Buying Guide: Best DACs & Headphone Amps of 2025!

2024 has come to a close, and the last year saw the introduction of several new, and in many cases extremely appealing options in the source gear market. In some categories and price ranges, there are products which have stood the test of time and remain one of the best options amongst their competitors, but others have seen new entrants come in and make it quite difficult indeed to argue against going for the shiny new offerings. Especially when additional features such as built-in EQ capability are becoming more and more prevalent! So as we head into 2025, I’ll be going through my picks for DACs, Amps, and Combo units at four different price ranges and why if you’re looking for a new piece of source gear, you should be looking at them too!

 

DACs

Entry Level (<$300) - iFi Zen DAC Signature V2

The iFi Zen DAC is one that stands out amongst the competition thanks to taking a slightly different approach to design and voicing than what is found in most other products in its price range.

Whilst there are other DACs which from an objective standpoint DO outperform the Zen DAC V2, having lower distortion and higher dynamic range, the Zen DAC V2 utilises a Texas-Instruments Burr-Brown DAC chip, and has a slightly warmer, and in my opinion simply more enjoyable sound than that of most of the ESS and AKM based alternatives at this price.

It does give up a tiny amount of sheer technical capability and resolution in comparison to some competitors such as the Topping L70, but more than makes up for it in the more natural overall presentation it provides.

Combining this with a sleek, single piece chassis, built-in volume control (which can also be bypassed to allow full control of the volume via an external amplifier), and both single-ended and balanced outputs, the Zen-DAC V2 offers a substantial upgrade from onboard audio and a toe-tappingly natural sound signature.

Mid-Tier ($300-$1000) - Eversolo DMP-A6

It would be nearly impossible not to give the Eversolo DMP-A6 this spot, simply due to the wealth of features and capabilities it offers that simply are not found on other products without having to shell out considerably more of your hard-earned cash!

The DMP-A6 is not just a DAC, but a Roon-Ready streamer, Music Server, and listening station with built in support for Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Apple Airplay and various other options, all controlled either with a mobile app for IOS and Android, or the absolutely gorgeous display.

Since reviewing the DMP-A6 (watch the video here!), I’ve often kept the unit in my setup simply for the absolutely stunning display. When playing via Roon or local files, the album art and playback progress of your current track is displayed, with an optional and customizable visualiser in the background to boot.

Both objectively and subjectively the DMP-A6 offers impressive results. It isn’t quite on par with its sibling the Eversolo DAC-Z8, which has been my pick for a sub-$1000 DAC in terms of pure sound quality for some time now, and therefore listeners who are wanting to prioritise the absolute best possible sound they can get for their money may want to look at that instead.

However, for those that are happy for a still truly excellent sound and find the tradeoff of perhaps a few percent difference in absolute quality for the benefit of inbuilt streaming, a gorgeous album art display, and of course; built-in EQ! Then the Eversolo DMP-A6 will be right at home on your desk.

High-End ($1000-3000) - Ferrum WANDLA

Before I get into this, it’s important for transparency to note that I do have a collaboration edition of the WANDLA available, so please feel free to read this section with the level of skepticism you deem appropriate.

However, the reason I was so keen to embark on this project with Ferrum, and why I praised the WANDLA in my review before the collaboration project even begun, was because it is for many reasons, simply an absolutely brilliant DAC and one that offers design aspects which put it a cut above the rest when it comes to both sound quality, and features.

There are plenty of other products utilising flagship ESS DAC chips, but Ferrum’s design has some secret sauce design features which put it in a higher tier of both objective performance, and resulting sound quality versus many other options.

The first is in regards to their current-to-voltage conversion stage. Ferrum did not just design an I/V stage that measured well, or picked the design that measured the best, they instead iterated through designs until they had several which all measured excellently, and then selected the final design and made final tweaks based on listening tests and subjective decision. The result is a DAC that has truly impressive technical capability, with a more natural and realistic presentation than any other ESS DAC I have heard thus far.

Additionally, Ferrum designed the ‘SERCE’ module, which provides quite substantial compute resources, and allowed them to collaborate with the man behind the HQPlayer upsampling tool to implement a PCM oversampling filter that outperforms almost all DACs on the market besides those from Chord Electronics.

