• Welcome to The Audio Annex! If you have any trouble logging in or signing up, please contact 'admin - at - theaudioannex.com'. Enjoy!
  • HTTPS (secure web browser connection) has been enabled - just add "https://" to the start of the URL in your address bar, e.g. "https://theaudioannex.com/forum/"
  • Congratulations! If you're seeing this notice, it means you're connected to the new server. Go ahead and post as usual, enjoy!
  • I've just upgraded the forum software to Xenforo 2.0. Please let me know if you have any problems with it. I'm still working on installing styles... coming soon.

**PSA: Sennheiser HD600 for $325 on Amazon right now!**

BrianZ

BrianZ

Active Member
Just ordered mine! Been looking for an excuse to get a set all year, so an early birthday present. I expect these to easily take the top spot away from my current favorite V-Moda M-80's. FINALLY - YEA!
 
Great choice. I loved my 650. I managed to get mine for $300 at Guitar Center but that was about 8 years ago.
 
thanks.

so i am afraid to ask, but i do i really need a headphone amp if i have a headphone jack on my receiver (H/K 3490)?

(and i know you'd all hate me for using these with my Zune player so i won't even ask about that.)
 
lol the Zune might sound better than the receiver, probably not as loud. Some older receivers can sound good but most use cheap circuitry. I used to compare my Denon receiver from 2002 (that I still use) to my many portable amps that I've owned over the years. What I noticed most was the fullness with bass output from the portable amps. I've had my Woo Audio tube amp for almost 10 years and it easily sounds better than my Denon receiver, especially when listening at levels above 85 dB were a cheap amp will begin to sound thin very quickly.
 
OK, so for the sake of my marriage answer this as honestly as possible:

Is it . . .

(1) To really hear what the Senns were designed to do you need the amp, but they are still awesome without one.

or

(2) If you don't use a HP amp then there's really no reason to have the Senns at all.



If the truth is closer to (2) then what it is minimum i can get away with? Preferably portable or at least transportable, but battery powered regardless. I don't need a DAC at this point. JDS Labs? Fiio? Again, for the sake of my marriage, please. :)
 
BrianZ said:
OK, so for the sake of my marriage answer this as honestly as possible:

Is it . . .

(1) To really hear what the Senns were designed to do you need the amp, but they are still awesome without one.

or

(2) If you don't use a HP amp then there's really no reason to have the Senns at all.



If the truth is closer to (2) then what it is minimum i can get away with? Preferably portable or at least transportable, but battery powered regardless. I don't need a DAC at this point. JDS Labs? Fiio? Again, for the sake of my marriage, please. :)
Click to expand...

Here's a totally non-professional review of a couple headphones (AKG Q701 - Sennheiser HD598 on a Little Dot II++)
http://www.theaudioannex.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=8422&hilit=AKG

Generally, in my opinion...if you have money to burn, get thineself a tube amp and plan to try several tubes before you settle.
If you don't (and/or if your marriage might fall apart based on spending ~$1k on an amp and several sets of tubes) you should
probably just take the headphones and enjoy them as they are with what you got.
 
With high-impedance cans like that, I'd tend to go with a tube amp, but that brings its own whole level of pain in dealing with tubes that may not be worth it to you right now. I'd say, go to head-fi amp sales section:

http://www.head-fi.org/f/6551/amplification-for-sale-trade

Look for a member with a decent feedback and find a nice used tube amp (with tubes of course) or solid-state amp if you don't want to deal with tubes, in the $100-200 price range, no more than that for your first foray into that world. Head-fi'ers generally take good care of their stuff, so you can buy with some confidence there, IMHO; I've bought and sold a lot of stuff there.
 
Or if you really don't want to do used, go get you some Schiit... :laughing:

http://schiit.com/products

Pick whatever's in your price range. Any of those would be good to start with.
 
Here we go again, Paul's talkin' Schiit again. (couldn't help it)

Good advice Paul. Schiit offers some great value with a 5-year warranty. I also agree about the used route from a reputable Head-Fi member. I haven't been into the buy/sell game at Head-fi for some time but I have about a 90 feedback count ,all very positive, thank you : )

BZ, if you see a used amp of interest give us a link and one of us can check it out. Good deals can vanish quickly though.
 
