A friend is asking for advice on a good setup for listening to music on his PC through headphones while at work. I've got a decent system in mind (basically what I'm already using) but I'm hoping some of y'all might be able to suggest some improvements.
He's been looking at what appears to me to be serious hi-fi snake oil. $350 for a 16 bit 44.1k DAC? $2500 for a headphone amp? Seriously? It's a total SWAG, but I suspect he should be able to get very close (say, 95%+) to the quality of any $5K uber-hi-fi rig for a tenth the cost with decent studio/recording gear. (Keep in mind this is just for playback from a PC through headphones)
Some specific things he's mentioned wanting :
- over-the-ear headphones, not earphones/earbuds
- playback from PC audio (mp3s, Pandora streaming, etc.)
- maybe occasionally playback from iPod / iPhone
- excellent sound, but doesn't need to go super loud
- ability to still hear outside environment
- willing to spend a bit for quality, $500 no problem
I think he needs a good USB interface, a dedicated headphone amp, and headphones. Possibly a mic for outside noise.
There appear to be quite a few options for basic headphone amps in the $50 to $150 range, although most of those are for multiple headphones. I'm using an old Samson 4-channel headphone amp - works OK, could be better. Any recommendations on a really solid headphone amp? Single channel is fine, multi channel is OK as long as it's not too big (like full 1U rack size). Even might consider a reasonably priced (up to $200 or so) dedicated "hi-fi" headphone amp if someone here can recommend one based on personal experience.
As for headphones, I'm taking up a few for him to try out (semi-open: AKG K240, closed: Sony MDR-7506, either around $100). Open or semi-open phones might be OK in our office environment, depending on how loud he wants it. I'm a little skeptical that there's much room for improvement on over-the-ear headphones past the $100-$200 range, but I haven't really spent much time with gold-plated cans so I'm interested in feedback from any who have. Suggestions?
I've been quite happy with my Saffire 6 USB ($200), which might be a bit of overkill but should be more than adequate as a DAC. Also, running a cheap omni mic from the preamp through the included Focusrite gate plugin with a high threshold might work great for him to hear us when we talk at him. Only possible downside I see with the Saffire is it tops out at 48Khz, but I don't think that matters with anything he's listening to currently.
So how close will that setup (Saffire 6, AKG K240s, decent ???? headphone amp) get to an "ultimate" rig? Again, he'd be happy to get 95% without getting into obscene ($1K+) cost for a headphone rig.