If you do opt for the GoldenSound edition either at purchase or a later upgrade, this does push us slightly above the $3000 limit, but you’ll likely find this worth the extra cost thanks to the three additional features you get in return:

“Impact+”, which enables a customised EQ to bass content in your music, to improve not just bass quantity, but the actual sense of impact and ‘punch’, all computed with 64 bit precision! “Tube Mode”, which changes the way in which the DAC itself operates to cause it to intentionally produce higher levels of harmonic distortion, but only 2nd order harmonic distortion. This causes the DAC to more closely emulate the sound of a tube pre-amplifier. And “Spatial Enhancement”, which is the killer feature of this device. This was only possible thanks to the compute power available in SERCE, and is a new approach to expanding the soundstage and spatial presentation of your music in a manner that produces a far more realistic result than traditional crossfeed.

Compact, mighty, and at the moment the reference DAC I use for both reviewing and my own personal listening in my headphone setup, the WANDLA is a seriously impressive device.

Summit-Fi (>$3000) - Holo Audio May

Click here to visit the product page for the Holo May

The Holo Audio May is a non-oversampling R2R DAC with a number of enticing aspects, and is to this day my favourite DAC of all that I’ve heard, beating many even at considerably higher price points, and it is the one I use in my reference speaker system.

It is objectively the best performing discrete R2R DAC, and not just by a small margin either. Whilst many competing R2R DACs hover around the -100dB THD+N mark, the May gets all the way down to -118dB and achieves a whopping -140dB of true dynamic range to boot!

Not only does it impress objectively, but subjectively this DAC offers absolutely class leading resolution, and simply the best and most convincing vocal and instrument timbre I’ve heard in a digital product.

There are some downsides, such as the sheer physical size of this unit. This is definitely better suited to life in a hifi rack than on a desk, and it also pulls a considerable amount of power at a constant 50W. Perhaps the biggest drawback of this DAC though is that whilst you CAN enable internal oversampling, the internal oversampling is what I’d call ‘mediocre’ and does not meet the quality even of filters offered internally on any modern ESS or AKM DAC.

This is somewhat intentional though, with the designer arguing that if you’re using a DAC of this tier, you should either be running it non-oversampling, which provides quite a unique presentation and one that many really enjoy particularly for more acoustic genres such as classical and jazz. Or that if you do prefer oversampling, you should be using the best possible oversampling, which is exactly why this DAC supports twice the input sample rate of the majority of other DACs on the market at a whopping 1.536Mhz. This allows you to use a tool such as Signalyst HQPlayer, PGGB, or the Chord MScaler to combine the most accurate PCM reconstruction with the most accurate discrete R2R DAC money can buy. No further digital manipulation or delta-sigma modulation, and the result honestly is stunning.

For those that prefer to listen to content in DSD, either from native DSD sources or upsampling to DSD with the modulators in both HQPlayer and PGGB that outperform the internal modulators of commercial delta-sigma DACs, the May also has a separate discrete DSD converter that supports rates up to DSD1024.

With the caveat that you may need to be willing to use a separate oversampling tool such as Roon, Audirvana, HQPlayer or PGGB, the Holo May truly is the best sounding DAC I’ve heard to date.

Headphone Amps

Entry Level (<$300) - Schiit Midgard

Click here to visit the product page for the Schiit Midgard

Schiit is a company that is uniquely transparent about not just their beliefs about how products ‘should’ be designed, even going so far as to actively explain why they dislike certain approaches such as entirely opamp based headphone amplifiers but still sell them themselves. (That ‘heresy’ name wasn’t just a funky sounding title!)

But they also are one of very few companies that offer fully discrete designs at exceedingly low prices, and the Midgard is exactly that. A 6W, fully discrete headphone amplifier, using a feedback approach that factors in distortion produced by the headphone driver itself in addition to the amplifier, to attempt to reduce distortion in ways a typical amplifier would not.

In our own measurements, we didn’t find that this particular aspect really did anything to that effect, but it was still otherwise an excellently performing device objectively, and one that I was extremely impressed with subjectively.

With a slightly warmer sound than what you get from most nested-feedback, opamp based designs, but without giving up technical performance and detail to achieve that, the Midgard powered everything I threw at it with ease, and left me struggling to find things I could point to as in need of improvement.

