[Suuup]

So, I've ordered a Feliks Elise for my T1 headphones, and since I ordered it, I've started to listen to some metal, and I quite like it. I haven't recieved the Elise yet, since there's a 4 week delay. Generally, how are tube amps for metal? Whenever I search on Google, I find guitar amps and not headphone amps. 

 

[Me x3]

There's no 'tube amp sound' to speak of.
You'll find bright sounding tube amps, warm sounding tube amps, transparent ones, veiled ones, you get the point...
 
There's also personal preferences involved, some people prefer T1s with SS amps, some like a particular tube amp better.
 
There's no general answer to your question.

 

[Suuup]

  There's no 'tube amp sound' to speak of.
You'll find bright sounding tube amps, warm sounding tube amps, transparent ones, veiled ones, you get the point...
 
There's also personal preferences involved, some people prefer T1s with SS amps, some like a particular tube amp better.
 
There's no general answer to your question.

Ah, I thought that some music was generally preferred with some amps, and other genres with other amps. I know that many like tube amps with acoustic guitars for instance. 

 

[Me x3]

  Ah, I thought that some music was generally preferred with some amps, and other genres with other amps. I know that many like tube amps with acoustic guitars for instance. 

 
Some would like to make that kind of generalizations, but I'm afraid those things are easy to write but not that easy to hold, especially when two metal albums can differ quite a lot, one from each other.
 
More so, some people want to smooth up (typically compressed) metal recordings to crank the volume a bit more without the fatigue. Other people instead prefer the music to hit them and those prefer much more forward and aggressive presentations (some Grados, you know...)
 
Far from being a metalhead, I've been listening to 'Aegis' (2013 Reissue) by Theatre of Tragedy with the T1 plugged into the solid state Asgard 2 (Class A), and really liked the results.
It's not the most resolving album, that's for sure, but I find it very musical.
The T1 surpassed all other headphones I've tried playing that particular album.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  So, I've ordered a Feliks Elise for my T1 headphones, and since I ordered it, I've started to listen to some metal, and I quite like it. I haven't recieved the Elise yet, since there's a 4 week delay. Generally, how are tube amps for metal? Whenever I search on Google, I find guitar amps and not headphone amps. 

 

First off, here's the thing - a tube amp designed to color the sound for a playback system is not a good amplifier. By the name itself, it's supposed to amplify the sound, not colorify it, and that's why it's called an amplifier instead of a colorifier. Input signal goes in, it comes out a stronger signal with the same curve. Done.

 

Tube amps that are designed to color the sound however are alright on guitar amps. That's basically the artist choosing his/her own sound - the key is that your own equipment shouldn't add any more so you can hear it as close as possible to how it was intended to sound. Headphones and speakers by virtue of not having a totally flat response already adds their own coloration, so the signal should be as transparent as possible up to that point.

 

Second, you can find tube amps that are indistringuishable from a good solid state amp on some headphones. The problem though is that most pure tube, especially OTL designs, tend to have disadvantages driving lower impedance loads. Buying one like that basically limits your choice on what headphones to use. If you're not likely to get low impedance cans though then by all means get a good, relatively transparent OTL amplifier.

 

BTW I had the Little Dot MkII before, and its effect on the sound exacerbates the effects of worn out earpads - the guitars sound like how I'd use my own guitar amp but the bass is bloated, the fast double pedal action doesn't sound right, etc. It wasn't a lot using my Marantz CD60 but even the headphone output on that one sounds closer to a more neutral response than the LD MkII. It got really bad when I gave up on the CDP after its transport stopped reading new discs with PC content, and went for a Superpro707 DAC, which on first listen sounds great but is extremely fatiguing when using USB thanks to how it bumps up the output to 6volts. 

 

 

Here's my set-up now - even on worn out earpads the Meier Cantate doesn't add to the already frustrating effects.