[tianuk3]

Hello there,
 
So earlier this year I decided to fork out some money for the Sennheiser HD650s. I have heard that you can only really 'experience' them with headphone amps.
Now here is my dilemna. I generally just listen to music when I'm in my room so a non portable headphone amp should be fine; but I have ordered this kickstarter Pono player which I wouldn't mind using and thus having a portable headphone amp for the go when I have that.
But as I am predominantly looking for a headphone amp (fullsize) let's focus on that.
I have no idea what I am looking for with these headphones; I like hip-hop, drum & bass, trance & rock so quite a wide range of music.
My budget is preferably around £100 but I understand that is very low for some of the equipment so I might be able to extend it to around £200 but is there any real bargain I should go for?
I have done a little research and found the Aune T1; it looks pretty cool, I have no idea what this tube stuff is though, so if anyone of you guys is more clued up on this (99%+ of you) and can lend me a hand I would greatly appreciated it. I will be using my Macbook Pro to play the music from iTunes.
 
Anyway thanks for all the help

 

[tianuk3]

Anybody?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

You can get the Meier Corda Rock or the Schiit Asgard; or save up and you can get the Meier Corda Jazz.

 

[zazex]

As a beginner with amps - as you say you are - I would not recommend tubes right off.
 
They have so many idiosyncracies, permutations, oddities -
plus they get very hot and they're quite physically delicate -
(Of course those very points create a world of possibilities
when you're experienced with them such as 'tube rolling'
and various mods depending on the amp.)
 
My recommendation to you for now is the Asgard 2, or the
Matrix HPA-2 (available with or without DAC).

 

[tianuk3]

What about the Matrix M-Stage? (Thanks for the recommendations so far guys)

 

[cel4145]

I just looked at the Pono Player. They don't provide any audio specs on that player other than what bit depth/sampling rate it has. It says it's using a great DAC chip, but they don't even say which one it is. It could just as easily be a sow instead of as good as they claim it is. Are there any pre-release reviews of it yet?

I'd take Steve Gutenberg's advice. Skip the Pono Player and get the FiiO X5: http://www.cnet.com/news/why-wait-pono-portable-music-player-the-fiio-x5-is-here-now/

The FiiO X5 can also be used as a USB dac/headphone amp with your computer.

 

[money4me247]

I would say hold off on any purchases until after you received your $400 pono player and tried your headphones with its built-in amplifier. Unless you specifically feel like its amplifier isn't good enough or unless you can return your $400 pono player, I wouldn't get another standalone dac/amp set-up until after you stop using or manage to resell your pono player. You will get more value out of such an expensive device if you use it for both home & on-the-go usage.
 
It is quite easy to get sucked into buying a ton of useless stuff when you first get into this hobby. Just some friendly advice.

 

[tianuk3]

Is the Pono a headphone amp too?? :O

 

[money4me247]

  Is the Pono a headphone amp too?? :O

should have a dac & amp bundled in there for $400. most $200ish dacs feature that.

 

[Lorspeaker]

yes...hold off your purchases until u get hold of the porno ...pono...or pony