[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Well, I guess the broader question is, how is a headphone amp designed to make it optimal for headphones, especially compared to, say, a low powered SET tube amp meant for speakers.

Heya,
 
Well for starters, headphones are very sensitive, it doesn't take much energy to move that driver, unlike a speaker, so they introduce things like resistance to essentially give load to the amplifier so it doesn't wildly throw a driver around that is sensitive in the 100db/mw range type thing, where speakers in the 86~90db/mw range are "efficient" relatively, at low resistance, while in headphones that sensitivity rating qualifies a headphone as inefficient to the point of needing stupid amounts of power (HE-6 for example). A headphone amp is designed to essentially work without a fan usually, be as absolutely quiet as possible operation wise (such as the power supply) so that it doesn't translate into the super sensitive headphone driver; and it's designed to output low power into various loads.
 
Plug a 200 watt amp into a 32ohm headphone that has a rating of 114db/mw sensitivity and see what happens for example.
 
I would however be curious how some of these amplifiers would work with higher impedance headphones.
 
I know back in the day people used "dummy loads" basically to keep a headphone from being destroyed by a speaker amplifier and just jacked headphones into normal speaker amps with them, since they didn't really have a lot of "headphone amps" at the time like today. Market has allowed for this to evolve essentially.
 
Very best,

 

[Happy Camper]

Marketing has taken advantage of ignorant consumers to sell modified speaker amps in a pretty case for thousands of dollars. Damn any who stands in the way of a paying sponsor profits. That's why some of the best DIYers have left this place. A few dollars of resistors installed on any speaker amp will bring the load down to drive a lot of headphones. I was labeled a loon for even mentioning a speaker amp for the HEs. Yet look at the topic of this thread. The bigger power supplies sorely out perform these mini amps. IMO

 

[conquerator2]

Quote:

Marketing has taken advantage of ignorant consumers to sell modified speaker amps in a pretty case for thousands of dollars. Damn any who stands in the way of a paying sponsor profits. That's why some of the best DIYers have left this place. A few dollars of resistors installed on any speaker amp will bring the load down to drive a lot of headphones. I was labeled a loon for even mentioning a speaker amp for the HEs. Yet look at the topic of this thread. The bigger power supplies sorely out perform these mini amps. IMO

 
Well, it is evident that a 200 speaker amp can do the same job and for a reasonable price
 
Luckily there are still a few people around here who aint trying to make an insane profit out of this

 

[benzoylmethyl]

Ordered today.  Calyx Coffee -> APA150 -> HE500.  Emotiva wanted $50 to ship out here; the DA amp was only 150 shipped.  If it sucks, I'll hand it over to our electronics techs for spare parts and order the Emotiva after the new year.  All the DA's reviews were quite good, though.
 
Everything should be here in about a week, except the cable...so probably won't have any solid impressions for you guys until that gets here in about 2 weeks (provided Brian can get it done and shipped in a week; the original estimate was 2 weeks just to complete the cable).

 

[conquerator2]

Quote:

Ordered today.  Calyx Coffee -> APA150 -> HE500.  Emotiva wanted $50 to ship out here; the DA amp was only 150 shipped.  If it sucks, I'll hand it over to our electronics techs for spare parts and order the Emotiva after the new year.  All the DA's reviews were quite good, though.
 
Everything should be here in about a week, except the cable...so probably won't have any solid impressions for you guys until that gets here in about 2 weeks (provided Brian can get it done and shipped in a week; the original estimate was 2 weeks just to complete the cable).

 
Please, do let us know how the APA150 performs when you can!
 
Thanks!

 

[IEMCrazy]

Quote:

Marketing has taken advantage of ignorant consumers to sell modified speaker amps in a pretty case for thousands of dollars. Damn any who stands in the way of a paying sponsor profits. That's why some of the best DIYers have left this place. A few dollars of resistors installed on any speaker amp will bring the load down to drive a lot of headphones. I was labeled a loon for even mentioning a speaker amp for the HEs. Yet look at the topic of this thread. The bigger power supplies sorely out perform these mini amps. IMO

 

  Fang himself was demoing the 6's on a Threshold...   Anyone labeling you a loon for mentioning speaker amps was clearly not following the product launch.  HE-6 was out long before HE-500. 

 

[islubio]

Anyone tried these with an integrated amp?

