[si66]

Hi! Hope somebody may be able to offer some advice. I have a Marantz PM6004 amp with a Rega RP1 Turntable and a pair of Grado SR125i's. Do you think it would be of any real noticeable benefit to use a headphone amp? If it would, has anyone experience of which one I should go for? I would probably budget up to around GB£150. 
Many thanks.
Simon

 

[Gixer-k6]

Hi There, I am new to this site, only joined today, but can tell you that i recently bought a new Marantz pm6004 to use with  a rotel rcd 06se and i thought the headphone output was poor quality compared to my older rotel rao4se but then that had a dedicated output, I think the marantz was a bit of an afterthought, I just sold a early Graham Slee Solo and PSU-1  that was very good and on a different  level, Fast, smooth, and a pleasure to listen to for hours and never sounded harsh, I think you should spend more than your budget, Your ears will thank you for it, Thats if you can afford it, Graham Slee loan them if you register on there site, The Novo is a good amp but takes a while to sound at its best, Best to use it with a PSU, Your best bet is to have a listen to a few but i would say the Graham Slee amps would be a wise buy.

 

[Zombie_X]

Hi,
 
I have a firm belief that no Grado requires an amp, even their PS1000 model does not require one. That headphone is not high end to me, still in the mid-fi realm I would say. I own a MS-1i, which is a differently tuned SR-125i, and it does not need an amp at all. The amp will boost the quality so far, and in the case of Grado's you won't notice much difference at all IMO.
 
I think your Marantz will be just fine. I've heard good things about the headphone section on Marantz gear so you should have no worries.

 

[si66]

Thank both of you for taking time out to reply! This site is a mine of information......I've just done a couple of mods on my Grados that make them sound so much better i.e they have lost that harsh high frequency.
Anyway back to the headphone amp. I have read that the Marantz amp has a reasonable headphone output, but I guess i have now got the headphone bug and so will probably take up Gixers idea of getting on from Graham Slee on demo so at least I will be able to compare the difference (if any) on my set up. 
Thanks so very much again for your words of wisdom, and if you or anybody else has any views I would love to hear them.
Cheers.
Simon

 

[KevyBoy]

SI 66,

I have a antique sound labs tube headphone amplifier, and I plug it into my Sansui au7700 headphone out. That way I can use bass, treble, and yes loudness controls. ( I still don't understand that with all the different types of recordings, how a stereo with no controls can sound good, going from recording to recording) If the 6004 has a good headphone out, you will be surprised how good it can sound. I have a 1/4 split to RCA cable into the tube headphone amp.. Song to song, I can make minor adjustments. It sounds sweet. I'm thinking about getting a 6004 to see if there is an overall improvement over my current sound. Is the new 6004 really that good, or should I stick with my Sansui soun?. ( I am pretty happy with it, but there are repairs with old equipment that can be costly. )

So long story short, I would get a tube headphone amp, and try it this way, and if works for you, spread the word. Just tell'em Kevyboy sent you. And tone controls are fun!

P.S. - you will also want to roll tubes to get the sound right. I swapped d out a stock 12AX7 with a NOS 5751, smoothed it out. Tubes with tone controls, a winner in my book. Your results may vary.

-Kevy

 

[Snag1e]

As far as loudness / power goes, no grado should need an amp. However, your receiver likely has a higher output impedance than would be ideal to drive the grados. I would personally pick up an amp. IMO something cheep like a Fiio E5 should work fine for you, it has plenty of power for the grados, and the 0.7 ohm output impedance should be great for low z headphones (including grados).