best amp under 300$ for these cans

 Tube or SS?

hmmm M stage?

I run my cans with the FiiO E7/E9 combo and it works great.

I have the Fiio E9 and E7. Nice and affordable, goof performance. Feels solid as well.

+1 to fiio combo

Fiio makes solid products. Use the E7+E9 for the HD650 and Thunderpants, and the E7 alone for the Denon to avoid the E9's output impedance.

Can you please further elaborate what you mean by "avoid the E9s output impedance"? I do have the D5000 and the E7 and was thinking about the E9 on top to drive them properly....would the E9 influence the SQ in a negative way if using the D5000s?

 

 

 

 

Schiit Asgard would have to be a contender, especially since you're in the USA.

 

Over here it's considered to be a winner for $330AUD, even better is that you pay less.

 

Schiit do not publish the output impedance to the best of my knowledge.

I would pick the Fiio E7 and E9 combo over the other amps.

 

The gist of the deal with output impedance is that a high output impedance changes the frequency response of the headphones. Basically, makes them sound different, not necessarily in a good way. The E9 is powerful as far as headphone amps go, but it outputs at a high impedance. The E7 outputs at a much lower impedance and would match low impedance headphones better than the E9. 

Ditto. If you don't need a built in DAC, then the M-stage is fantastic.

Edited by liamstrain - 11/15/11 at 2:53pm

The E9 has an output impedance of 10 ohm... there is a rule of thumb called the 8 times rule - you don't generally want an output impedance higher than 1/8th of your headphone's... e.g. If you have 32 ohm headphones, you'd like your amp to only have a 4 ohm output impedance. If it has a 10 ohm impedance, you'd like your headphones to be over 80 ohms. 

 

That allows for better electrical damping of the bass and more control (and better sound quality). 

I would not worry about that, the E9 has a high/low gain switch and there is a 5 db difference between the mini and the 1/4 inch output jack also, you can experiment with what sounds best for you.

I have been using the E9 with my Denon's and they sound great together.