New Member could use some advice on getting started with Headphone system.

[IHearOnesAndZeroes]

Hi Everyone!

Happy to join you all

I've been playing guitar and bass and collecting gear for years along with some nice home recording studio gear.

Recently divorced, I unboxed my albums and records after moving into my new place and realized I really haven't enjoyed listening to my records in about 10 years. Because my new place is small and I have neighbors, I can't go the way of investing in quality speakers as I'd like so I'm a little trigger happy at the moment to get a headphone system.

Thought it'd be as easy as selecting a tube headphone amp and some new headphones but all my research gets me further down the rabbit hole of DACs and streamers, and that's aside of all the tube rolling, upscaling, cables, etc...

I'm willing to sell a guitar or two in my collection to go with a really good headphone amp/dac/streamer system that could possibly be future proofed into part of a speaker system when I move somewhere (bigger) else down the road. Not looking into setting up a whole server/multiroom system at the moment.

Have learned my preferences and getting what you pay for with tube gear in the musical instruments area but the audiophile world seems just as subjective but altogether different.

I'd rather buy one endgame headphone amp now than multiple entry point ones over the course of a few years, I'm kind of in a place where it is probably better now than later/never.

Since its probably true that most of us music lovers prefer speakers over headphones:

1. Has anyone regretted investing on a tube headphone preamp and pricey headphones?
2. Is there a better headphone amp/tube topology for electric blues (Clapton Beano, BB King, Freddie King, Marcus King Band), classic rock and pop music genres?
3. Advice in general in this situation? There's nowhere near me to try out options.

Thank you all!

A.M.

 

[MindBreak]

I am mostly SS at the moment, but I am getting started with OTL Tube Amps this year. So I won't be of much help with the tube amp selection.

To help others get an idea of which chains to recommend, what is the range of your budget?

 

[IHearOnesAndZeroes]

I am mostly SS at the moment, but I am getting started with OTL Tube Amps this year. So I won't be of much help with the tube amp selection.

To help others get an idea of which chains to recommend, what is the range of your budget?

Thank you, I'm debating about this. I started by looking at the Woo Audio options around the $3K mark. Although these are strange times, I may not get another chance and I'm willing to sell some musical gear to come away with an endgame amp so I don't have to lose money selling/trading in the long run. Made me wonder/consider the Auris Headonia 300b or their new Ultima 88.

 

[MindBreak]

Thank you, I'm debating about this. I started by looking at the Woo Audio options around the $3K mark. Although these are strange times, I may not get another chance and I'm willing to sell some musical gear to come away with an endgame amp so I don't have to lose money selling/trading in the long run. Made we wonder/consider the Auris Headonia 300b or their new Ultima 88.

You might want to also check out the ZMF Aegis which is a little over 3k as well. I am planning on getting one next year to pair with my ZMF Atrium Open as well as the Caldera Open I am picking up later this year.
https://shop.zmfheadphones.com/collections/amps-dacs/products/aegis-amplifier

 

[dunring]

I have an Drop + xDuoo TA-84 and if you don't have a way to demo anything, it's a solid way to try out tubes. It's got a DAC so can be used as a preamp and accept an input as well for a turntable. The alternate I use is a solid state headphone amplifier and a DAC that has color settings as well as filters to customize the sound. The tube setting on an SMSL DO300 is really similar to a tube hybrid like the Vali 3. Then you can always turn it off if you want complete transparency. I use the SMSL H400 amplifier, but the A70Pro I have is just as good, main difference is the H400 is so easy to use on the simple menu.
First, download some tube amplifier recordings and hear how they sound to you. It's a great (and free) way to get an idea if you like it better than just complete distortion free transparency like solid state offers. A DAC with color settings introduces distortion in the 2nd and 3rd harmonic for a similar effect.

 

[Ryuga]

There is a an active hifi community in the bay area, Bay Audio Enclave, where this past February they had their HiFiCon event in San Jose.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bay-area-meet-february-8-2025-impressions-thread
They have a discord server so you can probe around there if you'd like. Let me know if you are interested and I can send you an invite.

As for an amp, considering that you linked the Auris Headonia 300b, how about considering the Cayin Soul 170HA? It's able to power speakers as well, so there is that part of the system covered. Whether it is better for you, who can say. Just my 2 cents.

 

[bagwell359]

The DIY Aegis if you have skill/patience is your best bet for great tube sound at a very good price, otherwise some of the Feliks amps above the Echo 2 are quite good. A company called Schiit is about to unveil a very nicely priced OTL tube - the Valhalla 3 which might be a monster piece for $499. And if you upgrade from it or don't like it, you'll get very good $ on resale.

For headphones if OTL tubes it's high impedance headphones such as Sennheiser. The Aegis will run anything including low impedance planars. So given you want a one shot amp and no upgraditis, it might be the way.

Watch out, most here will recommend what they know/like including me, do your best to get to audio stores or a HF meet to hear various pieces so you get what works for you.

 

[chesebert]

HD800S + Xduoo TA66 + Ayre C5xe or Emm Labs CDSA SE (SACD/CD player) = $3k total. This is a beer budget version of a TOTL headphone system for jazz, classical and classic rock/pop/jpop/kpop. You probably need to spend at least 5x to beat this system in all aspects. I run a version of this system so I know how good this is.

The downside is no streaming and physical media only

If you insist on buying something high end now once and for all that can be carried over to your future speaker system, I would get either Emm Labs DA2i with TX2 transport or Playback Designs MPT8 and MPD8. Both of these systems will run you approx $50-55k in street price but will easily be king of the hill for years to come and both achieve/supersede similarly priced vinyl rigs.

 

[MindBreak]

The DIY Aegis if you have skill/patience is your best bet for great tube sound at a very good price, otherwise some of the Feliks amps above the Echo 2 are quite good. A company called Schiit is about to unveil a very nicely priced OTL tube - the Valhalla 3 which might be a monster piece for $499. And if you upgrade from it or don't like it, you'll get very good $ on resale.

For headphones if OTL tubes it's high impedance headphones such as Sennheiser. The Aegis will run anything including low impedance planars. So given you want a one shot amp and no upgraditis, it might be the way.

Watch out, most here will recommend what they know/like including me, do your best to get to audio stores or a HF meet to hear various pieces so you get what works for you.

I guess I should have listed all the Schiit he should buy, but I didn't want to let my Schiit Head nature manifest in this thread.

I would normally recommend starting low (Vali 3 and/or Valhalla 3), and working your way up.

Aegis seemed like the go-to suggestion given its versatility/capability when driving various loads (as you stated).

We are all crazy audiophiles, so like you said we will recommend what we like (or obsess over ). The rabbit hole is bottomless, and we can only hope to control the rate of descent.