$400 Headphone Amp with Fine Balance Control?

[Reticuli2]

My headphones are...

Etymotic ER4S
Koss Sporta Pros
All three versions of the Extreme Isolation EX-29
Ortofon (Ultrasone) O-One
and Numark PHX

I use my computer's Emu 1212m, my audio mixers: A&H and Alesis, an iPod, and various A/V home players/receivers as the sources depending on my needs.

I have about $400 in discretionary money I can spend right now, maybe a bit more. I'd like the headphone amp to have a balance control, since I'm extremely sensitive to channel imbalances and the O-One, PHX, and a lot of my recordings are not exactly centered. And besides, if I'm going to blast my hearing, I want it to fade symmetrically...heh heh.

Recommendations? Is there something for just over 400-500 bucks that's so much better than the 400 and under ones that I should wait until next month?

I was thinking about getting an AKG 701 headphone with this cash, but I seriously think my relatives and friends might disown me if I get anymore headphones, and besides the ones I have certainly could benefit from a decent common amp.

All I've got right now is my gear's included jacks and some very cheap outboard studio HP amps that would be embarrassing to mention. Thanks.

Regards,
Ben G.

[audiowize]

If you think you can solder, you might consider the Bottlehead SEX amp, as it is right in your budget and definitely not picky about headphone impedance/sensitivity. For the balance control, I would hop onto eBay and order this:

BLACK DUAL CONTROL GUITAR KNOB + POTENTIOMETER 2 IN 1 - eBay (item 220351338988 end time Jul-25-09 10:51:05 PDT)


Ask for a 250k/250k log pot. If you twist both knobs together you will get stereo level control, or you could adjust them individually for balance. I think you will find you sort of set a general level for both, then just adjust the top knob to suit your needs.


If you wanted very, very fine balance, consider drilling a second set of holes for another pot and get two 10 turn 100k single log pots to use as volume controls.

[Reticuli2]

It doesn't need to be super-fine balance control. Just more movement resolution than crude 1 or 2dB increments a lot of sources use.

I like that pot. One of my crappy headphone amps might make use of it. I have a tech I know that I'll use to fix the rcas on it while he's installing something like that.

But I myself am not much of an electronics and soldering person, unfortunately. I really never thought much about taking that sort of thing in school, as I figured it was ham radio people in there, or something. In retrospect, my audio interests would have made me really motivated. Anyway, I can't wait to aquire the skills or bother with a kit that expensive on my first try. Thanks, though.

Any ready-made amps? Would that pot you linked to fit on this?

FS: Rudistor NX-02 sistema

[Reticuli2]

I'm using the search function right now.

Ella W6 SEPP Tube Headphone Amplifier.

Would this be suitable for my wide variety of headphones? Direct from China makes me nervous I'm going to burn the building down, though. Is this sort of stuff safe?

If so, are there other designs to take advantage of my full funds of higher quality with balance control or dual volumes?

[Reticuli2]

By the way, my hearing is imbalanced about 1dB to the right that I do not find annoying. The O-One and the PHX are 2dB to the left. So they're about 1dB to the left when on correctly, and about 3dB to the right when flip-flopped left to right. That 1dB in the wrong direction I find annoying, though. I forget about my natural imbalance most of the time and it's only very apparent when I focus on it with reference source material. The Etymotics, Koss, and EX-29s are all within a dB or so. Supposedly driver matching for a lot of companies is within 2dB, even Etymotic Research for the ER4...as they just informed me. A lot of my recordings are pretty imbalanced, though. Lots of imperfect mix-downs. I would rather not have the headphones or recordings compensate for my natural hearing imbalance at all. So on normal headphones when I have the capability I change the balance and flip flop the ears until the center does not change. Then I start listening.

[audiowize]

By-the-way, I know a 16-year-old girl and an 18-year-old boy that each built Sex amps that worked perfectly right after completion.

If you go for a tubed headphone amp, do get something that is transformer coupled at the output or a hybrid. OTL's really only work with headphones of abnormally high impedance, and when I say they work I really mean I am surprised by how many people actually like listening to them.

[Reticuli2]

$460 is just above my budget this month. I can wait until next, but I'd prefer it not to have tubes. Doesn't look like there are many headphone amps with built in balance controls. Hmm...I think I'll just look for a good headphone amp period and have my tech add one.