$200 Desktop Headphone Amplifier and Dac

[museguy]

Hi All,
My first post in the forum. I am shopping for a desktop headphone amplifier and DAC. Would like to spend about $200 I am okay with either off the shelf or DIY.

My shortlist:

1. Topping L30 and E30
2. ifi Zen (have read several reviews that more natural sounding than E30)
3. ifi Nano Black (have read several reviews better sound quality than the ifi Zen)

Other options:

1. Pro-ject DAC
2. Schitt Ashguard
3. JHL and add DIY DAC
4. Ebay DIY clone

About me:
I tend to listen to WFMU almost every day love Garbage Time and listing to the archives. Also, enjoy listening to Linn online radio Jazz and Classical. I have a Hiby R3 with MQA, DSD, and FLAC files, I would say that the files that get the most play are Dire Straights and Playing at my House. I also have an older iPhone that I use for running with lots of low-resolution files. I tend to prefer the sound of the r2r and Burr-Brown and AKM DACS to the ESS DAC chips. I have tried DIY 9018 and it sounded digital and metallic to me. So far my best sounding setup is the x8 r2r and the JHL. Except now it has a ground loop buzz and unable to play MQA and high resolution filles.

Current Equipment:

Living Room:
Speakers
Amplifr
CD Player

Kitchen and Bedroom
Digital Radio
Portable Speakers
Bluetooth

Headphone Listening
Headphone Amp JHL
DAC x8
Raspberry Pi with Volumio
Coaxial Out
HD650
Denon
S80

DAP
Hiby R3
ifi Nano (non-black)

Portable Headphones
Sony MDR
IEMs

I welcome any suggestions. Be well. Cheers !

 

[TimW]

Loxjie D30
Seems like a great option.

Motu M4
The headphone amp section isn't great but it's a good interface for recording.

Schiit Hel
I use this at work for music listening and online meetings.

Topping DX3 Pro
Another great option, but slightly outside your budget.

 

[museguy]

Hi @TimW

Thank you ! I will take a look.

Which desktop headphone amp / dac do you use ?

Cheers

 

[frogmeat69]

JDs Labs Atom amp, or the Schiit Magni Heresy for your amp, and either the Topping D10s, or the SMSL Sanskrit 10th MkII DACs will get you right around the $200-210 mark before any taxes or shipping.
EDIT: or any of the units @TimW posted, didn't even know the Schiit Hel existed, looks like a good one!

 

[museguy]

Hi @frogmeat69,
Thank you !

The list is growing. Cheers

 

[TimW]

The only thing that bothers me about my Schiit Hel is that some noise has developed in the right channel due to the volume pot. This noise only happens when turning the volume knob though.

It has more than enough power and great THD+N specs that are backed up by the AP graphs provided by Schiit.

 

[Bob-23]

Hi All,
My first post in the forum. I am shopping for a desktop headphone amplifier and DAC. Would like to spend about $200 I am okay with either off the shelf or DIY.

My shortlist:

1. Topping L30 and E30
2. ifi Zen (have read several reviews that more natural sounding than E30)
3. ifi Nano Black (have read several reviews better sound quality than the ifi Zen)

Other options:

1. Pro-ject DAC
2. Schitt Ashguard
3. JHL and add DIY DAC
4. Ebay DIY clone

About me:
I tend to listen to WFMU almost every day love Garbage Time and listing to the archives. Also, enjoy listening to Linn online radio Jazz and Classical. I have a Hiby R3 with MQA, DSD, and FLAC files, I would say that the files that get the most play are Dire Straights and Playing at my House. I also have an older iPhone that I use for running with lots of low-resolution files. I tend to prefer the sound of the r2r and Burr-Brown and AKM DACS to the ESS DAC chips. I have tried DIY 9018 and it sounded digital and metallic to me. So far my best sounding setup is the x8 r2r and the JHL. Except now it has a ground loop buzz and unable to play MQA and high resolution filles.

Current Equipment:

Living Room:
Speakers
Amplifr
CD Player

Kitchen and Bedroom
Digital Radio
Portable Speakers
Bluetooth

Headphone Listening
Headphone Amp JHL
DAC x8
Raspberry Pi with Volumio
Coaxial Out
HD650
Denon
S80

DAP
Hiby R3
ifi Nano (non-black)

Portable Headphones
Sony MDR
IEMs

I welcome any suggestions. Be well. Cheers !

Welcome!
Nice DIY project: NwAvGuy's one and only Objective 2/O2
http://www.headnhifi.com/diy-kits
http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/o2-design-process.html
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/nwavguy-the-audio-genius-who-vanished

 

[museguy]

Thank you @Bob-23,
Also on my list:

• Loxjie D30
• Topping DX3 Pro
• JDs Labs Atom amp
• Topping D10s
• SMSL Sanskrit 10th MkII DAC

Be well, cheers

 

[Matias]

Topping duo is the go to option right now imo.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Hard to go wrong with (D10s or E30) into (L30 or Atom or Magni Heresy), assuming you're covered feature wise. (Note: D10s has SPDIF outputs, while E30 has SPDIF inputs.)

