I’ve had this tossing around in my head for a while, as I’d rather not simply killing off the battery in my xDuoo XD-05. Now, keeping in mind some size constraints, I’m not looking for anything massive, and I’d rather keep the cost down as much as possible. As I already have an TA-10, I’m not looking for a tube. This time, I’m after a solid state amp. If it results in a slit set up, or something different… Well, then so be it.
What would I like out of it?
Balanced
Remote control pre-out
max 3 3/8" x ~4.5-5" (85.7x114.3-127mm)
I’ve thought of doing this a few different ways:
Seperate amp and DAC(a second space of the same dimensions could be allocated)
AMP and FLIRC
AMP/DAC (eg. Zen DAC) and FLIRC
Balanced is not essential, and I’d rather keep this within $200, $300 absolute max.
As for an AMP, these are what I’m considering:
Topping A30(or)A50
Liquid Spark
JDS Labs Atom
Magni 3(+)
Magni Heresy
ifi Zen DAC
*All Schiit products would be picked from B-stock and closeout direct
Hmm… I think you’ll have to forfeit balanced (unless you choose the zen) and a remote at this budget… you pretty much have the budget amps covered so it’ll depend on what type of sound you’re looking for and what’ll pair well with your headphones… as for dacs you can get the go to budget boys the d10 e30 or m100 (or use the xduoo as a dac until the atom or spark dacs are released to complete those stacks)
I’ve been considering using RCA to my Ol Switcher, then RCA to the amp and 3.5mm to my iLoud Micros.
Part of what has me tied up is not being sure what exactly I want out of the amp beyond something to provide relief to my XD-05.
As for a DAC, I’d probably look at the Sanskrit 10th(if I didn’t stick with the one in the TA-10), though I can’t tell much difference between the MKI and MKII offhand(20g heavier, .5W more power consumption, greater sampling rate ranges for optical/coaxial (down to 32kHz from 44.1) and USB (Up to 768KHz from 384KHz), output level is marginally higher, THD+N up(.002% from .0005%), Dynamic range is up 1dB and SNR is up 2dB). Something tells me the differences are marginal enough to be negligible, but I could be wrong.
What about the drop cavelli amp? Or is it too big? I mean it’s not insanely powerful but it’s on sale right now on mass drop. That’s if you want the balanced of course.
A quick rundown of what I can speak on is that the spark is warmer and the heresy is more analytical than the xd05 and the zen is warmer still than the spark… and what I’ve heard is the heresy and atom and magni 3+ are similar
I’ve thought about the spark or the zen. The issue then is which one to go with at that point. The downside of the Zen is I’d have to get a new interconnect form HAC so I could use the balanced output.
Yeah from what I’ve read thought the Asgard 3 is such an improvement over the 2 ghat I wouldn’t even consider the 2 anyway. The extra 50 would go a long way ha.
Why are you so space limited if you don’t mind me askin?