Best amp for HD650 - Page 2

My choices would be (in no particular order):

Mini^3
HeadRoom Portable Micro
HeadAmp Pico

i'm really confused, i don't really know anything, but i was under the impression that if you have a dac amp, it replaces the job of your sound card when listening to music.

Yes it can, but the Tomahawk is not a DAC Amp, nor will it have equalizer software as some sound cards will come with.

actually, overkill.

why not try a SIMPLE usb-spdif dongle? they seem to work just fine and if your dac is reasonable at all, the jitter won't be a huge problem. I don't hear any issues with usb-audio over spdif and its cheap and easy to try yourself. no need to even open the pc or 'burn' pci slots just for spdif audio!



that one works just fine for me and was pretty cheap.

Unless your friend is an audiophile and PC builder he/she will likely put a Creative X-fi, Auzentech, or Asus Xonar in it which will cost a fair amount of money and won't yield you very good results for music (different story if you play games though). If he/she were an audiophile though she would either not recommend you to get a soundcard or buy a, very expensive, recording soundcard which would come with a ton of features you would never touch unless you were a home recording artist.

I'd recommend you an external dac which yields much better results for music than the gaming soundcards and has the potential to cost much less than the recording soundcards.

For portable DAC amps, I'd read that the Pico has a very good dac, better than the Predator a lot of people say. I think its the only upsampling portable dac but I'm not sure.

In all honesty though, I would really not recommend you use a portable amp to power the HD650. When my LD MK IV broke and I was left with my RSA Hornet to drive my HD650, I took a two week hiatus from listening to music because it sounded that inferior. Portable amps can't drive high impedance headphones like the HD650. Also I would think taking the HD650 out with you is pretty stupid. I mean it doesn't fold, its delicate, and in order to actually hear anything, it would have to be so loud that you'd be disturbing everyone around you. Trust me, when I leave my HD650 playing at normal hearing levels, they're very audible all the way in my bathroom with the door closed.

My predator drives the 650 just fine. It is not as nice as the home rig, but gets the job done. You may want to consider the new RSA Mustang. I believe there is a sale going on for the first 200 sold.

I've a few times read that a 2move is said to be too weak to amp a pair of hd650.
I've recently ordered some hd650 so it would be nice to know. As I only want to use them at home my options to power it would be with my onboard soundchip (on a p5q deluxe) which will most probably be rubbish, with an edirol ua-25, with my 2move or with my stationary music.hall a25.5.
Are there any more opinions on those? Especially because it will be my first "good" pair of big headphones, so I don't exactly know what to expect.

My 0.02€:

I haven't heard a portable amp that does a good job at driving these cans.
The limitations of portable amps, specially in the voltage available are noticeable when ou get yourself a decent AC powered amplifier.
That said, if I had to choose a portable amp it would be the mini3 DIY amplifier. go to The Mini³ Portable Stereo Headphone Amplifier and check who builds them.

Don't be fooled by it's price ir the fact that it is a DIY design. It performs as good as or even better than most of the amps mentioned in this thread. If you need a DAC as well check the new y1 dac also from amb. spdif and usb input, 24bit wolfson dac!

But again, get yourself an ac powered amp with as much voltage swing as possible!!

Any other ideas for a stationary amp+[usb-]dac for the HD-650?

I thought about a CORDA CANTATE.2, but there might be a cheaper amp+[usb-]dac combination that would suffice. I'm quite happy with my 2move and have to admit I don't (yet) want to spend too much on another amp.

Lisa III Headphone Amplifier

The Lisa is most apt to drive your headphones properly in a portable solution. Downside is its bigger than the others your looking at.

I'm going to thread-nudge a bit and ask the same question as xz123 but wrt HD600s - I've tried the 0404 HP out as well as the XM5, but I'd be interested how those in the know feel about the Cantate - balanced cable + crossfeed sounds promising!