Howdy pirates!
May I request some enlightment on my first post in this great forum?
I'm in the process of trying to sell my Yulong D100 Dac/Amp to "upgrade" to something better ampwise without compromissing on the Dac section(maybe a little). my budget is 3-400$.
At current state of head-fi equipement it seems to me that I can actually make an upgrade from the Yulong D100 while at the same time spending less... if I'm smart I might even get out of this with a small profit...
My headphone is a GMP 400 300Ohm and I plan to buy a Sennheiser HD6x0 or DT880 in the near future.
It will be used as a stationary desktop system just like the D100 with both of these Headphones and some IEMs.
It doesn't have to be only this, though... it would be nice if there was some portability factor in the equation.
I must say that what really drives me to move from the Yulong D100 is it's amp section which I find somewhat limited for my modded GMP 400 and not very transparent... compared to the little Sansa clip+ it has a certain treble glare (digital glare?) that is not natural and the bass and lower mids sound thinned-out, it is bright, unpleasently bright and I could go on and on my issues with this amp... it seems like it's trying to sound transparent but it really isn't.
The sonic attribute I most value is transparency.
My initial plan was to just go with the Odac/O2 combo and be done with it.
Further search and reading, however, suggested that there is better than the O2 within my budget.
Right now my plan is to get the Odac + ?? preferably solid state at max 300$. (Don't like the hassle of tubes and DIY...)
My long search for a suitable amp upgrade has brought me unexpectedly to the portable amp market...
I'm not sure if I'm doing my search right, and probably I'm not, but right now I feel like I need a definitive answer to the following question:
Am I right to think that certain sub-500$ portable dac/
Amps like the UHA-6s, Dacport, Portaphile 627, can perform as good or better as most similarly priced sub 500$ desktop
solid-state amps to drive most headphones?
Or am I wrong?
It's just that I've noticed a trend on Head-fi that is favoring much more portable amps discussions than SS full sizes in this price range...
And why is it that here at Changstar there's almost no amp talk other than portables and a few high-end fulls?
Are we watching to the take over of the sub-500$ SS desktop amp segment by the portable amp market or what?
Probably a silly question?
What should be the ss amp to get below the 300$ tab for someone who values transparency?
Before I would expect that a desktop solution like an m-stage or asgard would be the
schiit to get, but now I'm not so sure...
Hard to believe that a portable can outperform a desktop with a good open headphone of >300Ohms...
Where lies the real value right now?
Could some experienced ears enlighten me, please?
Or rather fix up my mind?