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Can you recommend a decent headphone amp with good vfm..?

torstoi

torstoi

pfm Member
Thanks to a recommendation here in the forum, I was able to get my hands on a nice pair of
Sennheiser HD540 reference II headphones last week.

Now from what I heard is that headphone listening is a bit of an addiction in it's own right, and certainly
viewed as competetive to good speakers. (or more than that..)

The headphones are very nice & I believe they are rather decent quality,
but when I plug them into the headphone socket of my pre-amp,
they sound rather nice or ok-ish , but far from being a competition to my speakers.

So I thought there must be more to it then just that & I tend to believe the headphone out of my pre is not up to the task to show the full potential of those headphones.

What do you think...should the headphone out of the pre be enough to show full potential of ~better headphones ?

Or do you think I could make a considerable progress with a dedicated headphone amp?

And can you recommend one that offers great vfm ?

Absoultely new to the headphone topic, I'm grateful for a few hints what to do..

Thanks in advance !
 
Can't go wrong with Topping. I'm currently using an A30pro which is the best headphone amp I've had. This is a list that includes an Arcam r-head, Woo Audio WA7, Mytec Liberty & RME ADI-2.
Also have a Topping L30 which I directly compared to the Schiit Magni 3. The Topping won.
Not sure what your budget is but the L30 is available if your interested.
TS
 
Thank you, I'm checking out those !

@TonyScarlett : The A30pro sounds interesting to me, having no idea how much budget should be for decent results, I initially thought under 500€ new would be nice.
Of course if I can get away with much less than that with great results, all the better ! :)
The A30pro looks interesting indeed so far..thank you !
 
Another one for Topping. A friend and I recently compared a humble DX3 Pro+ to a much more expensive RME ADI and they both sounded identical. Ended up buying one for £200 from Amazon a week ago. Phenomenal little amp, powerful with an absolutely dead silent backdrop. Tested with a variety of headphones including Denon / Fostex D5000, DROP / Sennheiser Jubilee 58x and a DROP / Dan Clark Ether CX - all of which it can drive to deafening levels.
 
Prism said:
Another one for Topping. A friend and I recently compared a humble DX3 Pro+ to a much more expensive RME ADI and they both sounded identical. Ended up buying one for £200 from Amazon a week ago. Phenomenal little amp, powerful with an absolutely dead silent backdrop. Tested with a variety of headphones including Denon / Fostex D5000, DROP / Sennheiser Jubilee 58x and a DROP / Dan Clark Ether CX - all of which it can drive to deafening levels.
Click to expand...
Also had a DX3pro although I used it mainly as a DAC. In fact it replaced & bettered the Mytec Liberty in that role in my system.
TS
 
Having borrowed a Rega Ear myself I recommend it.

I've also owned the HD540 II and HD560 headphones, and found them a bit bright (esp the 540) compared to the 580/600/650 but then I'm sure Grado fans would disagree so it's very much personal taste.

What I'm saying is, if you don't get on with them don't give up on headphones, maybe you just need a different pair. Although I accept you might have discussed all this before going with the 540s.
 
lawrence001 said:
I've also owned the HD540 II and HD560 headphones, and found them a bit bright (esp the 540) compared to the 580/600/650 but then I'm sure Grado fans would disagree so it's very much personal taste.
What I'm saying is, if you don't get on with them don't give up on headphones, maybe you just need a different pair. Although I accept you might have discussed all this before going with the 540s.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I'm fine with the tonality of the HD540 ref II, my issue is not brightness or bass,
but rather my speakers seem to play more clear.
I know it sounds like a cliche, but with the headphones it feels like an additional curtain is between me and the music..and btw that was the same with my Bayerdynamics DT880pro I had before.
Thus my thought it might be a problem within my preamp that the speakers sound quite a bit better than any cans I tried.
I have little experience with headphones yet, but from what I heard, headphones should rather be more direct & be an experience of great quality..?
So by tendency the exact opposite of what I hear the moment.

And an additional question if I may..
How is a headphoneamp embedded in the system ?
Phono and CD player are plugged into the pre-amp..how does it go on from there ?
How is a headphone amp connected to the normal preamp ?

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions so far, I'm reading up on them a bit at present..
 
