Decided to get the Sennheiser 650s for my first good headphones need amp suggestions and opinions

 

 Fiio E9 and E7 would be your minimum spend. E10 won't do them justice.

 

 $170USD or so on amazon. Save up the extra especially if you're determined

 never to upgrade again, you'll never know what you're missing out on 

I'd suggest saving some money for a better amp, or you could get the Fiio and that will tide you over... cause you're gonna want to upgrade

 Your budget states $100 ~ you don't have any other choices regarding new stock that will drive the

 HD650 adequately. The HD650 is a high end headphone, it's a bit like buying a Ferrari and as

 you leave the dealership swearing black and blue at the car salesman that under no circumstances

 will you ever pay for petrol to run it 

 

 You can imagine the look on the carsales man's face, well the parallel is similar regarding the

 HD650 and skimping on an amp. It's the fuel that powers it, there are various grades of

 performance depending on the willingness of your wallet.

 

 The E9 will provide the power to operate the HD650's drivers (speakers inside the headphone cups)

 adequately, while the E7 is a clean, source of external 'sound card' it's what decodes your Mp3's

 Wav and FLAC files to play music. The soundcard inside your PC or laptop is a cheap nasty

 item designed for someone plugging in their earbuds. The HD650's will let you hear all this

 noise and other nasties, not to mention that your songs will have heaps of detail and other

 effects that are not audible through a cheapy soundcard. The E7 replaces your onboard

 soundcard.

The Fiio combo is good. The E7 is the weak link of the two. I used the 650s briefly with this setup before I sold them. I also used a musical fidelity v-DAC with v-PSU with the E9. This was really really good. And is what I would do on a budget.

If you can afford a bit more, change the E9 for a tube amp eg Little Dot MKIV.

Btw if you want a good price on the v-DAC and v-PSU I am selling mine on here

My response is not biased though.

 Yes the E7 will take over as your new 'external soundcard' so you will bypass your current computer's sound processing altogether.

 

 If I were you I'd stretch the budget to $200USD and get the Audio GD NFB12. No better value for a DAC and amplifier in one box.

 This one is a 10 x year keeper if you wanted to keep it that way. Plug in the power cord into the wall, feed a USB cable to the NFB12,

 plug the HD650 into the NFB12 - done, enjoy.

 

 

 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/561299/audio-gd-nfb-12-impression

Edited by Gwarmi - 12/29/11 at 3:37am

e7 + e9 combo support here.

 

you don't need a super expensive amp to drive the hd 650s, but they can't run off something too cheap either. 

 

 

I've heard a lot of Maverick D1 owners say the HD650 works pretty darn well with it. It was apparently tuned using the HD650 as well. Just change the opamps though. The USB input can be a bit noisy though vs the optical and coaxial for some reason. The USB also does not do 24 bit audio also for some odd reason. The NFB12 gets a lot of talk too but I know nothing about it.

 

 

As far as cheap combos though....never heard of anything viable for $100. The E7 and E9 combo seems like a great entry level choice though. But there is much much better out there. Most of the great combos I hear about within a reasonable price range run for around $400-600 total.

 Via USB it is only for computer use ~ unfortunately the NFB-12 does not have RCA line in.

 

 

D1 does