Heed Canamp or SHanling PH100 for K701s?

[Max Dread]

Hi

I'll try to make this my last poll!!! Both very popular with the K701s, and as I'm in the UK, there is not much price difference between the 2.

Cheers

Max

BTW - source = my PC with an EMU 1820M soundcard. Will get a decent CDP further down the line....

 

[ManuLM]

I could get a canamp 2nd hand. It matches the K701 very very nicely.
The punch in the bass is there, but also soundstage and all the rest that made the K701 famous.

The amp has a fairly -yet classy- build, and heats up quite much, I put my old zalmann heatsink on it

 

[QQQ]

Shanling is worlds ahead of other 2 amps with k701.

 

[tintin47]

I have heard that the Canamp is better than the Shanling, but I feel like that is partially a function of the Canamp being around longer.

You definitely can't go wrong with either, so I would probably go with th Canamp because it would be easier to deal with any problems that come up. You wouldn't need to worry about $50 shipping back to china if something happened to it.

 

[Currawong]

Get both and compare them for us.

 

[milkweg]

Don't own any of these amps but just wanted to point out that I saw a post from someone saying that some people have had issues with the Heed CanAmp picking up radio frequencies. Something to consider anyway.

 

[Hottuna_]

I found the Shanling to be very capable in powering my K701.
Can't comment on the Heed since I haven't had the chance to try it.

I keep reading that the K701 are light on bass. Now I am no basshead by any means but with the Shanling, I have yet to find the K701 to be lacking in the bass department. It is certainly present and in my opinion well defined and nicely weighted.

Some observers have commented that the PCB layout of the Shanling is remarkably similar to the ATH-HA2002/5000 but using less expensive components.

At the end of the day, I have no complaints about the Shanling. Good value really.

 

[QQQ]

Don't forget that Meier amps are manufactured by Shanling.

 

[vdub]

I would stick for the Creek for now. I've got a lowly little OBH11 and I love it with my K701's and SR325i's. I haven't had and problems with bass or soundstage with either one. Creek makes a good amp. I don't see why they don't get the attention they deserve.

 

[Alai]

I'm curious about this too... Is the Heed worth $100 over the Shanling? I'm thinking not... especially if one wants to follow a budget.

 

[anadin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vdub /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would stick for the Creek for now. I've got a lowly little OBH11 and I love it with my K701's and SR325i's. I haven't had and problems with bass or soundstage with either one. Creek makes a good amp. I don't see why they don't get the attention they deserve.

Because they arn't very good.

 

[Max Dread]

Here in the UK it will cost more or less the same to get a Shanling PH100 or Heed Canamp. So the money doesn't come into it for me.

What I like about the Shanling is that you can have two sources plugged in at the same time - which could be very handy. I bought the set-up for studio use/monitoring and mixing at night, but obviously I'll use it to just listen to music as well. With the Shanling, I can have my PC soundcard out feed one channel, and a decent CDP feed the other.

OTOH, the Canamp seems to wing it with the votes and opinions in terms of SQ. On the whole people seem to prefer this paired with K701. Hence my dilemma and this post/poll!

Out of interest, I dug out an old pair of Sennheiser HD25-SP yesterday. I A/B'd them for a while with the K701s - not a fair comparison I know but I thought it might be interesting. The soundstage was not good with the Sennies, but the bass and overall warmth and fullness was immense compared to the K701s. As Ive mentioned in other threads, the K701s seem harsh to me and end up hurting my ears! The Sennies didn't. So I'm hoping a new amp will solve the problem!

That being said, I keep trying to remind myself that first and foremost I want my set-up to be neutral, revealing, etc. because I will be using them in the studio primarily. So I sometimes wonder if the harshness, etc. is more attributable to sh!t recordings than it is to the h/phopnes presentation of the said recordings.

Cheers for the posts

Max

 

[milkweg]

My DT990pro are very revealing in the top end and I have put it down to crap recordings as the issue. Mostly older rock, punk etc. is very poorly recorded with lots of distortion in the top end on the guitars. I use an equalizer to tone down the top end a touch. Hope the tube amp I have on order helps there also. I know it's the recordings and not my equipment because I have plenty of other recordings that sound great with no distortion at all.