Among the TOTL headphones, many are planars and elecstats, which are known to work better with solid state in general. I could not figure out what exactly those expensive $1000+ tube amps are designed for. Maybe Senn HD800s is the only flagship that is known to pair well with them and it is also the most frequently referred headphones to go with them.
I think Beyer T1 used to pair well with tubes, but now they become much lower ohms, I am not sure anymore. Maybe I missed some more exotic ones here?
Among the TOTL headphones, many are planars and elecstats, which are known to work better with solid state in general. I could not figure out what exactly those expensive $1000+ tube amps are designed for. Maybe Senn HD800s is the only flagship that is known to pair well with them and it is also the most frequently referred headphones to go with them.
I think Beyer T1 used to pair well with tubes, but now they become much lower ohms, I am not sure anymore. Maybe I missed some more exotic ones here?
Among the TOTL headphones, many are planars and elecstats, which are known to work better with solid state in general. I could not figure out what exactly those expensive $1000+ tube amps are designed for. Maybe Senn HD800s is the only flagship that is known to pair well with them and it is also the most frequently referred headphones to go with them.
I think Beyer T1 used to pair well with tubes, but now they become much lower ohms, I am not sure anymore. Maybe I missed some more exotic ones here?
There are plenty of people like me who still prefer dynamic driver headphones to planar and estats and those to my ears sounds best with SET amps. Focal, ZMF, Audio Technica to name a few are still making flagship dynamic driver headphones. There are tube amps are design specifically to drive planar such as Decware Zen Taboo and tube based estats amp are not exactly uncommon. Your assumption of high ohm requirement only applies to output transformerless based amps.
In fact, for transformer-coupled tube hpa, the transformer with its exact windings is a large cost element for the hpa itself. The higher the winding count, the higher the cost. Then add in the degree of oxygen freedom of the windings…again: the higher, the higher…
Thanks. I think most TOTL headphones hover around $2-4k range. And a good transformer coupled tube amp can easily go up there. I see the point that a good tube amp can drive some dynamics really well and drive most planars sufficiently. But I think at a much lower prices point with something like Singxer SA-1, we can drive planars much better. So it seems like we are really just paying very high price to drive some dynamics really well. In my opinion, seems to be a bit too much to pay.
Thanks. I think most TOTL headphones hover around $2-4k range. And a good transformer coupled tube amp can easily go up there. I see the point that a good tube amp can drive some dynamics really well and drive most planars sufficiently. But I think at a much lower prices point with something like Singxer SA-1, we can drive planars much better. So it seems like we are really just paying very high price to drive some dynamics really well. In my opinion, seems to be a bit too much to pay.
My LCD-2 have never sounded better than out of my Trafomatic Head One, which is a transformer-coupled amp. Planars have a flat impedance curve so they don't care about amp topology. It's the voicing of the topology that matters.
Thanks. I think most TOTL headphones hover around $2-4k range. And a good transformer coupled tube amp can easily go up there. I see the point that a good tube amp can drive some dynamics really well and drive most planars sufficiently. But I think at a much lower prices point with something like Singxer SA-1, we can drive planars much better. So it seems like we are really is just paying very high price to drive some dynamics really well. In my opinion, seems to be a bit too much to pay.
~ You focus on the ability and cost-effectiveness of a headphone amplifier, tube OTC or SS, to “drive” planar magnetic headphones.
~ The real issue is: does the combination of headphone amplifier* and headphone* provide a convincing and emotionally rewarding presentation of a musical event? @Ciggavelli and others recognise this. Do you?
~ [*excludes the consideration of headphone cable]
Thanks. I think most TOTL headphones hover around $2-4k range. And a good transformer coupled tube amp can easily go up there. I see the point that a good tube amp can drive some dynamics really well and drive most planars sufficiently.
That's like saying the bhse or t2 is a bit too much to pay for being only able to drive estats really well. There is no getting around the fact that certain amps design work better than others for a particular driver. Inefficient planars benefit from having a loads of power and tubes are inherently not as powerful as most ss amps. There is no one size fits all solution. The higher up you go the less cost effective your setup will be.
But I think at a much lower prices point with something like Singxer SA-1, we can drive planars much better. So it seems like we are really just paying very high price to drive some dynamics really well. In my opinion, seems to be a bit too much to pay.
You seem to bang on about how tube only seem to work very well with dynamic driver and not working well with planar despite having little experience with tubes. I've not heard the singxer amp you mentioned so I can't make statement like drive planar much better then x amp. If you don't feel comfortable with tube amp it's perfectly fine to just stick with solid state.
Inefficient planars benefit from having a loads of power and tubes are inherently not as powerful as most ss amps. There is no one size fits all solution. The higher up you go the less cost effective your setup will be.
I mostly agree, but I'll say that an output transformer has no problem taking the high voltage/low current from tubes and transforming it to low voltage/high current to feed hungry planars to eardrum-bursting volumes without ever clipping.
My budget is limited, so my time with good tube amps is mostly very short try-out. I was not very impressed when comparing them with other solid state options. Yeah, I guess I never reach that peak/optimal combination of tube and headphone. Out of curiosity, what would be a good way to try this combination out? I can imagine Senn HD800S + Cayin 300B amp? But that amp alone is close to $4k. And it is not even the most expensive out there.
Among the TOTL headphones, many are planars and elecstats, which are known to work better with solid state in general. I could not figure out what exactly those expensive $1000+ tube amps are designed for. Maybe Senn HD800s is the only flagship that is known to pair well with them and it is also the most frequently referred headphones to go with them.
I think Beyer T1 used to pair well with tubes, but now they become much lower ohms, I am not sure anymore. Maybe I missed some more exotic ones here?
E-stats do great with tubes (which shouldn’t surprise anyone). Planars tend to be less efficient current pigs, but there’s plenty of tube amps that can drive them. That said, once you go to TOTL equipment, matching gear becomes pretty important and one size fits all amps aren’t really a thing at that point.
Not sure what your budget is, but if I was looking for close to end game sound sound on a budget I’d get a ZMF auteur with maybe a bottle head crack or Woo WA6. IME the Auteur sounds good with almost any amp, but really shines on tubes.
That's like saying the bhse or t2 is a bit too much to pay for being only able to drive estats really well. There is no getting around the fact that certain amps design work better than others for a particular driver. Inefficient planars benefit from having a loads of power and tubes are inherently not as powerful as most ss amps.There is no one size fits all solution. The higher up you go the less cost effective your setup will be.
You seem to bang on about how tube only seem to work very well with dynamic driver and not working well with planar despite having little experience with tubes. I've not heard the singxer amp you mentioned so I can't make statement like drive planar much better then x amp. If you don't feel comfortable with tube amp it's perfectly fine to just stick with solid state.
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