Is there any good headphone amp being good as a pre-amp?

[georgios]

I checked out the information of Prehead. It's great. Almost everything about it satisfies me: the black color, the 4 pairs of inputs, the size, the Alps Blue Potentiometer....many many. But just one thing, the price. I need to pay 900 USD?

. It's not an easy decision to make

PS: Is there any dealer in New Zealand?

 

[ssportclay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tuberoller The best deal as far as a great headamp/preamp combo is the Meier Audio Prehead and Prehead MKII. It has outstanding performance as both a head and preamp. The Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline II Stealth is an incredible preamp/headamp as well but costs twice as much as the Prehead. The Stealth is tubed and the Prehead is solid-state but both sound incredible. Both products are engineered as preamps and offer uncomprimising build and sound quality. You should be able to audition both these amps from one of our site sponsors, Todd The Vinyl Junkie . He has a 30 day return policy and is great to deal with.

I bought an Odyssey Khartago power amplifier about a month ago and am using a Corda Prehead as a preamp to drive a pair of Von Schweikert VR-1 speakers.This rig sounds so amazing that I am having big problems going back to headphones.My neighbors will just have to suffer until technology can supply headphones that will make me happy.The search continues.

 

[cpw]

I'd second both of Tuberoller's recommendations. The Stealth is a 1st rate preamp that would likely never need to be upgraded. It's a pricey unit but I'm liostening to it right now and can't believe you wouldn't love it. It is a tube unit and has a very large pwr supply.
The Prehead would have a smaller footprint (one box solution) and offers crossfeed. The original version, though not quite state of the art anymore, is very attractively priced for what you get.
Some of the Cary preamps have very highly regarded headphone sections as well.
Have fun,
CPW

 

[Quoth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by georgios I need to pay 900 USD? . It's not an easy decision to make PS: Is there any dealer in New Zealand?

As far as I know (not being from new zeeland) the only places in the world that sells Corda stuff is Todd and Meier himself... Meier has a 30-day return policy, that might be useful as a last resort if you don't like it, but stuff this good normally costs more... I think the prehead is a pretty good deal, but I agree with you, it's not a small amount of cash. (Sorry about your wallet...

)

Meier has publised plans on headwize of one of his original pre/headamp designs, and I don't think they are that hard to build if you (or a friend) is handy with a soldering iron, and it would be nowhere near $900...

Another option is to get a DIY:er to build you an amp with a preamp facility. Maybe a headsave classic with an input selector. Don't know if Norm makes anything like that but it would probably be good and a lot less then $900. Use the tip from sacd lover to connect the speakers or headphones as you need them...

/Q

 

[georgios]

the Gilmore v2 is a merchandise too? I thought it was a DIY work before

 

[sacd lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by georgios the Gilmore v2 is a merchandise too? I thought it was a DIY work before

Yes thats one of the links I gave you. www.headamp.com

The full featured v2-se model is slightly cheaper than the prehead. The amp has a standard configuration of three inputs, a preamp output, a passive output(passive preamp) and a loop out. The amp comes standard with a stepped attenuator and a two position gain switch. This amp is a great buy for the price. The gilmores are true class A discrete transistor designs, not op amps like in the prehead.

You should check out those links.

 

[georgios]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sacd lover Yes thats one of the links I gave you. www.headamp.com The full featured v2-se model is slightly cheaper than the prehead. The amp has a standard configuration of three inputs, a preamp output, a passive output(passive preamp) and a loop out. The amp comes standard with a stepped attenuator and a two position gain switch. This amp is a great buy for the price. The gilmores are true class A discrete transistor designs, not op amps like in the prehead. You should check out those links.

Thanks a lot, man. The only problem is that it's not easy to get it to my city

 

[georgios]

I prefer the soft warm sound, cuz it's more fit for the sharp edgy sound of my active speaker. So maybe british amp will be better?

