[blucliff]

Going to get the hd-600s, have a $1000 musical fidelity a3cd player (great player btw) that only has rca outs. so i m wondering, is there any way to hook the phones into rca plugs, with some kind of volume control in there. would that be a potentiometer? can i make my own (electrical idiot), or do i have to shell out big bucks on headphone amp just to do this? will the cd player drive the phones? am i right that sound would be purer straight from cd player without amp in the way? i listen to classical only, and am looking for most beautiful sound possible, on a budget. thanks for any advice you can give me. -charles

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by blucliff Going to get the hd-600s, have a $1000 musical fidelity a3cd player (great player btw) that only has rca outs. so i m wondering, is there any way to hook the phones into rca plugs, with some kind of volume control in there. would that be a potentiometer? can i make my own (electrical idiot), or do i have to shell out big bucks on headphone amp just to do this? will the cd player drive the phones? am i right that sound would be purer straight from cd player without amp in the way? i listen to classical only, and am looking for most beautiful sound possible, on a budget. thanks for any advice you can give me. -charles

Wow, with that player, and those headphones, you NEED an amp!

Seriously, an amp will really show you what your CDP and HD600 can do. Given that combo, I think you'd be very happy with a HeadRoom MOH or Cosmic (or better

).

If you don't want to spend that much, consider a Corda or Little More Power.

 

[Jeff Guidry]

yeah man, with that rig, you must have a decent audio budget. However, if you blew the wad on that combo, you can scrape up another hundred or so and PM JMT, who can build you a high quality CMOY amp tailor made for your HD600's.

You might want to consider a nice, warm tube amp to make your classical listening experience super good. Others far more knowledgeable than me will chime in soon with more specific suggestions...

 

[gaineso]

You don't say if the RCA's are digital outs or analog outs.

If they are digital, you'll need a DAC and amp. If they are analog, then you'll need an amp. They're line out, designed to drive an amp, not 'phones or speakers.

Get at least a JMT, which I've heard are fabulous, especially for the money, or something from Headroom. Unless that CDP has a 'phone jack on its front panel, with a volume control, you've really got no other choices.

 

[blucliff]

thanks for the replies. so much for that brainstorm. so now the queston becomes, which amp. i'll start by reading posts about amps at this site. i've already read about jmt s amps, people have good things to say. does he do tubes? would tubes be the place to look for the rich, pure sound i want for my classical cds? any suggestions for amps you post here will be most appreciated. -charles

 

[gaineso]

How much are you willing to spend?

Not how much you "want" to spend, but how much will you???

Then we can make recommendations.

 

[morsel]

If you can wait a couple more weeks the META42 boards will be ready. EL2001 or EL2002 output stages and virtual ground, dual AD8610 on BrownDog (or whatever opamp you prefer) for voltage gain, FET cascode current source to bias the opamp into class A.

http://www.tangentsoft.net/audio/meta42/

The third and hopefully final prototype should arrive on Thursday, with testing and a full production run soon after.

 

[blucliff]

Since I'm now looking for advice on amps and headphones, I moved my question into "Amps & Source Components". Thank you for your help here.