[Trounce]

Recently purchased this wonderful pair of phones.

Right now I have it hooked up to a Creek 5050 IA receiver next to my computer so I can manipulate it when necessary. The receiver is connected to my Audigy2, a Teac CD-Z500 CDP and a Technics FM Tuner. I run my headphones through the provided headphone jack and get wonderful sound.

I am, however, a product of peer pressure and have convinced myself that buying a headphone amp would improve the sound quality from all inputs. I also would like to take it with me to use on my PCDP, an Aiwa XP-Z3C MiniCD Player, so it should be portable.

I was thinking of the FixUp Mini as it looks like a cute little player with good portability. Right now I'm using a Boostaroo headphone amp with my PortaPros and it's working fine (my ears aren't TOO tuned to audiophilia yet.)

So, thank you in advance.

 

[DarkWolf]

I;ve not heard any headphone amps yet, so I guess I'm not the best person to tlak to, but I've been reading and posting for a good while now. After I learned how much their was to heapdhones I decided to keep saving and wait untill after christmas to buy anything.

Anyway, I can tell things I've heard. The suber mini seems to be popular for its small size, low price, and decent sound. However, I think, from what I've heard, that a portable meta42 or a porta corda would probably sound better. Between those two I can't give you much advice. Both are very popular, the meta will be more flexible in terms of how much you want to spend and what you want to get, where the porta corda is straight forward and the price is set. (and not too high.) There are other things, but these two seem to be the most popular and most tlaked about. You should probably be sure to find something that can use AC power when you're at home, the porta corda can, but you'd probably have to ask for it on a meta and it mioght boost the price, I don't know. Keep looking for info, and have fun.

BTW, I'm glad you like the 590s. I read about them for a while and finaly tried them at tweater. They were only hooked up to a discman, but I still liked them a lot. I might get a pair, but I also want to learn more about the A1000... They are very interesting to me, but so far the limited reviews seem to revolve around the idea that they are good, but few details other than that have come to light. I don't know how I'd like them for general use with many music types. Oh well. Perhaps if I knew how much more to expect from the 590s with a decent source and a good amp (I'm also looking into it) I would just get them and be done with it.. Have you heard many other phones? What do you think? Thanks.

 

[mkmelt]

The Sennheiser 590s are low impedance phones that were designed to be used with a variety of home and portable sources without the need for a headphone amp. They won't sound worse with a decent amp, but you may not hear any improvement with most amplifiers unless you are prepared to spend more than just a couple of hundred dollars.

I have spent time listening to the 580, 590, and 600 using several different sources and amplifiers, and felt that although each has a slightly different sound, given time to become used to them, I could be happy with any of them as my primary headphones. I own the model 600, but if portable use was my primary interest, I would have looked closer at the 590s.

 

[Pace]

Quote:

Originally posted by mkmelt The Sennheiser 590s are low impedance phones that were designed to be used with a variety of home and portable sources without the need for a headphone amp. They won't sound worse with a decent amp, but you may not hear any improvement with most amplifiers unless you are prepared to spend more than just a couple of hundred dollars.

Not true.

You can definately hear the difference already with a Creek OBH-11. Although the 590s have a reputation of being easy to drive, they seem to reveal their full potential amplified.

 

[mkmelt]

Agreed.

The Creek OBH-11 costs around $170 retail, however you will need a power source and while the unregulated OBH-1 power supply is under $20, the list price of the regulated OBH-2 is $100, so with shipping, a combination of these two components will be close to $300.

A better deal might be the combination of the class A Creek model OBH-11SE and the OBH-2 power supply is available for just under $300, plus shipping, from

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/decibelchicago/

Either setup will cost more than $200 (couple of hundred).

 

[markjia]

If portability is important, then go with one of Fixup's amps. Elsewise, I would suggest trying the META. If you don't want to build it yourself, you can always get one of the people here to do it for you. This option is half the price of either Creek setup...costing $60-200 depending one the quality of components you want to pay for.

 

[Pace]

Quote:

Originally posted by mkmelt Either setup will cost more than $200 (couple of hundred).

Unless you live in Finland (or any other european country), where the OBH-11 +OBH-2 combo costs about 180 euros (equal in dollars)