WHAT to upgrade .. i'm at a loss atm

Off-Topic
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hi everyone,
i think i’m not the first to get stuck in this loophole so i’m reaching out to y’all for advise. Over the last couple of years, i’ve slowly become sort of headphone-addicted, though i don’t have the money for like 3-4 flagship headphones with a 10k dac-amp setup, no-no. The most expensive audio thing i own are my Focal Clears and i really love em. But i still have the urge to make things better, looking out with excitement and curiousity to upgrade certain parts of my setups and that’s where i’m stuck atm. I have like a desktop/portable-HP/IEM-hybrid-set of stuff and a speaker setup.

  • At the desk i use PC → Chord Mojo/DethonrayH1/HRT Music Streamer II → SMSL SP200 → Focal Clear/several lower HPs
  • On the go i use my Dethonray or Mojo (obv.) with iphone and several IEMs and HPs, i.e. Legacy 3s, Tin P2 and P1, HPs like B&W P7, P5, Koss KPH30i and even the almighty sony cd900st
  • my speaker setup are Triangle Br03s (fantastic, really), IOTAVX SA3, a Raspberry Pi4 with IQAudio DAC Pro and piCorePlayer on it, plus a good ol’, non-restored vintage Hitachi turntable.
    The turntable currently is just a fun addition, i just have a handful of vinyls.
    In all three setups, my main music source is TIDAL Hifi. Obviously, MQA doesn’t play any role here and i don’t pay attention to it. On the desktop i (obv.) use the HPs for everything, and my TV is connected to my speaker setup so it’s also used for movies.

Now, congratulations to everybody who has read through all this stuff.
But all i’m asking you for is your opinion on: what would you upgrade next in my setup and why?

I’m currently in the mood to get a really, really good DAC like the Ares II or the Chord Qutest/Hugo2 just to play around with it on both setups. But i think, the most obvious thing to upgrade for many would be my headphone-amp, i know. But then you have all these new questions about good paring etc. From my understanding, both DACs mentioned should actually pair well with the mentioned THX amp and also my speaker setup… but on the other hand, the SP200 and the Clears aren’t that good of a match…

The Dethonray is my newest “toy” but it didn’t really blew me away at the desk and the speakers, maybe i should give it more time…

But you see, i’m at a loss. New DAC, new AMP, even new speakers and new HPs come to mind or maybe upgrading/restoring the turntable… goddamn i can’t decide!! To me, the real problems come when i have a bit more money to spend. I always try to reach new levels when getting a new toy and can’t make reasonable, smaller upgrades in every setup instead. WTF, PLZ HELP.

2

Would probably clean up the best headphone setup.
PC - upgrade - Clear. Maybe go for full Focal setup, like Arche.

Leave the current setup to play with other headphones.

Speakers: endless pit.
Higher tier amp and speakers + bigger. Why, for fuller and bigger sound.

2 Likes
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thanks for the reply!! Yes, an Arche also was on the table for a while… on the other hand, it’s quite expensive and i don’t really like the idea of having a dacamp that is afaik considered “only best with Focal HPs”. Ideally, the setup should also match with i.e. planars like Hifiman Ananda… for future purposes. From my understanding, that’s where like a “modular” system or like “choices” come to play. Like i.e. having a great solid-state and a tube amp to choose. Maybe also some class A stuff. Same for the DACs, in theory, you should have an R2R/Multibit AND a delta-sigma-DAC and make a chain per-headphone or per-song even. This can actually happen over time with me, but currently, i’m asking myself, what would give me the greatest benefit. I was actually really drawn to Schiit stuff like the Bifrost 2 because Multibit is a bit inbetween R2R and delta-sigma. Unfortunately, getting Schiits’ stuff in Europe is quite a nightmare atm. Speaking of Schiit, i’m also curious about a tube hybrid solution like Lyr3 or Mjonlir. It seems like a great all-around solution as well.
I know that the speakers a an endless pit - so is the headphone game, always was. But on the good side, living in a (relatively large) one-room-flat has tought me, that i’ll never need tower speakers, bookshelfs like Br03 (or maybe KEF LS50 Metas in the future… q acoustics 3030i also are great…) are sufficient.
As is said, i’m somewhat trigger happy about a ridiculously overkill DAC because i can play around with it in both setups. But upgrading my HP amp first would make more sense, wouldn’t it…?

4

maybe the new TOPPING A30 Pro?
measures extremely well & drives anything

5

In Europe, perhaps consider something from Lake People or Violectric. Something like the Vio V200 or Lake People G103s or G111 should do well with the Clears and be more available in EU than Schiit. You already have a very measurement oriented amp, so something different might be nice unless that’s what you’re going for.