What is the best Headphone rid upgrade


I have Focal Utopia headphones,Chord Hugot TT2, Chord Mscaler, and a Manley Absolute headphone amplifier but listen with a IPad via a Frey 2 USB B to C cable. What would be my best upgrade for musically and soundstage - such as it is with headphones - to replace my iPad. I listen to Qobuz and mostly Jazz.

zerozerofire

What about the N100C or N100SC. That’s probably more in line with budget since I have to by a decent USB cable. Thinking about the nordostTyr 2 USB 2.0 to connect to my Mscaler. It’s about 1399.00 before discount. Is there another cable you know of that would work better? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

@zerozerofire In full transparency, I am an authorized Aurender dealer. While ghdprentice suggests the N100, I would like to clarify that it has been discontinued and replaced by the N150. I’d also like to suggest the N200, which has better componentry and product design, resulting in improved sonic performance. Plus, it has a wonderfully large and sexy color display unlike the N150. Both are excellent units but most customers who are not willing to invest in units like the N10 or N20 almost always land on the N200 over the N150 because of the price to performance ratio.

If you have any questions on the units themselves, let me know as I have done some comparisons up and down the line and against maybe a half a dozen other streamer/servers. Aurender is absolutely not the only option out there, but it is a good one. 

Thanks for advice. I was heading in that direction but wanted to get advice from someone who has that in their system before I made that investment. What cables do you recommend to hook up to my Mscaler?

OP,

Very good move. I moved my system along in similar fashion. You want a great streamer. I recommend a Aurender N100. It is what I use to drive my headphone system (see my UserID). You are in for a treat. I also have Sennheiser HD800… and some other high end headphones. You are in for for a treat. Get a good streamer… don’t go budget. Match your streamer quality with the rest of your equipment.

I didn’t know I could listen to Qobuz with the Hugo or the Manley? How do I do that?. I only started listening with a headphone rig in May so I am still new to this. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. I read about the Aurender streamers but wasn’t sure it that was the way to go.

I'm confused. The Hugo TT is supposed to have an excellent headphone stage. Why aren't you using that or the Manley?