Anyone found their headphone nirvana yet? - Page 3

It seems like the best amps to drive the top hps are tube.

 

I assume you mean the 'stat amps ?

LL, KGSS...Who needs tubes? :D

 

Then you've got the LF (Hybrid), Dark Star (SS), BHA-1 (SS), B22 (SS), etc.

 

 

Mostly but also the HD800, even the LCDs on hybrid.

I prefer tubes too on my HE6.

 

This might be OT but to attain nirvana, one has to match their

hp with a good amp.

 

My main problem with tube amps are the tubes.

The best sounding ones are the old ones, even used they sound

better over most of the reissues from Russia and China.

i thought the hd558 would be my nirvana, boy i was wrong, 1 month into them i can already see a hd650 coming up in the future + an amp to go along with them (or LCD2? i don't know) *wallet cries*

 

I suspect that the SET Mafia would have something unpleasant to say about hybrid amps. 

The problem with pure SS, on the other hand, is that it is either hit or miss, and if it is a miss, there is no other way than selling the amp or changing headphones. The difference may be more subtle with headphones, but the difference tubes can make on a speaker system is so huge that with the right tubes you can hear drastic improvement to the point that You almost feel that you are using a different amp. With hybrid headphone amps like the LF, the difference may be smaller, but still very audible. For example, many LF owners reported that switching to a set of Siemens tubes bring considerable improvement to the LF, so is my experience with the Telefunken CCa's, while retaining that tight SS sound with great dynamics.

You don't even have to change your hp. I got a new old used tube amp and listening to the same tracks, I'm hearing things I didn't notice before. Listening to U2's cover of Everlasting Love, the guitar strumming in the beginning should not sound thin. In Nick Lowe's Cruel To Be Kind, towards the end, the drummer hits the cymbal once every time, but there were two instances where he hits it twice in a row then returns to once again.

Sadly no. I would like to find (and afford) an OTL speaker amp that could drive the HE-6. I'm afraid to look......

But I would agree that the difference between a good sub $500 headphone on a $1k amp and the current statement of reference isn't too far off. But off it is........

Speaking of tube amps, one common criticism is that they have a reputation for adding euphonic distortion. Some may find it pleasing, but it's still distortion.

 

Can a well-designed tube amp negate that?

 

I was looking at that cheapest Atmasphere amp for a bit, i think it would probably do a pretty stellar job of it

I can't either too, though I would like to try David Berning's ZOTL (zero-hysteresis output transformer less) amps.

 

Honestly, I have not heard of euphonic distortion. But then how does one know which is right, SS or tube? One has to hear the original before saying that that reproduction adds a euphonic distortion, that one does not.

And with tube microphones.