An all round excellent performer, and one that I found considerably more enjoyable to listen to than almost anything else at this price, in this range the Midgard is a standout option.

Mid-Tier ($300-$1000) - Singxer SA-1 V2

The Singxer SA-1 is an amplifier that holds a special place in my heart, and is something I’ve personally recommended to friends and folks online ever since I first heard it.

Similar to the Midgard, and unlike the majority of products under $1000, the SA-1 forgoes the use of IC opamps in favour of a fully discrete class AB design.

With 6W @ 32 Ohms, the SA-1 has no trouble powering almost any headphones on the market, but also achieves one of the highest SNR ratings at 50mV of 93dB, making it one of the most ideal choices for IEM users who require a whisper quiet noise floor.

But for me what I loved about the SA-1 was the complete and utter lack of harshness or glare in its presentation. I tend to find that many opamp based amplifiers have a fatigue inducing sharpness to their sound. This is something which some amplifiers do avoid, but do so by being generally softer and less resolving. The SA-1 meanwhile retains a level of detail that goes toe to toe with options like the Topping A90 and even the considerably more expensive Ferrum OOR, but avoids leaning toward a more coloured, warm sound to attempt to hide any harshness in the resulting sound. It sits right in the middle and in my opinion is one of the most truly transparent sounding amplifiers available. One that I recommend to many because once you have this, there truly is no need, perhaps even no benefit to upgrading unless you’re willing to spend nearly an order of magnitude more on your device.

Singxer hit it out of the park with this one, and under $1000, there’s no other amplifier that impressed me more.

High-End ($1000-3000) - Holo Bliss

Click here to visit the product page for the Holo Bliss

If the Singxer SA-1 had a big brother, this would be it. And by big, I do mean big….

Coming in at over 10kg and 43cm wide, this is one you’ll want to make sure you have space for before hitting purchase, especially since stacking other devices on top of it isn’t recommended due to the amount of heat this device kicks out. But what do you get for all that space and power consumption? You get a fully discrete, full class-A amplifier which can crank out 12W @ 32 Ohms, multiple sets of selectable XLR and RCA inputs, a selectable preamp output, a massively over-specced linear power supply, high and low output impedance options to tweak the frequency response of your headphones, and simply grin-inducing performance.

With THD+N of 118dB even when pumping out buckets of power, and a unique relay controlled volume adjustment that not only attenuates the signal as normal, but also adjusts the gain of the amplifier itself at several stages to maximise dynamic range at all levels. It allows the Bliss to achieve 91dB SNR at 50mV, making it an absolute powerhouse of an amplifier for the most demanding headphones, whilst outperforming the vast majority of the market in keeping a whisper quiet noise floor for IEMs.

The sound of this amplifier blew me away, especially with more demanding headphones like the Hifiman Susvara. Able to deliver seriously impressive levels of macrodynamic impact and what many would describe as ‘grip’ on the drivers for deep subbass control, it just felt as though this amplifier was shrugging off anything you asked it to do as ‘easy’.

Whilst still extremely close to neutral, the Bliss has a very slight sweetness to the upper treble that gives it an ever so slightly warm leaning sound signature. Not as warm as options from the likes of Burson for instance, but also just enough that I wouldn’t describe it as a truly ‘neutral’ amplifier.

This hint of warmth to its signature does not at all mean it gives anything up in technical performance In fact, this is exactly why I adored it. With every headphone I ran on it, the level of detail retrieval was beaten only by a select few amplifiers such as the Zahl HM1 or MassKobo 465, both of which come in at prices matching that of many used cars.

The Bliss also delivers a holographic spatial presentation that reminded me in many ways of what you might expect from many tube amps, whilst retaining top tier solid state levels of incisiveness and subbass ‘grip’.

If you have the space on your desk or in your rack, the Bliss would be my personal pick for an ‘endgame’ amplifier.

Summit-Fi (>$3000) - Zahl HM1

As we get deep into the realm of ‘price no object’ amplifiers, one product in my opinion stands out as truly exhibiting everything you could possibly want and more, regardless of how much it might cost to achieve it.

The Zahl HM1 has some unique features not found on almost any other amplifier that have been an immense benefit to my own listening enjoyment, and ones that having owned the HM1 myself for a few years now, I’d struggle to live without.

