Best Desktop Amp?

[Abhishek Baiju]

Which is the best amp for pc?

My budget is about 200$.

Please Provide Links.

Thanks.

[3 Minute Reviewer]

1 hour ago, Abhishek Baiju said:

Which is the best amp for pc?

My budget is about 200$.

Please Provide Links.

Thanks.

Do you need just the amp or do you need a DAC as well? What headphones are you planning to use?

[Tsuki]

@op, welcome to the forum!

 

it depends on exactly what you need.  like @kmathieu2220 said, do you just need the amp, or will you need a dac, and it really does depend on what headphones you're trying to drive. 

we can find you one that suits your needs best, as opposed to just getting the best one for $200

Edited December 8, 2017 by wkdpaul
cleaned up

[Abhishek Baiju]

On 12/7/2017 at 8:50 AM, kmathieu2220 said:

Do you need just the amp or do you need a DAC as well? What headphones are you planning to use?

Both of them

 

19 hours ago, Tsuki said:

@op, welcome to the forum!

 

it depends on exactly what you need.  like @kmathieu2220 said, do you just need the amp, or will you need a dac, and it really does depend on what headphones you're trying to drive. 

we can find you one that suits your needs best, as opposed to just getting the best one for $200

Sennheiser HD 280 PRO

[WkdPaul]

Thread cleaned.

[3 Minute Reviewer]

57 minutes ago, Abhishek Baiju said:

Sennheiser HD 280 PRO

 

There is one very simple answer for you my friend, you're in luck! I would go out and grab the Modi 2 and Magni 3 - each are $99 for a total of $200! I have included the links below. These are considered as good as it gets for the price right now. 

http://www.schiit.com/products/modi-2

http://www.schiit.com/products/magni-3

[Abhishek Baiju]

3 minutes ago, kmathieu2220 said:

There is one very simple answer for you my friend, you're in luck! I would go out and grab the Modi 2 and Magni 3 - each are $99 for a total of $200! I have included the links below. These are considered as good as it gets for the price right now. 

http://www.schiit.com/products/modi-2

http://www.schiit.com/products/magni-3

thanks man

[NinjaQuick]

Or get the o2+o dac, which is better value and equal or better in quality. 

[spwath]

4 hours ago, NinjaQuick said:

Or get the o2+o dac, which is better value and equal or better in quality. 

No. Worse value (costs more), and worse quality.

[NinjaQuick]

6 hours ago, spwath said:

No. Worse value (costs more), and worse quality.

Quantitative evidence to back up your claims, please.

 

At any rate, he asked for amp, Objective is what he wants. Why does everyone shill for Schiit? Or Class A amps, for that matter.

[Spuriae]

47 minutes ago, NinjaQuick said:

Quantitative evidence to back up your claims, please.

Much obliged if you'd do the same. The best objective information we really have is that the Magni 2 is on par with the O2 in some uninformative specs (SNR and THD don't matter at the sorts of levels they're competing at) and that the Modi beat the ODAC in a trustworthy but fairly non-rigorous blind test. It's a shame there aren't more objectivists out measuring these things. As it turns out, the reality is more like most people who profess to be objectivists are really just cheap people looking for a reason not to spend more money (not a bad thing), and it's the same people who that group accuses of being too subjectivist (Tyll, Marvey, Hands) who end up actually doing the measurements.

 

As a result we're forced to fall back on subjective opinions which almost universally favor the Schiit Stack.

 

TBH it's hard to get important measurements like gain linearity, square wave performance, distortion spectrums for anything. As a result people end up trying to compare products by things like THD which are easy to inflate and have a poor correlation with subjective sound quality anyways.

 

[NinjaQuick]

The OP does not need a DAC. The O2 Amp is on massdrop for under 100, and is a great buy at that point.

 

From what I can tell, the Modi is not a transparent DAC, so why would anyone want it?

[3 Minute Reviewer]

2 hours ago, NinjaQuick said:

The OP does not need a DAC. The O2 Amp is on massdrop for under 100, and is a great buy at that point.

 

From what I can tell, the Modi is not a transparent DAC, so why would anyone want it?

   On 12/7/2017 at 9:50 AM,  kmathieu2220 said: 

Do you need just the amp or do you need a DAC as well? What headphones are you planning to use?

Both of them

[NinjaQuick]

Does he need a dac or are we just throwing his money away. 

[Abhishek Baiju]

1 minute ago, NinjaQuick said:

Does he need a dac or are we just throwing his money away. 

both of them

 

[pas008]

12 hours ago, Abhishek Baiju said:

Sennheiser HD 280 PRO

 

own them never needed an amp

 

what are you currently using as sources

[Abhishek Baiju]

18 minutes ago, pas008 said:

own them never needed an amp

 

what are you currently using as sources

My PC

which sucks really bad

[NinjaQuick]

Like, do you have actual issues with the DAC, or is the amp just bad. 

 

What motherboard do you have? 

[seduce_me]

M stack will be an upgrade from the onboard anyway. This "objective" nonsense has got to stop.

[Max_Settings]

13 hours ago, NinjaQuick said:

Like, do you have actual issues with the DAC, or is the amp just bad. 

 

What motherboard do you have? 

That doesn’t matter at all what type of onboard you have. A good dedicated DAC will always improve sound over onboard as well as change the sound. And to the OP yes go with the Modi 2 and Magni 3.

[Tech22]

On 12/8/2017 at 11:40 AM, NinjaQuick said:

Or get the o2+o dac, which is better value and equal or better in quality. 

I was originally going with those two and then I realized. You can take the analogue out from the Odac into the O2. The O2 has no analogue input!