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If the Audio Critic were to recommend a headphone amp, he would recommend a . . .

post #1 of 6
9/5/11 at 6:10pm
Thread Starter 

Just curious, what headphone amp meets his criteria.  Obviously, it would be solid state and fairly cheap, but just curious what amp is the equivalent of Bryson, et. al. (i.e. something that measures perfectly and provides lots of clean power).  I assume he would recommend something like a Behringer, or maybe SPL, but to the engineers / scientists in here, I'd be interested in hearing what amp stands out as well-designed and well-built.

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post #2 of 6
9/5/11 at 11:28pm
Peter Aczel likes the Benchmark DAC1 a lot, he published a review about it. That said, as a stand alone he may go for the Violectric/Lake People units which specifications are quite complete and nothing to laugh at. And as far as cheaper units go, the DIY amp Objective 2 (or O2 for short) would be interesting to him, it has the most complete set of published measurements of any headamp I know of, and those measurements are quite spectacular.
Mr. Slim on diyaudio builds it for about $120, Epiphany Acoustics, will also sell it at about a hundred pounds.

SPL units are pretty good for high impedance headphones, the Headamp GS-1 is a pretty solid reference too.
Edited by khaos974 - 9/5/11 at 11:30pm
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post #3 of 6
9/6/11 at 1:03am

I particularly like the O2; as I put it in another thread, with companies like Benchmark and Violectric you are paying over the odds simply to ensure that the designer didn't decide he knew more opamp design than the entire R&D department of Texas Instruments.

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post #4 of 6
9/6/11 at 9:51am
If the Audio Critic were to recommend a headphone amp, he would recommend a . . .

Relocation to the full sized amp forum?
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post #5 of 6
9/6/11 at 5:17pm
I also think he'd be interested in the O2 for its low price and measurements.

Though I'd put an old favorite on the list - the Dynalo. I think you can pull one together for about $150. Clean, clear, crisp and 1W of power. Maybe put two of them together for a huge amount of power and balanced operation while keeping it under $500.

The M^3, CK2III and Beta22 would probably be interesting, too.
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post #6 of 6
9/7/11 at 2:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Erik View Post
The M^3, CK2III and Beta22 would probably be interesting, too.


Interesting for their mathematically impossible crosstalk "measurements" or just interesting?biggrin.gif
 

 

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