Need to replace an Oppo HA-1


Please forgive me up front for computer audio/digital ignorance. I'm an old vinyl and tubes freak who has been recently listening to a small office based system. Also the first time I've used and enjoyed headphones and listened to computer audio through decent components.

The system is:

Computer audio: Spotify (sorry--I know the sound quality is subpar)
Oppo HA-1: now broken and needs replacement
Sugden A21a power amp
Rogers LS3/5A : 15 ohm

This was a fun little office system for a while until the Oppo died.

Can anyone give me a recommendation for a decent little headphone amp/preamp/DAC combo? Remote would be a plus..I'd like to keep it in the $500-$800 range.

Many thanks,

Todd
 

tmw57

You have a couple of directions you can go here
 For an all Solid State design my favorites are the iFi Audio Zen DAC v2 at the low budget range,Topping Audio in the Mid budget range & Burson Audio in the upper budget range..
 The second direction,& the direction I would go, is a Tube/Solid State Hybrid design & in your budget range my first choice would be either an xDuoo TA-22 or for even more tube goodness thanks to tube rectification(but still Class A SS final output) an xDuoo TA-30...
What headphones are you using?

Thanks so much for this thoughtful reply!

A dear old friend gifted me a pair of Audeze LCD-2C.

Oh man,nice cans!With those cans an all Solid State,Class A amp will sound excellent BUT if you get the bug & add other headphones, a Hybrid like the xDuoo will allow you to tailor the sound to the headphone with simple tube rolling..For instance a headphone like my HiFiMan Ananda Nano can have a strident,brittle sounding treble with some solid state amps & LOVES a warm tube or HIGH biased Class A Solid State amp,where as something like your LCD-2C’s or my iBasso SR-1’s can sound too syrupy & have flabby bass with too much tube sound...With a hybrid design,a pair of NOS Mullards or new production Genelex Gold Lions would have the warmth wanted for the Nano's & new production Electro Harmonix a brighter sound for the SR-1's or LCD's...
If you really want to explore headphones I suggest head-fi.org...