i've been doing some research on headphone amps in the
$500 price range and this is what i've found so far:

no tubes:
- sugden headmaster ($590)
- creek obh-11se ($300)
- naim headline + psc ($660)
- corda headamp ($325)
- grado ra1 ($350)
- rega ear ($225)
- wheatfield ha-1 ($530)

tubes:
- musical fidelity x-can v2 + x-psu ($250 + $250)
- mg head ($280)
- earmax ($575)
- vincent khv-111 ($410)

obviously there are huge differences (> $400) between all
those models. some advice from somebody who actually owns
one of those or even had the chance to compare them would
be a great help. what are the characteristics, which taste in
music is suitable ?

i know that this is kind of a newbie question - and i am -
but after all: you guys are the experienced ones.

thank you !
jluetzen

Vincent makes a headphone amp? Interesting!

I have never owned any of those amps but if you search the forums you will find a LOT of info.

yes, i found the vincent headphone amp on some
swiss site:
http://www.referenz-studio.ch/vincent.htm

unfortunately i can't find it on the official vincent homepage,
so i wrote that swiss guy an email if it's still available. could
be that it is an older model...

it looks great for sure !

Actually, the Wheatfield HA-1 is a tube amp.

I would also mention several other amps in that price range, but then I would be accused of using this forum for commercial purposes. And I wouldn't want that to happen.

oops, my fault.

of course i didn't forget those famous headroom amps
it's just that i live in germany and i did concentrate on those
brands which have at least an european distributor. but to
me earmax, rega, grado and mg head could be problematic
to - there was no european/german distributor to be found.

to make the picture complete:
- headroom little ($259)
- headroom little more power ($459)
- headroom little more power premium ($679)

what about the other amps (mentioned in my first post) -
are they upgradeable ?!

X-Cans !! Dependant on your headphones of course....if you have Senn's get the X-Cans IMHO.

As for the X-PSU, mmmm, I have heard conflicting reports, some say it's better with it, some say you cant tell the difference and some say it's worse. Try it and see I suppose.

Cheers, Rick

weelll..

still not complete, but getting closer. I would help, but I do not want to get flamed

Heck, if no one else will do it...

Total Airhead:$159
Supreme: $449
Cosmic: $699
Home: $699

Also, the PortaCorda @ $160

LOL. Danny Danny Danny. Such restraint.

Well, I've got 3 pretty good sets of cans, Senn HD600, Sony CD3000, and Grado SR325's, but have only owned 2 amps. (yeah, yeah, I'm a Piker, I know)

I had the OBH-11se as my only amp until it lost the left channel. It was fine with the only cans I had at the time, which were the Grados. Bought a Wheatfield Audio HA-1 from Headroom, and have been in love with the tube sound ever since. This thing runs all 3 of my cans perfectly.

I don't know if I can ever go back to solid state again, unless it was something pretty darn good like a Headroom Max or Sugden Headmaster. I still remember the first time I fired up the Wheatfield HA-1, I literally got shivers running up and down my spine from the sound.

To me the HA-1 sounds superb, I've always wondered why it doesn't get more press on these forums, but then again, maybe I don't know what I'm missing since I have only owned 2 amps.

But this thing seems to do everything well. It drives all my cans just fine. If I pause the music, I can't hear any background hiss whatsoever unless I crank the pot past 3/4's of the way, and even then, the slight hiss is only on the low impedance cans, and not the HD600's. When I pulled the cover to look inside, I was impressed as hell at the build quality of this thing. Impeccable is the word that comes to mind. Components are top notch, and the thing looks like it could run forever given the quality and size of the caps and resistors inside.

It's too bad the case is... ahem... "ugly".

"HA-1" can be ambigious...

uh, headmaster, 590...where?!

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It IS ambiguous... There's the Wheatfield HA-1 and the Corda HA-1.

Melos SHA-1 is between $400 and $500

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Geez, I always thought England was considered to be part of Europe...........the Audiophile Club in England is a distributer for Earmax and Earmax Pro.