Cheap headphone amp recommendations?

[JLChristie]

Hey all,

I was wondering what headphone amp is recommended in the cheaper price bracket? Source Naim CDP.

Does anyone know anything about this amp? - Trends Audio PA-10 Tube ($420) It has the Including Russian 6H23n Tube what ever that is...

How does it compare to a Rega Ear at $400 NZD? Rega at least is a well known brand. Iv heard mixed reviews on Pro-ject amps ... there doesn't seem to be too much for under $1000 NZ out there? Naim Headline is well over $1k, Perreaux is about $1k also.

Headphones are Grado SR125i's

Thanks a lot.

 

[tintin47]

If you are amping grados, you should really go SS if you are on the lower end of things. Grados are low impedance phones, and as such will suffer from an impedance mismatch with any OTL tube amplifier (read every tube amp in your pricerange). The symptoms of this would be reduced power to the phones and an artificial midbass hump which tends to intrude on the music.

Take a look at the Eddie Current EC/SS, maybe the HEED canamp, and the shanling series. Those are all good amps for the money. You could also try DIY, if you're up for an adventure. There are a lot of great offerings, especially in your price range. I would look at cavalliaudio.com and amb.org for some projects if you are interested. Cavalli also has a couple hybrid options, which tend to sound good with grados because they deliver the necessary current to drive the phones while adding a bit of tubey warmth.

The last, and possibly difficult option would be to buy from the FS forums here. It is fantastically reliable and cheap, but many refuse to ship internationally, so you have to get a little bit lucky.

 

[Bullseye]

Musical Fidelity V-Can should work good with your grados. It has 5 OHm output impedance, very low THD+N%.

I use the Little Dot I+ because I didn't know what to buy for a cheap price. Now I have found the Samson S·Amp and the V-Can and looks great. There is also this amp with 10 Ohm output impedance:

SM Pro Audio XPH4 4 Channel Headphone Amp

Unbeatable price if you are living in USA. Shame that they are no longer selling it to Europe (you can check on the manufacturer's site)

 

[.coco]

You should check out the Gilmore Lite.

 

[FallenAngel]

x2 on Dynalo (Gilmore Lite, GS-1 or DIY)

 

[JLChristie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel /img/forum/go_quote.gif x2 on Dynalo (Gilmore Lite, GS-1 or DIY)

Thanks for that! Where can you get the Gilmore Lite from? I don't think its available in New Zealand, perhaps it can be brought and sent to NZ?

Also, say I got a pair of Grado 325s or Sennheiser HD650 later down the track would it still be ok?

Thanks again,

 

[JLChristie]

Is the Gilmore Lite better then the likes of Rega Ear, Creek OBH-21?

What about something like Creek OBH-21SE or Meier Audio Corda Arietta?

 

[morfic]

Little Dot I+ is a great match for low impedance headphones. While it does not seem to convey the different sound characteristics of the tubes as much as its bigger brothers, it does have a very similar sound as its larger brother MkII. And has all the current driving power a low impedance headphone could need.
And it does not break the bank, which is always a nice "feature".