Help me spend my $! Need first med - highend headphone system
Jan 12, 2009 at 12:32 AM Post #17 of 47
Type RS-1 in the amp forum search and get some ideas on different options. Nice thing about the RS is it is pretty easy to drive. You don't have to throw down hard money to make them sound great.

But

Since the OP is looking for other hps, you need something that sounds good with everything, not great with a few. In that view, he has some homework with each hp he wants to see what amps come up common. If you get the top end hps, expect to drop some dough for something of quality parts and a big power supply. The 701s need a powerful amp and the 650s sound great on one. The HD 800s will be looking for a nice amp to rip them a new one.
 
Jan 12, 2009 at 2:35 AM Post #18 of 47
For the RS-1 I have some suggestions based on experience.

I know one of my favorites for RS-1 is the WA6 maxed with pseudo dual power supply and Sophia Princess 274b rectifier, which tied with Blutarsky's Zana Deux and melos SHA Gold for much less money ($1200 vs $2200). So the ZD and Melos are options, but leave less room for a DAC. We had a hard time telling which of the three we were listening to with out eyes closed and the other person switching and changing headphone jacks. They all did very well with HD600 and Denon D2000 as well. Only with the PS-1 did the WA6 make them sound a little bass heavy.

For DAC, the Stello DA100 is an excellent match for the WA6 as above, and with any of mine or Blutarsky's Grados they all got along very well (HF-1, RS-1, HP-1000, PS-1). I also really like my Headroom Micro DAC with the WA6 or Millett driving the RS-1, but you would want to consider the Ultra Micro DAC for the upsampling and extra resolution if you go that way - then it should be a match for the Stello.

In the lower price category for amps, my next choice ends up being a standard WA6 with $40-50 worth of tube upgrades ($625), then Head-direct EF-1 stock ($399) or TTVJ portable Millett hybrid ($459) then Millett Starving Student ($180), and then there is the Travagans Red with OPA627 opamps ($225) which as you can see is the only SS amp that I think I like as much with the RS-1. The TTVJ seems like it was made for the RS-1 with good synergy despite being a portable amp, and the starving student is almost as good (and even better with PS-1). But, I'd like to see you get the maxed WA6 with all the goodies to be really happy. Like I said, it drives the HF-1, RS-1 and HP-1000 as well as $2200 amps but can also drive a wide variety of headphones well.

For work headphones you should consider the Alessandro MS-1, or if they need to be closed the Denon D2000.
 
Jan 15, 2009 at 3:00 AM Post #21 of 47
Well the CMOY I ordered from ebay doesnt look promising. Its been a week and the seller won't even reply to my emails so I put in a paypal petition. He had perfect feedback so I hope everything is ok with him. I have a Mini³ comming instead so I can at least get my dac and pc going and let me take my time aquiring the amp I really want. I figure it will come in handy as a portable later anyway. I have decided to keep the speaker amp seperate and will prolly just use my existing reciever for now, well unless I go with the beta 22 but the match up with my hp is more important then being able to drive speakers. I am still unsure if I want to go with a tube amp. The only real hold back for me is the whole warm up turning on and off thing. But I do like the
eek.gif
factor of the tubes. I have read that the EC/SS goes great with the RS1 and sounds more like a tube amp then a SS amp. The EC/SS seems to be about the only SS amp I have seen repeatedly recomended for the RS1s although theres a lot of nice tube amps that reguarly get recomended so it seems the "tube sound" is what the RS1s like. Anyone heard the RS1s with the beta 22 or headroom ultra micro?
 
Jan 15, 2009 at 5:21 AM Post #22 of 47
Quote:

Originally Posted by plaidplatypus /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The OP is buying a Ultra Micro DAC, see post #15. Pete's last name is Millett not Millet here's his website: Pete Millett's DIY Audio pages

I've heard the TTVJ portable Millett Hybrid twice, both times I went away impressed. It sounds better than many full size tube amps. Here it is at Todds website: TTVJ Millett Hybrid Amp - $459.00 : TTVJ, Todd The Vinyl Junkie


Doh! I knew it was Millett - I think this is the first time I ever left off the second "t" at the end. I do see the post #15 now - I sort my pages 15 posts at a time, and somehow missed it as the last post of page 1. Looks like he beat me to the Ultra Micro DAC suggestion.
 
Jan 15, 2009 at 10:20 AM Post #23 of 47
I've owned two Headroom amps and they both were fine products. One of them had the previous version of the Max module that is in the Ultra Micro amp. Grados were my favorite headphones with that amp. I would take the WA6 over this amp unless space was a major issue.

I've heard a B22, it was like my HeadAmp Gilmore Reference but with more power. Larry will have to fill you in on how the RS-1 sounds with the HeadAmp because I've never tried that combo. I would get HeadAmp GS-X rather than a B22 because I've been seriously impressed with the consistent quality of Justin W. amps.

My tube speaker amp only takes a few seconds to warm up. The down side to tube amps are that you can't stack things on top of them and eventually you might have to replace some tubes, think of them like long-life light bulbs.

