[Hiker]

Hey

I am interested in getting either the old favorite, HD 600, or the newer DT 880. However, I do not have a headphone amp and would like to know of what will work well for about $350 or LESS. I would like to spend as little as possible. However, if I must spend the full $350 to get the best sound quality, I will do it. As of now, I am planning on getting the CORDA HA-1. Will this work well for me? Or is there something better out there. I don't care if it is a home amp or portable. However, if it is portable, I would like it to come wallwart compatible. Crossfeed is something that I would like too unless there is a really good offering without it.

Thanks,
Hiker

 

[spaceman]

Go with the Corda. I have the HA-2, and it sounds awsome paired with my DT880s. If you can, try to scratch together a few more dollars and go with the HA-1 MKII. Jan has a special on these to support Head-Fi ($375.00). Here is the link: http://home.t-online.de/home/meier-audio/headfi.htm

 

[mkmelt]

As I have stated a number of times before, and been backed up by many others here, your dollars will go alot further if you buy a good used amplifier. Do a search on Vintage Amplifiers, and Marantz, in this forum and you will get an idea of how much amp is available for just a fraction of the $350 you have set aside for your first amplifier.

$100 should get you a nice working example of a Marantz 1060 amplifier. This was the workhorse integrated amplifier of the Marantz product line for much of the 1970s. Don't be put off by the age or the price. These units were built to last and are competitive with any of today's amplfiers costing up to $400.

The Marantz 1060 can drive any dynamic headphone, including the Sennheiser HD-580 or 600, and has no problem driving the AKG K1000 earspeakers either. This amplifier has been known to even perform well powering the legendary Quad ESL-57 electrostatic speakers. This loudspeaker became infamous for the nasty load it presents to an amplifier. With impedance peaks of over 40 ohms at bass resonance, and dips as low or lower than 2 ohms at some higher frequencies, The ESL-57's capacitive nature leaves many lesser solid state amplifier designs in severe audible distress or worse, literally smoked, but the Marantz handles this difficult load quite well. Sounds good too.

 

[Hiker]

Thanks a lot guys. I am going to check up on the Marantz you are talking about. If I cannot find any available, I'll go with the HA-1.

 

[tom hankins]

Doesn't Jan offer package deals if you buy the headphones and amp from him?

 

[mkmelt]

Here is the link, on the Equipment forum:

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...threadid=37647

This is a great price on a very good piece of 1970s Marantz audio gear. A worthwhile alternative to the 1060 integrated amplifier.

 

[Hiker]

Tom -- Jan does offer a discount on the headphones if I purchase an amp from him so this can be a major advantage.

mkmelt -- This is certainly a great price, but would this really be as good as a dedicated headphone amp? I don't doubt the quality of this amp, but is the headamp in the Marantz powerful enough to make it worthwhile?

 

[tom hankins]

Theres a corda for sale in the Gear for sale forum right now.

 

[peter braun]

Not anymore, (Ha Ha Ha Ha)

 

[mkmelt]

Q: Would this really be as good as a dedicated headphone amp?
A: As good as many, and better than some dedicated headphone amps too.

Q: Is the headamp in the Marantz powerful enough to make it worthwhile?
A: This series of Marantz receivers do not use a separate headphone amplifier. The headphone jack is driven off of the main stereo amplifier, through some loading resistors. The 2220B is rated at 20 watts per channel into 8 ohms, and can drive any dynamic headphone quite well.

 

[Geek]

Dunno, I think any amp with significant power shall drive the HD600s satisfactorily, but if you want an amp to drive the 600s with brilliant finesse you need something fairly high end. I used an airhead with the 600s and then chose the maxed out home reference as my next upgrade. The airhead drove them just fine, but the reference amp sounded crisper, cleaner, clearer, more extended, had no harshness at high volumes, sounded even more detailed at all volumes, and so on and so forth. Plus there's absolutely no "veiling" of the sound with a good amp.

Anyways I got all excited and started ranting. Just find a decent $100 range amp for starters and get some HD600s. I prefer the HD600 sound to the DT880 sound. I thought the DT880s were slightly brighter but lacked some finesse and focus compared to the HD600s, which didn't seem to have a sonic signature in comparison.

I'd go HD600 plus a nice starter amp: airhead or total airhead, CMOY, JMT's altoids amp, or something along those lines. If you could afford it the HA-1 has had some positive reviews as well and is worth checking out. Also keep in mind the headroom high end portable stuff, such as the cosmic or supreme amps. Their sound is also a good value for the money.

Headroom and Corda amps have built in crossfeed so I'd look at those chiefly if you are interested in crossfeed. Headroom's crossfeed adds a slight punch to the bass but it doesn't take away any detail; others have said that the Corda crossfeed doesn't boost the bass but takes away some detail from the sound (I have not heard a corda amp). IMHO I don't hear high end rolloff when engaging crossfeed on a headroom amp and find their processor to do wonderful things, even with their airhead.


Cheers,
Geek

 

[Hirsch]

There was a HAP-03 in the For Sale area very recently. If you can find one of those, it's a killer amp for the Sennheiser and Beyers. Lousy with low-impedance cans though, even with impedance matcher.

 

[David Mitchell]

I'm going to contradict Geek's favorable mention of the Headroom Airhead. I use an original Airhead, hopefully for not much longer, with my HD580. Not that it's bad, but I'm eager to hear something better. Also, my new-to-me component CD player actually overdrives it, but perhaps the player's output is higher than normal. (Anyone else heard it happen?)

The thing that I can say I dislike, without comparing the the amplifier to any others, is the crossfeed. I very much like the effect, but I find what's in my Airhead to change the tonal balance too severely for me to use it most of the time. The sound becomes quite warm overall, and cymbals pay the price. I want crisp cymbals more than I want crossfeed.

 

[Geek]

David Mitchell,

That is exactly what some people feel the headroom crossfeed does. I personally hear it as doing almost nothing to the tone, and definitely not rolling off the highs at all.

What headroom did is play slightly with tonal balance due to the fact that without crossfeed, bass heard separately out of just one channel or the other sounds IMHO significantly heavier than if that same amount of bass came out of both channels.

Since crossfeed mixes one channel with the other, what happens is to many people a perceived drop in bass. Others do not notice the difference. A more "neutral crossfeed" which does not affect the tone is corda's crossfeed; some think it's better because of this, others find it too "thin" sounding for the same kind of psychoacoustic reasons.

Headroom's crossfeed is liked by others due to the fact that it fixes this problem, balancing the tone to compensate for actual psychoacoustic crossfeed. Those that support headroom's variety attest to the fact that it keeps bass balanced and creates a greater sense of spaciousness.

I have not heard the corda crossfeed but I would rather listen to an airhead with crossfeed than any of the higher end amps without it.

Let me repeat that; I would listen to a low end amp with headroom crossfeed rather than a higher end headphone amp without it. That's just my opinion. Crossfeed started out as almost not affecting the tone but it does so much to get rid of fatigue that I couldn't live without it now.

Hiker,

Whatever your decision is, keep in mind the three general philosophies towards crossfeed, those that don't want the frequency response changed to compensate for psychoacoustics, those that do, and those that prefer not to have it altogether.

You really can't lose though as long as you feed the HD600 or DT880 with enough power.

Cheers,
Geek

 

[Hiker]

Thanks everyone for your imput. I don't think i will be going with a "vintage amp" right now because they are a little larger than what I was looking for. I don't really have that much space currently. Unfortunately, the HAP-03 is now sold so I can't look into that. I am not really considering any headroom amps, because the ones that I would be interested in cost too much, soooo ultimately I think I will go with the HA-1. Thanks again everyone.