Hello, I just joined, primarily for the audiophile products. Looking at purchasing the NHT C3 speakers for our new living room. Space is about 15 feet wide by 33 long and they will fire long ways. Space is just for general listening, music room with all equipment is downstairs, so hoping they will fill it with sound nicely. Cheers.
Mar 18, 2024
Getting as basic as possible. What would the average person get to power these? A Schiit stack (Magni 3/Modi 2 or Vali 2/Modi 2?) Or should I look at O2, Garage 1217, what has everyone else been doing.
I really don't want to spend $400 for a Speedball Bottlehead. I just put $200 down and I'd like to keep it cheap, but I don't want to upgrade for a long while.Thanks
I think, for your specific needs and budget that you really can't go wrong with the O2 DAC/amp that's been offered here on Massdrop. Those cans don't really need a tube amp to make them sound warm and beautiful, and the O2 will complement them beautifully and at a nice price point. I like the O2 on my Sennheisers very much.
Congrats on making a good headphones purchase.
Cheers!
As far as DACs go...don't spend much on them. They all pretty much sound the same, the difference is splitting hairs.
Good luck and enjoy your new cans. I still really like mine and I'm glad I got them.
At this level, I really don't think it's worth obsessing over specific models, especially if you are previously used to headphones driven out of a phone or a computer.
Gets too many opinions
As you can see it's a slippery slope. I found myself buying lots of different set ups and I will say I like them all for different purposes.
But, since right now my motherboard is capable of powering 600ohm headphones, I will hold off a bit to let the wallet cool down (and the wife as well)
If you're looking for a budget stack with hybrid amp, maybe you should look at the Topping D30 DAC & Little Dot I+ amp. I've got these, and it works wonders with a lot of headphones: from low impedance planars like HE-4XX, to high impedance dynamics like HD6XX, it provides more than enought juice while adding that little extra warmth that solid state amps usually lack. And the ability to roll cheap tubes and opamps easily found on eBay, is a huge bonus for the LD I+ too, allowing you to improve / customize the sound according to the headphones you're using and/or your personal taste. The D30 measures substantially better than the Modi 2 for a similar price (even lower), and also offers more input & output options, dedicated power input instead of USB power (less electrical noise) and you can stack a LD I+ on top (the Modi 2 might be a bit too short for that).
Last advice, if you wanna "keep it cool enought" to prevent being exiled to the couch, you should get the amp first and use your mobo as a DAC (line out, rear, not front headphone's out).
That said, I don’t have a Magni/Modi to compare it to, but if you have an extra $100 lying around and want some extra overhead, or you want to be able to make your ears bleed with these things (in a literal sense), those may be a good option as well.