Firstly, it offers two sets of analog inputs, each of which can be enabled or disabled, and have their volume controlled independently. This means I can do things such as directly AB’ing between two different DACs, or having one DAC connected to my PC to allow me to chat with friends in a call, whilst another DAC or even a vinyl turntable if you have one feeds your music to the second input.

There are also built in analog EQ controls, ones which measurably outperform the dedicated analog EQ devices which I’ve seen measured from other manufacturers, and this is likely no surprise given as the man behind the HM1; Michael Zahl, is most well known for his high end mixing consoles used by the likes of Nils Frahm, The Chemical Brothers and Aphex Twin.

Some of the features from his console and modules have made their way onto the HM1 as well, such as the stereo-base adjustment which uses analog domain mid/side processing (not crossfeed!) to increase or decrease the stereo width of any mix and allow you to tweak the level of spaciousness in your music to taste. I found that having this on the ‘+1’ setting was an outright improvement for almost all music when listening on headphones. Oh…and did I mention that all of the EQ and stereo-base adjustment features can be enabled or completely bypassed independently on each input too?

The HM1 is to put it simply, one of the two best solid state amplifiers I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. Being matched only by the MassKobo 465. Never have I heard an amplifier that was as utterly transparent, endlessly technically capable, and yet had none of the drawbacks in terms of leaning into being a tad ‘bright’ that I would otherwise expect from an amplifier delivering such incredible levels of detail.

But there is also one feature that means the HM1 is in some ways “two amps in one box”, which is the ability to run it as a full Class-A amplifier with feedback correction, or to run it as a completely feedback-free amplifier.

The HM1 without feedback objectively performs better than any other zero-feedback amplifier I’m aware of, not just in outright THD but also in how consistently it behaves when current output increases.

Disabling the feedback gives you a sound signature that unlike the “I can’t tell if this is an amp or a cable” level of transparency offered by the Class A+Servo mode, instead gives just a small hint of warmth to the sound. Enough to satisfy that desire that springs up now and then when I’m wanting to listen to music in a more relaxed mood or setting, but not so much that I could describe it as making the amplifier sound ‘coloured’ in presentation or leave me wanting to turn it back to feedback enabled after a few tracks. I find myself listening to the amplifier with each of these options about equally as each option suits a different mood.

I could write at any length about this amplifier because every aspect of it, from the sound, to the features, to the obsessive level of care that every aspect of its design exhibits, is simply in a class of its own. Even small things like the fact that parts for this amplifier are heavily binned, meaning only the top few % of a batch of capacitors for instance actually ends up being put into a unit. Or the fact that there are entirely separate power supplies for each channel, AND another just for the logic circuitry.

Being limited to only 50 units worldwide per year, and with an eye-watering pricetag, it’s one that few will be fortunate enough to own. But if you are in the position to get ahold of an HM1, it is currently where my amplifier journey has led me to and I’ve yet to hear anything else that tempted me away from it.

DAC/Amp Combo Units

Entry Level (<$300) - Questyle M15i

The Questyle M15 has been DMS’ go-to device for trying out headphones at shows such as CanJam and Munich high-end. And in fact the only reason it’s not my go-to portable device is because I’m already using its bigger brother the CMA18P. Whether you’re looking for a DAC/Amp as an upgrade to onboard audio, or an absolutely excellent performer of a portable device, the M15i packs a lot of performance into a small package.

Offering both balanced 4.4 and single ended 3.5mm outputs, with a milled metal chassis that also features a glass window to peek at the neatly laid out internals, this is a dongle that provides sound quality rivalling that of many desktop units in a far more compact form factor. Being USB powered, it is a little limited in output power, in fact the 32 Ohm output can only go up to around 80mW, but into a 300 Ohm load it can pump out a hearty 4V. So whilst I did find that it may not be the ideal choice for current hungry planar headphones, for those using either dynamic driver headphones or in-ear monitors, the M15 is my favourite sounding dongle device I’ve tried thus far.

There are some alternatives that offer more power, for those wanting to power planar magnetic headphones, Fiio’s KA13 and KA17 will likely be better options, but the inherent sound itself on the M15 is in my opinion superior, offering a more expansive spatial presentation and more convincing timbre to vocals in particular. Earning it my pick for a DAC/Amp combo unit under $300

Mid-Tier ($300-$1000) - JDS Element IV

Click here to visit the product page for the JDS Element IV

The JDS Element IV is a sleek, and seriously impressive desktop combo.

