[Straz]

Cannot decide on a headphone amp for this, feel like i make a decision then find many negatives surrounding it. Ideally i'm looking around £500 for the DAC and Amp.
 
Looked at the Crack, seems great but fairly pricey with the speedball upgrade. Also lack of warranty concerns me, considering my basic electronic skills.
 
Schiit Bifrost + Valhalla/Asgaard is another option but not sure I want to spend that much, looking close to £700 after duty and shipping.
 
Also the LD MKIII but apparently it isn't overly great, still good for the price.
 
Nuforce HDP but not discontinued and hard to find in the UK.
 
Maverick A1 + D2 combo. Not a huge amount of info on how it pairs with the HD650s.
 
Woo Audio WA3 but quite pricey not sure if I want to spend that much.
 
O2 is apparently quite flat and uninspiring for the HD650s.
 
The HRT MS2 looks ideal for the DAC, just the amp I am stuck on.
 
I really love the signature of the HD650s but my NAD D3020 doesn't drive them too well IMO. Really dislike fatiguing highs. Ideally I'm looking for mid range punch while not being too light on the low end. The Maverick combo seems good as the price is right and will also drive my passive speakers, which is completely secondary as I only use them for TV.
 
Going round in circles here and any help would be great.

 

[Solrighal]

I would suggest that serves no purpose? You can get a fabulous Toxic Cables copper or silver for probably the same price as having to pay for the stock to be adjusted like that! Forgive me if I'm missing the point here but it makes little sense to me?

I already own a Forza cable in a shorter length but I don't like what it does to the sonic character.

 

[Dill]

I already own a Forza cable in a shorter length but I don't like what it does to the sonic character.

Ahhh I see..thats fair enough. I found the Toxic Cables Scorpion copper retains the sound signature of the stock but improves 3D imagery, soundstage and overall clarity.

 

[Solrighal]

I used to think I knew what all the descriptive terms referred to but since the 650's I'm not so sure. The Forza cable improves clarity but to nowhere near the same extent as simply switching to my Q701's. Similarly, the 650's aren't so good with electronic dance type music but then I try my V-Moda's and all is right with the world.

II'll say this though - I'd be very surprised if there's a better all-around headphone out there for my brain.

I'm currently listening to Sea Change (Mobile Fidelity version) by Beck and I really can't find any faults.

I like it dark

 

[JamieMcC]

  Cannot decide on a headphone amp for this, feel like i make a decision then find many negatives surrounding it. Ideally i'm looking around £500 for the DAC and Amp.
 
Looked at the Crack, seems great but fairly pricey with the speedball upgrade. Also lack of warranty concerns me, considering my basic electronic skills.
 
Schiit Bifrost + Valhalla/Asgaard is another option but not sure I want to spend that much, looking close to £700 after duty and shipping.
 
Also the LD MKIII but apparently it isn't overly great, still good for the price.
 
Nuforce HDP but not discontinued and hard to find in the UK.
 
Maverick A1 + D2 combo. Not a huge amount of info on how it pairs with the HD650s.
 
Woo Audio WA3 but quite pricey not sure if I want to spend that much.
 
O2 is apparently quite flat and uninspiring for the HD650s.
 
The HRT MS2 looks ideal for the DAC, just the amp I am stuck on.
 
I really love the signature of the HD650s but my NAD D3020 doesn't drive them too well IMO. Really dislike fatiguing highs. Ideally I'm looking for mid range punch while not being too light on the low end. The Maverick combo seems good as the price is right and will also drive my passive speakers, which is completely secondary as I only use them for TV.
 
Going round in circles here and any help would be great.

If you build the Crack yourself you can very easily do any warranty work yourself the only item of substantial cost is the transformer all other parts are relatively low value. Trouble shooting any problem is usually relatively quick via the wonderful support offered on the Bottlehead forum. I had never soldered or used a multimeter prior to building mine the instructions are excellent and very easy to follow.
 
A couple of other options as it looks like you are UK based
 
1/  See if you can get a demo of a Marantz NA7004  Network player £430 (£230 ish used) its has a good discreet headphone out and its dac section is the same chip set used in the Marantz Pearl a £2400 reference level cd player the dac section can be used as stand alone dac for other sources. I use my NA7004 dac as the source for my Crack amp.  Prior to the building the Crack I used the head out on the NA7004  finding one to demo should be easy enough Richer sounds where selling them at one point. Also has air play so will play-stream lossless etc direct from iTunes on pc or ipad, iphone etc
 
2/ TEAC A-H500 or H500i Amplifier used -£100 to £150 for the later *I* model regularly found on ebay.  This is a very capable small form amp its just beautifully made right down to how the buttons and knobs feel as you turn them. The head out is awesome for the money, remote control  bass, treble,  balance controls . Seriously you would need to spend a lot of money to find similar performance in the uk from a stand alone head-amp and then your head-amp would be plain standard no remote etc etc and it would look like a ugly sister in comparison. It also soundS good with speakers.
 
