Buying recommendation for around 400€. Amp/dac or seperate

[madDog]

I know there is a lot of similat topics on here about what to get, but i do have a few specifis that are important to me:

1. You can go with either a dac/amp combo unit, or seperate, don't really care much about that.
2. Max budget of about 400€, willing to stretch it a little bit here.
3. Don't include stuff that is unavailable outside of eu, i'm also not willing to import anything. Not really worth it.
4. I'm looking for something that has both balanced and unbalanced inputs. So if i ever buy a headphone that accepts balanced, i have that option.
5. Something that can run power hungry headphones with ease, for example 600ohm dt990.
6. Something that is also good with iem's, no hissing or noise. Dead silent, if possible.

There are so many good options this days, that it's not that easy to narrow stuff down and i'm pretty sure you guys/girls can help a guy out.
If i forgot to mention anything, please let me know.

 

[madDog]

I was just reading the a30pro review. I know its not balanced, but its got so much power that you don't even need balanced anymore. I know there are still some benefits to balanced, like less noise, less chance of a ground loop and all that. But i'm not really worried about that. To me it was more about the benefits it gives you power wise... But the a30pro changes all that. So what do you guys think, should i just wait for a30pro/d30pro to come out, that will probably basically be the end game for a lot of people ? Hopefully the combo is going to be around 500€ and not more.

If anyone has any other recommendations, please let me know.

 

[madDog]

Did i write this in the wrong section of the forum, or is there really no one willing to help ? I see a lot of views but no takers. If i forgot to mention something cruical, let me know. And no i don't currently have any hard to drive headphones, but i would like to change that. What i have is hd598 and dt770 pro 80ohm version.

 

[3125b]

Hopefully the combo is going to be around 500€ and not more.

I don't know about that, I think it will be around 600€ for the stack. But we'll see. If you are willing to spend that kind of money, you'd get all you want and more, it's an excellent stack - and yes, it does offer balanced headphone outputs if you want that (not that it would be any sort of benefit with that amount of unbalanced voltage and current output capability).
If I were to buy something for desktop use now, I'd go with a Motu M4 and a Topping L30 (only 2012 version and up of course, if possible even wait a little and get the 210X version). The interface allows for use of decent microphones and even some measurements with its rather decent ADC if ever so inclined. It also has a reasonably good though not overly powerful headphone amp allowing for connection of multiple headphones at once. If you don't want analog inputs, the E30 is an excellent choice as well, I'm happy with mine since it works well and is of course audibly transparent.

Did i write this in the wrong section of the forum, or is there really no one willing to help ?

Most of the members here are from the US, they can't necessarily help with EU specific questions.

 

[Koeitje]

Just go through the reviews, see what has transparant performance, enough power and the connections you need. Its not that hard.