Can you list headphone/amp combos that have good synergy? - Page 6

EAR HP4 - HD650
Air Tight ATM-300 - K1000

Mapletree Ear+ HD----Grado RS-1
Corda Prehead MkII-----Beyerdynamic DT-880

Not sure if this has already been mentioned but good headphone amps will drive all headphones to sound great, bad ones will have "synergy" with a few, although this doesn't apply to tube amps with output transformers where they are impedance matched. Of course, "flavor" of sound is up to you - use better judgment, if you have "cool" headphones like K701, use a warm amp (tube / tube hybrid), for warm headphones like HD650, use an analytical amp like PPAv2 / Dynahi / Beta22.

Personal favorite, I really love the PPAv2, specifically because it drives the HD600/HD650 as they should be driven and I'm listening to my Darths with it, still the best amp I've had.

what tube amp mates well with ultrasone pro 2500s

K701s with HeadRoom Max DAC = very transparent sound.

DAC? what about the amp?

the max is a headphone amp with optional DAC

HeadRoom Max Amp @ HeadRoom - Right Between Your Ears

OK this may be a bit longish, but hope it may be insightful to someone looking for cost effective headphone nirvana. I have owned some of the 'big guns', like PS1 (with various amps), L3000/DHA3000, K1000/Almarro (latter, I still own). yes, they live up to their hype and you can search the forum for many write-ups on their merits (I state this not to brag, but just establishing the benchmark for my claims below). Also usual caveats, quality source is very important, garbage in/garbage out, people hear differently, blah blah etc.

A. RS1 + LisaIIIXP/LLP (and this is important, with reversed bowls and bass boost at max or near max). I've almost sold off the LXP to fund another purchase, and tried it with RS1s before (with standard bowls). Ripped the RS1 off my head as it was painfully strident/screechy/piercing and unbalanced (tipped up at high-end and anemic at low-end). RS1s would have been long sold had it not been laziness on my part. Cutting to the chase, the reversed bowls tame the sizzle but still allow crystaline highs, and the bass boost brings quality, concussive bass when it's there in the recording (this may be cheating, but tone control when well implemented as on LXP should not be disparaged, but taken advantage of judiciously). This completely rebalances the sonic signature top to bottom, allowing the pure mids (RS1's strong point) to shine through. Don't know if it's the RS1 or the LXP (probably both) but there's tons of detail and texture. This gets me in spitting distance of PS1 and L3000 (actually I would argue better detail, but the bass will still hit you like an Ali taking down Foreman). You like live music? This combo gets you eerily close. The only thing I want to try is proper flat pads with this.

B. HD650 + Bryston B60R integrated amp (however, straight out of speaker taps). This one I can't take credit for or explain. Another HFier (catscratch) tipped me off to this on another forum. I had dusted off the amp to serve temp duty for my K1000 before the Almarro, and I had the K1000 4-pin xlr to speaker wire adaptor, and I had the HD650 terminated balanced to 4-pin xlr. So as I learned in high school biology long time ago, 4-pin male fits 4-pin female...the result is inexplicable, it erases substantially the negatives of the HD650 -- sloppy bottom?, tight and impactful bass now, extends the high end, more sparkle and detail, etc. One caveat is I've never run the HD650s on proper balanced system (eg balanced source into balanced amp), but I've run them direct xlr out on dac1usb and miniDAC. I enjoy the direct xlr to dac1/miniDAC immensely, and I find the Bryston speaker tap to HD650 better. The Bryston has a heaphone out, tried it with a 4-pin xlr to 1/4" adaptor, result is boring, so speaker tap directly seems to be important factor. Another caveat is that it seems to be amp dependent -- others have tried with various amps and results seem to be mixed. I'll stop there because I cannot technically describe this, who knows, maybe this ultimately melts down the phones. Want to hear electrifying rock, or jazz set? This gets me there (I thought HD650s were orchestral classical phones??).

In summary, the above pairings are just random couplings that seem to work in a huge way. The PS1/L3000/DHA3000/K1000/Almarro represents approx. near US$9000. There's more expensive stuff out there, but this stuff better sound world-class for their price tag. System A is about $1400 ($1100 if you forego the LLP). System B is about $900 (I'm assuming the 10 yr+ old amp is about $400, and my HD650 is recabled). These guys get you very far up the asymptotic curve. I'm not saying they're the only combo, from this thread there seems to be others - I'm keen to find other random, serendipitous and cost-efffective combos. OK I still on-and-off lust after the HP2 or the electrostatic sirens beckon occasionally, and I still own the K1000 system (the holographic soundstage is unreal), but I'm less and less motivated to spend the big $$$$ to chase audio nirvana -- and snare drum roll please, here comes the punch line after my long winded spiel -- BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE TO SPEND THE BIG $$$$ TO GET THERE.

HD600 + Singlepower Extreme
RS1 + Singlepower Extreme
Grado SR125 + Singlepower Extreme

LISA III + K701

AKG701 + Leben CS600 (but I can't take credit for discovering this synergy; it was suggested by Nicola).

Lisa III XP and Ultrasone Edition 9s. Fast, musical, detailed and ever so slightly warm.

MS2i + Singlepower Extreme using Amperex 7062 > 6as7g tube set.


MS2i + Singlepower PPX3 SLAM using 6gu7 > TS D getter 5687 tube set.