Need a headphone amp

[Darshan Singh]

Hi guys,

I want a headphone DAC for my ipod Touch and Sennheiser HD598 headphones within a range of Rs.15000. The DAC may be a desktop DAC or a portable one but I don't want portability at the cost of the sound quality. So even if it is a desktop one, it is OK with me. As you may know, HD598s are a neutral pair of headphones and very good ones at that, therefore I want a DAC which should amplify the sound qualities basically the soundstage and not preferably bass.

I checked out online and found some models matching my requirements. All of them are from FiiO as I couldn't find other brands in this price range. The likes of Asus are way too costly. The models I could find are FiiO - Kunlun E18, FiiO E17K - Alpen 2 and Fiio E17 - Alpen. Please tell me if any of them satisfies my requirements well and do they also work with Apple products and PCs. Please also feel free to recommend any other DAC apart from the above mentioned ones if it is better.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Darshan Singh]

Please reply somebody. Tell me please whether FiiO E18 will improve the sound with the iPod or not as it is advertised everywhere as primarily an Android DAC.

 

[Raziel]

About FiiO, i have the FiiO e12 amp, (no dac) and it's pretty good, but not great. The vocals are good and warm, typical fiio sound. I'd suggest Cayin C6 dac, over the fiio e18. Not sure about the availability here. I have the Cayin N6 dap which i use as a dac and it sounds brilliant, much better than fiio.

 

[Darshan Singh]

Thanks a ton for replying Raziel especially because no one else bothered to reply. The problem is Cayin is not available in India and FiiO is only one of the few brands available in this price range. Anyways, thanks again for taking your time to suggest.

 

[The Incinerator]

Contact Sound by Design for Cayin in India. For Rs 15K forget a Cayin for now. Get a better source like the Fiio X3 2nd gen with Fiio E11K2 for now. It will all well be within Rs 18 K and an awsome rig.

 

[Darshan Singh]

Thanks buddy but I don't want a DAP. I already have iPod Touch no matter how its sound quality is. I just want a DAC. So please recommend a DAC which is easily available in India. The reviews of E11K2 alone are also good. So should I go for that or E18 is better than that?

 

[The Incinerator]

Getting a separate DAC and carrying a source when all can be rolled in to one with DSD playback capability I think getting a amp and the x3 would have been a better option as the amp would drive any headphone to its best with a source doing the details.

But if you just want a DAC -AMP get the FiiO E18 KUNLUN. Its superb too with that PCM 1795. But a two box front end means two clocks working in tandem which might create jitters.

 

[Darshan Singh]

Thanks Incinerator,

I am going to order E18 today and see how it is.