Headphone amplifiers

[Stevie9]

Hi,
I'm in the market for a headphone amp. I don't really want to spend more than £400. The level of headphone will certainly be around the same price. Probably Sennheiser (£350-400).
I have a dedicated home set up with no laptops or iPods in sight. I'm not looking for a ultra portable one.
I would appreciate any experiences you may have.
Thanks.
Stevie.

 

[dalethorn]

Hi, I'm in the market for a headphone amp. I don't really want to spend more than £400. The level of headphone will certainly be around the same price. Probably Sennheiser (£350-400). I have a dedicated home set up with no laptops or iPods in sight. I'm not looking for a ultra portable one. I would appreciate any experiences you may have. Thanks. Stevie.

AudioQuest DragonFly Red - sounds awesome, works with everything, has a top-quality audiophile DAC, and is made to feed the DAC output to an external amp if you need more power. If you're using a brighter headphone like the HD600, a good tube amp would be a nice add-on down the road.

 

[Stevie9]

Hi, I'm in the market for a headphone amp. I don't really want to spend more than £400. The level of headphone will certainly be around the same price. Probably Sennheiser (£350-400). I have a dedicated home set up with no laptops or iPods in sight. I'm not looking for a ultra portable one. I would appreciate any experiences you may have. Thanks. Stevie.

AudioQuest DragonFly Red - sounds awesome, works with everything, has a top-quality audiophile DAC, and is made to feed the DAC output to an external amp if you need more power.  If you're using a brighter headphone like the HD600, a good tube amp would be a nice add-on down the road.

Thanks Dale, I'll certainly check that out.

 

[Stevie9]

Hi, I'm in the market for a headphone amp. I don't really want to spend more than £400. The level of headphone will certainly be around the same price. Probably Sennheiser (£350-400). I have a dedicated home set up with no laptops or iPods in sight. I'm not looking for a ultra portable one. I would appreciate any experiences you may have. Thanks. Stevie.

AudioQuest DragonFly Red - sounds awesome, works with everything, has a top-quality audiophile DAC, and is made to feed the DAC output to an external amp if you need more power.  If you're using a brighter headphone like the HD600, a good tube amp would be a nice add-on down the road.

Thanks Dale, I'll certainly check that out.

Hi Dale, I think this is purely for lap tops. I'm thinking more in line with a proper integrated amp. I've seen headphone amps like the Shiit Valhalla... So I'm searching for something along these lines... Preferably using tubes.

 

[dalethorn]

Hi, I'm in the market for a headphone amp. I don't really want to spend more than £400. The level of headphone will certainly be around the same price. Probably Sennheiser (£350-400). I have a dedicated home set up with no laptops or iPods in sight. I'm not looking for a ultra portable one. I would appreciate any experiences you may have. Thanks. Stevie.

AudioQuest DragonFly Red - sounds awesome, works with everything, has a top-quality audiophile DAC, and is made to feed the DAC output to an external amp if you need more power. If you're using a brighter headphone like the HD600, a good tube amp would be a nice add-on down the road.

Thanks Dale, I'll certainly check that out.

Hi Dale, I think this is purely for lap tops. I'm thinking more in line with a proper integrated amp. I've seen headphone amps like the Shiit Valhalla... So I'm searching for something along these lines... Preferably using tubes.

Not any more. Laptops, cellphones, anything with a USB output. Once the DragonFly is connected as a DAC, then you connect the amp/tube amp to the DragonFly's Line Out.

 

[lovstromp]

Hi, Stevie9. I run my HD-600s through a Matrix HPA2 USB and I see that it's been revised. I love the setup. Whether I plug my laptop directly to the amp or my CD player to the analog ins - which incidentally gives me the opportunity to quickly find a song on Tidal and plug my phone to my CD player, it fails to disappoint.

Before I got the headphones and the amp, I used to listen to the music and nothing else. These days I find just as much joy in listening to the quality of the sound and it's gotten me searching for recordings of high dynamic range.

I remember that I was planning to get a Schiit amp/dac combo, but ended up with the Matrix. Don't remember what pushed me in that direction though.

Good luck in your search.