[MDPD]

I recently discovered that I need a headphone amp for my main system. To make a long story short I am astounded that my big powerful Denon AVR struggles to drive even a pair of 40 ohm cans! (I attribute it to over-engineering on the headphone circuit resulting in struggle mode and poor sound quality with headphones). My vintage 38 wpc Marantz has no issues with that....go figure.
 
So I need to save up and get a headphone amp. I do not want a portable amp. I want something big enough to be at home in a component stereo system. I'm looking at preparing to spend up to $500, but less is more.
 
Any good recomendations to look at?
 
Thank you

 

[MDPD]

Hmm, judging by the response so far I am guessing there is nothing out there in my price range for what I am after. I guess I'm either going to have to raise my budget (not going to happen) or live without (much easier to do, although I'll have to change my vinyl set up).
 
Thanks, appreciate everyone who looked.

 

[Renderman]

There are actually a lot of options out there, even within your budget.
 
It would be nice to have a better picture of what you are looking for, do you want a Solid State or Tube amplifier for instance?

 

[MDPD]

  There are actually a lot of options out there, even within your budget.
 
It would be nice to have a better picture of what you are looking for, do you want a Solid State or Tube amplifier for instance?

Oh, I was thinking my budget would more cover portable amps rather than non-portable.
Solid State or Tube? Hm, ya know, I'm not really sure. I hear certain cans love tubes such as the AKGs (which I will be receiving today), but I also have a pair of Sennheiser HD518s that are warm enough frankly. So I want something that performs well with all different cans, so maybe Solid Sate would be my best choice?

 

[Renderman]

  Oh, I was thinking my budget would more cover portable amps rather than non-portable.
Solid State or Tube? Hm, ya know, I'm not really sure. I hear certain cans love tubes such as the AKGs (which I will be receiving today), but I also have a pair of Sennheiser HD518s that are warm enough frankly. So I want something that performs well with all different cans, so maybe Solid Sate would be my best choice?

Nice! Which AKGs will you be receiving? I can personally attest that AKGs sound awesome on my Feliks Audio Elise tube amplifier. A friend of mine also loved my amplifier in combination with his HD518s. So much so he bought the exact same amplifier
 
Too bad it is just out of your range, It used to cost exactly $500 but, as demand rised, so did the price I'm afraid.
 
If you want a solid state amp I have built quite a few amplifiers using LME49600 opamps. These have very impressive specifications and with a good power supply and circuit they can sound very good. So I would recommend an amplifier using those, there are a lot.
 
Would you need or like an integrated DAC?

 

[Thenewguy007]

What AKG's will you be getting?

 

[MDPD]

  Nice! Which AKGs will you be receiving? I can personally attest that AKGs sound awesome on my Feliks Audio Elise tube amplifier. A friend of mine also loved my amplifier in combination with his HD518s. So much so he bought the exact same amplifier
 
Too bad it is just out of your range, It used to cost exactly $500 but, as demand rised, so did the price I'm afraid.
 
If you want a solid state amp I have built quite a few amplifiers using LME49600 opamps. These have very impressive specifications and with a good power supply and circuit they can sound very good. So I would recommend an amplifier using those, there are a lot.
 
Would you need or like an integrated DAC?

I'm getting the K7xx. I almost got the K712pro, but it is too much of an investment as I do not like to use headphones when I can avoid it. I read that the K7xx wa awfully close to the K712, so I opted to save the money. 
I got them because I find my Sennheisers just too warm sounding, but I also do not like shrill signature either. I'm thinking a tube amp would make the Senns real muddy and dark. I could be wrong.
 
I would not know the first thing about building an amp. I don't even know how to get info on what amps use what components.
 
I don't know that I would need an integrated DAC because I'm plugging into a AVR in this case and it just can't drive headphones that well. All I'd be doing is connecting the amp to the pre-out in back, so I can use headphones. 

 

[Renderman]

  I'm getting the K7xx. I almost got the K712pro, but it is too much of an investment as I do not like to use headphones when I can avoid it. I read that the K7xx wa awfully close to the K712, so I opted to save the money. 
I got them because I find my Sennheisers just too warm sounding, but I also do not like shrill signature either. I'm thinking a tube amp would make the Senns real muddy and dark. I could be wrong.
 
I would not know the first thing about building an amp. I don't even know how to get info on what amps use what components.
 
