[ManiacSmile]

Okay, here's the question. I am thinking of trying out and maybe eventually buying tube headphone amp for my HD580/HD600 setup. Now as far as I understood from reading this forum for a while the current toplist would be (by price )

- Musical Fidelity X-can V2
- ASL MG Head OTL
- Earmax Pro
- Acoustic Valve RKV MKII
- ASL TwinHead MKII
- Cary CAD300SEI

What do you guys think about the line up? What would be the best buy out of that list in terms of being the most euphonic and musical, but at the same time without any major sacrifices and at least some sort of analytical and revealing character. Money are not the most important factor, but I would like to pay for the difference that I can actually notice.
Thanx in advance !

 

[JaZZ]

Earmax Pro? It meets all your requirements and is really one of the best matches with the HD 600. Other than most other tube amps it has very extended frequency extremes and a euphonic sound which is at the same time accurate and reveiling – and doesn't emphasize the HD 600's «veil».

 

[Achilles]

lol ... Great post heading

 

[dd3mon]

I can heartily recommend the MG Head (new versions, build quality seems MUCH better than previous reports) with some tube rolling it sounds excellent. However if money isn't a concern, the TwinHead MKII would be the first tube amp I'd be looking at. (just read Jude's glowing review - how can you say no to that?

)

-dd3mon

 

[bozebuttons]

If money is not a problem Just go for the Cary and don't look back.

 

[ManiacSmile]

Thanx to all of you guys !

Jazz,

I did hear only good responses about Earmax Pro, especially from Markl. The only thing that concerns me is that it doesn't have the transofrmer at least as an option, while MG Head does. And also from a consumer standpoint - I can't justify spending $700 on piece of audio equipment that can fit on one's palm. Maybe I'm not a true head-fier yet

bozebuttons,

At this point I'm still waiting on Jude's full review of TwinHead MK II. The reason is that used Cary can be found on audiogon at almost the same price as new Twinhead. Twinhead being 6 years younger then Cary might offer more in terms of the resale value and also being the preamp, in comparison to Cary which is single ended. From your profile I can see that you own one. Do you have any experience in using Cary as a preamp ?

Achilles, Thanx

 

[markl]

Quote:

I did hear only good responses about Earmax Pro, especially from Markl.

Welcome to Head-Fi, maniac, sorry about your wallet!
Yes, in terms of the tube amps that I've owned, EMP is definately the most "tubey". However, I think the EMP has some limitations, which may or may not matter to you, I'll re-post to save time:
Quote:

So I sold the MOH and purchased an Earmax. Boy, I could tell that it did a lot of things right, and I was instantly seduced by the enchanting tube sound, but it clipped horribly with the HD600s when it was turned up to even a reasonable listening level. IMO, the standard Earmax (which was allegedly designed specifically for the HD600) is completely worthless, and can’t drive any load let alone the HD600. So, back it went and I got the higher-powered Earmax Pro as a replacement. This was much better with the HD600s, with very strong bass, and a very tubey signature, but I found that the EMP was unable to drive the Etymotic ER4S without clipping as the Earmax had done with the HD600. Consequently, IMO, the EMP is probably unqualified to drive anything other than the HD600s to the kind of volume levels I prefer (relatively loud). Anyway, after discovering the joys of tube-rolling, I was able to bring up the EMP to a level sonically where I was very pleased with it powering the HD600, and used this set-up for a while. Eventually, though, I fell out of love with the HD600, and knew that if I swapped headphones, I probably couldn’t rely on the EMP to be able to drive the new cans.

Other tube amps not on your list that I've owned and can vouch for (plus are able to run a wide range of cans successfully) are the Berning MicroZOTL ($800 or so, all tube amp able to drive anything, but no particularly "tubey"-sounding), and the Melos line of pre-amps ($400-$1200 used, which are popular among headphone geeks for excellent headphone jack and ability to drive any headphone). Melos is a tube/ss hybrid and seems to benefit from the best of both worlds. Given your budget, best bet in the Melos line would be a used Melos Maestro, or Melos Gold Reference.

There's plenty of information on all these amps right here.

Good luck!

Mark

 

[bozebuttons]

Originally posted by ManiacSmile
Thanx to all of you guys !



bozebuttons,

At this point I'm still waiting on Jude's full review of TwinHead MK II. The reason is that used Cary can be found on audiogon at almost the same price as new Twinhead. Twinhead being 6 years younger then Cary might offer more in terms of the resale value and also being the preamp, in comparison to Cary which is single ended. From your profile I can see that you own one. Do you have any experience in using Cary as a preamp ?

_____________________________________

My Cary is modded for direct input Only And is only used as a headphone amp.Preamp duties go to my Hovland Hp100. If you want it to double as a preamp you may better be served with the twinhead from what others have posted who heard it.
Only thing with the twinhead not really suited for use with low impedence phones if you decide to use anything other than the 580/600. The Cary can handle them all.
As for resale value you would have a bigger market for the Cary.

 

[SumB]

I've owned the first three on your list and the Earmax Pro is in a league of its own amongst those. Unlike markl, I didn't have any problems driving headphones of every impedance to defeaning volumes.

 

[JaZZ]

Quote:

Originally posted by SumB Unlike markl, I didn't have any problems driving headphones of every impedance to defeaning volumes.

I subscribe this...!

 

[markl]

Well, there was one other chap here recently that complained about the EMP's seeming lack of sufficient power output with certain cans, so I'm not totally alone in my view, though I recognize others have had a different experience from me. All I can do is relate my own experience as a sample size of 1.

Mark

 

[ManiacSmile]

Samb,

"league of its own" - willing to elaborate on this one? I'm not really worried about the clipping at this point and I really like HD600s and probably won't get rid of them untill that contageous head-fi virus gets ahold of me

Markl,

Thanx , I heard you mention Melos line before, probably will do the search on that one


bozebuttons,

Could you please tell me what your source is and how do you run it with Cary - through Hovland or you switch back and forth ?

 

[ddriveman]

ManiacSmile,

Other amps not on your list that you should also consider:

1) ASL OTL 32. I don't have one (can't buy it yet in HK !) but getting good reviews.

2) Opera Cyber 30 or 10. Both of these are integrated amps with headphone outputs. The Cyber 30 is Single Ended Triode (2A3) which is similar to the ASL Twinhead and Cary 300 SEI and I can vouch for it being a good match for the Sennheiser HD-600. Price is around US$500-600.

Be aware that buying a tube headamp doesn't stop once you get it because there's tube rolling to come. Ahhh ! We will make you a Bottle Head-Fi yet. Happy Tubing.

 

[Hirsch]

Just to throw some more amps on the list, Singlepower Audio will be sending three amps from their upcoming line to the Chicago meet at the end of the month. It could be worth waiting to hear what the response is. I've got a prototype of his top-end amp, and it's stunning.

 

[bozebuttons]

Quote:

Originally posted by ManiacSmile Samb, __________________________________________________ __ bozebuttons, Could you please tell me what your source is and how do you run it with Cary - through Hovland or you switch back and forth ?

__________________________________________________ __
I am using a sony 9000es as a transport Marklevinson 360s dac. Cary is hooked directly to mark levinson dac which has 2 outputs, One to hovland and one to cary. The hovland also has 2 outputs
I could run it trough there if I wanted but that would put more components in the signal path.