LtCol_Davenport
Member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2021
- Messages
- 45
- Likes
- 5
Hi all, this is my first post on this forum even though it is months that I am consulting for reviews.
Yesterday after many research I decided to pull the trigger and buy my first Hi-Fi headphones and they should arrive today.
As my first Hi-Fi headphones, I have no DAC or AMP, always connected everything to my desktop PC. When started looking for headphones I was thinking to spend more like €200 seeing lots of good stuff on Drop.com. Unfortunately, as someone of you may have noted, I wrote the price in Euro (€) and in Europe Drop lose all of its convenience when you have to add to the price a whapping 25%-ish of import taxes and 30$ of shipping. I then started looking around here and decided to stretch (a lot) my initial budget and buy the Sundara. All of this just to say, I'm kind of "without money", at least for this month.
Starting now with the core of this post, DACs&s.
I saw a couple of well reviewed here of DAC& Combo like the Loxjie D30 but at the moment can't really find it here, but it should cost around €170+shipping (eventually). Also looked at Khadas Tone2 Pro but no luck either in my region, even if I prefer a "desktop solution", don't need portable stuff.
I considered the Topping DX3 Pro that really appeal to me as a single unit but given the price of €220 a stack like a D10s+L30 may be better at just €20-ish more, but let me know if I'm wrong and should consider more this.
If you have other options, preferably reviewed here, will happily take those into consideration!
If considering a stack, I really can't afford it now (nor the DX3) so I will need to buy the AMP first than add a DAC later. Will I lose that much connecting it directly to my PC (given that I have no reference being my first Headphones with AMP)? For what it is worth, it is a custom build one by me and generally I eared it has better audio than commercial laptop, that being sad, I'm sure can't be that good either.
As AMP goes, I will surely take the Topping L30, it seems stellar for its price! But as always, I am open to suggestion.
Regarding DACs I'm more uncertain. What I'm considering are: Topping D10s and E30, otherwise the SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II. If you want to add a couple more I will look those but don't wont to spend more than €150. Now I'll explain what are my thoughts on those.
Topping D10s (€100): I think really great as price wise but some people say the only USB Input can be a limit both in term of connectivity and "clean power". Also can't use it for mobile devices (generally speaking) for power issues.
SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II (€110): This improve on the D10s in both connectivity and the fact that can be separately powered. Measurements to me seems really similar, don't know if I will discern any difference. I do not like the mini-USB, Blue-led display, form factor, the COAX Jitter and the Multi-Tone test, just minor gripes, if it is "the one" you recommend I can ignore those.
Topping E30 (€140): This is definitely the more expensive (40% more) of the group I've selected and also almost my upper limit I imposed to myself. Other than the price, I think it is the one I would like to get. Separate power and data, USB-B input, less jitter and better multi-tone than SMSL. Also, as a bonus, like the idea of E30/L30 stack but purely aesthetics and conceptually speaking. It just bothers me a bit that I have to buy a power adapter (if I don't want to power it through my multi USB Hub) and those are even more money if I consider something like iFi Power (€60, not a cheap upgrade, almost half of its price).
Just for fun, how those compared to something much more expensive like Topping D50s? Is the 2-3 times the money worth it? Because to me seems that other than features, measurements wise, isn't that different if not at all.
So...what do you think? What should I buy and what can match better my Sundara?
Note that, as I sad, I'm in Europe and here Schiit products are impossible to find or extremely overpriced (like double the price) so don't even try recommending those (unfortunately).
Thanks in advance for taking your time in reading and try to help me.
Yesterday after many research I decided to pull the trigger and buy my first Hi-Fi headphones and they should arrive today.
As my first Hi-Fi headphones, I have no DAC or AMP, always connected everything to my desktop PC. When started looking for headphones I was thinking to spend more like €200 seeing lots of good stuff on Drop.com. Unfortunately, as someone of you may have noted, I wrote the price in Euro (€) and in Europe Drop lose all of its convenience when you have to add to the price a whapping 25%-ish of import taxes and 30$ of shipping. I then started looking around here and decided to stretch (a lot) my initial budget and buy the Sundara. All of this just to say, I'm kind of "without money", at least for this month.
Starting now with the core of this post, DACs&s.
I saw a couple of well reviewed here of DAC& Combo like the Loxjie D30 but at the moment can't really find it here, but it should cost around €170+shipping (eventually). Also looked at Khadas Tone2 Pro but no luck either in my region, even if I prefer a "desktop solution", don't need portable stuff.
I considered the Topping DX3 Pro that really appeal to me as a single unit but given the price of €220 a stack like a D10s+L30 may be better at just €20-ish more, but let me know if I'm wrong and should consider more this.
If you have other options, preferably reviewed here, will happily take those into consideration!
If considering a stack, I really can't afford it now (nor the DX3) so I will need to buy the AMP first than add a DAC later. Will I lose that much connecting it directly to my PC (given that I have no reference being my first Headphones with AMP)? For what it is worth, it is a custom build one by me and generally I eared it has better audio than commercial laptop, that being sad, I'm sure can't be that good either.
As AMP goes, I will surely take the Topping L30, it seems stellar for its price! But as always, I am open to suggestion.
Regarding DACs I'm more uncertain. What I'm considering are: Topping D10s and E30, otherwise the SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II. If you want to add a couple more I will look those but don't wont to spend more than €150. Now I'll explain what are my thoughts on those.
Topping D10s (€100): I think really great as price wise but some people say the only USB Input can be a limit both in term of connectivity and "clean power". Also can't use it for mobile devices (generally speaking) for power issues.
SMSL Sanskrit 10th MK II (€110): This improve on the D10s in both connectivity and the fact that can be separately powered. Measurements to me seems really similar, don't know if I will discern any difference. I do not like the mini-USB, Blue-led display, form factor, the COAX Jitter and the Multi-Tone test, just minor gripes, if it is "the one" you recommend I can ignore those.
Topping E30 (€140): This is definitely the more expensive (40% more) of the group I've selected and also almost my upper limit I imposed to myself. Other than the price, I think it is the one I would like to get. Separate power and data, USB-B input, less jitter and better multi-tone than SMSL. Also, as a bonus, like the idea of E30/L30 stack but purely aesthetics and conceptually speaking. It just bothers me a bit that I have to buy a power adapter (if I don't want to power it through my multi USB Hub) and those are even more money if I consider something like iFi Power (€60, not a cheap upgrade, almost half of its price).
Just for fun, how those compared to something much more expensive like Topping D50s? Is the 2-3 times the money worth it? Because to me seems that other than features, measurements wise, isn't that different if not at all.
So...what do you think? What should I buy and what can match better my Sundara?
Note that, as I sad, I'm in Europe and here Schiit products are impossible to find or extremely overpriced (like double the price) so don't even try recommending those (unfortunately).
Thanks in advance for taking your time in reading and try to help me.