[Stepaway]

Hi guys, I've recently got into the headphone world so go easy with me!

I have a nice home hi-fi set up comprising a valve pre amp into a SS power amp, which I have running some very nice Harbeth HL-S8's, which I have had for several years and am still completely in love with, but 4 months ago a little bundle of joy arrived in our household so my usual listening sessions dwindled in the evenings due to it interrupting the tykes sleep time! So I have been slowly investigating the wonderful world of headphones and managed to pick up a set of Ultrasone HFI-680's around Christmas time, which im also very happy with

Whilst at home I can listen to them through my home set-up, which works very well, but I do a fair bit of traveling and being an iPhone user it suits me to use this as a source whilst away, which functions ok but I could do with a little more performance and sparkle to match the home set up.

I've got a possibilty to get hold of a used Ray Samuels Sr-71 (the original one), which I'm hoping will make a worthy difference, but do these things need maintenance/servicing or will they either work or not work? I beleive its a few years old so will the quality have deteriorated over time or will it still be the same as day one?

I'm in the Uk so if servicing is an issue it would be fairly costly to have to send it back to the USA if this is the case, so I need to weigh this up in the deal.

I can see this headphone malarkey soon becoming an obsession!!!

Any thoughts much appreciated,

Ta in advance, Si.

 

[Jalo]

Hehehe, Like your name says, you should STEPAWAY from the forum now 

 and don't say we didn't warn you.  
 
As for the SR71, it is a very nice amp but it may be a little bit too big if you travel a lot especially with full size cans like the HFI 680.  But if you are only carrying them to your destinations and not intended to use them en route like on bus, train, or plane, you may be fine.  Still it may get old for you to have to carry something that take up so much space.  
 
The SR71 can and will drive the 680 to nice level.  I have listened to SR71, SR71a and SR71b they are all good amps.  As for the SR71, the strong point is that it operates from 2 9V commercially available batteries so you'll never have to worry about whether replacement is available.   RSA amp is build to last a life time.  If it works now, it should work for you for a long time.  I carried a SR71a for couple of years and traveled with it around the world without any problem unless you really do not take care of it.  They really don't need any maintenance and like you say it is either on or off unless it doesn't sound right at first.
 
I am a little surprised to hear that your HFI 680 does not sparkle enough and needed an external amp to spice it up.  There are quite a few headfiers in UK and you should be able to find a few where you can try to listen to different portable amps to see if they will work for you.  In this hobby nothing is better than live audition.  Personally, I like the Mustang, SR71b and Pico Slim and  they will all spice up things a bit.
 
Welcome to the forum.

 

[Stepaway]

Cheers Jalo, that's the news i wanted to hear regarding the longevity, i had pretty much guessed that would be the response, but it's always helpful to get a third parties opinion.
 
 I'm only going to be using the amp and cans when i'm 'at' my destination, rather then 'en route', so that's fine, i'm quite happy to pack them away in my bag whilst travelling. The plan is to get some good quality IEM's for the task of whilst i'm mobile, but that's for later
 
With regards to the sparkle of the 680's, i'm more than happy with them on my home set-up, but through my iPhhone 4 they seem to lose a bit of clarity through busy passages on some songs, and the seperation isn't great at times, also the soundstage is incredibly wide and the instruments seem to be almost behind me rather than to the side and front, the vocals are nice and forward though, straight between the eyes.
 
I think i'll look into lossless files on iTunes too now i have read a bit about it on here, which will probably lead me to having to get a better bit of source hardware! Ooops, here we go again! Better STEPAWAY!!! He he he, i'll look into seeing whose local to me first though as you say, and see if i can trial a few bits of gear to give me some pointers in the right direction,
 
Cheers again, Si.
 
 
 

 

[Jalo]

You are very welcome, but as you start chasing lossless files, portable amp etc, that is how most people here start their slippery slop 

 

[wolfen68]

I agree with Jalo's comments regarding the SR71's ruggedness.  In fact, I've never heard of a single SR71 ever requiring any repair for any reason. 

 

[plaidplatypus]

Quote:

You are very welcome, but as you start chasing lossless files, portable amp etc, that is how most people here start their slippery slop 

I got started here with a portable CD player, now I'm using a power hungry speaker amp to drive headphones.
 
I had a SR-71A, I was really impressed that it didn't have any notable channel imbalance issues.