[mfmukhtar786]

Hello everyone,

I am looking to set up a dac/amp with my PC for the first time. After doing a bunch of research, these 3 options are what I've managed to narrow things down to. All of them are within my price range but I am unable to narrow things down any further. This is why I came to you guys for some input. Thank you all for any advice given here.

Headphones: Drop PC38X, Sennheiser HD650, and either Sennheiser 800S or Hifiman Arya Organic soon.

I will only be using the setup on my PC while gaming, listening to music, and watching TV/movies.

Please let me know which option you think would work best for my needs and why. Please and thank you.

PS. If you think there's a better option out there for around the same price, please let me know.

 

[oknenir]

I'd god for separates - easier to change the dac only if like the amp, or vice versa. Another consideration is DACs tend to sound best after they've been on for a few days, so separates let you keep the dac always on and only switch on/off the amp.

Can't comment on Schiit vs JDS Labs as I have only owned some Schiit stuff. Good value for money, so can't go wrong with Schiit, apart from one thing which is your choice of headphones - not sure if a budget amp is a good match for HD800, so I'd go for Hifiman over Sennheiser (with any amp budget, but that's just me).

Not sure what your budget is, but I'd suggest checking out Schiit Modi MB + Lyr 3 - not really a stack as such, but would be more suitable for the headphone models you're after.