Recommend a headphone amp for me?

[SoundForg]

Hi all,
I'd appreciate your input on this. I'm looking to purchase a set of headphones, wired, as yet undecided and need an amp in order to do so.
Use case is listening to vinyl on a rega planar p1+ via a sonos port. I'll be taking either rca outs or digital out from the port to feed the amp.
I appreciate this isn't an audiophile setup by a long stretch. Id still like to get something decent sounding enough though. My music is important to me or clearly, I wouldn't be here!
What would be your recommendation please? Obviously there's no point in spending a fortune for the setup I have.
Ideally some kind of remote volume control would be advantageous as the port out has to be set to fixed or I'm led to believe that the quality suffers considerably.
Also whether rca or digital out would be better would be useful advice from those with better knowledge than myself.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Mort]

What's your budget? Do you know what headphones you'll choose?

 

[AnalogSteph]

Ideally some kind of remote volume control would be advantageous as the port out has to be set to fixed or I'm led to believe that the quality suffers considerably.

I find it hard to believe that the analog output on a $500 streamer could be so bad that there wouldn't be enough leeway to select the volume of an attached headphone amp on a "set it and forget it" basis, assuming you only have one set of headphones or multiple ones of similar sensitivity. (These things tend to breed like rabbits. )

That being said, I would prefer having an amp with a physical volume control next to my listening position anyway.

Unless you know you'd be going for the "gnarly planars" variety of cans (substantially <16 ohms), you should generally be well-served by the likes of Atom Amp 2, Topping L30 or Schiit Magni. They all have transformer plug packs of poor efficiency though, so should really be used with a switched power strip or similar. If that's a bit too rustic for your tastes, consider a DAC-amp instead, which will generally be a bit harder on your wallet and potentially not quite as powerful... there should be a fair bit of choice by the $300 mark though.

Side note, there is no better way of highlighting the sonic weaknesses of vinyl than headphone listening. Rock and pop is generally fine, but by the time classical enters the mix you may be prone to entering a depressive spiral. Fans of the genre were the first to adopt CDs on a large scale for a reason...

 

[稲上鳶]

Okay, I think Topping`s products are definitely worth buying. I purchased their sound cards for recording, arranging, and mixing, and it was really worth it. However, currently for non-Chinese users, the only problem seems to be that it is difficult to contact the official after-sales service (in China, technical after-sales service is contacted through the Chinese chat software platform WeChat, and I don't know how it is in other countries).