Advice on vacuum tube headphone amp

[NorthBay]

I'm a new member looking for advice on a head phone amplifier, preferably vacuum tube.

On occasion I tend to stay up into the wee hours enjoying music.
I do have a dedicated listing room , however at times I do get yelled at to turn it off and come to bed.
I believe listening through head phones will keep everyone happy.

I really have no clue what budget I should set for a good pair of head phones and the amp.
This weekend I am going to borrow, from a dealer, a Cary 300B integrated with a head phone jack and Grado headphones.
It's afew grand and I should investigate other brands at this price point and below.

I use two sources , aluminum and gold disk and the other vinyl.

Thank you for your response.

 

[mikeymad]

Welcome NorthBay (I am not sure if you are in SF NorthBay).

Well the Cary 300B is one of the really good ones. I have one myself, and I am very happy with them. I am not sure if the Grado's are the 'best' match with them. But let us know how it goes.

You can get Tube amps from around $300 to as high as you can spend.

Cheers,

 

[Skylab]

Yep, Grados are generally not the best choice of headphones for tube amps. Higher impedance headphones like AKGs, Sennheisers or Beyerdynamics would be a better choice. Lot of variation in headphone sound of course, so if you have a place you can audition some it would be good.

But if you can swing the scratch for that Cary, I am sure you'd be happy with that!

 

[TheMarchingMule]

With a LD MK IV SE, the Grados sound alright, nothing special.

I've heard that Woo Audio amps though (esp. the Woo Audio 6) are something amazing with Grados.

 

[manofmathematics]

I wouldn't mind pairing the Cary 300B with some Magnepans. I know, not headphones, but I bet the combo would sing.

 

[nikongod]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yep, Grados are generally not the best choice of headphones for tube amps.

Maybe very small OTL tube amps and listening levels FAR above average conversation, but certainly not a transformer coupled amp (ignoring sonic preferences and synergy with the amp).

I liked the cary 300sei quite a bit with everything I threw its way last year. R10, HD-650, K1000, and a couple grados: A VERY nice amp indeed. the only bad thing is that its expensive and throws off lots of heat, but what thats this good dosnt share these traits?

 

[NorthBay]

Again,Thank You all for your response.

I had no idea how popular listening to music through headphones are.
My goodness.

We just had the dedicated listening room built in the fall of last year. 36 feet by 20 wide.

The heating and cooling duct work of the new room is connected to the rest of our home.
Even though sound travels through the duct work, it is faint at best at moderate listing levels by the time it reaches our bed room...Shoving old bath towels in the throats of the duct work solved this minor issue. However I cannot do this all the time.

MikeyMad, The NorthBay were I live is a few thousand miles north east of beautiful San Fransisco.
It gets cold once in a while,especially during winter, so I can't always block off the registers

Briefly reading through this site and what I have found on a search over the net really has me intrigued over the use of headphones.
Over the years I have listened to music played through a 300B tube amp based system, on a friends system.
Vocals and acoustic instruments are stunning, a real sense of natural sounding timbre is conveyed, truthfullness.

I'm am looking forward to giving the Cary a liston to. We got word on Friday morning of some unexpected guess dropping in today and possibly staying over night.

Iv'e cancelled picking up the Cary for this weekend however this will give me some more time to hunt down other head phones to use with it.

All of you that replyed to my question have been a great help.