Hi,
The reccomended LTA amp is a splendid sounding piece. I had one for a couple of years (which for me is an eternity). The only caveat I have is that it is not very powerful, It puts out about 1W. That may be fine for now, but perhaps not later if you want to upgrade. It also is only single ended.
That happened when I purchased the HiFi Man HE6SE phones. Granted the HE6SE is a beast to drive. I sold the LTA tried a few other amps with much more power. I tried out an Audio Gd & it was it was a fine sounding piece (9 watts into 40 OHMS!) willl drive any headphone out there. Long story short; I wended up with the Violectric VA222. It is an excellent amp with more than enough power for hard to drive 'phones. It also images very well with a very wide sound stage, but is not standard rack size. Retail is about 1,200,00.
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Audeze Deckard. Discontinued, apparently when Audeze decided to concentrate exclusively on phones, but quite well-reviewed. True Class A, includes a 32/384 USB DAC input, volume control, and three selectable gain settings for different-impedance phones. Build quality is superb. And it even has enough juice to serve as a standalone preamplifier.
If you’re considering $1-2K amps, a used Deckard can be a cost-effective alternative. They’re currently on eBay in the $300-500 range. It’s a shame that Audeze got out of the amplifier business before this model had a chance to build a base, b/c the Deckard could have been a game-changer in its price class.
I paired my own unit with 22-ohm Audeze LCD-X phones for years with superb results -- detailed, palpable presentation, neutral tonal balance, low noise floor, and bass extension deep into the 20-30Hz range. Even after migrating to to the headphone stage of a $19,000 integrated, I still hesitate to sell my unit b/c, frankly, its sonics are hard to fault. My only beef was that it ran as hot as you’d expect a Class-A amp to run.
Here are some reviews / specs:
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Moon 230 if you can "suffer" a mini chassis. For $2k it's a favorite. The 430HA or HAD if you want the DAC. Overall balance on that system is hard to beat
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The McIntosh 200 never gets any love but I really like mine. I think it looks cool as well!
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I have 3 2-channel preamps that are rather good to great headphone amps.
1) Benchmark HPA4 (neutral, $3.5k)
2) Holo Audio Serene (a bit warmer than the HPA4 $3.3k)
3) Schitt Audio Mjolnir v3 (a warm Class A sound, $1.3k)
I will be using all 3 of these with a $10k headphone. They are up for the task.
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I am not adverse to spending up to $1k+ if I find something I like, but there are plenty of fine units well under that figure.
The Classe doesn't have headphone outs, therefore the need for a solution.
I have a FX Audio DAC X6Mk11 headphone amp that I can use while I find a better solution (so a full 17-19" unit is NOT mandatory. It can digitally be connected to the Cambridge Audio Streamer's DAC which will be the best final connection option I want to use.
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Take $200 and get a Topping DX3 Pro+ DAC/HPA if you only want to listen to streaming source material or spend a whopping $60 for a Douk Audio U10 tube HPA with the GE5654 tube upgrade. You will have to supply your own high power USB (>2 Amp / 10W) power supply. The purpose here is to baseline an HPA. I'm not pretending these are endgame components. They exist to provide you with HPA functionality and allow you, at your leisure, to pick the HPA of your dreams with no pressure. That makes them a bargain.
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At least check out Linear Tube Audio. They have some very nice headphone circuitry
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I've tried many different headphone amps, but as others have said, can't really make a good recommendation without a budget. There's decent $100 ones. There are awesome $10K ones. And a whole lot in between.
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A headphone system can be simply breathtaking. Happily I finally found that out. Unfortunately, your requirements for size and price preclude me recommending the stuff I have. But, you might want to have a look at my system and consider this kind of thing for the future. I am in complete awe each day when I turn it on and listen. It is now located on the bottom shelf of my coffee table in front of the fireplace and gets used every morning, so it isn’t the centerpiece of the room any more.
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My main headphone amp is a Moon 430HA, but it seemed a little out of line with the rest of the system components, but it is (almost) full-sized. Again, budget would be super helpful when asking for recommendations.
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I second the Moon 430HAD.
If you are looking for something portable Chord Mojo2 is impressive for the money.
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Not enough info to go on here to make a meaningful recommendation, and I’ve got better things to do with my time than take shots in the dark. I’ll just say you’re better off driving the headphone amp from your Classe pre if you can because it’s probably a much better preamp. Good luck.
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I have a Moon HA430 and it's absolutely fantastic.
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You don’t state your budget or if you prefer a new unit or are open to pre-owned. That information would be helpful, and without it, this is a bit of a shot in the dark, but the Sony TA-ZH1ES is an excellent amp with a lot of flexibility and connection options. It is not however full-sized. It’s actually quite compact.
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I don’t want to blow the bank with this accessory. It won’t be used often but it must be on par with the rest of the system.
I have had tubes before and they just didn’t seem to work well with Planar Magnetic cans for me.
The Cambridge Audio 851N streamer allows me to control the digital signals volume. It also has digital outputs.
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Do you need an amp with a volume control or just a power amp, and are you looking for solid state or are you open to a tube amp? What’s your budget, and what sound characteristics are most important to you?
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The LTA Velo is worth a look. Or the MicroZotl MZ3.
Depending on your budget, Schiit makes some great headphone amps. You could buy 3-4 different ones for options
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I like my new Denafrips Artemis better than my older Pass Labs HPA-1. Artemis is Class A and tends to run quite warm. It is brighter than HPA-1, but quite a bit more detailed in the bass region.
My tastes are classic rock, new wave, punk, metal, West African blues and related, world music.
I use Meze Elites primarily.
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