[badspell68]

Totally new to tube amps and looking for a headphone amp to experience the sound of tubes. Looking for something of quality that produces the real tube sound with no background noise. I have limited technical knowledge so I find myself confused. I have looked at: Little dot, bottlehead kits and Trends Audio products and can't really make heads or tails of what I'm looking at. I would like a real tube amp, so I don't know if that removes hybrids from the decision?
I will be listening with (Grado SR80 32ohms).

Suggestions and advice would be much appreciated!

 

[BIG POPPA]

How much money do you want to spend and what is your source?

 

[kunalraiker]

SR 80 would be ideal to get little dot I+ hybrid tube amp.

 

[badspell68]

The source is a analog CD player "Sony d25". I would like to spend less then $400 and have no idea if that is a realistic amount.

 

[badspell68]

I heard that hybrids are not true tube amps and that I would not be getting the true tube sound. Also heard a bit about the low quality of little dot and its sound?

 

[kunalraiker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by badspell68 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I heard that hybrids are not true tube amps and that I would not be getting the true tube sound. Also heard a bit about the low quality of little dot and its sound?

Hybrid amps give you the warmth of the tubes and the high current of the SS amps which would be required by your low impdance headphones, the SR 80's belong to the starting line of the Grado's therfore you will not get awesome returns with using something as a $300.00 amp, litlle dot I+ is a decent amp with amazing price people usually step directly to Woo Audio WA6 from here.

 

[Currawong]

You could always buy a cheap solid-state amp that uses OPAMPs, then put in 2x OPA627s. You'd then have the "tube sound" (ie: rolled-off treble of cheap tube amps) that you're after.

 

[badspell68]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kunalraiker /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hybrid amps give you the warmth of the tubes and the high current of the SS amps which would be required by your low impdance headphones, the SR 80's belong to the starting line of the Grado's therfore you will not get awesome returns with using something as a $300.00 amp, litlle dot I+ is a decent amp with amazing price people usually step directly to Woo Audio WA6 from here.

What do you think of this on:
ALO Audio

And what wold be a good Grado upgrade without spending over-the-top?

 

[badspell68]

Could someone explain "low impedance headphones"? All Grado headphones are .32ohms and not sure how that relates to sound quality?

Thanks!

 

[JB197]

Hello badspell68, (I'm no expert, but...) the impedance is just the electrical rating so the amp designer knows what load he has to drive. It does not relate to sound quality. Lower impedance, such as the 32 Ohm Grados, need proportionally lower voltage and higher current than, say, 600 Ohm 'phones which need more voltage and lower current.

I think the trend is for lower impedance so that they can run from the low voltage batteries in portable devices such as iPods and the like.

It seems that tubes don't like to drive low impedances, so the designers add transformers at the output to help them.

 

[badspell68]

Thanks!