[theobservatory.]

As the title states, I'd like to find out how do you guys determine which amps to try out/demo/purchase for your cans? Do you match the sonic characteristics of your cans to that of the amps? Is it a complementary match - as in bright cans with dark amps for example - or something similar - bright cans with bright amps etc ?

My apologies if this question reeks of noobness, as I'm very new to the entire headphone amp arena, and I'm not sure how I should navigate this brand new world so as to allow me to pick the perfect amp for my perfect set of cans, the Beyer DT 150.

Any advice/pointers etc would be much appreciated!

Muchos gracias!

 

[DennyL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by theobservatory. /img/forum/go_quote.gif As the title states, I'd like to find out how do you guys determine which amps to try out/demo/purchase for your cans? Do you match the sonic characteristics of your cans to that of the amps? Is it a complementary match - as in bright cans with dark amps for example - or something similar - bright cans with bright amps etc ? My apologies if this question reeks of noobness, as I'm very new to the entire headphone amp arena, and I'm not sure how I should navigate this brand new world so as to allow me to pick the perfect amp for my perfect set of cans, the Beyer DT 150. Any advice/pointers etc would be much appreciated! Muchos gracias!

You come to Head-Fi to get advice and opinions, then embark on a spending spree, taking note of the most obvious Flavours of the Month, and, unless you get it bad, your need might be satisfied by the time you've bought three of four amps, another couple of headphones and a DAC, and you can move on to worrying about your source.

 

[rxc]

I like neutral, I pay attention to reviews with the word neutral.

 

[tomjtx]

follow the advice of head-fiers,
they will unaminously recommend only one amp. it will be the best and you will be happy forever.

BTW, I will be putting this amp up for sale soon so that will be your lucky day.

 

[TzeYang]

i pick the type of distortion i want.

Simple i'll use my preference as an example. I like sound stage, cleanliness and most importantly NON-fatigue.

Hence why i put alot of effort into minimizing cross talk, superior grounding and lots of bias into good pairs of complementary output stage transistors.

yeah it's a little jargonish but how i wished everyone could get what they want by tweaking and building their own amps.

 

[jcn3]

i think the only way is to read, read, read through these forums -- there's a lot of good information out there, but you need to read enought to filter and interpret what's best for you.

the next thing to do is go to meets -- it's a great way to try stuff and see how what you read matches with your impressions.

 

[only500made]

pick it by strength to correct the weakness of my cans.

the others are a plus.

 

[digismurf]

Since it doesn't look like anyone's mentioned...I think the first thing you need to consider is do you want a portable, transportable, or home based amp. Once you decide that, you can concentrate your search in those areas. I think you need to also consider what type of music you listen to also, a lot of folks fail to discuss that when they talk about what's "best".

 

[Asr]

Whoa. I don't think you realized you just posed a deep question.

The situation of picking an amp for certain headphones is complicated and involves multiple issues. There's an issue of source (DAP? CDP? et al), scaling (how high up the chain should you go?), features (since feature sets vary wildly in the amp market), aesthetics (can be important for some people), physical and technical specs (weight & dimensions, power output, etc), and so on. And sound, of course. You have to take into account all those things when picking out an amp from the crowd. Of course theoretically you could pick any amp at random, since nearly all dynamic amps will drive nearly all dynamic headphones, it's just that varying degrees of success and synergy would result.

You pretty much just have to decide for yourself what YOU want in an amp and then look for the amp that fills those criteria, taking into account the source you'll be running it from, along with your headphones. Nothing is cut and dry, and then there's lots of personal preference involved too. And notice I'm not even talking about sound yet.

I've noticed a trend lately of people around here arbitrarily and spontaneously picking amps without really researching what they're getting into, and instead getting something just because everyone else is getting it, or because it's being advertised, or because of some other factor. The thing is, each and every amp is unique, and it's up to you to decide what's important to you instead of pursuing something you're going to decide later will be useless and not what you wanted. So many Head-Fiers follow compulsion way too easily (just track the FS forums for a week and you'll see what I mean) and end up blowing through money to get to something they discover they didn't really want after all.

The best advice I can give after my own trials and errors is to research and audition wherever possible. If there's a meet in your area, do what you can to attend. And then keep reading and learning. Don't buy something just because it's popular or just because it gets a great review from one publication. Find out as much as possible.

Then, when you think you have all the data you need, research prices and determine if you want to buy new or used, and then go for it.

 

[Podster]

Hmm, now this is just if I were in your shoes I would set myself a price point I would work within and then look up all port amps that fit into that price range.

When you have those two things accomplished you can find threads on just about every amp you will have picked. Most can't preview amps unless you are a reviewer which is why Sky and Miguel and the likes are a major asset to Head-Fi and dare I say we noobs to portable listening

If one reads deep enough into these threads you can see others point out impressions you as a listener are familair with and then you have some reference without actually hearing the product.

These are just my opinions and may not work for some but when you can't actually hear first hand what you think you like your reviewers are your best friend.

 

[holland]

It also doesn't hurt to be a bit more tech minded. That way you won't feel ripped off when you find out the truth behind the amp you bought. Imagine paying $500 for a cmoy....

 

[krmathis]

By following this forum closely.
We are usually about the first ones to know when a vendor develop a new product. Or when something new hit the roads.

The word of experienced Head-Fi'ers are take into serious consideration as well. Especially from those who know the specific product, or similar ones...

 

[gtp]

Buy, sell, buy, sell, enjoy, buy, sell, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy, buy, sell, buy, sell...

 

[Podster]

Ain't it the truth gtp!

How do you like the SE420's? I'm waiting on the Westone 3's but have been wondering how the new Shure SE series sounded, I'm assuming a little bassy on the Mini^3?

 

[ahamric]

My Journey:

Bought Koss Pro4AAT a couple years back. Liked them better than the other Koss I had, but realized they were hard to drive. A couple months ago stumbled on this site again, got the bug.

Read lots of reviews, decided that I didn't really need portable because I'm using Koss and I'm never going to take those things outside. For some reason I was intrigued by Meier, partly because Arietta was now the same price as Move, partly because it was supposed to sound better, partly because Jan sounded like a great guy, and partly because it looked really cool. Also it semed like a step up from the cheapo looking plastic things that HeadRoom seels at the bottom end.

It made my Koss phones sound better, but not enough better. So I bought the AKG K701 (after reading extensively) and think I now have a good (satisfactory) rig.

But now I am thinking about getting a closed headphone again for listening in bed that is better than K701 and getting another amp for the bedside rig, and upgrading the bedside source, and upgrading the main DVD source, and upgrading my receiver; and also building a new computer, and getting a PS3/Wii/XBox360...

However, I think they will remain in the "thinking about" stage for quite some time, maybe permanently. Well, as far as permanently goes; I don't expect to have the same DVD/receiver/speaker rig in thirty years that I have now.

At some point you have to pull the trigger and go for something and take a chance on it, unless you have the luxury of auditioning things. I was unaware of any meets in Chicago.