I am thinking of getting headphones in the future, probably Sivga SV021's, I was looking for the oppo HA2SE but they're too expensive and discontinued. I am able to get Zen Dac v2 for 135.
The DAC wasn't anything to write home about in the V1...
This is a review and detailed measurements of the ifi Zen balanced DAC and headphone amplifier. I purchased it from Amazon last week. The Zen DAC costs US $130 including free shipping. I must say, I am not a fan of the look of the Zen DAC. It hearkens back to 1960s furniture style which would...
www.audiosciencereview.com
I think I read that the V2 was better, but I don't recall seeing any measurements to back this up. Although the unit is quite compelling from a cost/functionality perspective, I would personally steer clear of iFi due to the huge amount of snake oil the spout.
The Sivga SV021's look quite nice, but they don't measure great either...
Note how much the light grey line on the lower graph deviates from the preference curve (black line), then compare this to something like the AKG K371...
The top graph (red and blue lines) show the deviation from the preference curve, so ideally should be a straight horizontal line.
Of course, there is more to headphones than just the frequency response. Comfort and build quality are important and some people have had issues with the K371's in this regard (including myself, although it was nothing that 5 minutes and a small screwdriver couldn't fix).