After asking questions here and reading/considering the myriad of options for a portable system, I've shrunk from the Schiit Valhalla 2 and laptop to the stand-alone Shanling M3s. Between the reviews here:
https://www.moon-audio.com/ (thx for the link, Serge) and on Head-Fi, for the price it seemed to be a logical way to go. Its biggest competition for my budget was the Fii0 M7. However, the dual DAC chips in the M3s seemed more suited to providing the best sound compared to the upside of FM radio in the M7. Ordered the M3s, case and a couple of 128GB micro-SD chips and a balanced adapter cable for my Senn HD-650s. In the long-term, my plan is to try a pair of wireless headphones, like the AT ATH-V50BT, (the M3s has aptX Bluetooth) and/or upgrade the cable to something from WW, or similar.
Everything arrived a couple of days ago other than the cable. The included owner's manual is pretty 'fundamental', so I dialed up a 15min U-tube vid and fast forwarded thru the uninteresting parts and got the couple of answers I wanted. Downloaded DBpoweramp, put a micro-SD chip into the side of the laptop and commenced ripping CDs in a FLAC format. Thus far, have ~125 CDs ripped (good thing to do while sitting front of a football game, etc.).
Balanced cable is scheduled to arrive today, so can finally start listening to see what I think of the sound. Am hoping for good things, based on the reviews. I've been corresponding with one of the reviewers on Head-Fi in search of a better cable, and he has been most helpful. He wished he had found the one I purchased as he had one made for 5X the cost. Plan to purchase a 2.5mm TRRS-to-RCA cable so can feed into my main system at some point. Have been thinking of a 'full-format' DAP for some time (if 2 DAC chips is good, then 4 or 8 must be better
), but smaller is better as I downsize my system. More later once the headphone cable arrives.