I'm going to post some pics just because its such a nice looking bit of kit with all metal facial knobs etc, toroidal transformer as well!
 
 
 

 
3/ Take a look at the NJC audio reference monitor 2 hand built in the UK they have a matching dac all hand built using  quality components such as Clarity cap film output capacitors and vishy-dale mil spec resistors etc etc  and have a awesome reputation. Nick (NJC) is also just a pleasure to deal with and comes with a three year warranty! There was a review or two posted on headfi a while back. 
 
http://www.njc-audio.co.uk/html/monitor2.html

 

[Straz]

Thank you so much JamieMcC. How do you think that Teac would compare to the NAD D3020 I have? Purely on headphone out, I'm fairly sure it will be quite a bit better? Cheers
 
EDIT: Had a £115 offer accepted for a mint 500i, so stuck with it. For that price I'm sure I can't go wrong.

 

[Mingus Ah Um]

I used to think I knew what all the descriptive terms referred to but since the 650's I'm not so sure. The Forza cable improves clarity but to nowhere near the same extent as simply switching to my Q701's. Similarly, the 650's aren't so good with electronic dance type music but then I try my V-Moda's and all is right with the world.

II'll say this though - I'd be very surprised if there's a better all-around headphone out there for my brain.

I'm currently listening to Sea Change (Mobile Fidelity version) by Beck and I really can't find any faults.

I like it dark

Agreed.  I only listen to electronic music every now and then, when I do I usually reach for my HE400's.  However, I love listening to James Blake through my 650's.  You're right though, the 650 is just a great all around headphone that handles really everything quite well.  The Sea Change album is particularly sweet on the 650's.  One of my favorite albums to put on after a long day at work.

 

[MattTCG]

I really enjoy Sea Change also. The SACD rip is stellar!!

 

[MikoLayer]

I have packed away my main rig and haven't used any of my headphones other than the portable ones for years, literally. HD650s happened to be one of them, and when I inspected them recently, I learned the pads were horribly colored (for the lack of a better term) in reddish, almost rust like gunk. What the hell?! I swear I left them sit idly in my closet! Tried administering a careful hand wash. It is a tad better but still looks quite awful. The pads were relatively new after a replacement just before decommissioning. Kinda reluctant to get a new pair, but it has to be done. Just not now though, as I am still "sourceless" at this point.

 

[JamieMcC]

  Thank you so much JamieMcC. How do you think that Teac would compare to the NAD D3020 I have? Purely on headphone out, I'm fairly sure it will be quite a bit better? Cheers
 
EDIT: Had a £115 offer accepted for a mint 500i, so stuck with it. For that price I'm sure I can't go wrong.

 
Wow that was quick!  I haven't heard a NAD so do not know how it will compare. I do have at the moment a heavily modified Bottlehead Crack the Marantz NA7004 and the H500 amp so my comparison are between them. I'm currently waiting delivery of a Bottlehead Sex kit.
 
The Crack is awesome but the other two are not far behind, I don't want to tot up what I have spent on modifying the Crack and buying premium tubes in fact just my input and driver tube cost more than your new H500i!. The nice thing with the Teac is that for the price its hard to go wrong, even if you find its for its not for you then moving it on will be quick and easy on the pocket.
 
Let us know how you get on with the 500i
 
Edit just be careful when you turn on for the first time the volume control is turned all the way anticlockwise as the numerals that mark the increases are a little hard to make sense of as both ends of the scale have zero's marking them.

 

[Solrighal]

Agreed.  I only listen to electronic music every now and then, when I do I usually reach for my HE400's.  However, I love listening to James Blake through my 650's.  You're right though, the 650 is just a great all around headphone that handles really everything quite well.  The Sea Change album is particularly sweet on the 650's.  One of my favorite albums to put on after a long day at work.

I really enjoy Sea Change also. The SACD rip is stellar!!

I need to check out James Blake. Sea Change has exceptional warmth and detail. A winning combination on the 650's.

