[rocdoc]

Hi everyone,
I have a system that I am overall pleased with, with a couple of gripes that make me want to tweak/upgrade. I have the (V1) Zen Dac which I pair with my (new version) Sundara, with a balanced cable from Hart. All quite good, but I struggle keeping the volume workable above the infamous channel imbalance. For a lot of recordings I have to trade off between listening too loud (damaging my hearing is a nonstarter obviously), taking a channel imbalance (defeats the point of having a nice system), or turning off the "powermatch", which results in a much flatter and less dynamic sound. After a few months of getting annoyed with this, I dusted off my old FiiO QOGIR amp, and now use the Zen Dac as dac only, to the QOGIR, and to the phones (unbalanced). I gained what seems like a fuller sound with quiet background, with the ability to listen at the right volume without losing a channel (this is big, of course), but I think I lost some of the detail and bass response.
So, I was thinking of the best next step. I know that the V2 Zen Dac uses the same amp section, so it will be just as bad on the imbalance issue. I looked at other Dac/amp combos, but maybe the best way to go is upgrading the amp, and the L50 looked like an attractive option. Any experience with this? It would also allow me to go balanced out again. And I confess that if I like it I appreciate the option of maybe also, in the future, swapping the Zen Dac for the Topping D50.
Grateful for your advice or experience.

 

[Deleeh]

Hello,
Your idea of using the Zen only as a Dac is a good one and there is nothing to be said against it.
If you have the option of setting the output to fixed or variable, I would go to fixed so that you only have full control over the headphone amplifier.

I can't say anything about the Topping L50.
The L30 starts well and was a disaster after half a year.
I don't know if you have learned from this.
The short version is that it was not earthed due to a ground problem and had become statically charged and the result was that it destroyed the headphones in some people.
Among them were some expensive ones and they were not replaced or compensation did not take place.

It was fixed but after that it was a bit quiet around Topping.
One or two people still have something like that stuck in their heads.

As you have the Sundara, I suggest the Lake People G103S headphones, which perform better.
It costs a bit more but it's perfectly fine and the pair is often used.
The workmanship is also a lot better than Topping.

But decide for yourself.
Otherwise, you should look for reports on the L50 and see how it performed.

 

[rocdoc]

Thank you. I had no idea about the L30 issues, it sounds really scary! I think it's enough to make me consider alternatives In the meantime I actually impulse-upgraded (that's a word I guess...) and got the Zen Dac 2, exclusively for the better DAC component. I can wait for the amp. B&H sells the Bellari HA540 MK2 for a couple hundred bucks and I may enjoy the look of a tube on my nightstand

 

[guitarizt]

Thank you. I had no idea about the L30 issues, it sounds really scary! I think it's enough to make me consider alternatives In the meantime I actually impulse-upgraded (that's a word I guess...) and got the Zen Dac 2, exclusively for the better DAC component. I can wait for the amp. B&H sells the Bellari HA540 MK2 for a couple hundred bucks and I may enjoy the look of a tube on my nightstand

Interesting, post how the v2 is compared to v1. I asked Jason from chifi audio reviews on yt about what dac/amp to get in his fb group, and he recommended the khadas tone 2 pro for dac and L50 for amp. I just ordered both today, and hopefully they're here before the end of next week.

I wouldn't bet that I could tell the diff between the zen dac and L50, and maybe I might even prefer it over the t2p for dac only, but I just didn't want to risk it. I might be using this setup for 20+ years. I'd still love to try out a zen dac one day since it's so well reviewed.