[Steven Vujovic]

i've had my McCormack Micro Headphne Dive for amost 8 years now and wouln't trade it for anything I've yet to listen to for my Sennheiser HD580, HD600 and AKG K701 headphones. Iv've listened to many other amps including the Headroon Max, Sugden, Corda's and many more, which are too numerous to list, and I believe the McCormack to still be one of the most musical and enjoyable amps I've ever heard. At one point, looking to upgrade and possibly improve the sound of my system, I was actively looking for an amp to displace my McCormack willing to spend about $1500. and i wasn't able to find an amp i liked better. I admit,with the "B" and power station 2 upgrades, the McCormack has now cost me abut $1500. But I believe it was money well spent.

 

[nikongod]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaZZ /img/forum/go_quote.gif O.k. However, my above-mentioned tests have shown that there was no change in sound between a 50-kOhm load and a 140- or 350-ohm load represented predominantly by the parallelly connected headphones in the latter two cases. But of course this applies just to the above configuration, thus the Bel Canto DAC2's line out. Already the requirement of a low output impedance is fulfilled by maybe just 5% of the available CDPs and DACs. I'm quite optimistic, though, that most of them are capable of driving headphones without audible distortion exceeding the alterations caused by further amplification stages, and be they of high calibers. .

i disagree with that.

the loading on the DAC is not the issue, the apparent source impedance to the headphone IS.

driving a headphone with a source impedance of (say) 350 ohms is a BIG change to its sound compared to driving it with a source with a 4 ohm output impedance.

to make a fair comparason, you should have put the SAME attenuator at the output of the amp as at the dac.

most headphones are known to change frequency response in response to a different source impedance.

edit: i meant to quote a post by jazz before this one, my bad. the one where he justified his claims that the dyno-whatever is colored.

 

[sghound]

x 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhd812 /img/forum/go_quote.gif There can be no one best headphone amp in the world for a numbers of reasons... 1: synergy involves the entire audio line, there for the amp is no "i" cause there is no "i" in team. 2: to many different tastes people have in audio 3: to many Different uses a head phone amp can have (pre,portable,solid state,etc) and those in them selves can be argued for many of moons. 4: way to many people that will say in this thread "oh its the oyehds amp" when that person has never even come within a mile range on that amp let alone heard one 5: take number 4 and put a few weeks of listening to it. 6: way to many agendas,fan boys,etc here to even get close to one top amp. 7: in a consumer market there can not be "best in the world" cause there is always something else either on the market or being made now not known to people that may beat that one best amp. 8: every amp has a bunch of little parts in them to make them work (I call the "thingy's") and those parts may not be perfectly matched, or something like to the whole thingy...thing 9: to answer your question of being the max? yes? no? no such thing...only opinions.. 10: to answer the question as from my opinion?.....no way close is it...its good, even great but not the best.

 

[Podster]

Since my world evolves while I'm in a 12 X 12 office the amp I'm listening to right now

Who's best? As subjective as music reproduction is best could be what you personally like and nothing more!

 

[granodemostasa]

how cute....

Tjkurita's amp!

 

[Vangelis]

With regard to all the discussion of Bel Canto DAC2 driving a pair HD-650 direct with only an attenuator in the path singled ended; perhaps a great experiment might be running a pair HD-650 balanced direct out of the new fully balanced Bel Canto DAC 3 which has it's internal digital volume control. I've heard that its volume control is very transparent. Could be just the ticket......

 

[MWALK]

"ZD"= Zana Deux. Not balanced, but sounds more real to me the the Balanced Headroom units.

 

[Gradofan2]

That would likely be the Darkvoice 337.

At least "for the money."

 

[boomana]

MWALK, glad you like your Zana Deux, but since you're posting the same single sentence, which offers little information about either amp, repeatedly in this thread and in others about your sale, your motives appear to be more about promotion than anything else. Highly suspect.

 

[speakerhead]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boomana /img/forum/go_quote.gif MWALK, glad you like your Zana Deux, but since you're posting the same single sentence, which offers little information about either amp, repeatedly in this thread and in others about your sale, your motives appear to be more about promotion than anything else. Highly suspect.

agreed

 

[Jahvetti]

The best headphone amp is my Singlepower Supra, naturally.

 

[tom hankins]

The best amps I have heard have been..
Singelpower SDS-XLR------tubes-dynamic
Singlepower ES-1 or Senn Orpheus....Stats
And I have been just starting to use the Singlepower "transparency" solid state balanced preamp this weekend as a headphone amp with the HD650s. Very impressive so far.

 

[philodox]

The best headphone amp I've heard with my headphones is mine, though I've never directly compared it to the SDS-XLR.

 

[tom hankins]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox /img/forum/go_quote.gif The best headphone amp I've heard with my headphones is mine, though I've never directly compared it to the SDS-XLR.

I'm lucky enough to say the SDS-XLR is not only the best I have heard....but also the best I have owned.

 

[philodox]

It is a great piece of kit, that's for sure. The one that I heard had tubes chosen for mating with a pair of R10's, so it is quite possible that it would have ranked higher in my mind with a more K340 friendly tube compliment.