Advice on amp+pre for speakers and headphones under $2000

[Ravenstar]

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie to Hi-Fi and new to the forum - thank you all in advance for the great conversation so far and for any help on this! much appreciated.

I'm a long time music lover but haven't really invested in good gear up to this point (didn't have the resources) - mostly used vintage equipment and listened to vinyl as well as digital straight from the PC.

I'm looking to upgrade my work room setup - the idea is to place on a desk and connect to my PC (Tidal), perhaps add another turntable in the future. This needs to drive headphones as well as B&W 607s or 606s (haven't decided yet), but I might get floor-standers for this room later on. I need both headphones and speakers as this is a work room with both a desk and a sitting area.

I was thinking about either (1) the Schiit Ragnorak 2; (2) Cambridge Audio CXA81 (3) Schiit Freya+ with Vidar and Magni.

The two integrated options would probably be more convenient as space is an issue. Also, the Freya option would require additional spend on a DAC (I think) - maybe a Modi Multibit? this would still be more expensive than the two other options.

Is the upgrade over the integrated options worth the extra cost and hassle? is the Modi a compromise?

Also, any thoughts regarding Rag 2 vs the CXA81?

Anyway, any thoughts on the above or other ideas would be awesome.

Once again, thanks!

 

[yodogyodog]

If it were me I would go with Dynaudio speakers, new or used, they are all great. For under $2000 I’d also rather go for a pro scene power amp called Avantone Pro CLA200 because of the power headroom it has over the Schiit while (imo sounding better). As for preamp/streaming device that i cannot say as I have a bluesound node2i and it’s just really meh. Some parts of it are great but other parts and how it’s designed / engineered is just a complete fail from my opinion lol. These are all just my opinions of course but thought I’d share.