[doctorcilantro]

Hey all,

I have a question regarding an economically priced amp that I can connect to my preamp. I have a Sunfire Vacuum Tube preamp for my floorstanders and I don't use the XLR outs, so I'd like to use the tubes to feed, via XLR, a small, simple amp that won't do much that's already being done by the sunfire. The Sunfire has 1.5K ohm output impedance, but commnts here lead me to believe it will not have enough juice to really drive set of phones.

I have an EMU 1212m is use with big rig & an USB 0202 as well for editing but I want to have the tubes>601s connection for some critical listening.

I will be using AKG 601s:

Type Open-back, dynamic headphones
Efficiency 101 dB/V
Frequency range 12 Hz to 39,5 kHz
Rated impedance 120 ohms
Max. input power 200 mW

Would something like the Grado RA1 (yes not cheap) be needed? Do I need a beefy amp to drive the 100+ ohms K601s?

thanks!
DC

 

[sonance]

I can't think of too many headphone amps with XLR (balanced) inputs that aren't balanced headphone amps. The only ones that come to mind are the Grace 901 and 902. If you use a balanced headphone amp, you'd have to modify those AKG headphones to really benefit from the extra expense of a balanced headphone amp. Depending on your budget you get anything from a balanced M^3 to a SinglePower and a whole lot in between that's balanced. What sort of budget were you looking at?

[edit] Looking at your post again, you mentioned the Grado RA-1 that is not cheap - btw, that would not be a good match for the AKGs. In that case, you probably want to look at a nice pair of XLR -> RCA interconnects, or you could use adapters (which just add an extra component to the audio chain to muddy things a bit, IMO). Taking away the balanced requirement, you have any number of headphone amps to look at, although I'd search for previous threads regarding amps for the AKG 601 for guidance.