Has anyone used 'hi-fi' brand headphone amps?

[chrono]

Hi all,

There's a seller on ebay 'hotproductstore' that sells alot of tube gear from China. I actually purchased a tube amp from him for my speaker setup, and was very surprised with the great sound it gives.

That's the amp I got:
http://cgi.ebay.com/KT88-tube-integr...QQcmdZViewItem

The sound is really detailed and rich, and it does add some warmth, but not a whole lot to my Axiom M22ti speakers. Anyways, I'm really satisfied with this amp. It also has really high build quality. I can't complain about one thing on it.. it's super sturdy, the volume knob has a nice weight to it with silky smooth rotation.. and the amp just looks amazing, and looks alot nicer than many name brand amps.

What I noticed is that this seller also has for sale a very similar tube amp which can be used as a headphone amp. It's $400 and avaliable in silver or black. Take a look:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll..._promot_widget

There's also a couple other amps that are similar to this one.

Has anyone ever used one of these Hi-Fi headphone amps?

There's no doubt that the build quality will be very high, I'm just wondering about the sound.

 

[Uncle Erik]

They look nice, but did you catch the shipping on the first one? $190... holy smokes. $190 would just about cover the cost of the parts in that one. The headphone amp is $90 to ship. Again, you'd be most of the way there for $90 with a DIY amp.

That being said, the specs look good and the build quality is nice. But do you really want to pay that much for shipping? You can get a very nice amp for much less than the total.

 

[kramer5150]

I'm always very tempted to try that one...

is it just me?
There looks to me a small PCB right next to the headphone output... some through hole resistors and other things. There are some long orange / brown wires runnign down the side of the chassis and pulling signal from the input jacks.

Im wondering if the headphone stage is really tube?... or more tube hybrid... or (gasp) solid state?

[/IMG]

????

Tube experts please enlighten me? and correct me if I am way off base in my line of questioning... thanks

 

[chrono]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik They look nice, but did you catch the shipping on the first one? $190... holy smokes. $190 would just about cover the cost of the parts in that one. The headphone amp is $90 to ship. Again, you'd be most of the way there for $90 with a DIY amp. That being said, the specs look good and the build quality is nice. But do you really want to pay that much for shipping? You can get a very nice amp for much less than the total.

Haha, I did actually pay $190 shipping on the speaker amp. But, I mean it's not too unreasonable. The amp weighs a lot, it doesn't specify the weight there, but it's gotta be over 50 lbs. In total it cost about $800 after shipping, and well worth that price to me. I'd expect to pay over $1000 if it was in a store locally..

The headpone amp .. it is alot to pay for shipping for a headphone amp, you're right. That $90 could go towards the amp itself, instead of just shipping it. But, maybe it's worth it? That's what I'd like to find out, if anyone on here has even auditioned it before somewhere.

Good eye kramer5150. Im not sure about electronics, but that wire looks suspicious. Could the headphone jack really be bypassing the tubes?

 

[Jahn]

any amp that uses TWO Magic Eyes is ok by me

 

[jdimitri]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramer5150 I'm always very tempted to try that one... is it just me? There looks to me a small PCB right next to the headphone output... some through hole resistors and other things. There are some long orange / brown wires runnign down the side of the chassis and pulling signal from the input jacks. Im wondering if the headphone stage is really tube?... or more tube hybrid... or (gasp) solid state? [/IMG] ???? Tube experts please enlighten me? and correct me if I am way off base in my line of questioning... thanks

Take a plunge and get one!
If u like it, i'll get one too

If u don't, ill take it anyway i might like it