Help me spend $$$$

How would you use the Aegir as a headphone amp? Is there an adaptor? Doesn't that amp run hot? I have a Coda S5.5 amp that I love. Wonder if I could use that to drive headphones?

JDS Labs has a great initial solution.  Also, TMR has Woo and Felix samples available now.

@yyzsantabarbara I've heard good things about the RME dac, especially regarding its measurements. But I'm more of a trust my ears listener vs following measurements alone. Probably why I love tube amps. Curious what $12k dac you have or had? I've had dacs up to +$15k and one thing I've learned is that while I can hear something being objectively "better" if it doesn't lead me to enjoying the music more I wind up selling it. My current reference dac is the Laiv Harmony. Its not the best dac I've had but for the money I haven't found one where I enjoy the music any more than with this dac. But the quest always continues...

@abd1 The best DAC I have ever heard is the $12k Imersiv D-1, I purchased it. In spite of it being significantly better in measurements than the second-best measuring DAC, this thing sounds great. You need to go direct to amp though. My now sold Benchmark HPA4 preamp / headphone amp was restricting the sound of the D-1. That never happens with other DACs and the HPA4 (or LA4 preamp).

I am very interested in hearing the new Schiit Byggy that I have been waiting for a few weeks now to be returned to me after the upgrade of my Schiit Yggi+ MIB to the Byggy. The R2R Schit Yggi+ OG was a great DAC, and it was head and shoulders better than a famous DAC at $15k that I owned (I paid $6.5). I sold that recently and that was a steal for the buyer, but I needed the cash to buy the Imersiv D-1.

There is one new DAC that my friend is going to demo at the 2026 New York CanJam. It is the new $10k Allnic ASRA OTL/OTL DAC. It is a tube DAC, but it is almost as detailed as my Imersiv D-1.  That last comment should be for the $26k Allnic D-15000 Signature OTL/OCL. I have not heard the ASRA, but the goal was to be very similar to the D-15000. 

If the DAC is as good as rumored, well I should not think about it. I am enjoying my free RME DAC in the office now.

@abd1 The CODA 5.5 was an amp that I was recently wondering how it would sound with the SR1a. Now in the olden days you needed about 100 watts of 2-channel power to drive the SR1a. However, today 20 watts maybe the max. Your 5.5 maybe too powerful for the new adapter and not enough for the old adapter. You can also drive it with things like a Schiit Mjolnir v3 Class A headphone amp using my adapter. You can get that used around $850. It is about 2 watts. 

The old amp adapter was not as good as the new one and it needed min 100 watts to drive the SR1a nicely. The next iteration was the Tl-1a | TI-1b | Tl-1c. I have the Tl-1b. They do not make that anymore, but you can get the latest one that works with the $12k RAAL 1995 Immanis to work with the SR1a.

The SR1a is the closest thing to 2-channel. The combo of the Imersiv D-1 DAC | Aegir v1 | Ti-1b adapter | SR1a is hard to beat. Especially from a 2-channel perspective. The SR1a scales with better gear.