DAC that has RCA and S/PDIF for around $200-300?

[TheDudeWhoTriesHard]

 

I purchased an AKG K240 DF from a second-hand seller that included a AudioSource AMP-100 along with it. After some googling, its possible to use speaker amps for headphone amps, albeit with some extra stuff in it.


Can anyone recommend a DAC thats safely compatible with the AMP-100 with S/PDIF and RCA? I want to use the speaker amp as a headphone amp since I got it for a really good deal. My dad can help me out with the connections, cabling, etc... to make sure the amp doesn't kill these headphones, but the DAC is my first priority right now. I would be nice of the S/PDIF from the DAC supports up to 24 bit/192khz natively for the sake of a bit of headroom.

 

[xtroria]

Modi 2 uber

[TumbleButt]

Are the K240 DF's THAT hard to drive?

[TheDudeWhoTriesHard]

Modi 2 uber

Won't it kinda kill my K240 DF's if I don't have some sort of "extra volume knob" to prevent the AMP-100 from outputting too much power to kill my headphones.

 

Are the K240 DF's THAT hard to drive?

Somewhat, yes.

[xtroria]

Won't it kinda kill my K240 DF's if I don't have some sort of "extra volume knob" to prevent the AMP-100 from outputting too much power to kill my headphones.

 

Somewhat, yes.

 

Well I've never really encountered a dac with volume knob except the $3500 auralic vega.

 

It's one of the big consequences with using speaker amp for headphone, you need to be extra careful or shit goes boom

[SSL]

By the time you get done with the effort of making a speaker amp suitable for headphones, you could have just bought a headphone amp. The ONLY way to deal with this issue is at the headphone amp itself; you need to protect it from the high 600 ohm impedance of the headphones, which it was never designed to drive. You also need to protect the headphones from excess current; with a 200mW maximum power handling you could easily destroy them.

[TumbleButt]

By the time you get done with the effort of making a speaker amp suitable for headphones, you could have just bought a headphone amp. The ONLY way to deal with this issue is at the headphone amp itself; you need to protect it from the high 600 ohm impedance of the headphones, which it was never designed to drive. You also need to protect the headphones from excess current; with a 200mW maximum power handling you could easily destroy them.

I was thinking of suggesting what ZeosPantera (specifically in his Z Reviews channel) regarding what he did with the Emotiva A-100 Mini-X (whatever its real name is) since, well, seems viable (more dangerous than viable, even Z said it himself) and I'm seriously convinced on doing the same thing he did (with an Audioengine D1 Dac, though) and be my "one amp and dac setup that could save me in the face of soon getting headphones with ridiculous need for power in the future other than Electrostats), but... damn, are speaker amps that dangerous to be used as headphone amps that an HE-6 is pretty much the only thing viable to be ran off of a speaker amp?

[TheDudeWhoTriesHard]

Well I've never really encountered a dac with volume knob except the $3500 auralic vega.

 

It's one of the big consequences with using speaker amp for headphone, you need to be extra careful or shit goes boom

Oh my.

 

By the time you get done with the effort of making a speaker amp suitable for headphones, you could have just bought a headphone amp. The ONLY way to deal with this issue is at the headphone amp itself; you need to protect it from the high 600 ohm impedance of the headphones, which it was never designed to drive. You also need to protect the headphones from excess current; with a 200mW maximum power handling you could easily destroy them.

Well, which headphone amp would you recommend for the K240 DF?

[SSL]

I was thinking of suggesting what ZeosPantera (specifically in his Z Reviews channel) regarding what he did with the Emotiva A-100 Mini-X (whatever its real name is) since, well, seems viable (more dangerous than viable, even Z said it himself) and I'm seriously convinced on doing the same thing he did (with an Audioengine D1 Dac, though) and be my "one amp and dac setup that could save me in the face of soon getting headphones with ridiculous need for power in the future other than Electrostats), but... damn, are speaker amps that dangerous to be used as headphone amps that an HE-6 is pretty much the only thing viable to be ran off of a speaker amp?

 

Let me be perfectly clear. The notion of headphones, even the HE-6 as "power hungry" is absurd. Most speakers are 8 ohms or less, which means that they draw far, far more current, all other considerations aside. Using a speaker amp for headphones is not only fairly unsafe, it's also unnecessary. And as I said above, you're basically forcing equipment to do things that it was not designed to do, which requires hacks and workarounds. The HE-6 is indeed one of the few headphones that could even begin to make sense plugged into a speaker amp, due to the low sensitivity combined with relatively low impedance.

 

Oh my.

 

Well, which headphone amp would you recommend for the K240 DF?

 

A Schiit Magni 2 or O2 would provide enough voltage to reach comfortable listening levels.

 

Well I've never really encountered a dac with volume knob except the $3500 auralic vega.

 

It's one of the big consequences with using speaker amp for headphone, you need to be extra careful or shit goes boom

 

Even then, reducing the output level of the DAC can't overcome the impedance mismatch.