Best Bang-for-Buck headphone amp for DT990 headphones?
Dec 9, 2008 at 4:36 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 17

milkweg

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Please try to keep it under $400.00 USD and something that is available in Canada would be of great benefit.

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Currently have EMU 0404 USB, Onkyo SR505 reciever and Audiolab 8000A but looking for something better for headphone use. Thanks kindly.

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Dec 11, 2008 at 4:12 PM Post #6 of 17
Back to the drawing board. Is littledot mk4 easily available? I can get Gilmore Lite very easily shipped from the manufacturer to Canada for $35.00 shipping.

Just checked out that littledot mk4and it is a tube amp. I am only interested in SS. Was interested in either type before but have since found out that tubes degrade sound quality as they wear so don't want that and you have to replace the tubes every X amount of hours too.
 
Dec 11, 2008 at 6:29 PM Post #8 of 17
Too bad you won't consider a tube amp, the DT990's are really highly synergistic with tubes, IMO.
 
Dec 11, 2008 at 8:00 PM Post #9 of 17
Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Too bad you won't consider a tube amp, the DT990's are really highly synergistic with tubes, IMO.


+1

From all my readings on this forum, they do much better with tubes. Although there is more maintenance involved, suck it up for the sq
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This is the reason I have yet to purchase an amp for my dt 990/250's - they're still running thru my headphone amp from my ht omega claro halo (soundcard), but i've been in the market for WA3,6 or MKIV
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Just haven't gotten lucky to get a deal yet.
 
Dec 11, 2008 at 9:22 PM Post #10 of 17
By the way, I have never had a tube amp that needed any maintenance. Sure, tubes can die, but as a practical matter, this is overblown. In a headphone amp most tubes are loafing - they could last more than 10,000 hours - 10 hours a day usage for 3 years.
 
Dec 12, 2008 at 12:21 AM Post #11 of 17
X3 - 990s + tubes =
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. Mine are seeing my head more often recently with a newly acquired tube amp.
 
Dec 13, 2008 at 3:38 AM Post #12 of 17
Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab /img/forum/go_quote.gif
By the way, I have never had a tube amp that needed any maintenance. Sure, tubes can die, but as a practical matter, this is overblown. In a headphone amp most tubes are loafing - they could last more than 10,000 hours - 10 hours a day usage for 3 years.


Woo says the various tubes they use in their Woo3 last for various amounts of time. Average is anywhere from 5K to 9K hours. What concerns me the most is the degradation of sound quality as they wear, and most tube amps are out of my price range.

I see someone selling a Corda Aria and that has me interested because it has crossfeed and a USB DAC but don't know how good it is as an amp with DT990. Don't really need the DAC though as I use an EMU 0404 USB as an external DAC by connecting it directly to my 2 PCs via both coax and optical SPDIF. It would just be another option to play around with.
 
Dec 13, 2008 at 3:42 AM Post #13 of 17
Quote:

Originally Posted by terriblepaulz /img/forum/go_quote.gif
X3 - 990s + tubes =
smile.gif
. Mine are seeing my head more often recently with a newly acquired tube amp.



Is the DT990 good with tubes because the tubes smooth out the high end frequency? I've noticed the DT990 have very good high end extension and I can pick out songs with distortion very easily with them. Good for well recorded music but with some older rock from the 60s not so good because I can hear the flaws in their recordings easily. But that's what EQ is for.
 
Dec 13, 2008 at 4:59 AM Post #14 of 17
One other thing to try is a 120-ohm adapter with it. The DT660 pretty much needs a 120-ohm adapter.

And there's this...

Headphones Amp[showUid][showUID]=1878&tx_sbproductdatabase_pi1[showUid][backPID]=108&cHash=a3f8af7d9a

100 ohm output impedence for the headphone jack.

Give it a try.... The increased impedence will temper the highs.

Someone actually asked Beyer...

Rock Grotto Audio Forum - IEC61938 on driving headphones

Read page 2 as well.
 
Dec 13, 2008 at 5:04 AM Post #15 of 17
One other thing....

check the output impedences on all tube headphone amplifiers. The OTL amps usually have output impedences higher than the SS amps. They may not approach 100-ohm or 120-ohm (unless designed so), but they are not 0 or single digit like 0.1 ohm, etc.
 

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