Stereo Headphone amplifier to place between a ps3 and Sennheiser HD 598

The white/red RCA is used to transmit analog audio (already passed through a DAC).  Generally it's a line out that is quite unsuitable for powering headphones directly.  i.e. it's supposed to be connected to a line in, which has very high impedance; headphones have very low impedance in comparison and would thus draw far more current than the line out is capable of, making it fall flat on its face.

You want to connect the line out to a headphone amplifier.  A cheap solution with decent performance and enough power for the job is the FiiO E6 at around $25.  You don't need much amplification (boosting volume) with the HD 598--it's much more sensitive (loud) than the HD 600 series, which require voltages above normal line levels to reach high volumes.  It can be powered by a USB port on the PS3.  Since the E6 so small, it only takes a 3.5mm stereo input, so you would need a two female RCA to 3.5mm stereo male adapter.

e.g. one of these

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021803&p_id=663&seq=1&format=2
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10429&cs_id=1042902&p_id=7189&seq=1&format=2

There's better if you want to spend a lot more, but the headphones are enough of an investment at this time, to begin with.  The difference in headphones is much more than the difference in amplifiers anyway (at least in some ill-defined sense of sound quality that most people agree with).

The Turtle Beach Earforce DSS or Artro Mix-Amp come with digital optical inputs.

Run the optical from the PS3 to the optical input on one of these two and you get Dolby Headphone 5.1.

Most headphone amplifiers will only give you Stereo 2.0.

The Sennheiser HD-598 is only 50-Ohms, easy to drive.

Fiio makes headphone amplifiers.

I like the single tube headphone amplifiers they sell on eBay, prices start at 33 euros, but the better ones start at around 45 Euros.

They ship from China, takes ten days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by c4p3fi3rr 
You mean like one of these?

http://www.littledot.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=819&sid=aeeff68df35f5c489fb69bff3c08c2a9

http://www.ebay.it/itm/MUSE-Class-A-Hybrid-Tube-Headphone-Amplifier-6N11-powe-/170618154158?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27b9a26cae

It's the second one, the Muse, is the type I'm taking about.

As a matter of fact, I have almost the same model Muse.

Mine has the EH 6922 tube and the rear capacitor is 8200.

This type of tube amp has two adjustable "screws" to change the voltage for right and left channel.

You would need to get a digital mulimeter (model DT830 is decent and low cost) to test the voltage.

You want to get the voltages balanced/matching and around 12v-13v.

This will get the best sound out of these little tube amps.

The website Rockgrotto is a good place for info on this tube amp.