[estreeter]

The amp that I have my eye on will cost me more than double your stated budget, but I think the Audio-GD C2C might be in your price range:

н¨ÍøÒ³ 1

I've never heard the amp, but it seems to get excellent reviews here.

 

[GreenLeo]

How about a 2nd handed Lisa III. Should cost less than $500.

 

[MikeW]

Hifiman EF-5 /w Udac Dac. should put you around 500$ for an excellent amp and good source. Especially with that large variety of headphones you are looking to drive, the EF-5 can do low ohm or high ohm very well. I think the EF5 fixes the EF1's weakness with 600ohm phones like Sennheiser.

 

[somestranger26]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tintin47 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think he does need to eliminate low budget all tube amps. Impedance mismatch is a bad thing and very easy to avoid if you do your hwk. Tube amps that are good with low Z phones are transformer coupled, with very few exceptions (such as the Zana Deux, for $2200). The cheapest coupled amp that I can think of is the WA6, for about $600.

Another TC tube amp under $500: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/rev...embled-434829/

 

[SemiAudiophile]

Sell your D3 and go for the Woo Audio 6. It drives the GS1000 and K701 remarkably well from what I hear and should drive your other phones no problem. I would recommend looking for a used modded one in the FS forums. I seen a few recently..make sure it has the PDPS upgrade.

 

[jclaytonsound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeW /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think the EF5 fixes the EF1's weakness with 600ohm phones like Sennheiser.

Have you heard this combo by any chance (EF5 and Sennheiser HDxxx)?

 

[tosehee]

Get WA6 used.

 

[velemar1]

Jotunheim 2

 

[Barnstormer13]

The Jotunheim 2 (by Schiit Audio) isn’t a huge amp. It’s about the size of a hard cover novel. That said, it is well inside your your budget, has more than enough power for almost any headphone, boasts low output impedance, and sounds decent. There are plenty of better amps, but not in its price range.

One caveat- you will need balanced cables for your headphones to take full advantage of the power output. If you’re interested in trying tubes or don’t have balanced cables, you can get the Schiit Lyr for $600 or Asgard for $250 and have almost as much power without the need for balanced cables.

 

[Barnstormer13]

Get WA6 used.

An excellent sounding option, assuming you can find one for $500. I wouldn’t recommend it for someone new to headphones and not super solid on impedance matching or tube amps. That said, for someone looking to build a first class “budget” tube amp set-up and willing to do the research, it’s a great choice.

 

[Flaze]

Id say the 2 main contenders are singxer sa1 and schiit jotunheim2.
Jot2 - its a warm amp, adding extra low end and warmth. Pretty great power for planars and decent resolving capabilities with a small-ish stage. Has a tiny bit of upper treble harshness but its pretty minimal.
sa1 - very mid-centric amp. Its got creamy and sensual mids, how ever, everything else suffers in some way from it. The highs are a bit recessed and the lower end doesnt have the same umph to it as jot2. Stage is also pretty small, how ever, if you want stage, youre well in to 4 figures for an amp Sa1 also struggles with more demanding planars, more so then jot2.
Its also borderline required for you, or the prev. owner to mod the sa1. Theres a shunt mod that makes it sounds noticably better. with out the mod, jot2 takes the easy W.

 

[Lindholdt]

Id say the 2 main contenders are singxer sa1 and schiit jotunheim2.
Jot2 - its a warm amp, adding extra low end and warmth. Pretty great power for planars and decent resolving capabilities with a small-ish stage. Has a tiny bit of upper treble harshness but its pretty minimal.
sa1 - very mid-centric amp. Its got creamy and sensual mids, how ever, everything else suffers in some way from it. The highs are a bit recessed and the lower end doesnt have the same umph to it as jot2. Stage is also pretty small, how ever, if you want stage, youre well in to 4 figures for an amp Sa1 also struggles with more demanding planars, more so then jot2.
Its also borderline required for you, or the prev. owner to mod the sa1. Theres a shunt mod that makes it sounds noticably better. with out the mod, jot2 takes the easy W.

Have you noticed the date of these threads you are replying to? I think many of them either got their answers or moved on

 

[Flaze]

Have you noticed the date of these threads you are replying to? I think many of them either got their answers or moved on

Ima be honest, i didnt lol. I basically never use forums and just went in to the ''new'' thread expecting all the posts there to be relevant with out checking the dates..... xD
Maybe this will be useful to someone whos making the same choice in the future