Hi all,
Apologies for the long post below, but hoping to get some advice on an amp upgrade geared toward the 1266 TC but still versatile enough to run my other headphones. As a bit of background, I've been in this hobby for a couple years, and have slowly and steadily climbed the chain while training my ears. I have a TC on the way from Joe and can't wait, but it also means I am looking to upgrade my amp (ideally with a budget around 2k, but I'm willing to go up some for something special).
Currently I have a Utopia, HD800, and a whole gaggle of ZMFs for which I'm a huge fan (Verite Open, Auteur, Eikon, Atticus). I've built my current system around the ZMFs primarily which I prefer with tubes, my amp is a mjolnir 2 with good tubes (nos, telefunken). The amp is the cheapest part of my chain, hence my desire to upgrade. I know the TC are very hard to drive. The rest of my chain is better but not extremely TOTL: I have a pure audio labs lotus 5 DAC that is fed via curious usb to an aurender n100h music server. I have no plans to change the server which I love, I might at some point upgrade the DAC but I'm pretty happy with it (seems to punch way above its price). But unless someone tells me otherwise, I'm assuming the mjolnir 2 won't cut it with the TC. I should also mention that I use xlr throughout and I have power cords and conditioners that are probably too good for my core components (audioquest tornado for amp and dac that feed into a niagara); but hopefully those will achieve greater gains with a better amp. I also use a lot of upgraded headphone cables like norne, danacable, etc.
As you can probably assume from the above, I tend to prefer a more musical setup. That said, my priority here is to get an amp that synergizes best with the TC, and as a second goal I'd like to get something that also sounds good with my ZMFs (and the utopia, although I'm guessing I'll cull the herd after the TC arrives, since I'm hoping it's the end of the journey for a while; and the utopia and VO may go on the chopping block). So if it's more clinical but awesome with the TC I'm open to considering. Also open to different kinds of amps (solid state, tube, etc.).
The two easy picks from limited research seem to be the Formula S and the GS-X mini. Curious if folks have thoughts about either of these, can someone elaborate on their sound signatures (musical vs. clinical) and how they've found they are with the TC and other headphones like those I've mentioned? For the Formula S, is the powerman PSU needed? I'm not limiting myself to just these two though, do folks here have recommendations in my price range? I have plenty of time to pick this up but appreciate any insights.
Thanks in advance!
. If anyone has something they recommend and willing to part with it for a deal, definitely PM me. I crying shame it would be to have the TC arrive with no amp to run it :/.