Ok. Well of course I'm gonna try them alone before doing anything but this is the sort of thing that will knaw at me, so I'm sure I'll end up getting some kind of amp, and most likely SS. Great tip on the head-fi classifieds, thanks. I'll post some links when I get to that point to get you all's opinions - thanks for the offer.
 
My first question is, are you going to be wanting this for completely mobile use (that is, battery-powered), or desktop use (plugged in)? I don't have much experience with mobile amps... Dane would know a lot more in that area, for sure.
 
PaulyT said:
My first question is, are you going to be wanting this for completely mobile use (that is, battery-powered), or desktop use (plugged in)? I don't have much experience with mobile amps... Dane would know a lot more in that area, for sure.
Click to expand...

oh, sorry. i guess i should have said that battery powered is all i will consider at this point. though i do not intend to take the HD600's outside, i can easily imagine taking them all over the house and i definitely don't want to plug them in everywhere they go. occasional recharging is all i care to deal with. so i suppose that means battery life is fairly important. top priorities for this first foray are: low cost, reasonably uncolored sound, battery life and size (probably in about that order, understanding that the cost and sound quality balance is a wiggly inexact exercise).
 
Gotcha. Well, as I said, not my main area of knowledge... What's your source? You'd also need to decide what sort of inputs you'll need - usb or analog or... As long as it has the inputs and outputs you need, then just pick a price range and wait for something appropriate to show up on head-fi. The nice thing about that site is that if you decide you don't want to keep it, you can usually re-sell it without too much trouble.
 
PaulyT said:
Gotcha. Well, as I said, not my main area of knowledge... What's your source? You'd also need to decide what sort of inputs you'll need - usb or analog or... As long as it has the inputs and outputs you need, then just pick a price range and wait for something appropriate to show up on head-fi. The nice thing about that site is that if you decide you don't want to keep it, you can usually re-sell it without too much trouble.
Click to expand...

will always be analog for me, and from 2 sources: (1) CD's, BRD's & games on PS3 (or PS4 if they ever enable CD playback) via my H/K receiver headphone jack, and (2) Zune w/WMA lossless files. i guess also possibly from my computer's soundcard (Asus Xonar DX, also analog), but i never really do any critical listening at the computer.

wait, i just realized that if my receiver headphone jack truly does have inferior circuitry relative to a decent portable amp, does it even make sense to use a HP amp downstream of this jack? (assuming the "damage" is already done at that point)
 
^-- Yeah I would use a line out from your receiver if possible, if you're going to use the outboard amp.
 
I own two portable headphone amps from Fiio and love them.

One, which I use quite often, is a very basic and extremely portable analog headphone amp, the E5 (the current version is the X6) which is a way to get very good performance from poor quality headphone amps built into laptops, phones, and other devices not necessarily known for headphone performance. I clip the E5 to my shirt and use it between the headphone out on my laptop, tablet, or the headphone output on a airplane's in-seat entertainment system and it drives my IEMs or AKG K240 Studio headphones. I sometimes also use it with my Grado SR80 headphones while in the office. I love it.

The other is the E7 which is a USB DAC with two incredible headphone outputs. I use it as a replacement for the shoddy audio cards found in most laptops or tablets when I want better performance. It is larger and a bit more difficult to situate when moving around or in an airline seat, so I only use it when I am sitting still at a desk or similar. It sounds amazing and drives all of my headphones perfectly, including my AKG K701, K240 Studio, K240DF, Sony MDR7506, Grado SR80, Beyer DT880, Shure SE-series IEMs, and various other cheap headphones I have laying around with my recording gear.

In the studio I almost always use the Presonus HD-4 headphone amp for nearly all of my headphone listening, but it does not support battery power. I also have a really damn good Rane headphone amp, but it is rackmount and not easy to setup and put away, so it rarely gets used. I've also owned several tubs amps, like the Little Dot II, and a few "audiophile" headphone amps and wasn't impressed at all. They have since been sold off on Craigslist.

I look for reliability, consistency in performance, support after the sale, and ready availability when choosing amps. In my experience, the esoteric market is too risky since what I am looking for is reliable performance for years and years.
 
OK cool, thanks. The Fiio E11 is $60 on Amazon. Any idea how that compares to the E5?

And I notice a conspicuous lack of talk about JDS Labs - is there a reason? The current version cMoy is also $60.
 
I had a cMoy for a week. I was disappointed with it having an audible noise floor and a dirty potentiometer. My unit may have a fluke with issues, but I wasn't impressed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top