[Sanity]

Coming up I plan to purchase a pair of the Denon D-5000 headphones for use for music, mostly off of my PC and sometimes off of my iPod. I am a bit of an audiophile even though I don't have true audiophile quality equipment right now, and I tirelessly search for recordings that will give me the best possible sound that it can.
 
I picked the Denon d-5000's for a variety of reasons. They look really good, they get good reviews, they look like they'd fit upon my large head. They are within the right price range too.
 
I also started to look up an AMP and a DAC after reading a bunch of threads on this website, and picked out Musical Fidelity's V-CAN and V-DAC.
 
Do I really need both of these? I use headphones basically all the time, and a nice, loud, rich sound is what I'm looking for out of this. Would it be worth it to get both the Amp and the DAC, or just get the amp? My computer has an on board sound card, though I have been meaning to look into getting a stronger card.
 
So as you all can see I'm in quite the predicament before I make my first purchases.
 
Also, Hello! First post, heh.

 

[mikop]

I just plugged my D5000 into my Sansa Clip +.  It is usually plugged into my E7+E9.  It is certainly listenable on clip so I think you can go ahead and get the phone first and worry about getting the rest of the items later. 
 
edit: I should add, the difference between clip+ and goes through e9 is quite different. very noticeable so you should definitely look into dac/amp later on. but the d5000 is still listenable without them for now.

 

[kingtz]

Quote:

Coming up I plan to purchase a pair of the Denon D-5000 headphones for use for music, mostly off of my PC and sometimes off of my iPod. I am a bit of an audiophile even though I don't have true audiophile quality equipment right now, and I tirelessly search for recordings that will give me the best possible sound that it can.
 
I picked the Denon d-5000's for a variety of reasons. They look really good, they get good reviews, they look like they'd fit upon my large head. They are within the right price range too.
 
I also started to look up an AMP and a DAC after reading a bunch of threads on this website, and picked out Musical Fidelity's V-CAN and V-DAC.
 
Do I really need both of these? I use headphones basically all the time, and a nice, loud, rich sound is what I'm looking for out of this. Would it be worth it to get both the Amp and the DAC, or just get the amp? My computer has an on board sound card, though I have been meaning to look into getting a stronger card.
 
So as you all can see I'm in quite the predicament before I make my first purchases.
 
Also, Hello! First post, heh.

Get a DAC. Onboard sound is pretty terrible, and isn't worth using if you're going to get nice headphones and an amp.

 

[EYEdROP]

You will still enjoy them out of your mp3 player or soundcard, but they will only improve with upgrades. Even a cheap budget dac and amp combo should improve things quite a bit vs. onboard. Also, dont expect an amp and dac to totally transform the sound. It will however help them to achive optimum effeciency and performance that they are capable of (by providing plenty of clean juice). 

 

[Sanity]

Oh yeah, I don't really expect an amp and a DAC to totally transform the sound, but I would think it would help augment the experience greatly.
 
Well, seeing as how I'm basically being recommended to get a DAC, are there any recommendations you have? The Musical Fidelity one I picked out still looks strong. I originally wanted to get an Xcan v8 but they aren't on Musical Fidelity's website anymore? And it's a lot of money that would put me over budget (though that's just me being stingy.)

 

[kingtz]

Quote:

Oh yeah, I don't really expect an amp and a DAC to totally transform the sound, but I would think it would help augment the experience greatly.
 
Well, seeing as how I'm basically being recommended to get a DAC, are there any recommendations you have? The Musical Fidelity one I picked out still looks strong. I originally wanted to get an Xcan v8 but they aren't on Musical Fidelity's website anymore? And it's a lot of money that would put me over budget (though that's just me being stingy.)

Yeah, I really love my V-DAC and I think it's a great unit. Of course, it's difficult to mention the V-DAC and not also bring up the Cambridge Audio DacMagic, another really great DAC in that price range. Those were the two that I closely looked at when buying my DAC, but I opted for the V-DAC as I didn't have balanced headphones or a balanced amp and decided to forgo the DacMagic.
 
If you wish to go even higher up the price tiers, in the $500+ range, you'll find some more choices in the Source section of these forums.

 

[Sanity]

Yeah I was looking at the cambridge DAC as well. Would that end up being a better choice for the pair of headphones I have or is the V-DAC a better choice?

 

[kingtz]

If you're definitely going for a balanced setup, then get the DacMagic. Otherwise, I don't think it's worth the extra $130 if you'll stick to a single-ended setup. If you want more specific comparisons, just search for the various "v-dac vs dacmagic" threads.

 

[Sanity]

Thanks for all of the help. But I have one more question.
 
How would the V-can and a V-dac/Dacmagic perform versus an EF5 Amp and a DLIII?
 
I've been sullying about all morning and the DLIII I saw mentioned a whole heck of a lot.

 

[ConGrUenCy]

Quote:

Quote:

Coming up I plan to purchase a pair of the Denon D-5000 headphones for use for music, mostly off of my PC and sometimes off of my iPod. I am a bit of an audiophile even though I don't have true audiophile quality equipment right now, and I tirelessly search for recordings that will give me the best possible sound that it can.
 
I picked the Denon d-5000's for a variety of reasons. They look really good, they get good reviews, they look like they'd fit upon my large head. They are within the right price range too.
 
I also started to look up an AMP and a DAC after reading a bunch of threads on this website, and picked out Musical Fidelity's V-CAN and V-DAC.
 
Do I really need both of these? I use headphones basically all the time, and a nice, loud, rich sound is what I'm looking for out of this. Would it be worth it to get both the Amp and the DAC, or just get the amp? My computer has an on board sound card, though I have been meaning to look into getting a stronger card.
 
So as you all can see I'm in quite the predicament before I make my first purchases.
 
Also, Hello! First post, heh.

Get a DAC. Onboard sound is pretty terrible, and isn't worth using if you're going to get nice headphones and an amp.

+1
From my onboard soundcard, I could notice the background hiss and disturbance, which almost completely disappeared with a DAC (the Musiland Monitor 02US if you're interested).

 

[Sanity]

After looking around and putting more thought into it, I am considering the Denon D7000 and a Peachtree Nova. Is the Nova equivalent in value with similarly priced Amps and DACs? And Are the D7000's worth the extra money over the D5000's?

 

[shane55]

While I can't answer from experience about the Nova, it gets stellar reviews and if I were looking, that would be on my short list. It has the iPod dock that reads the files directly for it's own DAC's to deal with. Tube on or off and the sound is supposed to be just wonderful. A very nice multi-purpose unit.
 
I found the D7k to be a worthy upgrade to the D5k. The D5k's low end was just too overpowering for the rest of the wonderful sound, and the D7k gets it all right. Synergy with the D7k is greatly improved with high end Solid State or Tube amps. I love mine and would need to go to nearly double what I paid to improve on the sound. A good price is around $600, you can try used on the FS forum (lots of trusted sellers) or see if an authorized dealer has them on sale.
 
Good luck.
 
shane