[KillingTime]

Hi,

New to the forum, and looking to purchase a good headphone amp and some matching headphones.

I'm using the headphones output on my Rotel RA02 integrated amp at the moment with Sony MDR-V150 Headphones. The headphones aren’t that expensive, but I like the sound they give & they way they sit. Sometimes I crank the volume right up, and they seem to handle this (I've blown a pair of these in the past with too much bass).

I thought I might try a valve amp with some headphones that are designed to go with it. Never tried a valve amp, just thought I'd give it a go.

The Darkvoice 336i seems to be popular and is within my budget. If I don't like it I can always ebay it without loosing too much.

I've seen the posts on the 336i and what headphones forum members think would be a good match, but I've got some specific headphones in mind and am wondering about suitability.

Sennheiser HD25's come in two impedance ratings, 70 ohm and 600 ohm. Given the choice, which would be a better match for the output of the 336i.

I assume that because the 336i is OTL, it's output impedance will be quite high, so the 600 ohm headphones would be best?

Are valve amps good for loud bass heavy dance & rock, or should I be looking elsewhere?

Also, is there anything I should know about the 336i, like loud thumps at power on and off, noisy buzzing from transformers etc?

Thanks.

 

[kg21]

if you get the darkvoice then definitely get the 600ohm version, the darkvoice has a ton of power. It can drive the k340 and k240 sextett without much trouble, two headphones that are notorious for being hard to drive (I used to have the 336i and those two headphones). Tube amps are definitely great for bass/dance/rock atleast for me because they add warmth and body to the sound, you can custom tailor the tubes to turn it into a bass monster if that's what you want too. When I had the darkvoice there were no problems whatsoever, imo its well designed and well made, someone said there are counterfeit ones out there but he was never able to prove it, he was a seller himself so everyone was suspicious about his claims anyway. Basically it seemed like he was saying buy only from me because mine are real.

 

[MaloS]

You really did your homework, KillingTime, gj. I'll just answer the question - if you go for the darkvoice, then higher impedance HD25 makes more sense because generally higher impedance headphones are nicer if you can provide the power to drive them.