 

[sberger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sacd lover You can buy a rca to 1/4" stereo adapter from Radioshack for $2-3. Connect your rca interconnects from your speakers to the 1/4" adapter and plug the adapter in the headphone jack. You can then use your headamp to control the volume and drive the speakers. When you want to use the headphones unplug the adapter and plug in your headphones. This is as easy as changing headphones. I have used several headamps this way and it works very well.

i have a similiar situation and wonder if this would work for me. i presently use a bottlehead tube preamp coupled with a sim audio i-5 integrated, for which i just use the amp. i now also own a single power ppx3 headamp. when i want to listen to headphones, i have to disconnect the source(primarily my phono pre for vinyl) from the bottlehead and connect them to the rca's in the back of the single power. and when i want to go back to loudspeakers, i do the reverse. not that big a deal, but still a minor pita. would it be possible to use the adaptor suggestion to use the amp as a pre full time with vinyl without having to switch out? or am i missing something?

thanks.

 

[sacd lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sberger i have a similiar situation and wonder if this would work for me. i presently use a bottlehead tube preamp coupled with a sim audio i-5 integrated, for which i just use the amp. i now also own a single power ppx3 headamp. when i want to listen to headphones, i have to disconnect the source(primarily my phono pre for vinyl) from the bottlehead and connect them to the rca's in the back of the single power. and when i want to go back to loudspeakers, i do the reverse. not that big a deal, but still a minor pita. would it be possible to use the adaptor suggestion to use the amp as a pre full time with vinyl without having to switch out? or am i missing something? thanks.

You can use a pair of signal splitters. Split the signal at your phono pre and hook one set of rca's to the ppx3 and the other set to the bottlehead. The 1/4" adapter to rca's will work for making the ppx3 a full time pre. Then when you want to listen to headphones pull the 1/4" adapter out. Make sure your sim audio amp is off when you pull out the adapter.

 

[sberger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sacd lover You can use a pair of signal splitters. Split the signal at your phono pre and hook one set of rca's to the ppx3 and the other set to the bottlehead. The 1/4" adapter to rca's will work for making the ppx3 a full time pre. Then when you want to listen to headphones pull the 1/4" adapter out. Make sure your sim audio amp is off when you pull out the adapter.

thanks! two last questions...1)wouldn't signal splitting have a negative effect on the sonics, and 2) does this mean that i don't use the rca connections in the back of ppx3? or if i do, what does get connected back there?

sorry for the dumb questions...thanks for your help!

 

[sacd lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sberger thanks! two last questions...1)wouldn't signal splitting have a negative effect on the sonics, and 2) does this mean that i don't use the rca connections in the back of ppx3? or if i do, what does get connected back there? sorry for the dumb questions...thanks for your help!

If you have the loop outs on the ppx3 run your source into the ppx3's input rca's; then run a pair of interconnects to the bottlehead from the ppx3's loop out. The source will drive both. The loop outs are actually a pair of internal splitters on the ppx3. You can run both at once if you wanted to. For most listening you would turn on your source and either the bottlehead or the ppx3.

If your asking about the rca inputs on the back of the ppx3, you would split the signal at the phono pre and send one line to the ppx3 and the other line to the bottlehead. Its much simpler to use the loop out on the ppx3 if the ppx3 is fitted with them. I am not sure what you have.

Splitting the signal has little or no sonic degradation with the loop out or a pair of splitters. The wire path is very short and the materials are high quality. I use the loop out on my mpx3 and I dont hear any difference using the same interconnects for both.

 

[georgios]

I almost decide to buy creek obh 21se cuz the local deal offers me a good price. And I will use one of the headphone jack of it as preamp out

 

[opeth]

I have a similar setup with Mackie HR824/626 active speakers and a TAD-150 pre from Bizzy Bee. This tube preamp goes great with the "analytic" sound of studio monitors, and the headphone out is great, I really like it with ER-4s; with HD650s it's also excellent but maybe not as good as the headphone out of the DAC1. However, it's a bit expensive now that the pre-order offer is over.

Before the TAD-150 I had a Creek OBH-12 passive pre, that's a good option for around $300, but if you don't need remote control, some pro audio studio monitor management device like the Mackie Big Knob would be great for you, it even has an integrated headphone amp for around the same price as the Creek. Maybe Behringer makes something similar but even cheaper!