New DAC and Headphone amp for my office

[daytona600]

Hi Scott,

I want something that I can just leave on my desk in work, which can pull from the mass of music sitting on my external harddrive.

Nathan

AK100 is the size or smaller than a mobile phone + desktop or just stick in your pocket
for use at home or blutooth for your car
optical dac for connected to your Pc

or graham slee bitzie just waiting on my sample or bluecircle thingee dac

http://scottnangle.co.uk/page_27.html
http://soundstageav.com/onhifi/20090901.htm

[alan47]

My present set up,cost £200 and sounds like £600.cups 001.jpg

[wee tee cee]

Berringer uc 202 is surprisingly good for pocket money....the fiio stuff has been really disappointing e7 sold on.e5 in use as a booster in a garage t amp battery powered system/e10 given to my sister in law to use in conjunction with a mac with fooked headphone socket. the 202 outperformed the fiio e10 by quite a margin.cheap as chips.
drives a variety of cans with ease and sounds way better than it should. horrid wee plastic thing but does it job really well.

[RochaCullen]

Berringer uc 202 is surprisingly good for pocket money....the fiio stuff has been really disappointing e7 sold on.e5 in use as a booster in a garage t amp battery powered system/e10 given to my sister in law to use in conjunction with a mac with fooked headphone socket. the 202 outperformed the fiio e10 by quite a margin.cheap as chips.
drives a variety of cans with ease and sounds way better than it should. horrid wee plastic thing but does it job really well.

Totally forgot I have one of those her behringer things in a drawer in my home office. I'll plug that in tomorrow and see how it performs.

Thanks Tony

[RochaCullen]

My present set up,cost £200 and sounds like £600.cups 001.jpg

Hi Alan,

That looks like an Epiphany Accoustics dac and a set of Grados, but what is the amp?

[RichB]

Berringer uc 202 is surprisingly good for pocket money....the fiio stuff has been really disappointing e7 sold on.e5 in use as a booster in a garage t amp battery powered system/e10 given to my sister in law to use in conjunction with a mac with fooked headphone socket. the 202 outperformed the fiio e10 by quite a margin.cheap as chips.
drives a variety of cans with ease and sounds way better than it should. horrid wee plastic thing but does it job really well.

Also in a similar vein are the Hot Audio products available from that auction place, hand built, utilitarian, cost effective and perform well in my desktop system.

[Rambaud]

I have a Teac DAC and it is not bad. The headphone output is however not loud enough for my own use. My 300Ohms headphones can't be used with it effectively. The other thing that is bothersome are the muting relays. They are even louder than the ones in the Caiman.
One major problem that I found with the DAC chip in it is that it compresses and eventually distorts audio signals that are close to the maximum DAC output level.

I have the Teac UD-H01 (plus various FiiO DACs).

Like Stan, I find the headphone output not able to drive my AKG K70s ideally, but fine for my Sennheiser PX100s.

But, unlike Stan, I like the noise of the relays - I find that the DAC is playing at MY chosen sample rate reassuring.

I thought it pretty good value at £230, but I saw it advertised at £150 ( a few months ago) which is/was a bargain , IMHO.

[bobbasrah]

Would second the Epiphany Acoustics unit, although I could not trial others to compare the competition. It has an enviable reputation and well catalogued history both as a DAC amd a Headphome Amp.
Having listened exclusively on headphone (Beyer990Pro 250ohm) for the last 3 months on my old faithfull chinese DAC, the resolution of this little unit is nothing short of stunning, detailed, clean, uncoloured. Compared to the Fiios which are excellent value IMHO, this is certainly an incredible little device without going into the esoteric budgets.

[alan47]

Hi Alan,

That looks like an Epiphany Accoustics dac and a set of Grados, but what is the amp?

Hi,Nathan
The amp is a Neco Soundlab portable V3,18v dual opamp.It is by far the best amp i have owned,and i have had at least ten over the last few years.It has a very clear almost holographic sound,plus the batteries last a good 60 hrs before i have to plug it in.He makes them by hand and sells on ebay for just over £100,plus he is a nice helpful guy.I bought it because it had a slightly better review on head-fi than the 02 amp.I am fighting off the urge to get his Bossfet desktop amp at the moment.

[RochaCullen]

Hi,Nathan
The amp is a Neco Soundlab portable V3,18v dual opamp.It is by far the best amp i have owned,and i have had at least ten over the last few years.It has a very clear almost holographic sound,plus the batteries last a good 60 hrs before i have to plug it in.He makes them by hand and sells on ebay for just over £100,plus he is a nice helpful guy.I bought it because it had a slightly better review on head-fi than the 02 amp.I am fighting off the urge to get his Bossfet desktop amp at the moment.

Hi Alan,

Just did an ebay search and did not come up with anything. If you could send on a link that would be appreciated.

Regards,

Nathan