Sub-$1250 DAC w/ built-in Headphone Amp

op is looking for a dac with built in headphone amp... we should assume he is not mistaken or kidding

op

jjss49: no joke - is this an unusual request?

not at all! enjoy!

i have my fx tube dac still... after reading the stuff about the shootout in arizona -- bought it stock sounded very musical but somewhat rolled off and veiled with good tubes in it (stock chinese tubes turn up the treble some, but a little grainy) then sent to chris j/wally to upgrade level 2 mod - comes back cleaner more transparent more extended - sounds right with proper, good old stock ax7’s in it but the treble can still be a lil problematic (sibilant) now that caps and wiring have delivered excellent extension - maybe the thing needs a thousand hours of break in lol...

sibilance not as bad as dena ares2 or bifrost mb, but still there on some material - tried various cabling...

so overall i like the mhdt and audio mirror (with tube upgrades) more, or the lovely older mf trivista or ava fet topp dacs more than the fx for ease musicality and insight without force feeding treble detail -- but i haven’t thrown in the towel yet on the fx

i am not a headphone guy so can’t comment on how good the hp output is... but that lil volume control is not the greatest... imo best to leave it on full blast for most clarity and control volume elsewhere

rme for sure - get the one with latest chip

leave yourself a week to read the manual :)

i haven't heard your current dac but the rme via headphones is very very good sounding

@oldears

+1

ayre codex sounds just great... more dimensional musical natural than the rme... which is tuned for greater ’clarity’ and ’precision’

asr is asr... i won’t go there... 🤬

agree

chord mojo is an insanely good sounding thing

ergonomics are what they are... but for $350-400 the thing is outstanding in its sound quality

It seems that the Mojo can function in a full-fledged pre-amp mode (not just fixed 100% output). Can someone who owns one chime in?

the mojo can be set for fixed or variable output (but not sure i would call it ’preamp mode’...)