Was looking to get the he500 next year, however it requires tons of power and I highly doubt that my o2 will power them nice enough.
 
Was almost settled on getting the NFB10.32 for the HE500. But stumbled upon this thread.
 
As I am also looking to get a bookshelves setup for my small bedroom, was wondering if integrated amp like the marantz 5004/6004 or 7004/8004 or Ca 351A/651A drive them nicely so I can skip the NFB10.32. (leaning more towards the 5004 as i can get them fairly cheap where I m at ~280usd new)
 
Would be great if anyone have any of those amp and could test them out with the he500

 

[preproman]

Quote:

Anyone tried these with an integrated amp?

Was looking to get the he500 next year, however it requires tons of power and I highly doubt that my o2 will power them nice enough.
 
Was almost settled on getting the NFB10.32 for the HE500. But stumbled upon this thread.
 
As I am also looking to get a bookshelves setup for my small bedroom, was wondering if integrated amp like the marantz 5004/6004 or 7004/8004 or Ca 351A/651A drive them nicely so I can skip the NFB10.32. (leaning more towards the 5004 as i can get them fairly cheap where I m at ~280usd new)
 
Would be great if anyone have any of those amp and could test them out with the he500

 
Don't get confused with the HE-6 and the HE-500 there are totally different headphones.  The HE-6 need tons of power.  The HE-500 does not.  However, the only way to know if those amps has any synergy is to try them out.  Or go to your local audio shop with your headphones and try them out on their gear.

 

[islubio]

Quote:

 
Don't get confused with the HE-6 and the HE-500 there are totally different headphones.  The HE-6 need tons of power.  The HE-500 does not.  However, the only way to know if those amps has any synergy is to try them out.  Or go to your local audio shop with your headphones and try them out on their gear.

Thanks for the info.
Will be getting a he400 end of the month for now.
 
And will be getting the he500 1st quarter next yr. Happens to know that my friend have the PM5004 and will try them out with the HE500 when i get them.
However if I do skip the HE500 and get the HE6. What would be a good integrated amp to pair it with? IE power rating etc.

 

[preproman]

Quote:

Thanks for the info.
Will be getting a he400 end of the month for now.
 
And will be getting the he500 1st quarter next yr. Happens to know that my friend have the PM5004 and will try them out with the HE500 when i get them.
However if I do skip the HE500 and get the HE6. What would be a good integrated amp to pair it with? IE power rating etc.

 
Really depend on what your budget is.  So, for integrated, I would go to the local audio store if you have one.  Run some test, see what you like.  Maybe you can find a really good used one of ??? on Audiogon or eBay.

 

[islubio]

Quote:

 
Really depend on what your budget is.  So, for integrated, I would go to the local audio store if you have one.  Run some test, see what you like.  Maybe you can find a really good used one of ??? on Audiogon or eBay.

Yup there are a couple of local audio store. Small country I am in so no problem travelling around.
 
Thanks for all the advises. Audiogon or eBay might not be such a good item for where I am located. The shipping will be a killer

 

[IEMCrazy]

Hey Mal,  I got my headband wrap yesterday and gave it a try.  Comfort wise it's it's fantastic.  I put it all the way on, including scruncing the leather (hated to do it, but I just could not get myself to use it with the whole top open like that!.  I hated creasing the leather...but it's leather...it won't break it beyond some creasing.  Feel wise...oh man that's cheap stuff.  I'd love o try the Beyer leather one but it apparently closes "like a ziploc bag" instead of snaps.  There's got to be a better headband cover that adds the same kind of shaping and padding but looks and feels a bit nicer, and/or doesn't scrunch the leather!
 

 

[preproman]

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Emotive mini-X a-100 on sale for $179​

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http://shop.emotiva.com/?page=2​

 

[conquerator2]

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Emotive mini-X a-100 on sale for $179​

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http://shop.emotiva.com/?page=2​

This also applies to all the other Emotiva products

 

[rgs9200m]

My HE500s are great great great on 3 regular headphone amps (RP010B, B52, and Pinnacle). Just saying in case anyone is interested. David Maher said as much on his 50-headphone-shootout thread, and, if anything, he may have underplayed them.
I suppose I could go for HE6s with a speaker amp, but the HE500s are so great I'm just going to leave them alone, as a whole new extra amp is inconvenient for me.