[Im Tilted]

So I managed to convince my uncle to buy a pair of Monoprice Monolith M1060s whenever they go back up for sale. He's done a lot for me in the past year and so I want to gift him an amp under $300 that could drive them. He doesn't have an amp or dac yet since all his headphones are portables. Now from what he likes of my personal collection, I know that he likes a warmer sound so I think that a warm amp paired with the M1060s would be an ideal combo for the kind of sound he likes. I was originally gonna get him an Audio GD NFB-25 but I found out that it was discontinued and now I'm back to square one. Chances are, he'd be playing 320 kbps files from Spotify off of his iMac. Form factor isn't an issue since his desk is huge, and clean aesthetics (ex Schiit products, JDS Labs Element, Woo Audio WA7) would be appreciated, but not required. Bonus points if its an amp dac combo, or cheap enough for me to get him a separate dac. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Monsterzero]

Buy him a vintage receiver,especially Marantz or Sansui,both of which are on the warm side.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  So I managed to convince my uncle to buy a pair of Monoprice Monolith M1060s whenever they go back up for sale. He's done a lot for me in the past year and so I want to gift him an amp under $300 that could drive them. He doesn't have an amp or dac yet since all his headphones are portables. Now from what he likes of my personal collection, I know that he likes a warmer sound so I think that a warm amp paired with the M1060s would be an ideal combo for the kind of sound he likes. I was originally gonna get him an Audio GD NFB-25 but I found out that it was discontinued and now I'm back to square one. Chances are, he'd be playing 320 kbps files from Spotify off of his iMac. Form factor isn't an issue since his desk is huge, and clean aesthetics (ex Schiit products, JDS Labs Element, Woo Audio WA7) would be appreciated, but not required. Bonus points if its an amp dac combo, or cheap enough for me to get him a separate dac. Thanks for the help guys.

 
https://www.amazon.com/xDuoo-TA-01-192KHz-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B00L25RF78/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1492535603&sr=8-6&keywords=xduoo
 
Then put a NOS RCA tube into it.

 

[Im Tilted]

Buy him a vintage receiver,especially Marantz or Sansui,both of which are on the warm side.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I think getting him an entire receiver is a bit excessive to put on a desk for just a single pair of headphones. Though I must admit some of those Sansui recievers look really nice.

 

[Im Tilted]

https://www.amazon.com/xDuoo-TA-01-192KHz-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B00L25RF78/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1492535603&sr=8-6&keywords=xduoo

Then put a NOS RCA tube into it.

Huh I've never heard of Xduoo before but the amps do seem pretty good from my own research. I was kinda leaning towards the Little Dot MkIII and putting some Voshkod 6ZH1P tubes in, but I think I like the Xduoo more since it has a built in dac. Is there any particular reason you recomend the ta-01 over the ta-02 or ta-03? I could afford either since they are within my price range.

 

[Monsterzero]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I think getting him an entire receiver is a bit excessive to put on a desk for just a single pair of headphones. Though I must admit some of those Sansui recievers look really nice.

My setup:

Laptop>Chord Mojo>Sansui 5000a

they make excellent HP amps+can drive speakers from desktops to massive floorstanders.

Replacing this receiver with this beast



nothing these things cannot drive,and drive well.

 
 
 

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Huh I've never heard of Xduoo before but the amps do seem pretty good from my own research. I was kinda leaning towards the Little Dot MkIII and putting some Voshkod 6ZH1P tubes in, but I think I like the Xduoo more since it has a built in dac. Is there any particular reason you recomend the ta-01 over the ta-02 or ta-03? I could afford either since they are within my price range.

 
The other two didn't come up when I searched for "xDuoo" on Amazon. TA-02 has no USB input though. 
 
TA-03 is OTL so while it might be even warmer on some headphones the high output impedance means some headphones will sound like tin cans instead.

 

[Im Tilted]

   
The other two didn't come up when I searched for "xDuoo" on Amazon. TA-02 has no USB input though. 
 
TA-03 is OTL so while it might be even warmer on some headphones the high output impedance means some headphones will sound like tin cans instead.

 
I don't the ta-03 being an OTL is an issue. He has a couple iems, a couple bluetooth headphones, and a Bose QC25 so I doubt he'll be using the amp for anything else other than the M1060s. Even if he does want to use it with his iems though, the ta-03 has a high and low gain switch. I'm not sure what tubes I'd buy him to replace the stock ones yet, but I think the ta-03 is my best option so far.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

   
I don't the ta-03 being an OTL is an issue. He has a couple iems, a couple bluetooth headphones, and a Bose QC25 so I doubt he'll be using the amp for anything else other than the M1060s. Even if he does want to use it with his iems though, the ta-03 has a high and low gain switch. I'm not sure what tubes I'd buy him to replace the stock ones yet, but I think the ta-03 is my best option so far.

 

The M1060 is a load impedance even lower than the output impedance on the amp. Planars are less affected by that vs dynamic drivers but they're not totally immune. Just as an example my Little Dot MkII fattened up my HD600 and SR225, but the K701 sounded like a tin can on it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping_factor

 

If you want to roll the dice though it's not like we can stop you.

 

[KR...]

I love the love of old gear, btw. It looks so great. Only a few companies like Luxman still look like that.
 
I would suggest trying out some tube amps. However, be careful as many budget tube amps are fakes.
 
This one is really nice but it is twice the price. Can you save up to buy it instead?
 
http://www.wooaudio.com/products/wa3.html
 
If not then look for some used gear.

 

[Im Tilted]

 

 

The M1060 is a load impedance even lower than the output impedance on the amp. Planars are less affected by that vs dynamic drivers but they're not totally immune. Just as an example my Little Dot MkII fattened up my HD600 and SR225, but the K701 sounded like a tin can on it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping_factor

 

If you want to roll the dice though it's not like we can stop you.

 
Oh I didn't catch that. For some reason I just assumed that the ta-03 had the same impedance as the ta-01. Guess that kinda rules it out.
 

  I love the love of old gear, btw. It looks so great. Only a few companies like Luxman still look like that.
 
I would suggest trying out some tube amps. However, be careful as many budget tube amps are fakes.
 
This one is really nice but it is twice the price. Can you save up to buy it instead?
 
http://www.wooaudio.com/products/wa3.html
 
If not then look for some used gear.

 
I probably should get an amp relatively soon. Like I said in the post, I'm buying it for my uncle and he doesn't own an amp or dac so he wouldn't be able to use the headphones for like a month after they arrive if I save up for something more expensive. That's why I'm looking at stuff from Little Dot for example.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

 
Oh I didn't catch that. For some reason I just assumed that the ta-03 had the same impedance as the ta-01. Guess that kinda rules it out.

 
OTL or output transformerless tube amplifiers try to keep costs and weight/size down at the expense of low impedance load performance. They're really designed more for a relatively cheap amp with insane voltage output for high impedance headphones.