DNZGamer
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2012
- Posts
- 223
- Likes
- 23
Never have bought a full sized headphone amp before, this will be my first purchase. Hope to gain some guidance on how much I should spend.
I hear tons of great things about both the LD 1+ and MK III on forums but another poster suggested the La Figaro 336c.
My question is, which would be the best value for its money? I really want to try tube amps as I have never heard them before and people seem to rave about their synergy with Grado RS1i.
They are all about $100 difference from each other from ebay so it would be great to hear some people who have moved up the chain progressively and tell of the differences in performance between each price gap. One thing I was told regarding LittleDot was that it would require more maintenance than the La Figaro. That was concerning as I am not familiar with tube amps at all and don't want to have to mess around with it. At least not initially.
I am also open to other suggestions within these price ranges but these are the ones I've read up on so far.
The one thing is that these amps have to be able to drive an HD650 well as I plan on picking up this headphone as soon as I find a great used price. Will try to get my hands on an Ultrasone pro 900 sometime within the year as well but thats mostly for the heavy bass and surround sound so it would be a bonus if it also is good for the Ultrasone.
Also, as someone who has only owned portable amps before, how does full size amps compare with portables in terms of performance for price? I bought a $300 Headstage Arrow 4g so would something like the LD 1+ still be signfiicantly better in terms of SQ?
I am confused mostly because I want great value but I also don't want to suffer from Upgraditis very soon afterwards (which I have) so I think I want a great value product for the money more than anything else.
Edit:
I keep seeing people bring up how the MAD Ear+ HD is much better when people are discussing the Little Dot but they about 3-4x the cost. Can you find them much cheaper or are people just recommending a super expensive upgrade out of the blue?
I hear tons of great things about both the LD 1+ and MK III on forums but another poster suggested the La Figaro 336c.
My question is, which would be the best value for its money? I really want to try tube amps as I have never heard them before and people seem to rave about their synergy with Grado RS1i.
They are all about $100 difference from each other from ebay so it would be great to hear some people who have moved up the chain progressively and tell of the differences in performance between each price gap. One thing I was told regarding LittleDot was that it would require more maintenance than the La Figaro. That was concerning as I am not familiar with tube amps at all and don't want to have to mess around with it. At least not initially.
I am also open to other suggestions within these price ranges but these are the ones I've read up on so far.
The one thing is that these amps have to be able to drive an HD650 well as I plan on picking up this headphone as soon as I find a great used price. Will try to get my hands on an Ultrasone pro 900 sometime within the year as well but thats mostly for the heavy bass and surround sound so it would be a bonus if it also is good for the Ultrasone.
Also, as someone who has only owned portable amps before, how does full size amps compare with portables in terms of performance for price? I bought a $300 Headstage Arrow 4g so would something like the LD 1+ still be signfiicantly better in terms of SQ?
I am confused mostly because I want great value but I also don't want to suffer from Upgraditis very soon afterwards (which I have) so I think I want a great value product for the money more than anything else.
Edit:
I keep seeing people bring up how the MAD Ear+ HD is much better when people are discussing the Little Dot but they about 3-4x the cost. Can you find them much cheaper or are people just recommending a super expensive upgrade out of the blue?