gava
Prominent Member
Having recently acquired a set of Audeze LCD-XC headphones I am now looking to upgrade my headphone amp and I'm kinda stuck.
A few years ago I got the Fiio K5 Pro as an interim solution, and it's been working great and generally performing so well that I have felt it to be one of the very last things I wanted to upgrade. That time has now come however.
Budget: £200-£??? I don't want to spend extra for no reason.
Must have features:
Nice to have:
Current List in order of how I'm feeling:
Your thoughts appreciated.
A few years ago I got the Fiio K5 Pro as an interim solution, and it's been working great and generally performing so well that I have felt it to be one of the very last things I wanted to upgrade. That time has now come however.
Budget: £200-£??? I don't want to spend extra for no reason.
Must have features:
- Enough power - I don't have any very hard to drive headphones. >1W okay, but no harm in having lots.
- Good measurements
- General user satisfaction and good reviews and reputation
Nice to have:
- Remove any need any EQ software on my laptop. Mainly just want a bit of a bass boost.
- Full EQ would be great.
- Bass-boost switch would be fine.
- Good looks
- Extra features e.g. BT, true balanced circuitry, etc.
Current List in order of how I'm feeling:
- Fiio K7 - £200 + (£100 for balanced cable)- gets very good reviews, balanced, THX, crazy good price.
- Hifiman EF400 - £500 - simply tons of power and an R2R DAC, no features.
- JDSlabs Element 3 - £500 - looks great, measures well, some nice features, but is it really worth the extra over the K7?
- iFi Micro iDSD Signature - £750 - bass boost and xbass, portable, but much more expensive.
- RME ADI-2 FS £1100 - obviously the right thing to buy, end game, universally acclaimed, full EQ but I'm struggling with the price.
- Sabaj A20D £420 - perfect measurements, dead neutral but could I really hear a difference over K7?
- Topping DX5 £500 - measurement king, dead neutral but could I really hear a difference over K7?
- Fiio K9 Pro £700 - universally loved by reviewers, excellent features, but pushing the budget.
- iFi Zen DAC v2 £200 - has bass boost, would be ideal except that its output power is ludicrously low, less than 1/5 of any of the others on this list.
Your thoughts appreciated.
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