I don't know that I would need an integrated DAC because I'm plugging into a AVR in this case and it just can't drive headphones that well. All I'd be doing is connecting the amp to the pre-out in back, so I can use headphones. 

I can understand your hesitance towards tube amplifiers. Up until January of this year I was exclusively a solid state user. Just for fun I decided to try a tube headphone amplifier that I was able to get very cheap. Surely this simple amplifier was not perfect but, I did hear that their was more to tubes then i thought!
 
Sure there was a little noise and hum but, there was also a sense of space, an out of head experience. As I later discovered, this is called a soundstage I knew this existed but I never heard it on a headphone.
 
I then started researching tube amplifiers, how they work, what makes them tick! I wanted to find what could be regarded at what was one of the best tube amplifiers and, with the Elise, I think I have succeeded in just that.
 
Just about all of the Elise owners that have compared the Elise to other headphone amplifiers (Darkvoice, Woo Audio, Little Dot) agree that the Elise is a much better amplifier. I'm extremely happy with this amplifier and consider myself lucky to find it within such a short time of my first steps into tube world.
 
I can say this amplifier does not sound dark or overly warm. The sound signature on this amplifier is actually very neutral.
 
I also own the AKG K7XX and I can say it's a very good headphone for the price. Not the most detailed headphone in the world but of course it would not be fair to compare it to my Beyerdynamic T1 1000 dollar headphones.
 
I am not in any way associated with Feliks Audio but if you would like to check out the amplifier you can go to:
http://feliksaudio.pl/en/products.html
 
There is also the original Felix Audio Elise thread at:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/732875/feliks-audio-elise-previously-6sn7-6as7g-6080-prototype
 
Hope this helps and you like what you see.

 

[MDPD]

  I can understand your hesitance towards tube amplifiers. Up until January of this year I was exclusively a solid state user. Just for fun I decided to try a tube headphone amplifier that I was able to get very cheap. Surely this simple amplifier was not perfect but, I did hear that their was more to tubes then i thought!
 
Sure there was a little noise and hum but, there was also a sense of space, an out of head experience. As I later discovered, this is called a soundstage I knew this existed but I never heard it on a headphone.
 
 
 
I also own the AKG K7XX and I can say it's a very good headphone for the price. Not the most detailed headphone in the world but of course it would not be fair to compare it to my Beyerdynamic T1 1000 dollar headphones.
 
I am not in any way associated with Feliks Audio but if you would like to check out the amplifier you can go to:
http://feliksaudio.pl/en/products.html
 
There is also the original Felix Audio Elise thread at:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/732875/feliks-audio-elise-previously-6sn7-6as7g-6080-prototype
 
Hope this helps and you like what you see.

I certainly do not need noise or hum.
Soundstage, if I have understood correctly is more in the design of the headphone than any amp. The HD518s have a narrow soundstage for open cans no matter what you plug them into for example.
The AKG K7xx will be more detailed than the Sennheisers.
 
I would not be interested in a $700 tube amp. If I want to try tubes, I'd rather do it for around $50. However, I'm also thinking that plugging a tube amp into a solid state amp, I won't notice any difference, I could be wrong. I am thinking I'd notice though if I used it directly from a source, but that is not how my system is set up.

 

[MDPD]

I might just go with the Schiit Magni Uber or the Vali. I'm not sure a tube amp would be of any significance in my set up though. Schiit seems to be the most economical approach right now.....I think.
I know Schiit makes good product, I just don't know if it is right for my application in this case. 

 

[Renderman]

  I might just go with the Schiit Magni Uber or the Vali. I'm not sure a tube amp would be of any significance in my set up though. Schiit seems to be the most economical approach right now.....I think.
I know Schiit makes good product, I just don't know if it is right for my application in this case. 

I think I might have been unclear, the Elise amplifier does not have any noise or hum. I can understand you do not want to spend 650 dollars on an amplifier.
 
If you are looking for a solid state amplifier there is at least a few recommendations I can give you, no need to build them yourself

 

[MDPD]

  I think I might have been unclear, the Elise amplifier does not have any noise or hum. I can understand you do not want to spend 650 dollars on an amplifier.
 
If you are looking for a solid state amplifier there is at least a few recommendations I can give you, no need to build them yourself

Yes, I think I better stick with solid state and avoid any problems and "gotchas". Perhaps I'll try tubes someday way down the road.