[khaine1711]

   
Would you say that for the money the compass 2 9018 is the best pairing for the hifiman he-500? I can't spend too much so would this combination of amp and DAC be best? btw it doesn't have to be just one unit i could purchase them separately.

Well, you could probably say it's one of the good value unit for ~$600 new - especially for us in the UK. Still I do not think highly of Kingwa all-in-one stuff (I like his dedicated preamp and dac however).
 
Buying used is another matter though. Decent dac and a vintage receiver will blow the socks off most headphone dac/amp combo of the same price 

 
Do you plan to upgrade in any foreseeable future, or do you plan to stick with the combo for a loooong time?

 

[modulor]

   
Thanks for the response - was getting tired of trawling through all the references in the entire thread. I was actually looking at the S.E.X. a few days ago rather lustfully. Something like that would easily be end-game for me if the pairing was sublime.
The Ember looks tempting because of the price and easy tube-rolling; just not sure if that's more of a 'fun' thing than actual nirvana. Not that I'm adverse to the idea of fun/tube-rolling. 
Plus I've got tax to consider on top of those prices, which isn't pretty.

Tube rolling can be fun and beneficial, but expensive depending on how much you do and what you get.  Fortunately both of these use tubes that are fairly inexpensive.  That's unfortunate with the taxes...I suppose you could contact garage1217 and/or bottlehead and see what their policy is on international shipping.  Maybe khaine or someone else knows of a similar type amp kit from EU?

 

[Pumelman8]

  Well, you could probably say it's one of the good value unit for ~$600 new - especially for us in the UK. Still I do not think highly of Kingwa all-in-one stuff (I like his dedicated preamp and dac however).
 
Buying used is another matter though. Decent dac and a vintage receiver will blow the socks off most headphone dac/amp combo of the same price 

 
Do you plan to upgrade in any foreseeable future, or do you plan to stick with the combo for a loooong time?

 
I would probably use this setup for a long time cause I am a student but I have a huge passion for music! I have saved up for ages and I would like to get the best setup I can for about £800.

 

[khaine1711]

  Tube rolling can be fun and beneficial, but expensive depending on how much you do and what you get.  Fortunately both of these use tubes that are fairly inexpensive.  That's unfortunate with the taxes...I suppose you could contact garage1217 and/or bottlehead and see what their policy is on international shipping.  Maybe khaine or someone else knows of a similar type amp kit from EU?

International shipping is quite expensive. I've never asked Doc B on the issue, but I doubt he is willing to declare a lower value for us in the EU. The best bet would actually be asking friends in the States to buy it, then pack it carefully and ship it as a $50 bucks valued parcel.
 
I know a few kits, but none of them are transformer coupled + selectable impedance switch. Not sure if he wants a DIY kit only, but I know many builders here will gladly build you a mini-speaker amps that you can use with both sensitive speaker and planars - says a mini el84 amp is quite cheap to make.
 

   
I would probably use this setup for a long time cause I am a student but I have a huge passion for music! I have saved up for ages and I would like to get the best setup I can for about £800.

 
I'd suggest auditioning, a lot. Have you ever heard the He-500 before?

 

[Pumelman8]

  International shipping is quite expensive. I've never asked Doc B on the issue, but I doubt he is willing to declare a lower value for us in the EU. The best bet would actually be asking friends in the States to buy it, then pack it carefully and ship it as a $50 bucks valued parcel.
 
I know a few kits, but none of them are transformer coupled + selectable impedance switch. Not sure if he wants a DIY kit only, but I know many builders here will gladly build you a mini-speaker amps that you can use with both sensitive speaker and planars - says a mini el84 amp is quite cheap to make.
 
 
I'd suggest auditioning, a lot. Have you ever heard the He-500 before?

 
No, cause in the UK i can't find anywhere that let's you try headphones before you buy them.

 

[GREQ]

  International shipping is quite expensive. I've never asked Doc B on the issue, but I doubt he is willing to declare a lower value for us in the EU. The best bet would actually be asking friends in the States to buy it, then pack it carefully and ship it as a $50 bucks valued parcel.
 
I know a few kits, but none of them are transformer coupled + selectable impedance switch. Not sure if he wants a DIY kit only, but I know many builders here will gladly build you a mini-speaker amps that you can use with both sensitive speaker and planars - says a mini el84 amp is quite cheap to make.

That el84 looks great too. 
I'm not really looking for anything specific, but I do love a bargain, and these kits seem to offer the most return for my coin. 
Have you tried the HE-500 with the el84, or is that just a suggestion? I am really looking for something to make the HE-500 shine, and perhaps with the right tube, tame the treble just a smidge.... but that's a whole 'nother universe to explore. 

