I decided to upgrade my listening setup at work a few weeks ago, so I bought myself a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 Pros (80 ohm) and brought in my Marantz SA8001 as source.
I plugged the DT770s into the headphone out on the SA8001. It sounded great in the highs and mids but the bass was a huge let down--there just wasn't enough thumpity-thump when listening to my progressive psy CDs.
I started looking at headphone amps. And quickly realized that almost none of them had tone controls. There was a few with a "bass boost" feature, but I find that that's a one-size-fits-all option that doesn't often fit too well in reality, with some CDs being boosted too much and others not enough (based on my experience with bass-boost on portable CD players).
A little discouraged, it occured to me that my Parasound Halo P3 had both a headphone out as well as tone controls. Plugging my DT770s into the P3 provided exactly what I was looking for--plenty of bass with the bass option turned up and even a bit of extra sparkle if I wanted it by boosting the treble.
Now, the P3 is serving as the preamp in my main system at home, so I wasn't about to be pulling it out and bringing it into work. Plus, it's a bit on the large size and I wanted something less obtrusive for work.
A quick search revealed the Parasound Zpre2 preamp, which also has a headphone jack and tone controls, but is about a quarter of the size of the P3 and only costs $350.
After a swift jaunt over to the Audio Advisor website, my order was placed and on its way. A few days later, the Zpre2 arrived on my front doorstep.
Now, I wasn't expecting much for $350, but the build quality on this thing seems top notch. It's considerably heavier than I was expecting, and all of the knobs feel rock solid and move with silky smoothness. Nice!
And the sound is nice, too! I haven't had a chance to do a direct A/B between the Zpre2 and the P3, but (with the tone controls in the neutral position) I noticed little to no difference between the headphone out on the SA8001 and Zpre2. But one quick twist of the bass knob on the Zpre2 provides all of the low end that I was previously missing.
Oh, and the headphone out on the Zpre2 seems to be dead quiet, as well. I hear no extra noise on classical SACDs with quiet passages.
Thus far, then, I'm very happy with this purchase, and wanted to share my experience with anyone else who might be looking at various headphone amps to get the sound they want when all they really may need is a preamp with tone controls.
I plugged the DT770s into the headphone out on the SA8001. It sounded great in the highs and mids but the bass was a huge let down--there just wasn't enough thumpity-thump when listening to my progressive psy CDs.
I started looking at headphone amps. And quickly realized that almost none of them had tone controls. There was a few with a "bass boost" feature, but I find that that's a one-size-fits-all option that doesn't often fit too well in reality, with some CDs being boosted too much and others not enough (based on my experience with bass-boost on portable CD players).
A little discouraged, it occured to me that my Parasound Halo P3 had both a headphone out as well as tone controls. Plugging my DT770s into the P3 provided exactly what I was looking for--plenty of bass with the bass option turned up and even a bit of extra sparkle if I wanted it by boosting the treble.
Now, the P3 is serving as the preamp in my main system at home, so I wasn't about to be pulling it out and bringing it into work. Plus, it's a bit on the large size and I wanted something less obtrusive for work.
A quick search revealed the Parasound Zpre2 preamp, which also has a headphone jack and tone controls, but is about a quarter of the size of the P3 and only costs $350.
After a swift jaunt over to the Audio Advisor website, my order was placed and on its way. A few days later, the Zpre2 arrived on my front doorstep.
Now, I wasn't expecting much for $350, but the build quality on this thing seems top notch. It's considerably heavier than I was expecting, and all of the knobs feel rock solid and move with silky smoothness. Nice!
And the sound is nice, too! I haven't had a chance to do a direct A/B between the Zpre2 and the P3, but (with the tone controls in the neutral position) I noticed little to no difference between the headphone out on the SA8001 and Zpre2. But one quick twist of the bass knob on the Zpre2 provides all of the low end that I was previously missing.
Oh, and the headphone out on the Zpre2 seems to be dead quiet, as well. I hear no extra noise on classical SACDs with quiet passages.
Thus far, then, I'm very happy with this purchase, and wanted to share my experience with anyone else who might be looking at various headphone amps to get the sound they want when all they really may need is a preamp with tone controls.
