[emmodad]

(interested in three realms:

1/ price range usd1900-3000

2/ price range < usd1900

3/ “bang for the buck” recommendations if the product is tonally neutral and has output impedance / current drive characteristics yielding good control for transient and bottom end performance, esp mid-bass)

—

Hello all,

interested in your experiences / recommendations wrt solid-state headphone amps, preamps, DAC/pre products, etc. that you find work well with HD-660 S.

Guess I could characterize my equipment taste as valuing: accurate, clinical but not sterile, and solid mid-bass and bass control.

Have enjoyed Benckmark’s HPAs in past with various Sennheisers and AKGs.

Musical tastes are quite broad, but a lot of headphone listening is acoustic jazz and female vocals.

Oh, and also the mellow tones of Daft Punk, Zappa, Porcupine Tree, Grateful Dead, Little Feat… )

Particular interest for good mid-bass driver control.

Can anyone speak to experience using RME ADI-2-Pro FS R BE?

thank you

 

[pbui44]

$1.9k-$3k: https://www.moon-audio.com/bryston-bha-1-balanced-headphone-amplifier.html

Up to $1.9k: https://www.schiit.com/products/ragnarok-1

Best-bang-for-buck-within-US: https://www.amazon.com/Topping-Head...655654229&sprefix=a30+pro,aps,144&sr=8-3&th=1

Best-bang-for-buck-outside-of-the-US: http://www.audio-gd.com/Master/Master19/Master19EN.htm

 

[pbui44]

Just food for thought: in the mid-2010s, the Airist Audio Heron 5 amplifier was released and had a few quality-control issues, but still had a 5w single-ended headphone output @ 32 ohms and had a $2k MSRP. The Topping A30 Pro, which is my listed best-bang-for-buck-within-US, has a 5.5w output @ 32 ohms for all headphone outputs and costs $349. You can read more about the Airist Audio Heron 5 amp here:

https://headfonics.com/airist-audio-heron-5-review/

 

[emmodad]

thank you for these suggestions.

we live in a time of an embarrassment of interesting options...