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Just bought a new amp and a pair of headphones. DAC too? maybe entirely different setup? amazon returns 4 the win!
- Thread starter joe hues
- Start date
The E30 well worth the money asked for it relative to the other descrete DACs on the market with similar functionality.
However, worth the money is a relative term, I don't know what's 'worth the money' to you. You have excellent amplification with the L30. It has very low noise and distortion (so low that it will be inaudible) and it has plenty of power to drive vritually any headphone you are likely to purchase. It's basically an 'end game' amp. Similiarly, the E30 could be considered as an 'end game' DAC if USB to Line out is the extent of your requirement (you don't require balanced outputs, bluetooth, etc.).
So buying an E30 could be worth it, if you accept that you'll never need to buy anything else (unless it breaks). Just don't expect it to increase your K/D ratio.
However, worth the money is a relative term, I don't know what's 'worth the money' to you. You have excellent amplification with the L30. It has very low noise and distortion (so low that it will be inaudible) and it has plenty of power to drive vritually any headphone you are likely to purchase. It's basically an 'end game' amp. Similiarly, the E30 could be considered as an 'end game' DAC if USB to Line out is the extent of your requirement (you don't require balanced outputs, bluetooth, etc.).
So buying an E30 could be worth it, if you accept that you'll never need to buy anything else (unless it breaks). Just don't expect it to increase your K/D ratio.
Amirm reviewed a $290 Gigabyte motherboard which claimed to have a Hifi DAC: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...te-z390-aorus-motherboard-audio-review.13083/
From Amirm's conclusion...
"Considering how bad PC implementations of audio can get, the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus actually does well. Grading on a curve, it is one of the best audio subsystems I have seen in a PC. In absolute terms though, a $99 DAC will run circles around it but audible difference may be fleeting. In other words, what is there is "good enough."
Personally, I would invest the $99 in a DAC and not have to rely on finding and paying a premium for a mobo with a decent DAC implementation.
From Amirm's conclusion...
"Considering how bad PC implementations of audio can get, the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus actually does well. Grading on a curve, it is one of the best audio subsystems I have seen in a PC. In absolute terms though, a $99 DAC will run circles around it but audible difference may be fleeting. In other words, what is there is "good enough."
Personally, I would invest the $99 in a DAC and not have to rely on finding and paying a premium for a mobo with a decent DAC implementation.
virtua
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You could get a TempoTec Sonata HD Pro and feed it into your Topping L30 for perfectly good, basically completely transparent performance at a low cost - you just won't have the same flexibility and features something like a Topping E30 will have (remote, DAC volume control, other digital inputs apart from USB etc).
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