What makes these so special for me is that I can listen to a wide range of music without feeling short-handed. Every now & again though I stumble across music that seems made for the Senn's. That's priceless.

 

[spiderking31]

I'm still rocking my HD 650s.  I've been rocking them since I think 2007 making them 7 years old.  Still my favourite headphones.  So comfortable, sound is great and the cord is replaceable (I had to do that once).  It's so much more convenient to disconnect the cord and re-connect the new one than to pull the headphones apart and re-solder the new cable on.  These headphones have held up great over time with only some minor cracking of the finish on the headband where it flexes.

I ain't going to lie....I upgraded the cable, upgraded the tubes on my little dot mk3 amp, with a very Niiice cd5004 player, and I'm literally in audio nirvana! What I love about the hd650's is really how awesome they sound! They sound even better with upgrades! And they can scale so far up there, it's not funny....so I love my hd650's, over every other headphone I've got the pleasure to listen to....and I will never rid my hd650.....That's how much I love them.

 

[obsidyen]

  Cannot decide on a headphone amp for this, feel like i make a decision then find many negatives surrounding it. Ideally i'm looking around £500 for the DAC and Amp.
 
Looked at the Crack, seems great but fairly pricey with the speedball upgrade. Also lack of warranty concerns me, considering my basic electronic skills.
 
Schiit Bifrost + Valhalla/Asgaard is another option but not sure I want to spend that much, looking close to £700 after duty and shipping.
 
Also the LD MKIII but apparently it isn't overly great, still good for the price.
 
Nuforce HDP but not discontinued and hard to find in the UK.
 
Maverick A1 + D2 combo. Not a huge amount of info on how it pairs with the HD650s.
 
Woo Audio WA3 but quite pricey not sure if I want to spend that much.
 
O2 is apparently quite flat and uninspiring for the HD650s.
 
The HRT MS2 looks ideal for the DAC, just the amp I am stuck on.
 
I really love the signature of the HD650s but my NAD D3020 doesn't drive them too well IMO. Really dislike fatiguing highs. Ideally I'm looking for mid range punch while not being too light on the low end. The Maverick combo seems good as the price is right and will also drive my passive speakers, which is completely secondary as I only use them for TV.
 
Going round in circles here and any help would be great.

Meridian Explorer is lovely with HD650s, even when used as a dac/amp combo or you can use it as a dac only with another amp.

 

[Straz]

   
Wow that was quick!  I haven't heard a NAD so do not know how it will compare. I do have at the moment a heavily modified Bottlehead Crack the Marantz NA7004 and the H500 amp so my comparison are between them. I'm currently waiting delivery of a Bottlehead Sex kit.
 
The Crack is awesome but the other two are not far behind, I don't want to tot up what I have spent on modifying the Crack and buying premium tubes in fact just my input and driver tube cost more than your new H500i!. The nice thing with the Teac is that for the price its hard to go wrong, even if you find its for its not for you then moving it on will be quick and easy on the pocket.
 
Let us know how you get on with the 500i
 
Edit just be careful when you turn on for the first time the volume control is turned all the way anticlockwise as the numerals that mark the increases are a little hard to make sense of as both ends of the scale have zero's marking them.

 
Was just a cheeky ebay offer that got accepted, I think the price is about right. I went for the HRT MSII+ DAC. My thinking is that even if I don't find the 500i to my tastes I'll probably still keep it to run my passives and look for a Crack in the future running off the HRT - should make for a nice setup either way.
 
Plus I'd keep that 500i purely on aesthetics if it looks half as good as the images on the web
 

 
Meridian Explorer is lovely with HD650s, even when used as a dac/amp combo or you can use it as a dac only with another amp.
 

 
Literally just bought the HRT MSII+ 5 minutes before I saw your post. I didn't read up much on the Explorer, hopefully I made the right choice.

 

[Mingus Ah Um]

I ain't going to lie....I upgraded the cable, upgraded the tubes on my little dot mk3 amp, with a very Niiice cd5004 player, and I'm literally in audio nirvana! What I love about the hd650's is really how awesome they sound! They sound even better with upgrades! And they can scale so far up there, it's not funny....so I love my hd650's, over every other headphone I've got the pleasure to listen to....and I will never rid my hd650.....That's how much I love them.

I agree.  The 650's sound great on the MK3 with some upgraded tubes.  With so many rolling options, and many of them quite inexpensive you can really make the LD MK3 a great pairing with the 650's.  I'm currently using a pair of IBM 6BE6's in my LD MK3 and they sound awesome.