The (new) HD800 Appreciation Thread - Page 55

My experience with headphone amps is very limited and includes only those in my signature as well as those that I've auditioned in my home. The latter have been:

Burson 160; Woo 6SE; Luxman P-1; Graham Slee "Solo"; AE Nighthawk; Darkvoice 336 and 337. I was fortunate to also listen to the CSP-2 but not with my HD-800 and also with someone else's electronics. The Luxman and CSP-2 were very impressive, the others were also extremely satisfying but I decided to continue with the LF339 (slightly souped-up by my local electronic guru) which has given me the best sound for a reasonable price (except for the pricey tube parade I seem to engage in thanks to the folks over at the LF339 thread).

I would like to emphasize that my comments are not intended to disparage the many fine headphone amps that are out there (God forbid the moderator(s) would shut down this thread). I don't usually sell much of the gear I've acquired (hence the proverbial stereo gear/cables "orphan closets" in two homes) and am sure that those HP amps I now own will find other convenient uses. Please take my views as simply reflecting my own opinions about the 800 paired with a speaker amp.

I'm interested in seeing how this works with my Denon AVR if not just for grins.  Did you make your own cable for this?  Banana plugs?  The one caveat for me right now is that I'm saving for speakers and a good tube integrated to run them so I don't want to splash out on a high end cable for the HD800s.  Can you compare the sound out of the speaker taps to running balanced out?

I'm saving towards either the new Schiit statement amp (hybrid again, I am not a SS fan) depending on reviews or the Leben CS300XS.  Right now I am leaning towards Leben since it is a known quantity with very good reviews.  It will be time to reconsider running speaker out when I have a higher quality amp as I am sure it will work better than what I have now ;)

Since few of us read back to other posts (guilty!), here is the link Maxvla shared a few hours ago.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/649107/speaker-amps-for-headphones

Operakid seems to be the one on-point for this brigade.

I too have went on mainly to a speaker amp for my HD800/HE6. Currently using the McIntosh Mc225 with the HiFiMAN resistor and it's a huge step above the mjolnir I own and the BHA-1.

The amount of low end retrieval is incredible since I've acquired this amp. The HD800's bass is very similar to my previous LCD3's; but not quite as present and slow. The HE6 are even a tad bassier than both. The highs are even more transparent, analytic, yet smoother and less aggressive ( 100% natural timbre). I'm not to sure what to do with the mjolnir, I feel like selling it and the gungnir to fund a NAD m51, otherwise I'll just keep my mjolnir for a second rig.

It's hard justifying keeping all this at my age and limited income 

Quote:

Originally Posted by dleblanc343 

Currently using the McIntosh Mc225

 

 

What a sweet combination. Congratulations! I tried my Music Reference RM-200 hybrid with the HE-5LE very briefly and it sounded heavenly. However, I stopped almost immediately since I didn't have the resistors or Hifiman thingy and was afraid of blowing up the amp after reading some of the posts regarding tube amps over at one of the HE-6 threads.

So, serious question; using one of these - http://hifiman.com/Products/?pid=104 - I should be able to connect the HD800 to virutally any speaker amp?  I realize this requires a balanced cable, which I would need to order, but other than that what are the risks with this?  Just watch the volume essentially & don't smoke your headphones?

What should I expect from the sound with one of these?   Is it similar to balanced outputs or different?  Everyone talks in superlatives and I am not sure what to expect or if it's worth putting around $450 towards when I could be saving for an integrated amp and speakers :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by toschek 

Very nice. I'm definitely looking into it then. If you can PM me where I would pick up the balanced cable, I would very much appreciate it.

That is the safe and easy/ no headache way, but you can also solder in some resistors straight into the amp. I'm not good with that kind of stuff, and am good friends with the hifiman rep over here so I just spend the few bucks.

Also, if the amp is under 20 watts per channel, you can probably plug them straight to the amp, depending on the amp; just be very careful with the volume knob

Have gotten all my HP after-market cables here: www.charlestoncablecompany.com (charlestoncable@gmail.com)

No flowery nonsense or scientific voodoo, just solidly built and very reasonably priced.

I have had very favorable results with DIY Mogami Neglex balanced cable.  It compares very nicely to the Black Dragon cable I have.  You can get 10 feet on ebay for <$20.  $6 for a neutrik 4 pin xlr, and about $50 for the HD800 connectors. If you don't like the bare cable look, there are any number of sleeving options.