[lcrim]

I've had decent headphones (Grado SR60/ Audio-Technica ATH M50) and a headphone amp (Musical Fidelity x-Can V.2) for years but rarely listen to them.
I've recently been wondering whether or not  better quality headphones and a better  amp might not make headphone listening more attractive to me. 
Audio-gd  offers several combination DAC/ headphone amps.  The Sparrow and the NFB 12.1 are very reasonably priced and would work w/ my SqueezeBox Touches.  (I have the Bolder Cable analog mods and linear power supplies and Soundcheck's TT3.0 mods)
Anyone heard or own one of these.  Also, looking for recs for better cans, without getting into crazy prices or difficult to drive types.
Thanks,
Larry

[Sparky14]

I've had 3 or 4 of the Audio-gd headphone amps. Loved them all. I currently have the NFB-11, which is the one with the Sabre DAC. Used with Beyer DT990/600 ohm headphones, this combo has actually satisfied me completely. When I've had the money to upgrade, I just realize that it would take a LOT of $ to significantly improve. The new 12.1 looks like a very nice improvement to the 11/12.

Just be warned, audio-gd is a small operation in China. So it takes time to get to you. And there are occassional problems (as with any manufacturer), and resolving problems with the manufacturer in China is not quick. But the audio-gd guys have always done me right, and I highly recommend them.

[JohnR]

I'm not a headphone guy but I'm reasonable pleased with the NFB-12 and HD-598 as my desktop/late nite system. Undoubtedly it could be bettered but I'm not sure that it could be at the price. There were some threads about the filtering at < 96 Khz input, to which the simple solution was to upsample at the source. But I see now that the audio-gd page shows a bunch of jumpers inside the unit, so I might try those. The 12.1 presumably doesn't have this issue (if it ever was an issue, that was never clearly established that I recall).

FWIW I sold a pair of ATH-M50s and gave away a Grado, forget the model number (old version).

[JohnR]

As an aside, I wonder why you are looking for a combined DAC/amp unit, as you said you have the analog mods for the squeezebox. I mention this because there's a Schitt amp in the classifieds right now, might be all you need. (No personal experience with those.)

[eclein]

Larry I own one of the Schitt Asgards and like JohnR mentioned that might be all you need....I like mine a lot, its inexpensive and even drives my hard to drive cans. The one for sale by Tabrink I'm sure is in good condition he takes great care with his equipment.

As far as your headphones go the ones you have are still considered excellent headphones, but there are a ton of different choices....whats your budget just for the cans???

[lcrim]

I think that the $250 range would be a big step up and while my Touches sound terrific w/ Wayne's mods, I'm wondering what the combo device would do for the sound.  Using the combo device, which has analog outputs as well, it would allow me to use the headphones and the speakers  w/o replugging the source device.
Wayne was very complimentary about the Centrance DAC mini.  While more than double the price,  he felt the Centrance build quality, was very impressive.
Larry   

[JohnR]

There were some threads about the filtering at < 96 Khz input, to which the simple solution was to upsample at the source. But I see now that the audio-gd page shows a bunch of jumpers inside the unit, so I might try those.

My unit doesn't have the jumpers I inquired of audio-gd, these were added in August 2011. The original unit (which I have) is effectively permanently set at: OS: 2, Filter: 3.

I've just doubled my "investment" in headphone DAC/amp, and am very pleased so far. We'll see if it lasts... The lesson I'm learning here is that the "hot" feature of the day (asynchronous USB, Sabre chip, whatever) means - in and of itself - not all that much. I guess it all comes back to implementation. Having said that, my new unit has a "32 bit DAC"... 

I listened to another buzzword-compliant (but still relatively low cost) unit before buying this one, and by comparison I do think the GD is fairly neutral in tonal balance, just not the last word in clarity.