After A Great Sounding Headphone Dac Amp £500 Budget

Audio Gear Talk
1

hi
im after a headphone dac amp for more critical listening than on my denon 4500 av amp would also like one with dsd playback to try out and mains powered.
my budget is £500 dont mind buying used

my setup at the moment
nuc rock
denon avr 4500
b&w p7 headphones
cheers

2

You can’t go wrong with this little beauty. And yes I own one and it sounds fantastic!

https://www.project-audio.com/en/product/pre-box-s2-digital/

Pre-Box-S2-digital_04-1-1024x684.jpg1024×684

1 Like
3

Try Chord Mojo. One of the best for its price to my ears. I also have the pre box. Not too bad either.

3 Likes
4
2 Likes
5

Edit.
Is there a Networked roon end point, DAC and headphone amp all in one? So not a usb end point.

1 Like
6

Yes, Ralph pointed you to the Project Box above

7

I’ve rephrased my question, I was after an all in one network attached end point, DAC, amp.

8

I believe that an iPhone or decent android smart phone would fit the bill otherwise there may be a few rather expensive “audiophile” all-in-ones. But most of those are integrated amps with perhaps a decent headphone jack.

9

Are you looking for a portable solution? If so, then the Chord Poly/Mojo combination would work. Although that is nearly double the OPs budget.

2 Likes
10

I do vaguely keep track but there are so many hardware releases happening that I thought one might have slipped me by.
I use a Pi, spdif converter, naim unitiqute at the moment as the qute also drives my office speakers.
But it doesn’t really grip my HD 650s so I am in ponder mode…

11

I just ordered a Topping DX3Pro for my HD650’s, but it doesn’t have the network connection you want.

12

That looks good I guess I could run that off a pi?

13

ASR loved it. I intend to run it off a USB port from a Mac Pro.

14

ASR? (Padding to meet minimum post length added)

15

Audio Science Review website. The guy running it focuses on measuring audio equipment.

16

Ah yes knew of the site not the acronym.

17

Yes. Bluesound Node 2i.

18

Oh right thanks I’ll go look.

19

I did take a look at the specs and have two simple questions:

What are the specs for the headphone output?

How does one control the headphone volume?

20

No clue on headphone specs. Personally, I’ve never used the 3.5mm headphone jack. You never mentioned what 'phones you are using, which make a real difference on the need for a dedicated amp.

Volume control is via the BluOS app (desktop or mobile - it’s nice, by the way).

What I am setting up at my office: Node 2i + Lehmann Audio Rhinelander head amp. I recently added a new solid state head-amp to my head-fi table at home, so the Lehmann is heading into work.

But there are many, low-cost, good sounding amps. The Schiit offerings are popular, as well as the Alex Cavalli MassDrop amps.