[SirMarc]

Hello All,

I've seen the Vali/Vali 2 recommended a bit here. Obviously nowhere near the top of the line amp, and alone wouldn't do the HD650 justice.

I am awaiting my HD6XX, and so I'm looking into getting an amp to give me some of the tube sound, as that seems to be what makes the HD650s sound best. I currently have a vintage Carver M500T power amp I use for my HE-6. I am debating if a small, cheap tube amp like a little dot I/II or vali 1/2 is worthwhile to use as tube preamps to my Carver to run my HD6XX, or if I should drive them directly with something beefier like the valhalla 2, lyr 2, or bottlehead crack.

Hold off until you try the Carver, it may surprise you. I use a vintage Sansui 9090 with my 650's and stopped looking to upgrade on both the headphone amp and vintage sides. Good luck

 

[KewlMunky]

Hold off until you try the Carver, it may surprise you. I use a vintage Sansui 9090 with my 650's and stopped looking to upgrade on both the headphone amp and vintage sides. Good luck

I'm not completely ruling out running it just from my Carver. I've never heard a tube amp, so I'm trying to find a cheap way to properly introduce myself to the tube sound, and if I prefer the Carver I'm not out a whole lot on return/resale. Thus wondering if the vali or little dot mk II would be good for a preamp into my carver, or if I should run it directly from a bit beefier tube amp.

 

[DavidA]

  I'm not completely ruling out running it just from my Carver. I've never heard a tube amp, so I'm trying to find a cheap way to properly introduce myself to the tube sound, and if I prefer the Carver I'm not out a whole lot on return/resale. Thus wondering if the vali or little dot mk II would be good for a preamp into my carver, or if I should run it directly from a bit beefier tube amp.

If just looking to try tubes, take a look at Garage 1217 amps (Starlight, Solstice, Sunrise III, Ember II), a wide range of prices and quite a few on these threads love them, very flexible amps and a single tube is easier to find versus trying to find matched pairs.  And IIRC most have pre-amp outputs.

 

[Krutsch]

 
WA3 is supposedly magic with 650. Not a lot more $, either, than some of the amps you list.

It is... yeah, I know it doesn't have the X-factor of the Schitt stuff on Head-Fi, or the Bottlehead, but it's way underrated with the HD-650s.

 

[Faber65]

About Amy Winehouse, probably the problem is not the mastering, but the highly compressed dynamic.

I never measured it, but to my ears her albums have a very low DR index.

I wish someone here had the possibility to do the measurement just for the sake of my curiosity.

Maybe DR is equal or below 9.

Something like that.

But of course, I am just guessing for fun.

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=amy+winehouse&album=

Jimmers,

Thank you very much for the link.
In fact I have the "deluxe" editions of Amy's albums which are the worst.
Damn!
But this confirms that the low DR, in some extents, can be perceived also by "not professionals" like me.

 

[Quinto]

Miles Davis does very well on the HD650 without giving me bloody tinnitus! No treble, mids or bass, just music.
 
My favorite headphone, together with HD600 and my good old K501

 

[jimmers]

Jimmers,

Thank you very much for the links.
In fact I have the "deluxe" editions of Amy's albums which are the worst.
Damn!
But this confirms that the low DR, in some extents, can be perceived also by "not professionals" like me.

If you use a PC and Foobar you can do your own measurements with Dynamic Range Meter and even watch the Peak Meter when the track is playing to see how hard some tracks hit the 0dB mark and how close they stay to it. 

 

[Faber65]

Messed up with the posts.... deleted!

 

[Faber65]

Jimmers,


Thank you very much for the links.

In fact I have the "deluxe" editions of Amy's albums which are the worst.

Damn!

But this confirms that the low DR, in some extents, can be perceived also by "not professionals" like me.

If you use a PC and Foobar you can do your own measurements with Dynamic Range Meter and even watch the Peak Meter when the track is playing to see how hard some tracks hit the 0dB mark and how close they stay to it. 

I definitely need to try.
But yes, some good music is irreparably damaged by a post-production remixing that privileges the radio broadcasting and the short term mass diffusion.
Fast money show biz.

 

[raybone0566]

Gumby arrived last night. Got an hour or so with it, then just let it run through the night. Sonic improvements between it & bimby are not suttle.

 

[Youth]

Gumby arrived last night. Got an hour or so with it, then just let it run through the night. Sonic improvements between it & bimby are not suttle.

 
I'm jealous 

 I'm planning to get Gumby myself and from what I understand it needs to be on 24/7.     

 

[mysticstryk]

Gumby arrived last night. Got an hour or so with it, then just let it run through the night. Sonic improvements between it & bimby are not suttle.

Very nice, considering a similar setup myself.

How do you like your Black Widow compared to your Glenn OTL?

 

[raybone0566]

Very nice, considering a similar setup myself.

How do you like your Black Widow compared to your Glenn OTL?

Black widow is a little clearer overall & has a bit more space in between instruments, larger soundstage. Gumby is also larger in this than bimby. Glenn otl hits much harder and has that added warmth that really gives the 650's a bold, full bodied sound. I love both amps, but the otl is my favorite.sweet thing about the otl is the tube rolling options are limitless. I've probably got about 75 tubes that I can roll.

 

[Solrighal]

I have a quick question and although it's DAC related I know the majority of the folks here and trust you guys. HD 650 users will likely understand what I'm looking for.
 
First let me say this - I don't know that I'm actually missing out on anything as is. Having said that, I've been using an ODAC since forever and I'm now thinking it might be time to upgrade. Am I right in saying that there's no audibledifference between a 96kHz file and a 192kHz file? Also, what would you guys suggest as a step up in resolution from the ODAC? I could maybe stretch to €300 if the difference was going to be appreciable. I'm using HD 650's exclusively powered by my Project Ember MkII. One more thing - I'm in France and the chances of me actually getting to audition something before purchase are slim to none so if I do pull the trigger I have to be relatively confident I'm going to hear an improvement.
 
Thanks for taking the time.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

  I have a quick question and although it's DAC related I know the majority of the folks here and trust you guys. HD 650 users will likely understand what I'm looking for.
 
First let me say this - I don't know that I'm actually missing out on anything as is. Having said that, I've been using an ODAC since forever and I'm now thinking it might be time to upgrade. Am I right in saying that there's no audibledifference between a 96kHz file and a 192kHz file? Also, what would you guys suggest as a step up in resolution from the ODAC? I could maybe stretch to €300 if the difference was going to be appreciable. I'm using HD 650's exclusively powered by my Project Ember MkII. One more thing - I'm in France and the chances of me actually getting to audition something before purchase are slim to none so if I do pull the trigger I have to be relatively confident I'm going to hear an improvement.
 
Thanks for taking the time.

 
There is 100% no audible difference. I understand why people get all up in arms about it but it's been seriously proven that human hearing isn't fine enough to pick up on any difference up in those ranges. A 96 or 192 file isn't giving any audible fidelity, it's just making people get angry because their hardware has lower numbers than someone else's. 16/48 is seriously all you need. CDs are mastered in 16/44.1 for that matter. 
 
I often fear people focus far too much on numbers and graphs rather than the more intangibles like what's actually being done. Your ODAC is fine. The Ember + 650 combo is what's doing the real work.