Pairing S. HD700 + Dynaudio S.40 with DAC/AMP

[Nicky]

Hi and thanks for your messages.
 
@Scott. Yes indeed "affordable" is quite subjective. My global DAC/Amp budget is 1500€. Since the crack was recommended, I have an extra 1000€ for the DAC (I guess better to take the speedball straight away). So the D.Ares II could be considered. In Europe it is more expensive than in the U.S (cca 1000€ for the basic version, +150€ for the 12th Anniversary, not sure it deserves the extra money (?). Apparently, one more input that I will most probably never use…)
 
@Paul. Great that a Bottlehead Amp can drive my HD700 and my S40's ! I am not really considering my living room or my office to become a big symphony complex! A 89dB loudness limit would probably be sufficient for my "needs" even if I cannot really quantify what it really means in practice. I suppose that a 89dB punctuated by a sudden peak of XdB will make a huge instantaneous demand on the amp. and that it will run out of steam very quickly… In fact, I see “my dilemma” as follows:

Option 1: AresII+crack speedball
In that case I should be able to drive my HD700 but not my S40's except if I buy a more powerful amp. Btw, Deluk (thanks) was quite surprised that the crack would correctly drive a 150 Ohm headphone (?)
 
Option 2: A 750€ DAC (I don't have the budget anymore for the AresII) + the S.E.X amp.
In that case, I could potentially drive my headphone + my speakers. But if it does not work "well" with the S40's I would need anyway to buy a more powerful amp while it would have been the same with the crack (with a better DAC with that option to keep the 1500€ budget).
 
So I guess I need to understand if the crack is finally recommended for my HD700 150 Ohm first. If not, then I will consider option 2 (will need another DAC then). If yes, would you recommend to consider the crack or the S.E.X at the end? Many thanks.

Note: just seen twofires message (thanks) and it looks that the S.E.X amp will not be powerful enough for the S40’s therefore option 2 seems to be “disqualified”… but if the crack amp cannot drive the HD700, I am back to the starting point!
 
@ Mucker, I did not really think if I want to connect the streamer and the laptop to the DAC at the same time. I was probably a bit more focused on the DAC/Amp pairing with my gears but I guess that if you ask the question it is somehow important!? What for…the DAC inputs? I would say "yes" because it seems to be a better/simpler use case but not sure it is really so inconvenient to connect things one by one depending what I am using (?) You want to share your thoughts on this? Cheers.
 
Still a long journey for me as you can notice. Many thanks for your advices (and your patience)

[Paul Birkeland]

So I guess I need to understand if the crack is finally recommended for my HD700 150 Ohm first.

Yes, this will work well.

[Nicky]

Clear, thanks.

[hmbscott]

For what it's worth, it's my opinion that, in order of which component most strongly affects the overall sonic experience they rank:
1) headphones/speakers
2) preamp
3) amp
4) DAC
I don't think this will be considered a controversial ranking, and it may help you decide where to focus your funds. Another thing to consider is that the experience of listening to headphones is quite different than listening to speakers, both can be excellent, but never equivalent. I think it's well worth it to get a system that lets you experience both.

If I were you, I would put my funds towards the Crack (probably w/o speedball to start) and a high quality class D amp (ICE, Purify or Hypex) as you suggested in your second post. The Crack doing double duty as a headphone amp and a preamp for the class D. Tube preamps pair very nicely with quality class D and can yield a system that will drive any speaker with ease. I would pair those with a relatively cheap DAC (like a Topping e30 for example) to stay within budget.