Recommendation headphone amp under 500€

[TangAce]

Hi, I'm looking for an amp or amp/dac combo, under 500€ (but open for more expensive recommendations as I don't mind buying second hand), needs to be available in europe.

Current setup is a pair of utopia 2022, active monitors, motu m4 interface, which I'm keeping for my mic anyways, from my understanding its headphone amp might not be enough for my headphones, but the dac part is pretty fine, and source is my pc.
I would prefer an amp that can do preamp for my monitors (ideally not trough rca cables).

I'd like to avoid topping DX5II because it seems unreliable (and some people said it broke their headphones, I can't afford that happening), maybe avoid topping/smsl altogether.
I would have gotten rme adi2 dac fs second hand, but it's impossible to find.

Just want something that's good and transparent, reliable and lasting, bonus points if it's aesthetically pleasing.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

Tip: put recommendation [for what] in your subject.

 

[Chanur]

Hi, I'm looking for an amp or amp/dac combo, under 500€ (but open for more expensive recommendations as I don't mind buying second hand), needs to be available in europe.

Current setup is a pair of utopia 2022, active monitors, motu m4 interface, which I'm keeping for my mic anyways, from my understanding its headphone amp might not be enough for my headphones, but the dac part is pretty fine, and source is my pc.
I would prefer an amp that can do preamp for my monitors (ideally not trough rca cables).

I'd like to avoid topping DX5II because it seems unreliable (and some people said it broke their headphones, I can't afford that happening), maybe avoid topping/smsl altogether.
I would have gotten rme adi2 dac fs second hand, but it's impossible to find.

Just want something that's good and transparent, reliable and lasting, bonus points if it's aesthetically pleasing.

I just recently got a Fiio K9 ESS Pro. It's about 450 and sounds amazing. It's also seems very robustly built. Should last a long time and would make an amazing DAC even if you replaced it for headphone use.

 

[TangAce]

Tip: put recommendation [for what] in your subject.

Oh, my bad, I thought it was obvious since it's in the headphone amp category, thank you for the advice

 

[Redacted]

"its headphone amp might not be enough for my headphones"

Have you tried your headphones with your Motu M4 ? If so, what is the issue that makes you question the setup? Are the phones too quiet? Might different be better?

Or is it just that you want to get another USB-based DAC with a headphone socket to work with your PC and speakers? If so, you have a huge choice and can get something with excellent audio for not a lot cash - I can't see any measurable benefit being likely if you spent more than say, $200.

I have a Topping DX1 for my PC, and various headphones in my home office (it can also drive other amps I have in the room at line level). I've had it since they were first available and it has been 100% reliable, and sound good enough to my ears (playing FLACs or MP3s, event-driven WASAPI via the excellent Foobar2000 on Win10). With any of my headphones, (2 being IEMs) the verge of being too loud is about 11 o'clock on the volume knob, with 9 o'clock fine for routine listening). I heard Topping have a new DX1 Mk2 coming out - I'm sure it will work fine.

OK, so one other model with a certain production date might have had reliability issues but it's not uncommon with any brand - so for my £89, I'm very happy, even it broke today; if I'd spent say, $500 and had a problem I'd be very irritated!

 

[TangAce]

"its headphone amp might not be enough for my headphones"

Have you tried your headphones with your Motu M4 ? If so, what is the issue that makes you question the setup? Are the phones too quiet? Might different be better?

Or is it just that you want to get another USB-based DAC with a headphone socket to work with your PC and speakers? If so, you have a huge choice and can get something with excellent audio for not a lot cash - I can't see any measurable benefit being likely if you spent more than say, $200.

I have a Topping DX1 for my PC, and various headphones in my home office (it can also drive other amps I have in the room at line level). I've had it since they were first available and it has been 100% reliable, and sound good enough to my ears (playing FLACs or MP3s, event-driven WASAPI via the excellent Foobar2000 on Win10). With any of my headphones, (2 being IEMs) the verge of being too loud is about 11 o'clock on the volume knob, with 9 o'clock fine for routine listening). I heard Topping have a new DX1 Mk2 coming out - I'm sure it will work fine.

OK, so one other model with a certain production date might have had reliability issues but it's not uncommon with any brand - so for my £89, I'm very happy, even it broke today; if I'd spent say, $500 and had a problem I'd be very irritated!

I have, it's what I'm using daily, I've also tried it with 3 other setups when I was demoing it before owning a pair, one was a setup I have no idea what it is, then with naim unity which was pretty garbage imo (looks great though), and then with the focal arche which was great.
I can tell with my motu it's a bit different than with those other setups (first one was meh in comparison, unity sounded wrong in certian parts, arche seemed to have something extra in a good way), but I also had to crank up the volume quite a bit compared to my previous headphones (ath r70x), and since, if what I've read isn't wrong, my motu's headphone amp isn't enough for it, I'd rather buy an amp that I can be sure will be as good as it gets

In the end, I'm not super knowledgeable about all that, I'm simply aware that from my experience things that measure well sound right to me (and typically I only look measurements after trying stuff so I don't think it's placebo, especially after trying the unity, at that price I couldn't comprehend why it sounded wrong, until I googled it), So here I am, just trusting measurements and maths that says my motu might not be enough (unless I'm misunderstanding something, I'd love to be wrong and save some money)

I'm not really looking for a dac since I've got my motu
About topping, even on other models there's lots of people saying their unit broke after a while or similar things, I typically prefer paying a bit more for things that won't have issues rather than having to replace stuff, and especially the dx5II seems to be too unreliable, a shame cause it does exactly what I want

 

[Redacted]

I won't argue with that. I'm only saying I am happy for £89.

If you need the Motu for work or hobbies, and you think it struggles to drive your preferred headphones, why not look at an alternative interface? The Motu is ~£250 in the UK, and if you want to cure your headphones woes for up to $500 budget, why not look at a $500 audio interface unit? If you buy from Amazon, you can probably return the device if it does not play nicely with your headphones. But if you like the new one, you could recoup, say $100 selling the Motu on ebay! Or get different headphones.

I was assuming you were going to put a headphone amp between the Motu and the headphones, but what if the Motu's headphone circuit is just poor? You'll just be amplifying a bad sound....

 

[TangAce]

I won't argue with that. I'm only saying I am happy for £89.

If you need the Motu for work or hobbies, and you think it struggles to drive your preferred headphones, why not look at an alternative interface? The Motu is ~£250 in the UK, and if you want to cure your headphones woes for up to $500 budget, why not look at a $500 audio interface unit? If you buy from Amazon, you can probably return the device if it does not play nicely with your headphones. But if you like the new one, you could recoup, say $100 selling the Motu on ebay! Or get different headphones.

I was assuming you were going to put a headphone amp between the Motu and the headphones, but what if the Motu's headphone circuit is just poor? You'll just be amplifying a bad sound....

I need the motu for my condenser mic mostly
And yes I was intending to use motu as dac into an amp into headphones, which should avoid the issue of the weak headphone amp the motu has, motu's dac is pretty good apparently
I've read that generally interfaces aren't great in the headphone amp department, that's why I'm not looking to buy a different interface, unless someone recommends something that does the job but I don't think it exists in my price range

 

[Chanur]

The ZH3 is a good choice under 200 euros.

 

[Mike_Trueman]

SMSL DL400 ftw!

 

[Chanur]

SMSL DL400 ftw!

I like the Fiio K9 Pro ESS better for 50 bucks less. The DL400 looks excellent though and you probably can't go wrong with it. I love my PL200.