It has the ability to drive just about anything thanks to its 3W @ 32 Ohm output power capability, and 85dB SNR @ 50mV making it ideal for users of sensitive IEMs too. And backing this up with an impressively neutral tuning and level of technical performance that left me struggling to think of products I’d consider an actual ‘upgrade’ without spending three times as much, it really did leave me in a position where I had to say that under $1000, there really isn’t much reason to get anything else!

But beyond the impressive build, sound quality, and excellent objective performance too, what really completes this package and earns it this spot on the list is the new EQ functionality offered by the Element IV.

Controlled entirely via a web-panel, with a sleek, responsive UI, you can easily make adjustments to your headphone’s tuning and tweak or correct things to taste. You can even save, share, and import presets from friends via a URL, or from sources such as squiglink or text files.

An excellent DAC, an excellent amp, and features that I really wish were present on more products at any pricepoint, the Element IV is a no-brainer choice if you’re looking for a combo under $1000.

High-End ($1000-3000) - Fiio R9

Fiio has had considerable experience in the portable digital audio player market with their lineup of android based DAPs. And they’ve brought that experience to the desktop market whilst leaving behind the restrictions of portable devices, in order to bring us the R9.

This is an android based desktop DAC/Amp combo featuring a 7.3W @ 32 Ohm headphone amplifier, dual ESS9038PRO DACs, and a gorgeous display which whilst of course providing gorgeous album art or visualizer displays during playback, also allows you to control the unit to use it as a dedicated player via native android apps such as TIDAL, Spotify or Apple Music, or to stream directly to it via Roon, UPNP, Apple Airplay and more.

The R9 drives all but one or two headphones with ease, and the overall sound is impressively neutral. Perhaps leaning just a hair brighter than neutral at times, but in doing so offering an immensely dynamic, fast and punchy sound that for anything close to modern pop, percussion heavy genres or anything electronic, was toe tappingly engaging.

The combination of features, the level of polish in the OS which comes as a result of Fiio’s experience in producing android based DAPs, and the subjective and objective performance makes this a top notch option for a desktop DAC/Amp combo.

Summit-Fi (>$3000) - Ferrum WANDLA HP

The original WANDLA was a DAC that impressed me so much I reached out to Ferrum to ask if we could work together to develop the WANDLA GoldenSound Edition.

And recently, Ferrum has taken the existing WANDLA design, and added a new dedicated headphone amplifier to the unit.

I have to be honest, I was not the biggest fan of the Ferrum ERCO V2, and so I was a little unsure what to expect in the WANDLA HP. Having had the chance to compare it at the Warsaw AV show to the ERCO V2 in a setup that allowed me to connect just the DAC portion of the WANDLA and ERCO V2 to the same amplifier, and then try just the WANDLA DAC into the analog amplifiers within the ERCO V2 and WANDLA HP, I was quite impressed to find that not only was the WANDLA a clear and substantial improvement as a DAC from the ERCO V2, but that the amplifier in the WANDLA HP was also quite a substantial improvement from the amplifier in the ERCO V2.

The WANDLA HP keeps everything I adored about the WANDLA as a DAC, in fact the mainboard has not changed other than adding some ports and relays to connect the amplifier daughterboard, but adds an amplifier that is extremely impressive in its own right.

With a continuous output power of 3W @ 32 Ohm, (although it can do more for short durations as music demands) it can quite comfortably power even very demanding planars. I did most of my auditioning using the notoriously difficult to drive Hifiman Susvara, and the sound was absolutely stunning. Beautifully transparent, enough that I’d cautiously say I may even prefer it as an amplifier alone to the Singxer SA-1 V2, and with a ferocious level of grip and authority with more demanding electronic tracks on the Hifiman Susvara, something that I find is the first thing to fall apart on lesser amplifiers.

The WANDLA HP combines one of my all time favourite DACs with a seriously impressive amplifier. Then adds features like the choice between analog and digital volume control, or the spatial enhancement if you opt for the GSE upgrade later, and leaves it as currently the best DAC/Amp combo device I’ve tried.