fostex DAC + AMP for Fostex T50RP MKIII

[ItsTworty]

Basically the title says it all but ill guess i will make up a nice fairytale for context: Once there was a boy on his quest for good audio, He goodled wide and far and finally settled on a pair of Fostex T50RP MK3s. When they arrived their Earpads where flat and they sounded no good. Hmm said the boy "This is not as it should." With a brand new pair of Shure HPAEC1540 Pads they felt staggering but the sound was yet unflattering...

Now that that menace is over lets get going with the real reason of this post. Basically i f***ed up and my current DAC + AMP solution doesnt have enough "oumph" to drive these bastards. Would love to have a Combo solution but im open to seperate solutions.

Any recommendations? Funds are kinda running low so the cheaper the better but all rec's are welcomed, cheers!
Oh and they need to be available in the Northern parts of EU.

[nox_]

8 hours ago, ItsTworty said:

current DAC + AMP solution doesnt have enough

What's your current amp and dac? I'm no expert but theses headphones aren't that hard to drive imho, shouldn't require high end gear, but maybe you are using some ultra shit dac and amp.

Should be helpful.

 

[ItsTworty]

2 hours ago, nox_ said:

What's your current amp and dac? I'm no expert but theses headphones aren't that hard to drive imho, shouldn't require high end gear, but maybe you are using some ultra shit dac and amp.

Should be helpful.

 

Sadly the fostex T50RPs are nutoriously hard to drive apparently, ive been using a magni schiit 2 and im not currently able to drive them without maxing everything. Im maybe looking at maybe a Schiit magni 2 Uber or Jotenheim if i give up and just drop 500 $ into them.

Might have to return them if i cant get something at a respectable price sadly  Darn Sweden and our taxes & Import fees making good audio more expensive than it should.

[nox_]

@rice guru Maybe you can help? Are the t50rp's that hard to drive? What dac and amp would you recommend for them? They are not very high impedance, 50 ohms that is, why would they be that hard to drive? Very curious about this notoriously hard to drive thing.

 

15 minutes ago, ItsTworty said:

respectable price

You still haven't specified what is your budget, it would help for people to help you if you told what kind of price is "respectable".

[ItsTworty]

5 minutes ago, nox_ said:

@rice guru Maybe you can help? Are the t50rp's that hard to drive? What dac and amp would you recommend for them? They are not very high impedance, 50 ohms that is, why would they be that hard to drive? Very curious about this notoriously hard to drive thing.

 

You still haven't specified what is your budget, it would help for people to help you if you told what kind of price is "respectable".

Well basically i want to go as low as possible since i already spent so much on audio gear the last month but if i will have to set a budget i guess under 200 but its very flexible.

[ItsTworty]

8 minutes ago, nox_ said:

@rice guru Maybe you can help? Are the t50rp's that hard to drive? What dac and amp would you recommend for them? They are not very high impedance, 50 ohms that is, why would they be that hard to drive? Very curious about this notoriously hard to drive thing.

 

You still haven't specified what is your budget, it would help for people to help you if you told what kind of price is "respectable".

I'ma just clearify that the T50RPs are planar headphones and thus tend to be power hogs, hence to generally low impedence number but the thirst for power. I havent had planar before so i wanted to consult a forum just to get things right the first time, since i mostly manage myself when it comes to dynamic drivers. 

[nox_]

9 minutes ago, ItsTworty said:

Well basically i want to go as low as possible since i already spent so much on audio gear the last month but if i will have to set a budget i guess under 200 but its very flexible.

Wait for @rice guru to respond he should recommend something for you, he knows a lot about headphones, what gear to pair with them, etc.

5 minutes ago, ItsTworty said:

I'ma just clearify that the T50RPs are planar headphones and thus tend to be power hogs, hence to generally low impedence number but the thirst for power. I havent had planar before so i wanted to consult a forum just to get things right the first time, since i mostly manage myself when it comes to dynamic drivers

I understand that, but I think you can get a dac + amp to drive them without shelling out 500 bucks, might be wrong though.

Edited May 31, 2020 by nox_

[rice guru]

2 hours ago, ItsTworty said:

Well basically i want to go as low as possible since i already spent so much on audio gear the last month but if i will have to set a budget i guess under 200 but its very flexible.

Yeah they are kinda hard to drive . For $200 amps the thing with the most power I can think of is the schiit Asgard 3 which does up to 5wpc at 16 ohms while the magni 2 could only do 1.8wpc for reference. The new magnis models the 3+ and the heresy both do 2.8wpc. all 3 should be available through the EU store I would go for any of those but if you need to make sure it can really handle it the Asgard 3 should do the trick. Another option that should work is the topping a50 personally haven't tried it or heard it so it's not a full reccomend I just kinda k ow it's a good amp through other peoples experiences.