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Searching for a good $200 amp for the HIFIMan HE-500

post #1 of 43
4/27/12 at 9:07pm
Thread Starter 

Hello everybody this is my first thread on head-fi and i have been trying to figure out which one of these headphones to get. I already own a pair of ATH AD700 and ATH M50s/LE's. But now i just wanna upgrade to a better higher end pair. And yes i realize that this subject is thrown around a lot. But if anyone could help me with my decision it would be very helpful and appreciated. 


Edited by ChevymanZL1 - 5/27/12 at 3:20pm
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post #2 of 43
5/24/12 at 3:29pm
Thread Starter 

well no one seemed to want to give me advice so i nixed all three and got the HIFIMan HE 500 and that seemed to be the right choicebeyersmile.png

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post #3 of 43
5/24/12 at 4:25pm

That was the right choice. :)
 

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post #4 of 43
5/24/12 at 4:32pm

Had at some point all of them and all thats left is the 650 and I need something better.

Thinking about new Sennheiser HD 700 or Audeze!

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post #5 of 43
5/24/12 at 4:48pm
Thread Starter 

i was able to listen to the LCD-2's and i couldn't believe how impressive they were 

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post #6 of 43
5/27/12 at 11:31am
Thread Starter 

Now because thats out of the way I'm now looking for an amp for the HE-500. And that being a college student my budget is roughly $300 I have been looking at the schiit asgard but i wanted to see if anybody in the head-fi community could give me some insight on anything else.  

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post #7 of 43
5/31/12 at 5:02pm
Thread Starter 

bump

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post #8 of 43
6/16/12 at 7:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChevymanZL1 View Post

Now because thats out of the way I'm now looking for an amp for the HE-500. And that being a college student my budget is roughly $300 I have been looking at the schiit asgard but i wanted to see if anybody in the head-fi community could give me some insight on anything else.  

 

After playing around with the smaller (e.g. desktop sized) boutique headphone amps, I now use new Yamaha 2-channel / stereo integrated amplifiers or receivers to drive my HifiMANs.  I have speaker taps installed on the back speaker outputs, which extend around to the front with a 4-pin XLR connector.  That is where my HE-500s plug into.  I'm feeding it a signal from a Squeezebox Touch and the sound is pure heaven.  One of my latest Yamaha purchases, was the RX-797, that I bought off of Craigslist for $110 --- just like brand new with the original box, packaging, etc.  My HifiMAN headphones have never sounded better.

 

I see on your profile you're using an iPod and feeding it through a FiiO amplifier.  With such a combination,  you haven't even begun to get into half the performance that your HE-500s can offer.  I'm not about throwing around big cash into amplifiers and then playing the trading game until I find one that sounds right.  The best move I made was to divert back over to full-sized audio gear so the headphones can get a great sound source and power pushed over to them.

 

I think in many cases, people can just have weak source or the wrong amplification.  Yet, they'll think it's their headphones that are the culprit.  So, they'll set about a mission to find the right headphones by selling and buying ... and, losing money to go on their year-long journey.  They might find what they desired, or they might just go full circle and make it right back to where they started from -- but, with much less money in their pockets due to the changing and swapping of gear.

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post #9 of 43
6/16/12 at 12:43pm

Eh just get an O2 and spend the rest on candy.. you shouldn't care about boutique.

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post #10 of 43
6/16/12 at 1:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hekeli View Post

Eh just get an O2 and spend the rest on candy.. you shouldn't care about boutique.

I don't agree.  The O2 is neutral - yet lacks some "balls" needed to drive the HE-500s.

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post #11 of 43
6/16/12 at 2:51pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks wje for your input, I am planning on upgrading both my amp and source to get more out of the HE-500. The Fiio drives it ok for right now until i can obtain the money i want to upgrade everything. i have heard the 500's out of my buddies sound system and that was able to throw enough power to them that they were an entirely different headphone. So i was thinking about changing my source to the HM-601 for flac files, and such and my amp to i guess something from schiit or the ef5.  

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post #12 of 43
6/16/12 at 3:27pm

how about something from woo

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post #13 of 43
6/16/12 at 3:29pm

From the InnerFidelity measurements, the O2 should be able to hit over 110dB with the O2 amp. Just go O2 and then use DSP and equalization to tune it to flavor.

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post #14 of 43
6/16/12 at 3:34pm

I just ordered the Little Dot MKIII for my HE-400 and from what I've read they'll drive the HE-500 just great as well. 

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post #15 of 43
6/16/12 at 4:05pm

little dot I+ i was going to say  it's like 800mw into 32ohm

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