 

[jamesfleming]

Pumelman8, have you looked at either the Lake People g103/109 or Violectric v90/100 amplifiers? They get good write ups from people using them with HE500s and they're made in Europe so you wouldn't have to pay taxes on import.

 

[khaine1711]

   
No, cause in the UK i can't find anywhere that let's you try headphones before you buy them.

 
Give Gary @ AnalogueSeduction a call. He got the full Hifiman range - and offer a 14 days no questions asked return. You can visit his store, or you can buy any Hifiman from him and return within 14 days if you don't like it. I got my He500 from him.
 
Mark @ Item Audio got the two Audezes, the TH900 and a few good amp (The Soloist and V200) - only 7 days home demo though. Excellent dealer that let you demo stuff he carries without actually trying to hard sell you anything.
 
True that the majority of the dealers here (except one or two) do not have an actual demo room for headphones. But most are willing to lend you any headphones for 1 or 2 weeks (some of course will require you to make a deposit as security).
 

  That el84 looks great too. 
I'm not really looking for anything specific, but I do love a bargain, and these kits seem to offer the most return for my coin. 
Have you tried the HE-500 with the el84, or is that just a suggestion? I am really looking for something to make the HE-500 shine, and perhaps with the right tube, tame the treble just a smidge.... but that's a whole 'nother universe to explore. 

I've heard a lot. EL84 speaker amps are way too common - I guess coz they don't require a more beefy power supply compared to the other pentodes.
 
Cheap EL84 PP amps are a bit snoozy for me. I suggest them because they are cheaper to build. Good ones sound damn nice, but cost an arm and a leg. My favorite pentodes are actually the 6550/Kt88/Kt120. But a good implementation of those will cost you north of 1k at least. And the extra power isn't that much beneficial to the 500 to be honest.
 
A bargain would be some used speaker amps, they're quite cheap - comes with a few tubes to roll from previous owners, and you probably will not lose anything in case you want to sell it.
 
Below is one of the very good DIY EL84 kit
 

 

[Pumelman8]

Give Gary @ AnalogueSeduction a call. He got the full Hifiman range - and offer a 14 days no questions asked return. You can visit his store, or you can buy any Hifiman from him and return within 14 days if you don't like it. I got my He500 from him.

Mark @ Item Audio got the two Audezes, the TH900 and a few good amp (The Soloist and V200) - only 7 days home demo though. Excellent dealer that let you demo stuff he carries without actually trying to hard sell you anything.

True that the majority of the dealers here (except one or two) do not have an actual demo room for headphones. But most are willing to lend you any headphones for 1 or 2 weeks (some of course will require you to make a deposit as security).

Surely to take these headphones for a demo you would need to have an amp and day already for it? If I didn't like them I would need to return the amp and find one that suits another pair of headphones.

 

[davidsh]

Can't Frans from garage1217 help ya out with a project ember for example? At my head-fi forum in Denmark, the project starlight is touring at the moment, later on the project ember. I am positive they must come from Frans.

 

[khaine1711]

Surely to take these headphones for a demo you would need to have an amp and day already for it? If I didn't like them I would need to return the amp and find one that suits another pair of headphones.

If you don't have an amp, both of them carry some amps you can try. You can just borrow an amp home to demo it with the cans you're curious about. As for dac, you can just use whatever you have, or borrow one from them.
 
The main purpose of a home demo is more about finding a headphone that you like rather than get everything perfect from the start. I wouldn't worry too much about amp/dac matching at first. You will lose a bit on shipping stuff back and forth, but it's much better than buying blind imo. If you don't want that I think Hifiheadphones got a demo room with most of the popular headpones, maybe you can give them a call and arrange a weekend visit to try out various cans?
 
Forgot to mention on my previous post, but if you want to try some electrostats - the Stax 2170 system (207 hp and 252s amp) is also in your budget.
 
As with everything audio, try before you buy, and start with the tranducers, then amplification, then source.

 

[Pumelman8]

Fair enough. Have you heard the setup I was thinking of? The compass 2 9018 and the he500? I've heard the the compass' sound changes dramatically through burn in and it does not sound good during the burn in period.

 

[DanPluck]

Fair enough. Have you heard the setup I was thinking of? The compass 2 9018 and the he500? I've heard the the compass' sound changes dramatically through burn in and it does not sound good during the burn in period.

Mine sounded great out of the box. It's very versatile.

I use it for music using the usb interface, line in for gaming (via const d2x) and then have the option of outputting either to my integrated amp.

 

[nk77]

I like the lighter HE-6 cable as I don't even notice it. The HE-500 are being used balanced right now.

 

[nk77]

Sorry folks, ignore me... Please continue with regular broadcasting. Audio-gd has some decent priced gear. That Precision 1 (http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/amp/Precision1/Precision1EN.htm) doesn't look too bad.