new grado's

[hungryduck]

Just picked up a pair of Grado SR125's from the local audio shop for a deal. My first decent set of headphones that weren't Shure E2C's.

At the moment I'm just running them off my macbook's integrated audio. However, I'd like to get a better source. Either a:

Decent USB DAC for my macbook
or
CD player

Any ideas that won't break the bank?

Should I look at picking up an amplifier?

 

[obobski]

Grados are going to perform better if your input material is high quality, for example if you have V0 VBR Mp3s or FLAC/MLP digital sources (or the original CDs), or higher quality sources like DVD-A , compared to 128k mp3 junk, meaning the biggest single improvement you can make is having good quality source media, amplification is secondary to this

as far as amplification goes, they aren't all too picky, as long as it isn't utter crap (like your average mp3 player or portable CD player), most standalone CD players with a proper headphone output and volume control are quite capable of driving a variety of headphones, especially Grados, although this doesn't let you carry over to connection to the PC, if you listen primarily from CDs, just go with a decent used CD player and be done with it

although if you listen mostly from the PC, I would consider something inexpensive (less than $150, and at that, I would consider $150 excessive given these headphones) that can take at least one input, so you can connect your PC or other sources (like a CD player, FM tuner, etc) and have a single volume control/hook up

 

[exe163]

I don't think you need a amp badly, at least not for this headphone. I have a MS1i, pretty much the same as 125 but with minor tweaks, and it works flawlessly with just about any source, including ipod. The problem you have is the DAC. I personally have bad experience with stock DACs that come with motherboards(both laptop and desktop), but then I am not a macbook.

What I would recommend is HeadRoom Total BitHead. I heard a lot of positive feedbacks in the headfi community for this headphone amp combo. Of course as obobski stated already, you will also need quality source to take advantage of your equipments. FLAC, Lame and 320mp3 works well in my experience.

 

[obobski]

I don't think you need a amp badly, at least not for this headphone. I have a MS1i, pretty much the same as 125 but with minor tweaks, and it works flawlessly with just about any source, including ipod. The problem you have is the DAC. I personally have bad experience with stock DACs that come with motherboards(both laptop and desktop), but then I am not a macbook.

What I would recommend is HeadRoom Total BitHead. I heard a lot of positive feedbacks in the headfi community for this headphone amp combo. Of course as obobski stated already, you will also need quality source to take advantage of your equipments. FLAC, Lame and 320mp3 works well in my experience.

so with no experience with either device, you're going to state a purchase as required? love that advice.

honestly OP, just leave your gear alone, unless you want to go with a CD player (as I said), or an amplifier purely for convenience (between multiple sources), there is nothing wrong with the D/A found on a personal computer, it isn't going to destroy sound quality or anything remotely similar

also, exe163:
please do not quote or reference me to establish your credibility

 

[exe163]

so with no experience with either device, you're going to state a purchase as required? love that advice.

honestly OP, just leave your gear alone, unless you want to go with a CD player (as I said), or an amplifier purely for convenience (between multiple sources), there is nothing wrong with the D/A found on a personal computer, it isn't going to destroy sound quality or anything remotely similar

also, exe163:
please do not quote or reference me to establish your credibility

What I do own is the Forte and MS1. And from my experience it sounded a lot better than the same headphone on my sister's Macbook pro. Since Forte sound card has both higher quality DAC and Amp compare to stock Macbook pro (correct me if I am wrong), and low impedance headphones do not befit much from amping, then I concluded the difference should like within the DAC. Of course this I am not an expert like most of you claim to be, I am just giving OP my piece of advice in case OP do look for better SQ from the same headphone. If you feel the sound is good enough (never in my case) or can't hear the difference by all mean stay with what you have. Sadly I am not as lucky as you are.

 

[hungryduck]

Woah, didn't mean to start a fight - but thanks for your advice.

I think at the moment I'll hit the thrift stores/pawn shops for a used CD player.....

 

[obobski]

What I do own is the Forte and MS1. And from my experience it sounded a lot better than the same headphone on my sister's Macbook pro. Since Forte sound card has both higher quality DAC and Amp compare to stock Macbook pro (correct me if I am wrong), and low impedance headphones do not befit much from amping, then I concluded the difference should like within the DAC. Of course this I am not an expert like most of you claim to be, I am just giving OP my piece of advice in case OP do look for better SQ from the same headphone. If you feel the sound is good enough (never in my case) or can't hear the difference by all mean stay with what you have. Sadly I am not as lucky as you are.

the amp on the forte is current feedback iirc, and a lot lower distortion than the macbook, it will heavily influence the sound, its just not dramatic (does that make sense?)

the DAC isn't the only component playing into this, and given that the MBP and the Forte are probably both posting at least 100 dB SNR (you *need* around 96 for 16-bit music, 24-bit isn't really doable (its weird)), and both probably have IMD thats something like .0003% (or something equally low), you basically aren't gonna hear the DAC either way

however the Forte will be able to put a lot more current at a lot higher levels with a lot lower THD out into headphones, the MBP is probably rated to something like 2Vrms or 5Vrms into 32 ohms @ .1%THD while the Forte is probably something like 5Vrms into 32 or 64 ohms @ .001% THD or similar, in other words, the amplifier is just more resilient, and that does influence sound, however its slight (and I don't doubt the Cirrus chip on the Forte is probably spec'd a little higher than the MBP's DAC, but it'll be a lot closer than the comparison of their output stages)

basically, its minor differences on both the DAC and output stages that will influence the sound better, hence why I'm saying it isn't just the DAC