What is that existing "DAC X8"? It couldn't be the Aune X8 'cause that purportedly does 768 kHz and 32 bit, and that doesn't jive with "unable to play hi-res files" (= nothing beyond 48 kHz supported).

I tend to prefer the sound of the r2r and Burr-Brown and AKM DACS to the ESS DAC chips. I have tried DIY 9018 and it sounded digital and metallic to me.

With statements like that, you can get yourself into very treacherous waters really fast. Potential gremlins at or above 0 dBFS aside (in which case something Cirrus Logic is likely to be your best bet, TI/BB and ESS not so much), any good modern DAC chip, implemented properly, should be capable of audibly transparent performance. Conduct a proper, level-matched, blind A/B comparison of two basically decent implementations of different chips, and I bet you won't be able to tell them apart. Not even from typical Realtek onboard audio either.

There have been a few isolated cases of DAC analog stages clipping as low as -6 dBFS due to presumably a design defect (now that's something that may well cause a "metallic" sound), though just shy of 0 dBFS may be more common, or lowpass filtering involving the tiniest, crummiest MLCC capacitors to be found (many people have happily been using Behringer 2496 series devices for years despite that).

 

[museguy]

Hi @AnalogSteph,

Thank you for the feedback on the D10s or E30 into L30 or Atom or Magni Heresy.

"x8" DAC is the TDA1387 x8 DAC many people in the DIY community modify the DAC; thread TDA1387 x8 DAC: let's check its design, mod it -or not-, play music -or not!. The TDA1387 x8 DAC is very warm sounding and easy for listening, definitely not the most revealing equipment. It was a lot of fun learning about DACs in the process.

Be well

 

[weasels]

Topping D10 into Magni is exactly what I use in my home office. Great little setup.

 

[museguy]

Thank you @weasels,

This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

 

[museguy]

Seems the "go to" is the Topping L30 with the E30

ifi iDSD got an excellent review but much more expensive ($599), the Schiit Magni did not get a great review, the ifi Zen and ifi Nano both did not get good reviews.

Topping D10 got a very good review

 

[3125b]

I don't know where you see excellence in the iDSD. In fact, it did fairly poorly, just not compared to the even worse Jotunheim.
I guess they are just too musical
If you are looking at very good buget options the JDS Atom, Schiit Modi 3 + Magni Heresy or Topping E30 + L30 stacks are very good, wich one or wich combination of devices you might choose is up to preference and features.

 

[Sukie]

Seems the "go to" is the Topping L30 with the E30

ifi iDSD got an excellent review but much more expensive ($599), the Schiit Magni did not get a great review, the ifi Zen and ifi Nano both did not get good reviews.

Topping D10 got a very good review

The Magni Heresy is the one to look at, not the Magni. The Heresy got the good review.

Have a think about features. Any combo that measures well will sound great, but not every combo has multiple inputs into the DAC (e.g. D10s and Atom DAC don't, E30 does). Same with remotes. Little things can matter a lot depending on how (and where) you'll be listening.

I have a 10s and it's great for my deskstop set up but needed a DAC with a remote for my headphone set up. Picked the D50s but would have been more than happy with the E30. The headphone set up runs through the Atom HPA and I'm extremely pleased with this.

 

[weasels]

I have the Magni 3 which I believe also measures well

Seems the "go to" is the Topping L30 with the E30

ifi iDSD got an excellent review but much more expensive ($599), the Schiit Magni did not get a great review, the ifi Zen and ifi Nano both did not get good reviews.

Topping D10 got a very good review

There are several Magni models out there.

The Magni 3 is what I have and got a recommendation from amirm when he tested it. The Magni 2 isn't as well considered.

 

[raistlin65]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, as there's really no need to spend $100 for a capable DAC if you only need USB input.

Tempotec Sonata HD Pro dongle for $40 is every bit as capable as any of the other $100 DACs. The HIDISZ S8 is the same unit with different branding and enclosure

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...dizs-s8-usb-c-headphone-adapter-review.10823/


If you need an iOS cable, they sell one for $60 that comes with it

https://www.amazon.com/TempoTec-Sonata-HD-PRO-Android/dp/B084YX4MZD/

https://www.amazon.com/TempoTec-Sonata-HD-PRO-iOS/dp/B083QZLYB3/

 

[museguy]

I am realizing that I would like USB, coaxial and optical input and the only one so far with all three in the Topping E30.

ifi Zen: Only USB
ifi Nano: Only USB
Topping E30: USB, coaxial and optical input

 

[museguy]

Hi @raistlin65

Thank you for the suggestion, the HIZIZS S8 is very cool and worth a try at $40