[dknightd]

Hi,
Newbie here. Looking for a decent headphone solution.
These are for home use, mostly when the wife or kids
don't want to hear my tunes. I listen to mostly reggae,
rock, jazz, classical, bluegrass - roughly in that order.
Basically I want something that works well for most music.
My Darling wife bought me Senn RS65 phones for xmas. I had
to ask her to return them, they sounded like a cheap
FM radio played on a decent pair of headphones. The
sound was fair at best!
My beat up, 15 year old, Senn HD430 sound *much* better.

I like the idea of wireless headphones, but I guess
they are not for me

-yet-

For now I need a headphone extension cord.
I use headphones only occasionally. I've ordered the
grado extension from headroom.com, comments on this
product?

Now I'm thinking about improving my "private"
listening experience. I'm in a seperate room, and tend
to prefer the "open" sound, so a leaky headphone is OK.
I'm leaning toward the Senn HD600. Unfortunately there is little
opportunity for me to compare ear cans nearby. Which sucks!!!
I'd be driving them with a mid-fi
setup including yamaha 685CD player, QED qnet2 cables,
Yamaha RX777 reciever.

So my thinking now is, buy the Senn HD600 online at the
lowest possible price from a reputable vendor. Suggestions
most welcome on which that vendor might be.

Maybe later get some after market cables, the Clou line
seems to be well recieved. Are they really worth $100 for
an occasional user?

Next maybe get a headphone amp. My new Yamaha 777 receiver doesn't
seem to have as a good a headphone output as my old amps
(one 20 yr old yamaha ca40, one HK unit) - it has plenty of power
but starts distorting pretty early. Do I really need a seperate
headphone amp to get the most out of the HD600? These headphone
amp things are NOT CHEAP! How do headphone amps connect?
I assume in a tape out loop. Could I instead try powering the headphones
with a passthrough connection the the yamaha preamp outs?

I'm interested in all your comments and suggestions.
My budget is around $500, but I'd like to keep it lower

Thanks, David

 

[fiddler]

I believe the best price for the HD600s is $220 US from Jan Meier in Germany. The price includes shipping, although you might have to pay duties on top of that. The HD600s are very hard to drive, and will not perform to its fullest potential without a dedicated headphone amp. You can get a Corda HA-1 which is made and sold by Jan... Since he gives discounts when you buy multiple items, the price for the 600s + HA-1 is $495. This is the path I chose a couple weeks ago... My goods should be arriving any day now.
However, many people seem to like tube amps better for the Senns (Corda is solid state), so consider the MG Head as well.

EDIT: Jan's homepage is HERE.

 

[schiss]

if you like the sound from the headphone jacks of your old receivers, you could use one as your headphone amp. Just send your source signals from the new yamaha out of a tape loop and into a line level input on the old receiver. That just might do it for you.

Schiss

 

[dknightd]

Schiss, good suggestion. Too late for me I'm afraid.

 

[Flasken]

Good way of spending money: Put them in a letter and mail them to me (method may be copied by others)

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Just wanted to second Jan Meier at Meier audio.

And Clou is a mandatory upgrade, at least blue. I've been missing mine lately (misplaced it during the move), and there is just no comparison.

 

[Neruda]

according to Jan, the Philips HD890 sounds quite similar to the HD600 in most respects, yet is easy to power and is considerably cheaper ($100 from www.meier-audio.com). maybe that would be a good way to use your money.

By the way, it just occurred to me that since the cable on the HP890 is detachable, you might be able to upgrade the cable using one of the sennheiser cable upgrades sold by Stefan Audio. I think they connect in the same way. that might be pretty cool, provided the cables do sound good. (I have no reason to doubt them, but I haven't heard anything either way.)

 

[dknightd]

fiddler and Dusty, thanks for the pointer to Jan's page. I'll check it out. I take it the
Corda HA-1 and HD600 is a good combo?
I'll also look into the Philips HD890, no
point in spending more money than I need to.
I'm going to have to try harder to find
some places to listen to these phones, I'd
hate to place an oversees order unheard.
But if I find a place local to listen to them
I'll probably buy from them (unless there price
is way outof line, I like to support local stores).
I guess at $100 I could afford to just try
the HD890 - can't hurt to have an extra set
of cans around I suppose...

Or, maybe I should just send my money to
Flasken and call it a day.

But he didn't post
his address so I guess that option is out