Which headphone amp?

[CKent]

Heyas... so I'm in the market for a headphone amp. I took a look at head-fi, as always, but I was a little daunted by the wealth of information that I couldn't make heads or tails of, as well as the "Sure it's only $35,000,000 - but it's worth it, trust me!" stuff... so here I am

I have a pair of senny 280s. I'm considering buying either a pair of AT 900s, grado 80s (or 125s?) or senny 600 / 650s. I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive amp that would work well with the 280s but also work well if I upgraded to any of those headphones. I'm sure such a perfect amp; doesn't exist, but I'm just looking for a few ideas. Appreciate any input, or a push (shove? ) in the right direction, thanks

 

[montypythizzle]

Well, are you looking for a desktop or portable amp?
Also, what is your budget.
I have the SR-80s and people said that not even my older Pioneer receiver wasn't even pushing them correctly. I am also in the same position and also looking for a good/budget amp for the SR-80s.
Also, ask on Head-Fi.org for more responses on the subject and for more experience in this subject and post your results here, please.

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: montypythizzle
Well, are you looking for a desktop or portable amp?
Also, what is your budget.
I have the SR-80s and people said that not even my older Pioneer receiver wasn't even pushing them correctly. I am also in the same position and also looking for a good/budget amp for the SR-80s.
Also, ask on Head-Fi.org for more responses on the subject and for more experience in this subject and post your results here, please.

I'm looking for a desktop amp to hook up to my envy24 card (although I may upgrade it). My budget is pretty flexible, though I'd rather not spend a ton of cash on a headphone amp, but if it's the only way, then so be it. I'll ask on head-fi, I'm just kinda wary of being called a noob (mostly because that's exactly what I am )

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I'm really not much of a headphone guy and the only experience I have with amplification with my headphones is my Go-Vibe 5 portable amp
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/sp...thing-Disconnected.JPG
or my pre-pro headphone output
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/sp...Headphone%20Output.JPG

My Pre-pro actually seems to do a better job than my amp, but my own Go-Vibe 5 is only a portable amp running off a 9 Volt.

I have Sennheiser 280s and 580s. With my 280s, I don't seem to notice much of a difference going back and forth between the different power sources (soundcard analog output / Pre-pro headphone output / MP3 player output / Go-Vibe 5 output) compared to the difference I notice with the 580s which sound significantly better when hooked up to the Pre-pro and almost as good from the amp.

With the 280s, it doesn't really matter to me how I have them hooked up, but with the 580s, I think it makes a difference. I'm sure I'd notice an even more significant difference if I wanted to invest in a better amp for either my portable use or for a desktop amp. I just wanted something inexpensive that would help me get better volume and better sound out of my MP3 player when using the 580s since max volume on the MP3 player wasn't loud enough on quiet recordings.

I didn't do a whole lot of research into desktop amps since I wanted to just try out how my Pre-pro did with them before I spent more since I'm usually listening to my speakers rather than headphones at home.
One of the desktop options that stood out to me were the options from "Little Dot"
http://www.little-tube.com/for...tid=65&posts=1&start=1

If I was going to look for a headphone amp today, I'd probably start my research from there and see how they matched up with various headphones you're considering.

 

[darkswordsman17]

The over-riding factor is your budget. Give us a hard line on how much you can spend, and that will help determine what would be good.

Meier audio has a couple of options that are nice. Little Dot does have some nice tube ones, but I'd probably recommend going for the MKIII or higher (since the other models apparently have issues with arcing). The Darkvoice 336 is supposed to be pretty good (I would recommend it over the Little Dots since it uses more common tubes but can sound as good if not better than the Little Dots from what I've seen). There's a new popular portable DAC/amp combo in the iBasso D1 (which would be good if you have a not so great source). You can also consider some of the desktop amp/DACs for that matter, such as the Zhalou 2.5, although they might become a bit lacking for HD-600/650s though.

Those are all about the $150-300 range. If you'd like to spend less, look into the DIY stuff. There's a lot of nice amps that can be put together for pretty cheap, and there's quite a bit of people who will make them for you for cheap. You can find quite a bit of Altoid tin CMOYs on eBay, just check out the seller beforehand. There's also the PPAV2 (I think thats right...), that sells for about $60-70 if you contact the seller directly instead of bidding on it.

Lastly, I would recommend thinking about your source.

 

[montypythizzle]

Well, you can use the Wolfson DAC on the AV710 (with some older drivers), and it sounds GREAT along with a kernel streaming plug-in for your media player. On the other hand I guess you can use the optical out on the AV710 to an external DAC.

 

[Ika]

If you're looking for a warmer, smoother sound, a tube amp is right for you. If you want more detail and "crisperness", a solid-state amp would probably be the better idea. Generally, under about $300, the better amps are SS (especially DIY ones, such as the M^3 and the PPA), but you might be able to find some great hybrid amps (tube + ss circuitry) that are DIY (like the recently designed Millet Maxx - by cetoole and tomb - and the SOHA). If you're interested in DIY, any of these options are a decently nice place to start.

If you want portable, though, there are lots of options. I won't really go into this now, but there are bunches of portable amp reviews in the Amplification forum on Head-Fi.

To be honest, though, if you don't have much experience with amps, any amp with a good reputation on Head-Fi will satisfy. Don't be afraid of being called a noob at Head-Fi; lots of people regularly post noob threads in the forums. They're used to it.

Your source is fine (the AV710 is highly regarded as a great value source if you configure it correctly), but you could get a DAC for less than $100 (something like the Entech 203.2 Number Cruncher) and hook it up your AV710 through the optical-out.

 

[montypythizzle]

I have been looking at the Little Dot II++ and the Little Dot III.

 

[Modelworks]

The cmoy is great and cheap
http://tangentsoft.net/audio/cmoy-tutorial/

 

[CKent]

Thanks for the advice all, I've decided I'm going to build a CMoy. It'll ease me into it and give me a fun little project to do.