[guit]

I am planning on recabling my D2000's soon and am considering going for the single 4-pin XLR balanced option from lawton.
 
Was hoping you guys could recommend me a good value amp that is
 
1) BALANCED and
 
2) Works well with Denon D2000
 
Right now I am considering the Little Dot MK7
 
I really cannot afford more than $450 and want to make the most out of a balanced headphone cable. 
 
Tubes would be great but I don't know of anything that exists under $500 that has tubes and is fully balanced. 
 
Look forward to your replies!

 

[billybob_jcv]

So, it definitely has to be a tube amp?

If you will take solid state:
http://www.aloaudio.com/the-island
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphoneamp/NFB6/NFB6EN.htm
http://www.ibasso.com/en/products/show.asp?ID=70

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I am planning on recabling my D2000's soon and am considering going for the single 4-pin XLR balanced option from lawton.
Was hoping you guys could recommend me a good value amp that is
1) BALANCED and
2) Works well with Denon D2000
Right now I am considering the Little Dot MK7
I really cannot afford more than $450 and want to make the most out of a balanced headphone cable. 
Tubes would be great but I don't know of anything that exists under $500 that has tubes and is fully balanced. 
Look forward to your replies!

The Denon AH-D2000 is only 25-Ohms, my $27 FiiO  could easy drive the D2000s.
Maybe skip the recabling and just buy a Schiit Magni headphone amplifier, $99.

 

[guit]

hey guys thanks for the replies!
 
to be honest i've always dreamed of having a tube amp for my headphones ever since i started using a tube guitar amp
 
as far as teh re-cabling, they dont even work right now due to the stock cable being chewed through, so i need to do something
 
i havent decided yet if i want to go balanced xlr 4-pin/2 3-pin xlr or just normal 1/4 connector at the moment, the deciding factor is what choices i have for my amp
 
the magni looks like a great deal right now, so does that $100 dac that schiit sells
 
are there any tube amps under $400 that can do a good job with the denon's? balanced or not? how's the little dot mk II? 

 

[TMRaven]

- the D2000 is a low impedance headphone, any OTL tube amp will be a no-go due to horrible damping factor.  Even some transformer coupled tube amps or hybrid tube amps can have too high an output impedance for it.  The Little Dot MKII is a no-go.  
 
- the D2000 is a very sensitive headphone, so having either a powerful amp or an amp with high fixed gain will be bad.  I would not use Magni with it, as you'll have very little play on the volume nob.
 
-the D2000 isn't a very refined headphone and does not scale very well with an amp, so I definitely wouldn't spend big money to recable it to balanced and buy a balanced headphone amp for it.  If you MUST recable the headphone, just recable it with a regular cable again.
 
Considering those three things, I'd get a nice little portable amp for the D2000.  The Magni would be nice for everything else, but its fixed gain is too darned powerful for the D2000, this would be one of the only situations I'd recommend the Objective 2 over the Magni for general use.

 

[guit]

ok ill go unbalanced and SS
 
jds labs objective2 + odac combo
 
how's that option for the d2000?

 

[billybob_jcv]

The Schiit Vali is a tube amp for $120. The only downside is that it doesn't have the tubes sticking out the top for that cool steampunk look. If you forego balanced (and I would probably skip the balanced aspect) then you have more choices - including the less expensive amps in the Little Dot line, or:
http://schiit.com/products/valhalla
http://head-direct.com/Products/?act=detail&id=74
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DarkVoice-336SE-Headphone-Tube-Amplifier-neat-technics-/260695457691

Or, if you have a hankering to burn your fingers and perhaps your kitchen table with a hot soldering iron...
http://www.bottlehead.com/store.php/products/crack-otl-headphone-amplifier-kit

 

[guit]

oooOOoo the valhalla looks really cool
 
since someone mentioned tubes don't fair well with the denon d2000's, maybe i should look towards the asgard instead of the valhalla
 
i remember reading about the darkvoice like 5 years ago when I was a freshman in college, guess its still a popular option
 
and no, im not a soldering kind of guy :|