[mtkversion]

hi everyone,

looking to get some opinions on an amp that will match up well with my setup and turn the headphones into 'groovalizers'

source : squeezebox 3
phones : akg 601
music : a little bit of everything from a-z.
budget : $300 +/-

i might add a DAC into the mix somewhere down the line but for now it'll be straight out of the sb3.

i want a FUN amp, kick back and relax to the music, not the equipment type amp .. solid state or tubes, i'm up for anything.

so what is out there that i should be looking at?

thanks.

 

[mtkversion]

gilmore lite? ppav2? rsa hornet/sr-71?

it would mainly be a home rig but if a portable amp is up to the task i'd be interested in it as well.

 

[vcoheda]

not sure how well a gilmore lite matches, but if you decide on that amp, i am currently selling one.

 

[afireinside]

The gilmore lite is supposed to be quite sterile so I don't think that's what your looking for. You're probably going to be wanting a tube amp. A maxed out millet hybrid with diamond buffers or a darkvoice 336i were the two I was looking at in that price range but decided not to as I'd be running through a set of tubes at least once a year.

 

[helperTcell]

I've been using this combo for the past 4 months as a home rig and absolutely love it. I listen to lots of electronica, acoustic and classical music using a Musical Fidelity X-Ray CDP hooked up to the Hornet with a £20 QED J2P lead.

It's a big, clean, expressive sound (whoa! - beardy audiophile speak alert!) which gets me tapping my feet and playing "air drums", a sight that my wife seems to find very amusing for some reason. The Hornet drives the AKGs effortlessly and never seems to run out of steam.

Badly recorded stuff (especially rock and indie) doesn't fair so well with this combo, but I suspect this a combinaton of the X-Ray's transparency and the lo-fi production values favoured by some bands.

For a laugh, I tried the AKGs and Hornet with iTunes on my cheap Dell laptop; it was, understandably, quite a step down sonically. However, swapping the AKGs for a pair of £30 Sony IEMs soon got the feet tapping and air drumming going again...

I've got an XP-7 on the way for dedicated home use - it'll be interesting to hear how that compares to the Hornet M.

 

[NoPants]

I use the k601 with the LD++, and it always lets me enjoy almost anything I can throw at it. Pretty forgiving with badly encoded mp3s as well, if that's what you listen to (or happen to pick up).

Nowadays I use the GCHA but that looks like it's out of your budget

 

[Vaughn]

I recently received a Darkvoice 336i and it seems to be a great match for
the AKG601, and I haven't even started tube rolling yet! Vocals are mesmerizing and the soundstage is nice and big. I think with the right tube
compliment it could be groovalicious.

 

[Goh]

Yikes, I just bought a pair of K601s and I'm only packing a CMOY. Anyone have experience with this combination? Also, does the K601 change DRASTICALLY with good amplification (in the $200 to $300 range)? In other words, if I get enough volume from them with my CMOY and I don't like their sound, is it safe to say I won't like them even with better amping?

 

[mtkversion]

Thank you all for the replies .. I see that tube amps are being recommended a lot and as all I've had prior are SS, I'll have to look into tube amps more.

The RSA Hornet M recommendation is also intriguing as the flexibility is nice when I travel .. we'll see.