Myryad Z40 - brilliant as a preamp or headphone amp - brilliant and well worth the money - performs well above its weight :)
 
Has your pre amp got a tape loop (rca input & output)? If so then just connect the headphone amp to the tape out rca sockets & away you go.
Just be careful to turn the main volume on your pre amp down or if you have a separate power amp don't bother turning it on so you don't accidentally p*** off the neighbours with late night listening sessions.
BTW if your pre amp doesn't have a tape loop (not all do) the Topping A30pro has a pass through function so you can install it between your source & pre amp. The only downside if you wire it up this way is you can only have one source plugged into the headphone amp.

TS
 
Hi all

“I know it sounds like a cliche, but with the headphones it feels like an additional curtain is between me and the music..and btw that was the same with my Bayerdynamics DT880pro I had before.”

Directly comparing headphones to speakers is a dangerous place to go, they behave very differently and you need to adjust you expectations and aspiration accordingly. Headphones are never going to have a wide sound stage imaging or give you that kick in the chest cavity that a good loudspeaker can do just as a good headphone will remove all limitations of the room acoustics and give you an in-depth, microscopic insight into the music. Each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Back to topic; I purchased a Fiio K5 Pro Headphone amp about 8 months ago and have been surprised by what it can do. It has a built in DAC with both Optical, Coaxial and USB inputs as well as old school RCA analogue inputs. It also has RCA Analogue Outputs that auto-mute when you plug in the phones.

The amplifier is happy driving lower impedance phones down to 32 ohms but can also swing enough volts to drive most insensitive higher impedance phones. With 3 gain settings you have got nearly every headphone covered. Many reviewers have said it is quiet enough to drive hypersensitive IEM’s with no audible noise.

I use it with several headphones; mainly My Sennie HD 600’s My AKG 501’s (with the Dekoni Earpads) and My Sennheiser Momentum 3’s when I want to “Rock Out” (The Momentum's are good on Bluetooth but next level when you tether them to a cable).

The amp is very good, neutral, low distortion and quiet. Many reviewers have commented on it drive and punchy dynamics. You also a very nice Nice AK4493DAC that can do up to 192kHz/32bit that can do both SPDIF and USB as well.

News Flash; Fiio Have just released the K5Pro “ESS” with a posh ESS DAC chip, the rest of the unit appears to be the same. If you want the internal DAC, have a look for this one the ESS chip-sets are very highly regarded, or you may see the runout deals on the current K5 Pro as dealers try to off current stock.


LPSpinner.
 
HD580's here and as it's so easy to deliver a few tens of mW's into 300R impedance I can hear virtually no difference between HP sockets on CD player, laptop, PC and a high end class A HP amp I made to see if they really make much difference. YMMV
 
Hi Again,

Another thing, What pre-amp are you using, understanding the intricacies of the pre-amp may help a little, some pre-amps will use a basic Op-Amp for the headphone output while better designs will use a good quality headphone amp. A quick google, once we know the pre-amp make and model number will usually give us a good indication. I have seen several lower cost pre-amps that use a surprisingly good design.

... And yes if the pre-amp has a tape loop that you are not using, this is probably the best option for tapping into the signal.

LPSpinner.
 
"... I can hear virtually no difference between HP sockets on CD player, laptop, PC and a high end class A HP amp..."

Headphone amps can be a can of worm's, sometimes they are a solution looking for a problem. To be honest the differences are minor. As Mr Arkless has suggested, delivering a few tens of Milliwatts into a 300 Ohm load requires no real effort for most electronics. Most headphones are not a particularly difficult load with many of the new planar magnets presenting a purely resistive load.

One issue I have seen is with highly efficient IEMs showing up a higher noise floor on some amplifiers. Another issue I occasionally come across on cheaper amplifiers that use a coupling capacitor in the output stage is when they use a value that is too low when driving lower impedance headphones and bass roll-off becomes noticeable. Both issues are easily avoided with competent designs.

This is probably why I am reluctant to spend huge dollars on a headphone amp, The Fiio was a very affordable price and my other "posh" HP amplifier is a DIY design based on a DC coupled amplifier using a Posh op-amp driving an emitter follower output stage using BD139/140 driver trannies. The most expensive part of the build was the "Fancy-Pants" case.

LPSpinner
 
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