I am not really an audiophile but I do appreciate really good audio. So I started to pursue it a bit without wanting to spend a ton of money to do so. What I have right now is really incredible and makes me smile every time I use it.
This is for headphones/IEM-based listening. I do not have desktop monitors, but I will get Polk Audio someday for my desk. So this is what I am using right now.
- A FiiO K11 R2R Dac/amp. The silver one. It’s pretty small but it powers my equipment well enough. I have my gain set to high because I can get things really loud this way – even 50% on the AMP is enough for me to enjoy things.
- Sennheiser HD 650 headphones. I found them on Facebook Marketplace for $145, I could have gotten them for $130 if the pads weren’t great but they were fine and I was already getting them for a great price., They are wonderful headphones, I could not be more pleased with them.
- My M2 MBP USB-C to the FiiO. I just set Sound Output to the FiiO which is recognized by Mac OS.
- A collection of hi-resolution losslesss files mixed in with Apple Music. Pretty simple. No Tidal or anything. I turned ATMOS off for my Music.app settings. Same on my phone.
- I have a DAC that’s USB-C to 3.5mm that I use for my Sennheiser or Shure IEMs – powers them no problem. I am drawing a blank on which DAC it is. One second… iFi Go Link. It’s pretty small, has a braided cable, and works perfectly well for me when I am in the office or on the go and don’t mind being cabled-in.
And that’s it. Thats a decent setup right there. I am trying not to research anything else at the moment because if I did I’d find myself chasing my tail – that comes with an expensive tab during the spinning. No thanks. I really am quite satisfied with my current setup. Sounds great, gets plenty loud, and the headphones are super comfortable and sound wonderful.