Need Headphone Amp Suggestions for...

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Knucklehead90

Knucklehead90

Audioholic
Peavy is known for making excellent audio gear - they market a headphone amp that might interest you. As baffling as it may seem - the power supply is sold separate. I imagine a generic one from Radio Shack could be made to work.
 
sholling

sholling

Audioholic Ninja
I've used headphone amps from headphone.com in the past and was pretty happy with them.
 
ubila

ubila

Enthusiast
The Little Dot III seems like its gonna be a good buy.
And unlike most, its available at a local store here in New Zealand.

Unfortunatly its $360 haha.

I cant really tell but is that a 1/4 headphone jack on the front?
If its a 1/8 will you loose quality using a convertor? (My HD595s have 1/4 jack, although it did come with a convertor)

Cheers
 
WmAx

WmAx

Audioholic Samurai
Headphone amps, like speaker amps, are usually heavily laden in snake oil reputations of sound quality claims that are fictional.

Exactly the same issues are true with heapphone amps as are with speaker amps: frequency response, distortion/clipping characteristics and the load interaction with the headphone used on the system.

Do you want a capable device or a decoration that will cost a premium just for cosmetics? It really comes down to this.

A low price and transparent house voltage powered (non portable type) headphone amp with much more capable driving ability than most (due to it's higher than normal power supply) is a Behringer Xenyx 802 mini-mixer. It's headphone section is excellent. It also has high versatility since it's a mixer.

Add a high quality DSP EQ and you will have one heck of a capable system. Use a Behringer DEQ2496 added with the amp, and you will have incredible SQ potential. The DEQ also has a spatial effect that is variable and can be used similar to a crossfeed effect. If the crossfeed effect is not needed, the DCX2496 is a better choice: it has more capabilities/flexibility that extends to improving high end speaker systems as well.

If you need special crossfeed effect function as found on some amps, though, then the behringer unit is of course not suitable.

-Chris
 
ubila

ubila

Enthusiast
Im really just looking for the best possible sound quality i can get for my limited budget. (im a student).

I want to get a standalone CD Player for the sole purpose of driving my Sennheiser HD595's, and conncect an amp to it. Wether it be headphone amp or a big amp unit. Whatever is better, and in my price range really.

Are you suggesting that the bigger nonportable amps like something you find on a home audio system, would be a better option then a headphone amp?

cheers
 
WmAx

WmAx

Audioholic Samurai
ubila said:
Im really just looking for the best possible sound quality i can get for my limited budget. (im a student).

I want to get a standalone CD Player for the sole purpose of driving my Sennheiser HD595's, and conncect an amp to it. Wether it be headphone amp or a big amp unit. Whatever is better, and in my price range really.

Are you suggesting that the bigger nonportable amps like something you find on a home audio system, would be a better option then a headphone amp?

cheers
Click to expand...
I'm just saying that a transparent, very capable headphone amp can be pretty inexpensive. The Behringer 802 unit I mentioned above is all you need if function comes before cosmetics for you. Combine this with the DCX2496 and you have huge SQ potential, because the DCX allows very precise/accurate manipulation of the response far beyond a 'regular' EQ. You can adjust 'tightness' of bass, exact treble response properties for realistic balance, etc. with such an exacting device, unlike a regular EQ(which are pretty worthless IMO).

-Chris
 
MidnightSensi

MidnightSensi

Audioholic Samurai
A while back I built a Meta42 headphone amp out of a kit, off that head-fi website. I think it is outdated now, but I'm sure they have another kit with the latest and greater.

This Meta42 sounds excellent and didn't break the bank.
 
MinusTheBear

MinusTheBear

Audioholic Ninja
ubila said:
Are you suggesting that the bigger nonportable amps like something you find on a home audio system, would be a better option then a headphone amp?

cheers
Click to expand...
From looking at the specs of the 595 they are a very easy headphone to power. Any device can power the 595 to comfortable levels. You can also forget about the headphone amp and get something like the Sansa Clip+ 8gb MP3/Flac player and purchase some MicroSD cards to go with it so you can use the external memory that is available on the unit for extra storage capabilities. Convert your music collection to Flac preferably and transfer to the Sansa Clip+. The clip+ should do an excellent job at powering the 595 and will also work well as a source.
 
