Commercial Amp for the HD580s . . .

[andrzejpw]

What's considered the best commercial amp for HD580s?

The X-Cans?

The Creek?

Or should I build a corda?

Preferabbly, under $200 USED.

 

[Hirsch]

It can be tough finding a Grado RA-1 for $200 used, but they appear sometimes. That amp is wonderful with the 580's.

 

[bootman]

Depends what you mean by "best".
The best vocals I heard with my 580s was through the x-cans but there were other issues with it that could only be fixed by spending much more than $200.

The creek can be a good choice but i can't comment on the sound since I haven't heard this combo.
(but it has a good rep for good sound especially with the regulated supply)

The grado amp is also a good choice. I have heard it with the 580s and they do drive them very well.
(contrary to what others may say but not have heard!

)
but getting one for $200 is next to impossible.

The Corda has received great reviews here and they do have x-feed which you might like.
(I don't have the problems that other have when listening to music through cans which x-feed might help solve)

 

[fiddler]

Well, I can't speak for any of the other amps, but I can say that the Corda works very nicely with the HD580/600s. I'm beginning to fall in love with the crossfeed.. I almost always have it on the "low" setting. It really does make recordings (well, some more than others) more natural sounding. You may or may not like it though. I can easily understand why people wouldn't like it... You do get a feeling of reduced bass when the crossfeed is on. The bass is still there, but it just doesn't stick out as much.

 

[andrzejpw]

hmmm, so its either the Ra-1 or the corda? What about the creek? Any opinions?

 

[fiddler]

Well, from everything I've read, the Creek is on the warm side, and the HD580s are warm, so I'm not so sure it'll be a good combo. People have said that the X-cans and the Senns make a killer combo, but the X-cans don't work too well with other headphones, so it wouldn't be the greatest choice if you plan to get other headphones in the future.

 

[slindeman]

I second the Corda recommendation, very nice sounding and versatile. Drives low impedance and high impedance phones equally well, and has adjustable crossfeed. I've only compared it to standard headphone jacks and the 2 DIY headphone amps I've built, not any other commercial amps.

Based on reading lots of other reviews and recommendations, the other 2 low-cost amps that I would consider with the HD580/600 are the MG Head and the Headroom Little. If you really want to save money then a well-built DIY cmoy amp fed with a decent 18V-24V power supply does work very well with HD600s. The HD600s require hardly any current, and so the OPA132/4 does the job quite well considering the low cost of the chip and how forgiving it is of layout and such.

 

[Nick Dangerous]

Under $200? With the 580's?

I'd go with the Corda first if you can find it for that price.

Then the X-Can.

Lastly, the Creek.

(haven't heard the HA-1) EDIT: Aha! I was thinking of Grado's amp. How silly of me.

 

[andrzejpw]

corda is the ha-1, me thinks

I have a cmoy. I'm going to build another one. Any tips for building one for hd580s?

 

[slindeman]

A good power supply.

Get lots of voltage (+- 15 is best) to the opamps, and have lots of reserve power in your bypass caps. Once you've got that much, well then there are a lot of different directions you can go from there, i.e. trying different opamps, adding a good buffer stage, multi-loop topology, expensive caps and potentiometers, it all depends on how much you want to expirement and how much you want to spend.

So far I haven't done anything exotic or exciting but that doesn't mean I won't sometime.

If you're really just looking to get something that drives HD580 well and is inexpensive both in dollars and time, then DIY is probably not what you are really after. I do it because its fun, I doubt I've saved any money. Soon I'll have 4 amps sitting around (most DIY'ers have many more than that!) but I still want to make more and even buy more commercial ones. Sad but true. DIY is just as much a slippery slope as buying headphones and commercial amps is.

 

[Audio-Me]

The Creek OBH-11se sounds great with the Sennheisers (was my old headphone amp). The se is same as regular($200), just has a crazy ac adapter. But if you want real magic, save up some more money and get an Antique Sound Lab MG Head tube amp. (or try to find one used)

btw, what the hell is CMOY?

 

[MacDEF]

UNDER $200? Not much, but for under $300:

HeadRoom Little
Creek OBH1
X-CANv2
Grado

I would probably put them in that order, with the X-CANv2 above the Creek if you will ONLY be using the amp with HD580s. I list the Little first mainly because of the killer upgrade path... which you WILL take advantage of if you stick around here long

 

[andrzejpw]

How is the little, btw?

 

[AtEase]

Quote:

btw, what the hell is CMOY? [/B]

CMOY=Chu Moy, the guy who runs headwize and designed the popular CMOY amp.

People always seem to rank the Creek below the X-Cans for use with Senns - I know that most seem to think the X-Cans and Senns have a good deal of synergy but do the Creeks sound especially bad with the Senns? I was looking into picking up an OBH-11 for my 580's...

 

[Nick Dangerous]

Creek is decent with the 580's, but they don't have that tubey wow factor. I've A/B'ed them with an audiophile buddy of mine and found the X-Cans to be a better match.

It's probably that tube vs. solid state thing again.