For audio…I want to keep the audio hobby from becoming the land of luxury, stardust, magic crystals, disappointment, and obscurity. I often spend more in one month on other hobbies than all year on audio.
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iFi also came up with a special Zen Can amp with analog EQ just for HIFIMAN head phones. It is similar to the one they produced with Drop for the HD6XX.
Yes, but it’s still in the iFi ZEN range, and @Aenema already has that, so while the EQ may be better it’s not going to provide more nuance, clarity, soundstage, etc. Moving up either in iFi or one of the other usual suspects is, I think, his object.
You’re probably right. My best source is an iFi iDSD Black Label. I’ve never even heard or experienced more high-end than that.
Exactly right, I’m wondering what suggestions would come if I flex the wallet a bit more. I like my Zen stuff but looking for what could get most out of the Arya Organic or LCD-2’s I have with lossless source of the tunes I mentioned above. Just so many options out there and no local way to do a proper demo.
Well that iDSD Black Label is a good step above the ZEN line.
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I don’t allow spending more than $1,200 on an item. Following this premise, I can share the most bang for buck audio bargain in DAC/Amp that I have ever acquired in my quest to covet and hoard high performing gear for this combined category. This piece of gear would be no other than the discontinued Questyle CMA Twelve that I purchased used for something in the neighbourhood of $7xx US. It was replaced by the Questyle CMA Fifteen which put many of the Twelves on the used market for cheap.
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The Twelve is an amplifier that incorporates an internal DAC (all-in-one.) It’s biggest drawback is that the Twelve does not have an analog inputs. So, it is impossible to connect my Twelve to my favourite DACs as the internal DAC is the only possibly way to listen. Unfortunately, the internal DAC of the Twelve performs at a level of four hundred DAC dollars U$A. However, the amp portion in the Twelve is absolutely amazing! It is able to bring every single headphone of my collection to a performance level equal to or greater to any other amplifier in my under $1,200 collection. I even usually prefer the amp section of my Twelve over my HeadAmp GS-X mini.
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Even with it’s DAC limitation, the Twelve was the best $7XX I have ever spent related to headphone audio gear. Keep your eyes open for good deals in the used market.
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The other thing to do is take your headphones to a local meet.
Testing out your gear with something at a meet is a good way to test things. I bought my Arya Stealth as I was able to test someone else’s on my Schiit Jotunheim 2/Bifrost 2/64 combination. Which is a pretty solid recommendation for the Arya and the HE6SEV2 btw.
The Head-fi local meet up pages are a good place to start.
I would start with an amp, you already have an OK DAC, and the amp will make more difference to the sound than the DAC.
Thank you all for your experience in this. I have not been able to find a good resource for Boise, ID for being able to try out different audio options. If you know of a resource I would love to hear it.
The iFi Zen Dac 2 and iFi CAN amp setup I have is the first I purchased and while I don’t have any complaints, I also don’t have anything to really compare against so this conversation is very meaningful to me.
My main motivations are to get the most out of my listening experience (obviously) and to sort of ‘future proof’ my setup. I can see myself trying many headphones in my future but would like to have the DAC and Amp setup to set me for success down that road without feeling compulsions to keep looking at other options out there.
Anybody have opinions on the Topping D90SE paired with the Topping A90? Seems to got very glowing reviews and the pair lines up well with what I was thinking I was willing to spend. The Schiit Bifrost is also well regarded and recommended in this channel but I’m wondering about pairing that with a dedicated amp and what folks would lean towards if that is determined beneficial?
Unfortunately it doesn’t really work that way.
You don’t listen to components in isolation, if you want to drive power hungry planar you’ll likely end up in a different direction than if you go efficient dynamics.
Having said that you can get a lot out of general amps to play around and find headphones you like.
The best bang for buck move is always buy used, you also lose least on it if you do chode to move up, ideally find something good that is no longer FOTM, but it requires some knowledge of what’s out there, the CMA 12 above is a good rec.
Just be careful with FOTM items (read currently popular on head-fi or other major websites) and the used market, it can be a bit fickle with FOTM items they tend to retain a lot of their purchase price right up until they don’t.
I’m not personally a big Topping fan, the products are optimized to have good numbers not sound the best, not that I think any of them sound particularly bad. They just sound like high feedback SS amplifiers. But there are lots of people who swear by them.
I think it’s one of the best options under $1000 new, I owned one for a long time, but it doesn’t get big discounts used and for $1000 used I think you can take a good step up.
A lot of this process is understanding what you are looking for, that’s hard to do without trying a lot of things.
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Here is an idea, do a post with interest check for a meet at your location on this forum and on Head-fi. If there are people in your area, they will let you know.
I’ve run two now in Pittsburgh, made some good friends, listened to some amazing gear and had fun doing it. Quite a few made it from out of state.
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I think the Topping stack is a very clean sounding stack with lots of macrodynamics. It should be a good change to your iFi stack if you are craving for that clean and crisp sound with initial hit on the notes. If you’re looking for an interesting/unique sound (not necessarily warm or bright, just different), look elsewhere
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I ended up ordering the Bifrost and Lyr combo to try out. Thanks for all who contributed to this discussion, I’m organizing my desk to make room for the second stack and watching tracking with Christmas levels of excitement.
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I can’t say that Bifrost and Lyr is endgame for me. But it’s good enough that it’s going to be a very long waystation before I ever want to spend more. After all, I did start the thread on the 95% solution, and how to be happy not trying to have that elusive last 5%.
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That is exactly what I’m hoping to realize myself. FOMO is real in this hobby and it can be hard to balance with responsible purchasing. Thanks again!
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Hey everyone I could use a little bit of help.
A while ago I commented here that I wanted to upgrade from my HD560s. I managed to find an audio store with a very limited selection of headphones to test and from all of them I preferred the sound of the Hifiman Arya a lot.
Unfortunately it is too far out of my price range. The 2 headphones that I am looking at are the Edition XS and the Ananda V2 given that they are similarly priced.
Which of the 2 matches the sound characteristics of the Arya more?
I have a bit of dilemma regarding DAC for second system, at first I was thinking that Hugo TT2 would be good option. I like Chord sound signature and get use to Dave sound and as TT2 is a bit warmer it could be good option and I can use it also with mscaler. I just started to look into other options, like Wandla and I can use savings for headphones or maybe new Matrix element X2 pure. Options to maybe try r2r, but then don’t want to go to high, as with Dave, so options like May, Pasithea or Mola mola are for now excluded. Did someone have a chance to compere TT2 and Wandla or maybe element X2 pure?
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I liked the TT2 and I also enjoyed the May for other reasons, but I found the Rockna Wavelight to be the best of both worlds. Really enjoy mine and really don’t have any complaints.
Thanks for the answer. I have listened TT2 on various occasions, but without mscaler and conditions were not perfect, so I can say that I almost know what to expect. Rockna was on my radar, but you know when you look at Wavelight one eye always look at Wavedream and this is for now out of budget. My dilemma is also size as I don’t have space for big units, so that is why I was looking at TT2 and Wandla. I will have to check if there are any possibility to demo Rockna.
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Well depending on what you’re pairing the tt2 with it may be just fine. Especially if you’re adding the mscaler.
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