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Beginning of a new journey...

I had never been a headphone guy, up until very recently. My main rig in my home office is built around Harbeth P3esr, Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum II, Cambridge Audio Azur 851D, and Bluesound Node 2i. I'm extremely satisfied with the performance of this system, and cannot ever imagine parting ways with the P3esr's. They tick all the right boxes for me.

Having said that, my headphone journey started with my wife buying me a Bose Soundlink pair of headphones about a month ago. I put those on, and the first word that came to mind was 'meh'. I tried them with and without amplification, but the result was always the same. Meh! I concluded that maybe headphones were not for me. But then a friend of mine told me that Mass Drop (now just Drop) were running a special on the Sennheiser HD6XX headphones. With the first-timer discount, and free shipping, the cans were going to run me $175 + tax. I figured why not. I am in love with the Harbeth midrange and smooth sound, so 6XX's sounded like the right choice.

Now, I also have a Naim Unituque (V1) that was in my system before I upgraded to the Cronus Magnum. The display light had started to fade and eventually went out completely. So much for Naim quality! Anyways, I was hoping that the Naim would be a good match for the HD6XX's. But nope! Not at all. The sound was anemic, slightly better than running them straight from my iPhone, but not that much better. The bass was almost non-existent. I guess headphone amplification was an afterthought on the Unitiqute. I wasn't sure if it were the 6XX's, or just that the synergy with Naim was not optimal.

On a whim, I hooked the cans to the Cronus Magnum's headphone out, and immediately they came alive. The bass was much tighter, the midrange, vocals, treble -- everything was noticeably better. I can see why these headphones have achieved such a legendary status in the world of affordable hifi equipment. They definitely scale with better equipment, unlike the Bose. So now, I need some advice regarding a good headphone amp. Given the limited room on my desk, I would prefer something with a smaller form factor, and a single box solution with preamp/amp/dac. It will be a bonus if the unit can have a built in streamer, but not a must. I want to stay between $500-800, new or used. I'm sensitive to high frequencies, so tubes will be my preference but don't want to rule out smooth sounding SS amps.

Any advise is greatly appreciated!
128x128arafiq

Showing 4 responses by big_greg

big_greg
6,561 posts
 
Most headphone access plugs are cheap/poorly designed op amps. To get the most out of phones...you need a dedicated amp.
Pretty sure he was asking about getting a dedicated amp.

I don’t have a specific recommendation as most of my headphone amps are out of that price range, but Drop has a number of headphone amps under $1K that come up. https://drop.com/top-list/Amps/type--Headphone/max-price--1000

Head-fi is a good resource for reviews as is innerfidelity. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Woo Audio’s tubed headphone amps, but not sure if they have anything in your budget.

If you’re patient, you might pick up a used Auralic Taurus in your budget range, that’s a great amp (not tubed though), but very smooth, detailed and just a little on the warm side.


big_greg
6,561 posts
 
The HD6XX are surprisingly good headphones at their price point.  They are probably the most comfortable headphones I own and they sound really good.  I have better sounding headphones, but they are many times the price of the HD6XX.  They definitely benefit from a good headphone amp.  There are also a lot of mods available for them - cables, earpads, etc.  I don't remember which ones I got, but I put some thicker earpads on and it increased the comfort level.  
big_greg
6,561 posts
 
I'll just have to find the right tubes for it
How do you know it doesn't already have the right tube if you don't even have it yet?

I haven't heard it either so I could be misjudging the Vali because of its low price, but I wouldn't spend a lot of money on tubes on something that inexpensive. You could easily spend more than the amp cost on tubes and still have a pretty mediocre amp. What do I know though, there are 359 pages on head-fi about tube rolling in that amp so a lot of people have found it worthwhile. I owned a Mjolnir for a while, so I do have experience with their headphone amps. 

If you're on a budget, consider saving up for something better if it doesn't tickle your fancy instead of throwing a bunch of tubes at it to see what sticks. 
big_greg
6,561 posts
 
It's OK to have more than one pair of headphones!  You may find that the Ananda sound better, but maybe the HD6XX are more comfortable, or that one does better with certain types of music.  Having a bunch of different headphones is like having many different pairs of speakers, without taking up all the space.  I have 11 sets of headphones (which I admit is ridiculous) and they all sound different and all have different strengths and weaknesses.
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