Finally found my preferred amplification for the LCD-4 after sampling many of the recommended amplifiers. Playing .wav files nothing made these sound better on a balanced cable than a Carver 806x [133watts @ 8ohms]. The only thing that beats it now is the HE-1. Read this thread beginning to end...

Terror JR - Come First... bassgasm

Heard the Schitt line up at CanJam and thought it worked very well with my headphones. Even the lowest cost one was decent though the TOTL subjectively made me salivate. I like the concept of a Ragnarok where they quote both the headphone amp output as well as their speaker output.

I asked this question on Sound Science forum because I thought I'd get a response from people who know a decent headphone amp doesn't have to be expensive but I see it was moved.

Thanks for the links. I found the hometheatrehifi reviews exactly what I wanted. Now if only reviewers did measurements on the headphone amp that comes with preamps. Thought I'd kill two birds with one stone: update my preamp and have a decent headphone amp.

Thanks for the replies. I'll respond individually but just quickly budget is the minimum that is necessary to generate the specs posted. I think this can be accomplished with a couple hundred (that's how much I spent on the Sony preamp) but up to $1000 would be fine. I don't expect to use this...

Gentlemen, [edits in italics] Adding disclaimer: This was moved from the Sound Science forum because I was hoping for powerful enough amp with now tweaking or design flaws but it was moved. I've been looking for reviews with measurements of a high power amp or preamp headphone outs with no...

Yes, well... I'm blessed with a pretty big head but I'll audition the LCD-i4 next.

Filled out the survey. By the way, what got me into the hobby was a pair of Sennheiser headphones. My sisters boyfriend in the mid 80's, had a single brand (Technics?) full rack of equipment and I had no idea what any of it did. I remember not thinking much of the speakers but he placed his...

The Disney Concert Hall is my favorite venue for classical music. I've only been thrice but everything I experienced there was amazing (with sound design reasons: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/20/entertainment/la-et-cm-walt-disney-concert-hall-yasuhisa-toyota-20130922). I've loved Bach...

Very helpful in my own exploration, thank you. It seems from your post that you are very familiar with the Beatles but I'm curious about the Bach track, had you ever heard it performed live? And in general, how familiar were you with that particular recording prior to the abxing? My hypothesis...

False dichotomy. Even Rachmaninoff playing Rachmaninoff is hampered by the low quality mono recordings.

Thanks for outlining the methodology. I looked into Foobar but it doesn't run on mac and didn't immediately find other software to use. I would put some faith in someone else's double blind if the participants were classically trained musicians listening to works they were very familiar with...

Generally appreciate this guys detailed measurements: http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6s-plus-audio-quality.htm http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/ Should put to rest many concerns.

I agree re blind testing but I couldn't do it easily. I did try to let the Macbook "choose" which app to play by using the keyboard play button but that was dependent on which app was on "top" of the other most recently. I also tried listening to popular music tracks and even here could discern...

I volume-matched Spotify Extreme (their app has separate volume control) and Tidal HiFi on my macbook through LCD-2f. I played my go to test tracks (track 1 of https://www.amazon.com/Montserrat-Figueras-Emotion-Jordi-Savall/dp/B006MZS932 and track 2 of...

And for those of us who can't afford it, don't forget, that it's the profits from these higher margin products that drive the R&D that improves what we all have access to. I never dreamed of listening to music with headphones before the Shure 215 became available and that was barely passable...

Good question: iphone 6s plus headphone jack > idsd black. Also tried macbook lost it at 11500. My left ear actually lost it at 9000. Definitely not great but for instruments, I'm not missing as much as I feared: http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm

Thank you for the very thorough review. Helped me get comfortable with using this to drive LCD-4.

Wow! Great tool. Thanks. With my LCD-4 I'm hearing 7Hz to about 12Khz (too much hearing damage!)

I got to listen to both at CanJam and the lcd4 definitely beat out anything in that room though I agree with other commentators, it shines with better recordings of classical music. Consider getting audiophile recordings when you go to audition them (something like...

Agree. I've written to both ifi and fiio for a more powerful (slimmer) amp only option and got a nice email from both acknowledging the suggestion. We'll see.

Tried google and head-fi but anyone know what the ak kann outputs in mW?