Hi Y'all!
Curious to discover what hardware/software runs your HI-FI Setup.
I currently run a pair of Sennheiser HD560s with a Fiio E10K Olympus 2 DAC. I haven't modified my pulseaudio config (nor think i need to?) Everything was plug&play c:. I adore every chance I have with my current gear but feel it's time to take it up a notch. Particularly in the sound stage department.. My biggest Q is if I need to worry about any compatibility issues with AMP/DACs?
Thanks for your time and happy listening!

I have my AKG K812 paired with my Fiio X5 2nd Gen (used as a DAC only). I have those headphones since many years and I love them. 🙂

Linux is really good for DAC compatibility. Everything I've tried just works.
Everything played on my system (Philips Fidelio X2, Koss portapro, various earbuds and IEMs) gets run through a Teac UD-301 DAC/headphone amp. TBH, I cant tell the difference between my Teac or my Audioengine DAC/amp that cost 1/3 what the Teac did.
My opinion: spend your money on headphones. So long as the amp can drive them that's where you'll hear the difference.

    murbert Yes I agree on that. I have another DAC and I can't hear any difference at all. I can hear a difference to the onboard audio in the notebook though. But still, the headphones are making the biggest difference by far.

      I never had any compatibility issues so far: DACs, audio interfaces and BT headphones all work plug & play.

      The only gripe I have is using system-wide EQ.
      With Pulse Effects, I used to have pretty bad latency, which was unbearable when watching videos.

      I since then switched to Jack + Carla, and now I finally have low latency EQ for my monitors and headphones, but the process of making Jack and Carla work was quite tedious, especially with my rather wimpy Linux chops.
      Moreover, since Carla takes as input EQ data in a different format and units to PE, I wrote a script to translate Windows' Equalizer APO (as this is how most EQ presets are found online) to Carla format and units. It is in MATLAB though because to me this was the path of least resistance... 😅
      Finally, I can't get Carla to open and load my default EQ preset (for monitors) on startup, so what pitiful script I did manage to write, I mapped a keyboard shortcut to run it, so now every time I restart my computer, I hit Ctrl+Alt+S to load my EQ. For the life of me, I can't get that script to autorun on strartup...

      As you can see, there are many annoyances along the way, but all of them are solvable, and I'm sure someone more knowledgable than myself would've struggled far less. But as long as you're okay with a bit of a one-time struggle and/or are uninterested in EQing your stuff, you shouldn't have much trouble with most, if not all, day-to-day things.

      I wouldn't label myself an "audiophile" but I care quite a lot about sound quality.

      I'm using a Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 audio interface which, to be honest, is a little buggy under linux- it's silent for a couple of seconds when audio first starts playing, and reports itself as a "surround sound" device even though I only have two speakers and there's no way to change it to stereo on a system-wide level.

      Connected to that is a pair of Presonus Eris E5 active studio monitors, they sound really good 😁