[Zoom25]

Quote:

O2 is the best amp ever created by mankind. It can drive all headphones to good loudness. It gets loud!

 
+1...Using it with Stax SR-009. Plus I got the power cable re-cabled with some premium uranium and got some weed sheath. The high's on this combo will literally get you high. Worth checking out if you're an audiophile. Early reports from Snoop Dogg also seem positive.

 

[Limniscate]

The O2 is not ideal with the HE500, imho.

 

[Fearless1]

Quote:

U guys want fire with the he500? Try the 337/339..very affordable (and just very recently the 339 is upgraded with higher quality capacitators i read on their forum) and until now for the price the best amp I HEARD with my he500 ....to my ears anyway...and some others (but i have to admit i have ts 5998 and ts meshplates for power and driver tubes and thatmakes huge difference in combination with the he500)

Lyr with RTC tubes over it all day with the HE500....To my ears anyway as an owner of both amps. 337 with the HD650 though.

 

[nicholars]

Why doesn't the 02 amp have RCA inputs? Is the 02 amp really good or are you joking?

 

[khaine1711]

Quote:

Why doesn't the 02 amp have RCA inputs? Is the 02 amp really good or are you joking?

Jokes aside, it's designed for portable/compact use, hence the 3.5 input. You can build one with RCA input if you want (have to route it in the back, or use a bigger chassis)

 

[Zoom25]

Quote:

Why doesn't the 02 amp have RCA inputs? Is the 02 amp really good or are you joking?

LOL in all seriousness O2 is not the best choice for planars. Is it a bad amp? Definitely not. It's one of the most transparent amps I have tried. It's perfect for IEMs and stuff like D2000. No hiss with IEMs whatsoever. It makes those bass heavy phones get all tight. Very, very enjoyable with that stuff. Terrible with LCD-2. Good resolution with HE-500 but not full enough. Basslines can be tracked easily, but it doesn't possess the dynamic range in the bass region that something like the Emotiva might have.
 
The O2 typically comes with 3.5 mm input. I remember reading on a particular website that it was due to the design board and schematic. Although later on, there were some models made with RCA. For most people it's a terrible configuration. Although when I was at university, I had this weird positioning on my desk that it made quite a bit of sense.

 

[nicholars]

What is the best cheap amp that is good for IEM's and could also power HE-500 / HD600 well?

 

[khaine1711]

Quote:

What is the best cheap amp that is good for IEM's and could also power HE-500 / HD600 well?

3 different bags of worms: sensitive, current hungry, and high impedance 

. What's your definition of "cheap" and can you DIY?

 

[Zoom25]

Quote:

What is the best cheap amp that is good for IEM's and could also power HE-500 / HD600 well?

 
I heard the $99 Schiit's are good for planars. Don't know how the Magni (or was it the Modi?) handles IEMs. I have Shure SE215 and I get a noise floor from headphone jack out of Macbook pro as well as Fiio E10. The O2 is the only dedicated amp I have that works perfectly with O2. It gives me great volume and sonic control. Regarding HD 600 - no clue how the E10 would work. HE-500, I used the O2 for about 4 months and it took me some time to get used to the sound. By far the longest time I needed to get used to an amp. For electronic genres, it wasn't the best. Although for acoustic/ambience stuff it worked quite well. Also the transparency is excellent for movies. So depends on your genres I guess.
 
I'm sure other will have other suggestions. I remember Audio GD had some good options when I was considering the O2, as well as the Asgard...I don't know about the new Asgard 2, but people seemed to be enjoying stuff like D2000/D5000/D7000 with it. Not sure about impedance mismatch with IEMs and Asgard. I haven't looked up at Asgard 2 though and whether they improved on that.

 

[Zoom25]

Also on a sidenote I wanted to mention that Mike from Headfonia did a review on the O2 last year and at that time I disagreed with his opinions quite a bit. Although over the year, I started to agree with his opinion. Just go through the comments page and you'll see quite a bit of people disagreeing with him. Although having had the equipment for about a year now, I think I can say that his review was quite good on spot on.
 
Some of the main points were: O2 with HE-500 is good, but can be better. HE-400 with O2 is excellent. O2 and IEM is great. O2 with Sennheiser HD650 was meh. O2 is great for transparency, if you're looking for that, then you'll get it. O2 isn't the most musical thing out there.
 
I don't have the HE-400 and the HD 600 so can't comment on that, but besides that I agree with him quite a bit. Although the O2 can be quite musical on select genres. 

 

[Grendelrt]

What is the best cheap amp that is good for IEM's and could also power HE-500 / HD600 well?

I don't have impressions yet, but if the Asgard 2 can drive HE-500s well then it would be also good for iem since it has the low and high gain switch. I don't know if you consider 250 cheap either though

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[khaine1711]

I'll try to tackle the problem before going to bed (5 A.M. here). DIY a Crack for the Hd600 - yes they are that marvelous and need the best you can feed them; or a Dynalo if you like solid state. DIY a O2 for the IEMs, and find an used speaker amp (Marantz old Pm line is the cheapest me think) for the He500.
 
Up to this day I still think highly of the Hd600 (owned them 3 times), and once you build a setup around it, it'll sound really good with most things - unless you like speed/death metal 

 - but we got orthos/stax for that.
 
If can't DIY then just get an O2 while saving up and figuring out which among the three you like best duh =p.

 

[nicholars]

I am quite tempted to try out the Audio-GD products because they seem to be well designed and are very good value for money... Especially the dac/amp combo's as the amp's in them seem pretty high powered compared to what you usually see in a dac/amp combo. However I am a bit reluctant to buy from China when I do not know what they will sound like or if they break it is a bit of a nightmare to return but I cannot find anything with similar specs in an amp/dac combo for anywhere near the same price as the Audio GD... Maybe the Yulong D100 I dont know...

 

[Jesterphile]

Quote:

I am quite tempted to try out the Audio-GD products because they seem to be well designed and are very good value for money... Especially the dac/amp combo's as the amp's in them seem pretty high powered compared to what you usually see in a dac/amp combo. However I am a bit reluctant to buy from China when I do not know what they will sound like or if they break it is a bit of a nightmare to return but I cannot find anything with similar specs in an amp/dac combo for anywhere near the same price as the Audio GD.

It's cheap due to the reasons you're apprehensive about purchasing one.
 
I had an NFB10 and enjoyed it with my HE500's both in balanced output and single ended.

 

[nicholars]

Yes it seem that the only way to get a decent quality dac / amp for under £300-400 is one of the Chinese brands Yulong or Audio GD, or maybe Schiit.