best budget set-up for headphone music lover?

gooner26

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Sep 9, 2007
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hi all. firstly i have an ipod 80gb and igrado headphones, and i,ve converted my cd collection using the apple lossless format, and very satisfied i am with the sound quality. but i am curious as to know which direction to take to achieve a truly great hi fi sound through headphones. how can i go one better? i remember some guy asking what hifi for advice on a great sounding system using headphones as the listening source, and if i remember rightly you said the rega aollo cd player and the creek obh-21se paired with the grado sr60's. i already own a pro-ject head box mk11, so what budget set up would you reccomend. also how would i change bass, treble ect, because most headphone amps don't have that option. many thanks. danny. p.s. also what cables would you recommed to connect system up with.
 
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Anonymous

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from memory i dont think there are any dedicated headphone amps with tone controls. if you are using your ipod for source though then you could adjust the eq on the ipod to control the bass, treble etc. what kind of budget do you have for the cd player and headphones? do you really need a cd player if you are happy with the ipod and you have all your music on it? from what ive read, the output on an ipod will rival most budget cd players (under 250 quid).
 

gooner26

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i was thinking along the lines of a marantz cd6002 using the grado sr60's. but if the sound quality wont be that much different from my 80 gb ipod with the igrado headphones then it's not worth the extra layout. i would only spend the extra if it would be a massive step-up in sound quality. maybe i would need to spend in the region of £500 to get that step up.
 
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Anonymous

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Cheap amp: I'd recommend a Meier Porta Corda (£110?) that'll work off mini jack OR usb (from computer) and has excellent sound for the price. They have a new one without dac called the Head Six.

As for headphones, you ideally need to try out a few - there are many different "sounds". The best place to start is the excellent www.headroom.com which has lots of reviews (and i respect their opinions) (however if you order from them you'll have to pay import duties). For example you could go Grado (great midrange), AKG (forward sounding i believe) or Sennheisser (warm sounding). I would also highly recommend the Shure in-ear phones, but they are an acquired taste in terms of comfort, and not great for more than an hour.
 
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Anonymous

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if you were to use your ipod as the source you could just skip the amp and get a pair of Beyerdynamic DT880 (£170?) that will run easily from the output of your ipod - though you would have improved sound quality if you did later decide to get an amp like the one peteAllen mentioned.
 

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