Y

yepimonfire

Audioholic Samurai
i own a sansa clip, i love that thing and it has plenty of power to drive hard to drive headphones.
 
Y

yepimonfire

Audioholic Samurai
ubila said:
Im really just looking for the best possible sound quality i can get for my limited budget. (im a student).

I want to get a standalone CD Player for the sole purpose of driving my Sennheiser HD595's, and conncect an amp to it. Wether it be headphone amp or a big amp unit. Whatever is better, and in my price range really.

Are you suggesting that the bigger nonportable amps like something you find on a home audio system, would be a better option then a headphone amp?

cheers
Click to expand...
well, it would do the trick and certainly be a better investment, it has a headphone amp already in it obviously and you can later add an inexpensive set of bookshelfs to it like B2030p's or Polk monitors. etc. if you have a DVD player you could listen to the DVD's over the headphones and use it to play your CD's.
 
Y

yepimonfire

Audioholic Samurai
a large set of Koss headphones, forget the model name but i could crank an ipod to the max and still want more volume with them, only way i could get a pleasing volume from the was my receiver or the sansa.
 
sholling

sholling

Audioholic Ninja
yepimonfire said:
a large set of Koss headphones, forget the model name but i could crank an ipod to the max and still want more volume with them, only way i could get a pleasing volume from the was my receiver or the sansa.
Click to expand...
I was just curious. I've never found an MP3 player that could drive my HD600s but I haven't tried every MP3 player. I'll try my 280e and my Fuse and see how they do. Not that I'll ever use them with an MP3 player, I have UE TripleFi 10 Pros for that.
 
ubila

ubila

Enthusiast
Its funny, my iphone seems to drive my headphones better then my pc sound card lol. Spose that says alot about my sound card >.>
 
MinusTheBear

MinusTheBear

Audioholic Ninja
ubila said:
Its funny, my iphone seems to drive my headphones better then my pc sound card lol. Spose that says alot about my sound card >.>
Click to expand...
Make sure that the master volume is up very high on the computer (usually found in the taskbar) so the headphones are receiving enough gain so you don't have to max out the volume control on the media player that you are using.
 
WmAx

WmAx

Audioholic Samurai
A true 'hard' to power pair of phones would be AKG K1000 and K340. They require much higher voltage than a portable unit can provide; even a *9VDC powered dedicated headphone amp is not suitable. I conducted extensive analysis of this issue and the K340 required in excess the RMS VAC output that most portable amps can not provide. Even many home headphone amps may have insufficient output voltage.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=39106&st=25&p=354399&#entry354399

-Chris

*Voltage reference presumes standard analog power supply. A digital switching PS(very rare to find in such portable amps) can operate the audio circuits at a much higher voltage than the battery base voltage allows in a standard analog system.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
ubila said:
Its funny, my iphone seems to drive my headphones better then my pc sound card lol. Spose that says alot about my sound card >.>
Click to expand...
No, that say much about your sound card at all, I think Sound Blaster 16 was about one of the last sound cards with good headphone amp in built in,
all newer sound devices reply on external amplification.
However if you are hearing hiss and other noises while headphones plugged in and nothing is playing = sound card sux :)
 
sholling

sholling

Audioholic Ninja
BoredSysAdmin said:
No, that say much about your sound card at all, I think Sound Blaster 16 was about one of the last sound cards with good headphone amp in built in,
all newer sound devices reply on external amplification.
However if you are hearing hiss and other noises while headphones plugged in and nothing is playing = sound card sux :)
Click to expand...
One of the last Sound Blasters or one of the last cheap cards with a decent headphone amp maybe. Look at some of the offerings from HT Omega.
 
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