DAC/Amp for Fidelio X2 or Beyer dynamic DT 880 250ohm (Europe)

[John]

Hey guys,

In the past few days I'm trying to troubleshoot the problem I'm having with my HD 598, some pops and static sound on my new pc.

I thought the problem was the HD 598 but it seems it's not just the headphones at all, I used the iPhone earphones and I was having some weird noise while the singer was singing, could be the sound onboard of my Asus Z370. Yesterday I tested the HD 598 on my second pc in the same house, the stream I was watching had some pops and static noise in both pc's with the Sennheiser headphones, that's why I thought the problem was HD 598, somehow dying but it's so random and rebooting the pc sometime fixes and I could be listening music or gaming for hours and 99.9% I don't have any issue.


Could be the electricity in my house doing this stuff? My house has 9 years old and I never had this problem before and I changed the internet provider to optic fiber, so no docsis 3.0 coax if that matters, I might change my psu as well (my Corsair RM650x has gold cert and 2 months old but it has slightly coil whine though.



To remove the causes of the issues I'm having I will buy a dac/amp combo to drive the X2 or DT 880 250 ohm (I need to decide fast) but the big question is what can I buy in Europe? The most known dacs amps are Americans and its really hard to buy it in EU (I won't pay 150 euros for the fulla 2 knowing it's worth 90 euros in the US) any advice for a dac and amp or even combo units to power the headphones? for 150 euros max.
Micca origen G2 would be awesome but it's literally impossible to buy it I think, the only options I know and buy is the slsm m3, fioo e10k and sabaj D3 (all of them are 80 euros) fulla 2 is 150.

PS: this is what my Asus Z370 has in terms on-board sound,

Crystal Sound 3

Realtek® S1220A
Impedance sense for headphone outputs120dB SNR stereo playback output & 113dB SNR input (Line-in) supportPower pre-regulatorEMI protection coverAudio shieldingDe-pop circuitDifferent layer for left/right trackJapan-made audio capacitors.

Thank you,

 

[Grave]

All of the integrated sound I have tried has sounded bad or had obvious problems. The Fiio E10K is good according to Amir's reviews. Don't buy a fulla shit, obviously.

 

[John]

All of the integrated sound I have tried has sounded bad or had obvious problems. The Fiio E10K is good according to Amir's reviews. Don't buy a fulla shit, obviously.

I checked Amazon and a few sites in EU and it seems I'm pretty much save to buy any fioo or smsl dac/amp, the other brands are rare here.

Do I have better options for 150€? The smsl seems decent but I heard it produces a low noise sound on low ohm earphones, idk if the Fidelio X2 will have that problem tbh.

 

[derp1n]

Integrated sound can work fine, but bad drivers and low quality APOs (bad Amir) can cause issues. Make sure your drivers are up to date (or completely remove them and use the MS supplied drivers) and make sure all "sound enhancements" are disabled in the sound control panel.

 

[rendyG]

You have some pretty efficient headphones, they may not even need a dedicated amp..
I am in similar situation, I want to upgrade from Hifimediy 9018, which I thought was great when I bought it, but when my Megamini DAP arrived, this thing got destroyed. It lacks clarity, too bassy, small soundstage.. Probably because of it´s higher output impedance, because it doesn´t lack power with my HD580. It obviously gets better when I plug it into my Fiio K5

Now I am looking at Sabaj da2/da3. da3 seems really good, can be bought for 95€ on amazon.de now.
It should have enough power to power all of your headphones.

 

[John]

You have some pretty efficient headphones, they may not even need a dedicated amp..
I am in similar situation, I want to upgrade from Hifimediy 9018, which I thought was great when I bought it, but when my Megamini DAP arrived, this thing got destroyed. It lacks clarity, too bassy, small soundstage.. Probably because of it´s higher output impedance, because it doesn´t lack power with my HD580. It obviously gets better when I plug it into my Fiio K5

Now I am looking at Sabaj da2/da3. da3 seems really good, can be bought for 95€ on amazon.de now.
It should have enough power to power all of your headphones.

Isnt the smslm3 a better option over the da3?

 

[rendyG]

From what I´ve red, DA3 should sound better. M3 have more inputs, but lacks balanced out.
For me it was enough just to look at pricing sabaj vs smsl. Sabaj is not so well know brand, so they are offering product much cheaper, thus better price/performance ratio. SMSL IQ is an equivalent of Sabaj DA3, you see what I mean?