Tube headphone amplifier + amplifier or integrated amplifier?

[Kokofong]

Due to strong curiosity and demand of better sound quality I am going to buy a tube headphone amplifier. At the same time, I hope to set a 2.0 speakers system. I am still a newbie and hoped that the tube headphone amplifier could work with bookshelf speakers like Quad Lite well. Now I know that it highly depends on the output of the tube amplifier (by total watts, impedance, etc.)

There are three questions here: 1) Is there any good tube amplifier which can drive both headphones and speakers well? 2) Or, should I buy another amplifier with the headphone amplifier? 3) Should I buy an integrated amplifier for my speakers and headphone amplifier for my headphones, respectively?

I know many people may suggest either 2) or 3) if there is no budget limit. However, I am just a normal university student and therefore budget is quite limited. My budget for one of the choices above is below 250 pounds (since I still have to buy speakers as well).

Hopefully you guys can give me some opinion. Thank you!!!

[sacd lover]

I posted this in a recent thread .... but here we go again.


Sound Quest SQ-84 ..... if all you really need is 10 watts this amp will supply them. The amp doubles as a headamp and is impressively quiet even with higher sensitivity headphones like my senn 595's. The sound is punchy, clean and clear and quite musical. This amp is an excellent value and if you use new production tubes the tube cost is very reasonable. I am using the JJ Tesla 6v6s for the outputs and this is one of the best sounding new production tubes I have tried; $46 for a matched quad. The nos 6u8's used for the input and driver stages are inexpensive at around $5 per tube.


SoundStage! Review

Positive Feedback Review








TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

CONTROL FUNCTIONS: Volume, Select, headphone ,Power On/Off
POWER OUTPUT: 10W x2 RMS 1kHz
TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION: less than 1%(5watt, 1kHz)
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: (-3dB points at 5 watt) 20Hz-66kHz
INPUT SENSITIVITY: 340mV
OUTPUT IMPEDANCE: 4, 8 ohms. User selectable.
SIGNAL/NOISE: 90dB
CONSUMPTION: 65watt
INPUT INTERFACES: 1 groups (RCA)
OVERALL NEGATIVE FEEDBACK: Little (-6dB)
VACUUM TUBE: 6V6 X 4, 6U8 X 2
DIMENSIONS: 400mm/ 15¾"L x 175mm/ 6 7/8" W x 210mm / 8¼" D
WEIGHT: 12kg-27lbs-shipping weight -31lbs
Warranty -1 year parts and labor - 90 days tubes
List Price--$1000.00

[Kokofong]

Originally Posted by sacd lover

I posted this in a recent thread .... but here we go again.


Sound Quest SQ-84 ..... if all you really need is 10 watts this amp will supply them. The amp doubles as a headamp and is impressively quiet even with higher sensitivity headphones like my senn 595's. The sound is punchy, clean and clear and quite musical. This amp is an excellent value and if you use new production tubes the tube cost is very reasonable. I am using the JJ Tesla 6v6s for the outputs and this is one of the best sounding new production tubes I have tried; $46 for a matched quad. The nos 6u8's used for the input and driver stages are inexpensive at around $5 per tube.

Thanks for your suggestion. The model you just suggested is amazing but just as I have listed above, my budget is below 250 pounds. Second, Quad Lite requires minimum of 15 watts per channel to drive well so 10 watts seem not enough. But anyway thanks as you have just introduced me a good rig.

[roastpuff]

Get vintage gear for your integrated amplifier. Much cheaper than what you can swing nowadays, and yet still sounds good! Avoid Marantz/McIntosh for your first purchase, they command prices that are above what they are worth on eBay and elsewhere. Check out Pioneer, Kenwood and Yamaha pieces from the '60's and '70's for the best value-for-money - a nice little 20 - 30 WPC receiver/integrated amplifier ought to do for you. Scour local listings, online classifieds etc for gear for sale. Not sure where to do that in the UK.

Then buy a separate headphone amplifier, like a Headfive or the like, for your headphones. It'll work out much better than using an all-in-one solution.

[Spareribs]

Here's a dumb question about vintage recievers:

Can you play a modern CD/DVD player through these vintage recievers with good results?

If so, does it matter which input selection?

[Lou Erickson]

I've run modern CD players through a 25 year old Fisher reciever and they sounded fine. If the speakers weren't also 25 years old it would haave sounded better.

Use "Aux" or "Tape" inputs and they're fine. Phono inputs won't work. Put your turntable there. If you don't have one... well... you have a place to plug one in.

[Spareribs]

Originally Posted by Lou Erickson

I've run modern CD players through a 25 year old Fisher reciever and they sounded fine. If the speakers weren't also 25 years old it would haave sounded better.

Use "Aux" or "Tape" inputs and they're fine. Phono inputs won't work. Put your turntable there. If you don't have one... well... you have a place to plug one in.

Very cool! Thanks. I must get one of these vintage recievers! I love the look of these, plus they only cost like a couple hundred dollars.

[Dept_of_Alchemy]

Originally Posted by roastpuff

Get vintage gear for your integrated amplifier. Much cheaper than what you can swing nowadays, and yet still sounds good! Avoid Marantz/McIntosh for your first purchase, they command prices that are above what they are worth on eBay and elsewhere. Check out Pioneer, Kenwood and Yamaha pieces from the '60's and '70's for the best value-for-money - a nice little 20 - 30 WPC receiver/integrated amplifier ought to do for you. Scour local listings, online classifieds etc for gear for sale. Not sure where to do that in the UK.

Then buy a separate headphone amplifier, like a Headfive or the like, for your headphones. It'll work out much better than using an all-in-one solution.

