How much am I looking at spending on a decent amp for my HD598s?
Oct 16, 2011 at 5:01 PM Post #2 of 15
$200 will definently get you something good enough.  If you want to go portable the E11 will work out great.
For home use try buying a prebuilt starving student.
 
Oct 17, 2011 at 1:05 AM Post #4 of 15
For sale forums here will almost always net you a good amplifier, otherwise eBay has quite a few.
Just look up the amplifier in the search bar up top to ensure quality.
Little dot MKii or III is a good amp for the price from what I've seen.
If you will be playing music from you computer to your amp you could also get a combined amp/dac which will work out better and bypass the crappy sound card in you computer if you haven't already upgraded it.
Sorry about all the choices, it can get pretty confusing sometimes just don't worry to much as long as it's reccomended on head-fi you can't make a bad choice.
 
Oct 17, 2011 at 3:58 AM Post #5 of 15
Imo you don't need an amp for those if you have a receiver or amp out already. I have the 595's and they do just fine from those and even just the out on a DAP. $100 to $200 should get you something just fine in any case, especially used which is the way I'd go.
 
Oct 18, 2011 at 12:21 PM Post #6 of 15
The HD598s are rather easily driven, so an amp isn't entirely necessary, but $200 has a couple of really good options --
 
Used Schiit Asgard
Matrix M-Stage
FiiO E9 + E7 (or just the E9 if you don't need the DAC and portability of the E7)
 
Oct 18, 2011 at 3:41 PM Post #7 of 15
If you're using your computer buy a decent soundcard, (asus xonar Dg) or just get the E9. 
 
Oct 18, 2011 at 3:54 PM Post #9 of 15
I find them to be insensitive, personally. They need as much power as my other headphones, and scale nicely when amped. 
Without it, they sound like a cheap headphone IMO. 
 
Oct 18, 2011 at 4:50 PM Post #10 of 15
If your just doing Stereo 2.0 stuff.
You can get a single tube headphone amplifier on eBay starting at $50, ships from China.
 
Oct 18, 2011 at 5:25 PM Post #11 of 15


Quote:
pratt said:
Imo you don't need an amp for those if you have a receiver or amp out already. I have the 595's and they do just fine from those and even just the out on a DAP. $100 to $200 should get you something just fine in any case, especially used which is the way I'd go.
Click to expand...



yeah but if we were happy just driving them, then we wouldn't have this forum
 
:)
 
You can always squeeze a bit more out of it with better amplification and/or source.
 
Oct 18, 2011 at 6:19 PM Post #13 of 15
Quote:
fabio-fi said:
I find them to be insensitive, personally. They need as much power as my other headphones, and scale nicely when amped. 
Without it, they sound like a cheap headphone IMO. 
Click to expand...


They're sensitive to output impedance. I'm not talking about output power, though I'd argue they don't need that. They are more sensitive to output impedances above 6 ohms than other 50 ohm headphones. This is a fact. Look up their impedance curve.
 
I'll even do it for you.
 
As a related aside, they need just under 1V of power to reach 110dB. Pretty much any amp will do this. A Fiio E5 will do this.
 
Oct 20, 2011 at 7:14 PM Post #14 of 15

 
Quote:
head injury said:
They're sensitive to output impedance. I'm not talking about output power, though I'd argue they don't need that. They are more sensitive to output impedances above 6 ohms than other 50 ohm headphones. This is a fact. Look up their impedance curve.
 
I'll even do it for you.
 
As a related aside, they need just under 1V of power to reach 110dB. Pretty much any amp will do this. A Fiio E5 will do this.
Click to expand...



Thanks Head Injury. 
 
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