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Amp advice needed for HD-580

post #1 of 13
10/16/05 at 7:53pm
Thread Starter 
I have a HD-580 coming soon, and I was wondering if my cmoy will power it okay. If not, or if you think I would get better sound with another amp please recommend it. I'm looking at a budget of $100 for an amp, and $150 would be the max limit. Thanks!
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post #2 of 13
10/16/05 at 11:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Logistic
I have a HD-580 coming soon, and I was wondering if my cmoy will power it okay. If not, or if you think I would get better sound with another amp please recommend it. I'm looking at a budget of $100 for an amp, and $150 would be the max limit. Thanks!
Before you go amp shopping wait until your 580's arrive and plug them into your cmoy and have a listen - you might just find that you like the cmoy/Senn combination.
I would also recommend that you upgrade the cable on your 580's before you do any other upgrading. Oh, I know that's not the popular view, and no doubt there will be howls of protest from some of my fellow Head-Fiers in regard to my cable upgrade advice, but for me, in my opinion, in my experience, in my systems, with my equipment, to my ears, upgrading the stock cable my 580's was by far the best value-for-the-buck upgrade that I did to my headphone rig.
Let the naysaying begin...
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post #3 of 13
10/17/05 at 3:32am
Your source has a lot to do with the way your overall system sounds. Whereas CMOY is not the end all in amplification, it may not be the bottleneck of your system.

As my signature states, I think that the most cost efficient upgrade path is:

Headphones, source, amp, cable. That's not to say that cable isn't important, I just think you have to upgrade your electronics before you can take a FULL advantage of your cable upgrade.

So, what's your source? What's your media? If you're playing MP3's, there's not much use upgrading your amp.

Alternatively, perhaps you don't need to upgrade anything. You may love the way your system sounds as is.

BTW, give your headphones about 100 hours to burn in before you do any listening. The 580's really open up with a proper burn in.
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post #4 of 13
10/17/05 at 3:43am
I second the cable upgrade suggestion. As much as I ridiculed my decision to pair my HD-580 with the (more expensive) Silver Dragon, the improvements in details and dynamics were far from subtle.

But of course, it is best to listen to your HD-580 with you current equipments first before deciding on any forms of upgrade. Have fun!
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post #5 of 13
10/17/05 at 3:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Logistic
I have a HD-580 coming soon, and I was wondering if my cmoy will power it okay. If not, or if you think I would get better sound with another amp please recommend it.
There's always a better (____) over the horizon, but see how the HD-580 sounds through the CMOY... if you're satisfied with it, no need to upgrade. The HD580 is a capable headphone and will be able to grow along with upgrades.
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post #6 of 13
10/17/05 at 1:15pm
I'm not trying to pick a fight, but I am honestly curious why source would go before amp. The difference between a $30 pdcp and a $90 pdcp is marginal, what usually changes are bells and whistles. What about the difference between a $30 amp and a $90 amp? Just the difference between a $30 cmoy and the $60 pa2v2 is night and day. The most obvious difference between cdps are usually from their own amps. Which only seems to emphasize amp first.
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post #7 of 13
10/17/05 at 1:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Logistic
I have a HD-580 coming soon, and I was wondering if my cmoy will power it okay.
Yep, it does ok as I just tested my HD-650 with the cmoy from my comp setup. (have not done that in a long time )

It definitely doesnt do my HD-650 justice, but sounds ok for a sub $50 amp. Deep impact bass isn't quite there though, but this might be caused by my soundcard or the combination of both.

Used Pi-metas or Meta42 amps can be had with your current budget of $100+ and would be a good step up from a Cmoy. But I would suggest you get a Cmoy and get a better amp when you have a bigger budget. I still use my cmoy for computer use and im pretty happy with it.
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post #8 of 13
10/17/05 at 2:19pm
Should be capable. If you select amp components carefully for those cans. OP amp, Caps, gain...etc... theres a TON of variations you can try.

IMHO you should try pisting to the DIY forum.
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post #9 of 13
10/17/05 at 2:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mahlerfan
I'm not trying to pick a fight, but I am honestly curious why source would go before amp. The difference between a $30 pdcp and a $90 pdcp is marginal, what usually changes are bells and whistles. What about the difference between a $30 amp and a $90 amp? Just the difference between a $30 cmoy and the $60 pa2v2 is night and day. The most obvious difference between cdps are usually from their own amps. Which only seems to emphasize amp first.
Hi,

I should qualify my statements with regard to upgrading the source first.

When I say "upgrade", I don't mean from one pcdp to another. I mean from a $100 CD player to a $500 or a $1000 CD player. An upgrade to me means moving to the next class of components. So, when you say a $30 vs $90 pcdp, you're staying within the same class of players: portable, consumer grade. A $500 CD player will move you to a Class C Hi-Fi realm. A $1000 player will move you to a Class B Hi-Fi realm and a $5000 and above will move you to a class A realm. Those are upgrades, rather than lateral shifts in components.
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post #10 of 13
10/17/05 at 2:50pm
Okay that makes more sense. I don't know why that would be relevant to somebody on a $150 budget though, or why that's more cost efficient then upgrading amps. That's why I didn't see where you were coming from.

But anyway...

I guess your ranking is based upon saying something like with a $1500 budget to upgrade source and amp, you would be much better off spending 2/3 of that or more on upgrading the source over the amp.
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post #11 of 13
10/17/05 at 3:12pm
bifcakes sig wasn't written for this thread. Its a more generalised statement.
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post #12 of 13
10/17/05 at 3:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chri5peed
bifcakes sig wasn't written for this thread. Its a more generalised statement.
I was responding to his post, not the sig!
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post #13 of 13
10/17/05 at 5:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mahlerfan
Okay that makes more sense. I don't know why that would be relevant to somebody on a $150 budget though, or why that's more cost efficient then upgrading amps. That's why I didn't see where you were coming from.
The reason it would still be more cost effective is because you may not necesarily want to spend the $150 you have now for an amp upgrade. Rather, it is more prudent to save the money, add to it later and buy a better source.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mahlerfan
But anyway...

I guess your ranking is based upon saying something like with a $1500 budget to upgrade source and amp, you would be much better off spending 2/3 of that or more on upgrading the source over the amp.
Yes, although that's not a cut and dry ratio. Sometimes it is better to spend the entire $1500 on a source and upgrade the amp later. It all depends on what you have and where you want to be.

The point is that you'll hear a bigger difference and thus have a greater bang for the buck by upgrading the headphones first. You'll hear a substantial difference once you upgrade your source. You'll hear a marked difference once you upgrade your amp and you'll hear a relatively subtle difference once you upgrade your cables.

The better your headphones, the greater the difference you'll hear when you upgrade your source. The better your source, the greater the difference you'll hear from an amp upgrade. The better your entire chain, the greater the difference you'll hear from cable upgrades. THAT'S what I mean when I describe the cost effectiveness of the upgrade path.
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