QFT

[roastpuff]

Originally Posted by Lou Erickson

I've run modern CD players through a 25 year old Fisher reciever and they sounded fine. If the speakers weren't also 25 years old it would haave sounded better.

Use "Aux" or "Tape" inputs and they're fine. Phono inputs won't work. Put your turntable there. If you don't have one... well... you have a place to plug one in.

Yep, modern sources work fine. I have my Aux hooked up to my iPod, and I'm planning to hook up Tape A to the incoming Oppo universal player.

Get those speakers re-foamed and the crossover caps replaced if they haven't been - what brand/model were they, by the way? I have a pair of speakers that are twice my age (I'm 18, the speakers are AT LEAST 35 years old) and sound incredible. Two pairs, actually. A pair of Dynaco A25's as listed in my sig, and a pair of Smaller Advents that I use as HT speakers. The Advents have been re-foamed, and now they'll be good for another 20 - 30 years! The Dynaco's don't need re-foaming, of course, thanks to their rubber surrounds on the woofers and tweeters.

Originally Posted by Spareribs

Very cool! Thanks. I must get one of these vintage recievers! I love the look of these, plus they only cost like a couple hundred dollars.

If you're paying a couple of hundred dollars... you're paying QUITE a lot for vintage gear. Of course, it depends on power, condition and features... Which receiver are you talking about? I have a Kenwood receiver that is in mint condition, puts out 60WPC reliably and cleanly, sounding almost tube-like; it only cost me ~100USD. With an small external omni-directional antenna placed directly on top - I didn't want to bother with a bigger, roof-mount antenna - it draws in FM like nobody's business, and the AM reception is incredible.

This is what it looks like with the lights on.



It also looks incredible when the lights are turned off. Here are some glam shots I had a friend take with a 20D.

Originally Posted by Dept_of_Alchemy

QFT

Thanks.

[hugz]

Originally Posted by Kokofong

Due to strong curiosity and demand of better sound quality I am going to buy a tube headphone amplifier. At the same time, I hope to set a 2.0 speakers system. I am still a newbie and hoped that the tube headphone amplifier could work with bookshelf speakers like Quad Lite well. Now I know that it highly depends on the output of the tube amplifier (by total watts, impedance, etc.)

There are three questions here: 1) Is there any good tube amplifier which can drive both headphones and speakers well? 2) Or, should I buy another amplifier with the headphone amplifier? 3) Should I buy an integrated amplifier for my speakers and headphone amplifier for my headphones, respectively?

I know many people may suggest either 2) or 3) if there is no budget limit. However, I am just a normal university student and therefore budget is quite limited. My budget for one of the choices above is below 250 pounds (since I still have to buy speakers as well).

Hopefully you guys can give me some opinion. Thank you!!!

Consider the cayin HA-1. It's a small headphone amp and speaker amp. It sells for 180 pound at ornec (http://ornec.com/product/GB/Cayin_HA-1A/), although i'm not entirely sure whether i'd buy off them.. they give off bad vibes to me, but maybe they're good

its fairly low power though, which may be a problem if you dont have efficient speakers or sit close to your speakers. with my ~99db speakers it was fine, but if your speakers have poor efficiency then u'd likely have trouble

[Kokofong]

Originally Posted by hugz

Consider the cayin HA-1. It's a small headphone amp and speaker amp. It sells for 180 pound at ornec (http://ornec.com/product/GB/Cayin_HA-1A/), although i'm not entirely sure whether i'd buy off them.. they give off bad vibes to me, but maybe they're good

its fairly low power though, which may be a problem if you dont have efficient speakers or sit close to your speakers. with my ~99db speakers it was fine, but if your speakers have poor efficiency then u'd likely have trouble

I doubt this has enough output (2.2W x 2). What I need to drive my speakers is 15W or higher. But I discover that this website provides relatively cheaper prices than others'.

[Spareribs]

Roastpuff,

To answer your questions on what brands of receivers I was looking at:


Various brands from this vintage gear website.

http://www.oaktreeent.com/Stereo_Receivers.htm

BTW, I love those pics of your Kenwood. Fabulous, especially with those lights. I too use an old Kenwood integrated which was handed down from my parents, the KA-95 model which I think has 125 watts per channel and it's from the 80's. I don't know if it would be as good as the ones from the 70's but it's pretty powerful. I can't get the volume past 10 o'clock.

That said, I would like to get a 70's receiver though since I'm a 70's freak. Perhaps the Marantz 2325, which is considered to be one of the great legends of vintage amps. But I doubt I would buy it unless I somehow find a great deal on it.

[cotdt]

The Quad Lite has a crossover, so the impedance curve will be all over the place, and not friendly for SET amps or current-output amps. I'm afraid you'd have to use a "standard" solid state amp. Although you can probably use a SET amp if you're willing to sacrifice a bit of output. Usually amps like SET and Pass Labs are used for fullrange speaker systems, which include headphones.

If you get a fullrange speaker system, then you'd be good to go. They tend to be really efficient and easy to drive.

[mrarroyo]

The Jasmine Serenade is a tube headphone amp that can drive speakers. http://www.jasmineaudio.net/serenade.html#

[Kokofong]

Originally Posted by cotdt

The Quad Lite has a crossover, so the impedance curve will be all over the place, and not friendly for SET amps or current-output amps. I'm afraid you'd have to use a "standard" solid state amp. Although you can probably use a SET amp if you're willing to sacrifice a bit of output. Usually amps like SET and Pass Labs are used for fullrange speaker systems, which include headphones.

If you get a fullrange speaker system, then you'd be good to go. They tend to be really efficient and easy to drive.

How about if I get an amplifier to use with tube amplifier (preamp) to run the speakers? (just curious)