All in one unit for headphones- help me decide


This is a follow up to a previous thread. I am looking for an all in one unit to run headphones (Sennheiser HD800S) at a newly acquired vacation home. I am looking for a Dac, headphone amp, streamer, ability to play files from a SSD (internal or external) and self contained software/app. Based upon my spending time at Axpona, I have the following 4 candidates:

Auralic Altair (g1.1 or 2.1)

Naim Atom headphone edition

Hifi Rose (250 or ?)

Cambridge eVO (150 or 75)

I can easily review the features ( so limit your comments), but I am interested if anyone has experience with the relative sonic performance through headphones of these units. I am not interested in the performance through speakers and their amp output, only headphones. I have a suspicion that since the HIFI rose and Cambridge focus more on display and bells and whistles, their sonic performance is a bit below the other two.

meiatflask

Your headphones deserve an amp that’ll get the best out of them and highly doubt you’ll find that in an all-in-one unit.  I’d find the right headphone amp and get a separate DAC/streamer to handle the rest.  Is it really worth the sonic compromise just to have one box instead of two?

@soix - point well taken.  I am treading a bit softly here as the last time I really lived with headphones was in college 40+ years ago (had stax electrostats back then).  So perhaps I view this in two steps, with the second more expensive step going the route you suggest after I have lived with a one box set up and confirmed my headphone life is here to stay.  I figure with my just purchased HD800S and the Naim or Auralic, my investment is in the 5-6k range, which is a pretty easy step to make before upgrading to something more serious and delegating the all in one to one of the kids or grandkids.

@meiatflask If you truly want to go a budget route, I'd consider a Poly Mojo2 as your interim step - it's a portable headphone amp and you can get them $500-800 (used/new).  You can connect it to your phone or external streamer (including Chord's poly).  This can then become something you can use for travel or share withe kids or grandkids.  I think you'll appreciate your Sennheiser's on it. 

All-  I ordered the Naim atom headphone edition, and should take delivery on Saturday.  So thanks everyone for your advice, comments, and help in my decision.  I’ll follow up with a post in a week or so to let you know my listening experience.