A Tube Amp for K701, Good idea?

like what I wrote many times, I always curious about EF5 to driving K701 

The biggest problem with these headphone amplifiers is getting an opportunity to listen to them, which would be ideal.

I do know that the K701s (I have K702s) really like a very good quality signal.

In fact I use a solid state amplifier with my K702s but it is a very expensive one.

I hate to generalise but I am going to do it a bit.

I haven't heard any of the headphone valve (tubes in US) amplifiers regularly mentioned here but I used a valve amplifier for years for driving speakers.

They are not all the same of course, not by a long shot.

One of the great joys of the K701/2s is the quality of the bass. The level of detail is astonishing. Often you will see people complain that they have not enough bass, but in fact I think it could be that those people are maybe just not used to quality bass reproduction. I would fear that cheaper valve amplifiers might rob you of the joy of the K701/2 bass.

I think that good quality solid state amplifiers are possibly a better place to look. I don't know anything about the Matrix M Stage. There's a massive review here:

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/475618/matrix-m-stage-amp-review-simple-cheap-and-excellent

but I bet you've read that.

If you could get hold of a second-hand Musical Fidelity X-Can v8P (a valve hybrid) I think you might well be onto quite an amazingly good quality of reproduction. Musical Fidelity have a replacement for the X-Can v8P now, so maybe some will be selling it.

I think that with the K701/2s you will keep getting better and better sound quality with better and better amplifiers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogueassasin312 

 

 

 

Do you think that I should increase the budget for a more expensive amp like maybe a Woo Audio 6? Or would it be better invested in a solid state?

Well, I don't know

Personally I really like good solid state amplifiers and so I tend to favour them but I absolutely haven't a clue what the Woo Audio amplifiers sound like so I could not comment.

Pure Class A solid state amps are imho really excellent things.

I just did a search to see how much the Woo Audio 6 costs and if you could stretch to that price then maybe you could also consider the Meier-Audio Corda Concerto.

If you go here: http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/

and scroll down you'll see it.

I have the matching StageDAC and rate it very highly.

Meier-Audio/Corda amp comes with cross-feed which I think is very good to have.

Budget valve amps won't have the power supply to drive the 701s fully. You need more power supply to offset the valve's heat loss. You can find some decent deals on used valve amps if you keep your eye on the sale forum. Find something that can give you at least .3-.5 w @ 64 ohms without over driving the amp.

The general rule of thumb is that you will want a transformer coupled tube amp to pair with low impedance phones like the K701's.  OTL "Output-Transformer-Less" amps, by contrast, (ie the WA3, Valhalla, etc), are better suited to driving high impedance headphones like Beyers and Sennheisers.  Unfortunately, decent transformers aren't cheap, which accounts for a good part of the price difference between the WA3 and WA6.

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the K701's, but I have heard them through the WA6, and it certainly has adequate juice to drive them well.  The tubes also add a little bit of welcome warmth to the sound (in my opinion).  There have been a number of threads on this pairing in the past (generally positive among the K701 fans, based on my recollection) if you have the time to search around for them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogueassasin312 

So the only real way to power these cans is with a decent SS amp unless I want to break the bank...Thanks for the help!

The good news is that with a good solid state amplifier the K701/2s are truly superb as I think you will find out.

They have an ability to resolve great detail, but this does not result in an "analytical" sound or whatever some like to call it. That idea, that "good resolution of detail = analytical sound" is really rubbish.

What actually happens with the K701/2s is that with a good amplifier they (and the amp) just get out of the way of the music, and this is the best way for hi fi to be. Hi fi should not be introducing euphony etc.

I recommend getting the best pure class A solid state amp you can afford.

You can go hybrid. I have a x-can v8 that drives the k701 really well, good bottom and smooth throughout with silky smooth mids. I also have a Cavalli Audio CTH, that little fellow is not quite as good. It is a little more upfront than the x-can, which can be good sometimes for the k701. The v8 is $550, but can be had for a bit more than your asking price in the for sale forums here. The CTH will run you a bit over $200, but you have to build yourself or again check the for sale forums. 

I run a K701 with my audio-gs sparrow and I love it!