This is a long-shot guess but the Luxman P-1 may be worth looking into if you simply will not have anything to do with tubes:

Luxman P-1 [P-1] - $2,400.00 : TTVJ, Todd The Vinyl Junkie
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f36/lu...rogram-370453/
 
Jan 15, 2009 at 5:09 PM Post #24 of 47
If warm up isn't as big of a problem as I thought it was I would be open to a tube amp. I thought it would take 30min or so before I could really start listening to it and I think I would find that annoying. The tubes I am liking are the RSA Raptor, WA6 maxed as suggested, Singlepowers, and of course the Zana although it looks like that last two might take quite a while to get. I seem to really like the raptor for some reason but if the WA6 did that good against the zana I will look at it some more. Thanks for all the help!
 
Jan 15, 2009 at 6:44 PM Post #26 of 47
Quote:

Originally Posted by plaidplatypus /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I've owned two Headroom amps and they both were fine products. One of them had the previous version of the Max module that is in the Ultra Micro amp. Grados were my favorite headphones with that amp. I would take the WA6 over this amp unless space was a major issue.

I've heard a B22, it was like my HeadAmp Gilmore Reference but with more power. Larry will have to fill you in on how the RS-1 sounds with the HeadAmp because I've never tried that combo. I would get HeadAmp GS-X rather than a B22 because I've been seriously impressed with the consistent quality of Justin W. amps.

My tube speaker amp only takes a few seconds to warm up. The down side to tube amps are that you can't stack things on top of them and eventually you might have to replace some tubes, think of them like long-life light bulbs.

This is a long-shot guess but the Luxman P-1 may be worth looking into if you simply will not have anything to do with tubes:

Luxman P-1 [P-1] - $2,400.00 : TTVJ, Todd The Vinyl Junkie
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f36/lu...rogram-370453/


The Gilmore Reference is a great amp. It makes my woodied re-cabled D2000 sound as good when run single ended as when I run them balanced on my Single Power (4-pin XLR plug with an APS V3 SE adapter and an APS V3 balanced adapter). It is also quite good with my Edition 9.

With RS-1 and bowls it basically turns them into pseudo-electrostatics - super fast and clean and crisp and transparent. It's not quite as euphonic as my WA6 with them which I like slightly better, but still quite good.

As plaidplatypus said, power is an issue although my D2000 and Edition 9 can still go pretty loud, but only a problem with driving (or lack thereof) my SFI orthodynamics and 600 ohm AKG K240M, and less so with my Yamaha HP-1 orthodynamics which are still power hogs. It does fine with HD600, but that is where the balanced amp does rise above the Gilmore Reference as the HD600 simply wake up and dance when balanced.

I like it best with the D2000 and Edition 9 at this point, RS-1 second place, HD600 in 3rd, and forget the orthos.
 
Jan 15, 2009 at 11:33 PM Post #27 of 47
Quote:

Originally Posted by Sherwood /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The amp you want at your budget is a Beta 22. It is a phenomenal, absolute top of the line Headphone and speaker amp. It can built moderately, or extremely maxed, depending on your budget and preferences. Go ahead and go balanced -- it's worth it for when you eventually try Sennheiser HD650s.

It is DIY, so will need to either buy one used on this forum, or find someone to build you one. Good options abound for builders here, though I'm not sure who's currently making them.

Expect around $1200 for this, and don't expect to find anything better for less.


I couldn't agree more with Sheerwood. I have many friends who own many "highend" headphones including the HD6xx series, DT880 (250ohms and/or 600ohms) and so on. However, they often coimplain that the phones do not sing as well as they can because they do not have an amp powerful enough to drive them properly.

Equal importance and attention shoud be paid to both the amp and the source. For the amp quality power should not be overlooked. No point having super headphones and you can't drive it properly??? For source rubbish in rubbish out.
 
Jan 16, 2009 at 10:47 PM Post #28 of 47
My Mini3 came today so now I have something to go by. I hooked up the mini3 up to my ultra micro dac and also gave it a try on the iphone since thats what I have been using as a source up till now. It was a definate improvement esp when hooked up to the dac. I am pretty happy with the sound for the most part esp the vocals. The highs sound good. The bass improved some, esp the loud boomy kind. These phones seem to have no problem making the noisy part of bass even without the amp they did a pretty good job of it. Drum impact and detail is still very lacking though. Songs like the wall by floyd just dont hit like im used to. I didn't have huge expectations for this amp. I really just wanted something quick so I could get everything going and give me a basis for figuring out what I really want. It seems that something that will give lots of impact and detail to drums is what I am looking for or what is lacking, I really like the rest of the sound. Can the RS1 be good at drums with the right amp or should I be looking at different phones for good drum performance? My last car system had Zapco DC reference amps setup active driving ADS seperates and the drum impact and detail was amazing. I am trying to recreate that kind of sound in a pair of HP if possible. Since I have never actualy heard a high end HP setup I dont really know just how good you can get somthing like drums to sound in a HP.

Thanks for all the recomendations and help! I dont comment all that often here but I do lots of reading on pretty much everything that is suggested in this thread. Researching products and putting a nice system together is as much fun for me as actualy using the system.
 
Jan 16, 2009 at 11:03 PM Post #29 of 47
i hope you plug your mini 3 on the line out of the iphone (on the botom) not on the headphone line...

I say that because you don't mention your LOD dock connection?
 
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