[quikgp]

As the title states, is the gilmore lite enough amp to power the HD-800? or does it need more power?

 

[ting.mike]

Never tested the HD800 with the Glite, but yes it should be able to. The Glite is quite powerful, and the HD800 is not THAT hard to drive.

Of course the HD800 will sound better out of a better amp.

 

[peanuthead]

G-Lite drives HD800 very well. I was so happy with the G-Lite I got the GS-1 - just to get a little more refinement...

 

[Wmcmanus]

It would seem like a bit of a mismatch to me. Kind of a 'lite'weight amp for those amazing headphones, I'd say. But I've not tried it myself, so go by what others who have tried it have to say.

It might just be a good holdover amp until you can afford to work your way up the food chain. If you do go that route, at least do yourself a favor by getting out to a couple of Head-Fi meets to hear what the HD800's can do in a well matched system. They scale as well as any headphones I can think of.

 

[ting.mike]

Yes, eventually you'd want to upgrade to a better amp for the HD800. Something at least in the $1000+ range.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Yes. The Dynalo works fine with the HD-800. Keep in mind that these amps put out 1W of power - quite a lot.

I'm still hung up on running the HD-800 off tubes. The little glowing bottles really add something.

 

[jcx]

I doubt price or performance of the Gilmore lite topology is a limitation - its the Vswing on the output that is a little short for "High End" performance with HD800

the bias and supply has been optimized for 32 Ohm cans - Gilmore himself offered suggestions to increase supply V for higher Z cans

there is also a fully differential balanced output variation in the original construction article - the doubled Vswing should make for fine perfromance with 300 Ohm cans

HeadWize - Project: A Pure Class A Dynamic Headphone Amplifier by Kevin Gilmore

 

[FallenAngel]

Voltage swing is "only" about 6-7V, that's fine for most headphones (and not a low number really), but yes, 300 Ohm HD600/HD650/HD800 more with considerably more to play low bass.