e30
So I did a small write up of the aune x8 if you are interested, it might answer some of your questions
Gotcha gotcha, a good goal indeed lol. I personally think it’s worthwhile to spend the bit extra on the sundara for exchange for a fair bit higher preforming headphone imo
Good picks, what models can you get and for what prices, and how much would the denon be? Want to make sure you are getting a good value for now
How much could you get it for?
I think it would depend on what you can get the amps for. I would personally use the dac in the headphone setup also for the speakers as typically for the most part from my experience the separate dacs tend to outperform those in a midrange receiver.
I think initially I would wait on the sub, but later on you can grab one for sure, I think they have enough low end nearfield but also don’t expect too much from one. It would also depend on what amp you go with for how you would integrate the sub