kactaplb
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2010
- Posts
- 3
- Likes
- 0
My first post here. I'll be frank. I am completely new to the whole audiophile business, so please bear with me. I currently own the 701's and love them. Huge step up from the old sony mdr cd900s. I've researched dozens of threads, and I'm still at odds at what to get. It seems everyone is recommending every amp on the planet. Hopefully not asking for the impossible, but here goes...
Sorry if I'm being unreasonable/unflexible. Surely there must be an "industry standard" amp that works well with the 701's. Hopefully this won't turn into a "I have this, this, this, and this amp that works well". I realize that sound is subjective, but still rather not have 30+ amps recommended to me. I'm new to this after all.
Thanks in advance.
- Solid state-apparently tube seems to be better, but too much hassle. and I'll probably break it.
- Sturdy construction.-so no DIY altoid can casings and such...
- No DIY kits-I'm sure I suck at soldering
- Portable-something with external power supply is ok, although internal battery preferred
- Willing to spend ~300$ usd. However, I believe in diminishing returns, so anything cheaper that is comparable...
- Something easy to find on the web currently- so no ancient, obscure, out of production amps. Nothing unusual, and preferrably something well known.
- Listen mostly to classical, or something vocal heavy.
- Source is laptop and zune 80. Not sure if I need a dac/amp combo? Sound card is most likely generic crap. For now I suppose I just want an amp, and maybe worry about dac later? If it matters, I'll be using the headphone out-not the lineout. Also prefer amp that has connections friendly to these 2 sources.-no weird converters and such please.
- Most importantly, I want to keep the 701's as pure and straight foward as possible. So, I want the amp to make the 701s sound clean, and exactly the same as they were originally. I'm not opposed to a little sound coloration, but nothing huge. I got the akgs instead of grados/sennheisers/etc for a reason. I can almost hear the 701s straining to reach something, not just volume wise. Not sure what it is, hopefully amp will tell...
Sorry if I'm being unreasonable/unflexible. Surely there must be an "industry standard" amp that works well with the 701's. Hopefully this won't turn into a "I have this, this, this, and this amp that works well". I realize that sound is subjective, but still rather not have 30+ amps recommended to me. I'm new to this after all.
Thanks in advance.