Headphone dac/amp

[covmutley]

I was never heavily into the music scene when younger but I enjoyed listening to music and saved up for a decent separates system when I was about 18. Some time, a few house moves and 3 kids later I am without that system and any music.

I got a new car with dab radio recently and found 6music, which has got me back listening to music. Currently listen to spotify at home so I was going to get sonos, but I can't listen to at any real volume due to the kids in bed. So yesterday I demoed some headphones and came away with some grado 325e which sound great. Serious sound leakage but they do have a lovely open sound and will only be used in the house.

Currently listening direct from my iPad mini, I'm thinking how to improve the set up in the future. Getting from ipad to an amp/dac seems tricky so my thoughts are to get an Apple TV and go wireless to that, then into an amp via USB or optical.

Is that the best way or does anyone have any other ideas please. Thanks in advance

[GTRmad]

Just bought a Dragonfly v1.2 usb dac,Its utterly unbelievable that, what looks like a glorified usb stick can produce a sound like what it does.
I listen to spotify a lot either pc or laptop.Was going to get a top end sound card for pc,But stumbled on this little beauty. Really is that good.

[covmutley]

Yes I had seen that one and that it gets good reviews.

But it seems linking to iOS devices is not straightforward and some people have to use powered USB hubs to get it working. That doesn't seem the neatest solution, but then I guess it's only the same as adding in an Apple TV.

Can you link yours to apple devices?

[GTRmad]

Afraid not!The Dragonfly draws to much power to hook it to Apple devices.

[Schtum]

If you purchase an amp that supports Apple Airplay, you can obviate the need for an Apple TV. I have rather a lot of Apple devices, including an iPhone 5S, a Macbook Air, iPad Mini and Apple TV. However, if I want to stream from iTunes, I just use Airplay from iTunes or iPhone to my Yamaha RX-V673 AV Receiver.

Edited by Schtum on Monday 15th December 00:32

[Schtum]

Schtum said:

If you purchase an amp that supports Apple Airplay,

Monitor Audio Airstream A 100 for example - http://www.whathifi.com/monitor-audio/airstream-a1... £400

NAD D-7050 - http://www.whathifi.com/nad/d-7050/review £800

[telecat]

There is always the Chord HUGO DAC. Yes it is a costly beast but as a DAC it is superb and you get the Headphone amp as well.

[covmutley]

Thanks. The airstream seems a good, although it doesn't seem to have a headphone socket.

Its a shame the arcam airdac doesnt have a headphone output either. Does anybody have any experience of these:

http://hifipig.com/schiit-modi-usb-dac-and-magni-h...

http://www.whathifi.com/nad/d-1050/review
http://www.gspaudio.co.uk/bitzie-usb-dac-external-...

All would require an apple tv, but I guess I could get one of those easily on ebay

I cant stretch to the chord!

[marctwo]

covmutley said:

Thanks. The airstream seems a good, although it doesn't seem to have a headphone socket.

Its a shame the arcam airdac doesnt have a headphone output either. Does anybody have any experience of these:

http://hifipig.com/schiit-modi-usb-dac-and-magni-h...

http://www.whathifi.com/nad/d-1050/review
http://www.gspaudio.co.uk/bitzie-usb-dac-external-...

All would require an apple tv, but I guess I could get one of those easily on ebay

I cant stretch to the chord!

I have an A100 and wish it had a headphone socket!

The Schiit Modi/Magni are supposed to be good. You'll still need to get a signal to them though. Apple TV / AirPort Express would be easiest I suppose.

Edited by marctwo on Monday 15th December 14:28

[carlymart]

Get over to head-fi.com lots of talk about dacs and amps
For the record I use a fiio e07 with a lightining to usb adaptor and a short usb to mini usb. Turning the usb charge off on the amp and it works very well indeed drives everything from my etymotics to denon d2000 and Sennheiser hd595,s very well

[aizvara]

FiiO e10 is a pretty good all-in-one solution for the cost. Not sure whether it will work with the iPad.

I use Epiphany Acoustic's version of the ODAC+O2 amp these days, which I also recommend. The O2 amp seems to be quite linear; not affecting the sound much other than increasing volume, which may not be what you want.

[theboss]

telecat said:

There is always the Chord HUGO DAC. Yes it is a costly beast but as a DAC it is superb and you get the Headphone amp as well.

I heard one recently and thought it was excellent. My HDVD800 cost a similar amount and might also be worth a look at if that's the budget, beautifully made, very good headphone amp and lots of inputs/functionality.

[StuH]

theboss said:

I heard one recently and thought it was excellent. My HDVD800 cost a similar amount and might also be worth a look at if that's the budget, beautifully made, very good headphone amp and lots of inputs/functionality.

Another vote for the Hugo. If you're gonna do it might as well do it right!

[covmutley]

Well my christmas bonus is coming...., but not a chance! I can just imagine the conversation with the mrs trying to justify it!

But if I get the chord, I may as well just upgrade to this setup:

http://youtu.be/flWVG7uK9Ts

Edited by covmutley on Tuesday 16th December 22:33

[plunker]

I've just bought the Yamaha R-N500 amp/receiver which you can hook up to the net and play Spotify - controlled by a tablet/phone (needs to be Spotify Premium though).

http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/yamaha_rn500_e.html

[gizlaroc]

Meridian Explorer 2, which includes apodising filters and the new MQA decoding, which will be a game changer.

£199.

[theboss]

gizlaroc said:

Meridian Explorer 2, which includes apodising filters and the new MQA decoding, which will be a game changer.

£199.

Bargain. I bought the original Explorer as an improved headphone out for my Macbook Pro, which is a lovely bit of kit for what was £250 and this second version can only be much more for less.

[gizlaroc]

Version 2 has dropped the digital output, so if someone was wanting to use the apodising filter before passing it onto another DAC it may not be the right choice, but I think MQA will be something a bit special.

The original Explorer is being sold off cheap.

Martins HiFi have had it advertised at £124 in their xmas sale, can't see you getting better than that for a usb dac imho.

[gizlaroc]

covmutley said:

Getting from ipad to an amp/dac seems tricky so my thoughts are to get an Apple TV and go wireless to that, then into an amp via USB or optical.

Apple TV is probably not the right choice, it converts everything to 48k, not ideal.

The earlier Airport express at least plays everything at 44k, so same as CD/Music files.