[king896]

I need some help with choosing a new home amp. Right now I need a amp that can both power a pair of Senn 600's yet be perfectly black so I can use them with my pair of sensaphonics and not have any background hum, also if possible I would like some preamp functions for a pair of computer speakers that I have hookup to my system. The source is an EMU 1212 with Headphile CPU Emu 1.5 meter cable playing FLAC files. Right now my budget is around $300-$500 as I am selling my Shure E5c's and Bada amp to pay for this. Thanks for your help

 

[Sinbios]

i was about to ask too, is it possible to have an amp that can drive both high and low impedence phones with no hum? i'm looking at tangent's mint schematic, and he says a resistor at r8 (i think?) will reduce the hum, but will it affect the driving of high impedence phones?

 

[iamdone]

I don't know about the preamp part, but the SR-71 would work nicely for your needs. It powers my hd650 great and is also completely black when using with my sensaphonics. I think it even sounds better than my PPA w/diamond buffer for the sensaphonics. The only drawback is that it only uses batteries. You can either buy in bulk or use rechargeables.

 

[king896]

The Sr71 won't work, I have already invested some money in an expensive rca cable for normal amps and don't want to sell it off if I don't have to and buy the time I am done with buying batteries for it, it would be well over what I want to spend.

 

[king896]

So far from my browesings of some of the amps that I have seen from headfi these seem like they might work but I would like t have some opinions on them.

Gilmore Lite: It seems to be good for low impedance phones like the grado's but it might not be too go for the Senn 600. It has a loop out so I can use my speakers and it retails for $300.

Wooaudio 3: It seems to work well with higher impedance phones, yet I have no idea if the tubes are going to be a problem with the Sensa's. It has preamp function and it retails for $450.

A custom made PPA: This is where I am not sure how it would work b/c everyone says that it can be customized for almost any setup. From what I read from some of the PPA sits I can get an impedance switch so it could work with both of the phones. I would like to know if there is a loop out function I can add to it and how much the whole thing would cost if I don't need any crossfeed or bass boot yet want the best components.

If you have any opinions on any of these or different amps altogether it would be a great help to me. Thanks