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Cheap amp to drive 600 ohm K240 and 32 ohm SR225i? ($150)

post #1 of 6
10/18/09 at 5:47pm
Thread Starter 
Looking for an amp to drive both nicely, under $150. I've read that the HeadFive is good with the 600 Ohm Beyers, and I quite liked it with my SR225i. They go used for ~$150, so that's definitely an option. Can anyone else comment on this? I've also read that the Starving Student would be pretty good in this application.

Comments?
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post #2 of 6
10/18/09 at 6:06pm
Very unlikely. The only one I can think of would be semi-adequate would be something like a compass or maybe the jade that does well with both high and low impedance. Most amps will usually be good for one or the other especially at that price range.

and as i recall, i thought you were going to go stax. Why are you wasting time and money on a cheap amp that will barely pump out enough power for a 600ohm can?
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post #3 of 6
10/18/09 at 6:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LingLing1337 View Post
Looking for an amp to drive both nicely, under $150. I've read that the HeadFive is good with the 600 Ohm Beyers, and I quite liked it with my SR225i. They go used for ~$150, so that's definitely an option. Can anyone else comment on this? I've also read that the Starving Student would be pretty good in this application.

Comments?
600 ohm cans need voltage gain. Cheap solid state amps aren't going to give it to you. You could go with a tube hybrid. Something like this:

Valve Class A Hybrid Tube Headphone Amplifier Indeed - eBay (item 290360888839 end time Oct-20-09 16:40:02 PDT)
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post #4 of 6
10/18/09 at 8:06pm
Thread Starter 
I'm actually looking around for a used Starving Student (tube hybrid) so I think that'll do. I'm even going to test the amp on my Beresford and see if that can't drive the K240 properly.

Driftingbunnies: I'm actually not even going Stax, I'm going to keep my SR225i for the forseeable future, an amp is the only thing I'm going to get on top of that. The only reason I'm getting the K240 is because they were offered in a trade and I liked their sound at a meet.
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post #5 of 6
10/19/09 at 10:28pm
I own a QED45. It drives all my phones, including AKG k240M (600 ohm) quite well. I rate it first with the AKG k601 phones. I don't recall its impedance range, but if you do a little research, you should be able to discover it.
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post #6 of 6
10/19/09 at 11:31pm
The K240 is actually pretty easy to drive. I used to drive my Sextetts with a Practical Devices X4 using a 12V wall wart. The X4 could drive them with a battery for a little while, but it would clip as soon as the battery lost a little charge.

They also are easily driven by the headphone amp in my EMU 0404 USB.

Many people have used the Starving Student for both K240s and Grados, so that's a very good option. I've used my Starving Student to drive Stextetts, K240M and K240DF. My SS has the default gain and it's really too much for the K240s. I barely have the volume on.
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