[drandall]

thanks to excellent suggestions from head-fi members, i'm the proud owner of a nuforce Udac and a new pair of HD600's. my music has never sounded better. now i want to add a modestly priced amp. both the LD and the EF2 are right in my financial comfort zone..but i'm not sure which way to go.

i'd love to hear from members that own or have auditioned both amps.


thanks!

david r.

 

[ufotofu]

I'm a relative newb so I don't have a wide variety of experience with gear and specs. You may want to read two excellent reviews on here that have a ton of info on the two amps. Pencham did one (w/extensive coverage of tube rolling) for the LD, and Headphoneaddict covered the EF2 very well.

After going back and forth between an iBasso and the HiFiman lines, I ended up buying an EF2 about a month ago. I'm still burning it in (~85hrs) I am VERY pleased with it, but I am using the onboard DAC and lower imp cans (SR80s). Your HD600s run at 300ohms, I believe. I'm not sure if the EF2 has enough power to run some of the more power hungry cans out there. You might do better with an EF1 since you already have a DAC or just getting the LD. Read the reviews.
Another note worth mentioning is the more extensive tube rolling capabilities of the LD and its higher power output. Pencham reviewed the LD using a set of HD650s so that might give you a decent reference as to what you can expect.

 

[roker]

Go with the better amp, in this case I believe the LDIII fits the bill.

One of the draws of the EF2 is the built in DAC, but since you have a µDac, that part is already taken care of.

 

[HenrySsy]

LD MKIII, why? cause that's what I just did. woooohoooo

 

[stang]

Get the Little Dot MKIII, or the Qinpu A-3. You already have a DAC, so no point bying the EF2 really, as it has a built in DAC as well as a hp amp. The Qinpu A-3 is preferred over the LD MKIII by headphone addict and a few more, forgot their names though. It's $169 right now and the tubes can be upgraded easily and they are cheap. I have one right now and it's fantastic. Probably selling it soon as I just bought the MapleTree Ear+ HD

It is a wonderful cheap amp that also has AUX input so you can use your iPod easily and also has speaker inputs/outputs, so it could come in handy one day

.