Headphone amp for Sennheiser HD600

Yes, check out Audioadvisor.com I got a sweet deal on a pair of HD600's and a Musical Fidelity "X CAN" tube amp as a package deal. I cant remember what I paid, I think it was around 500.00 for the set. Call to get the deal.

x cans II is great, Vintage HH Scott 299 C or D

Grado amp with the Senn 600's, terrific match

Gundam91: I'll be doing an extensive test of Grado RA-1 headphone amp with the Grado RS-1s vs Sen 600, which I have on order from Germany.

I also have just purchased a Placette active line stage preamp, which contains a class A headphone amp. In a preliminary 2 hour A/B against the RA-1 (which in itself is a very, very good headphone amp) the Placette totaly smoked the Grado. Most pronounced, was "less jumbling" of complicated treble pieces -- the Vishay resistors really add nothing to the source and there is absoultely no distortion on the high end. To be fair to the Grado which costs about $325, the Placette retails for $4000.

The Placette is especially gradifying with SACD, XRCD and other high end recordings where there is little/no digital edge to contend with, as I do not have a DAC (source is an SCD-1). As I spend 50% of my time listening to headphones, I take this stuff very seriously, and my current setup is very close to some of the better STAX setups I have heard, including an older Omega I system. --Lorne

I have a set of HD600 connected to a Headroom Max amp. It is a bit expensive, but it sounds fantastic to me. I use an Anthem CD1 as the source for this setup, it is what I listen to in the office.

In my most humble opinion there is only one amp for the Sennheiser HD 600 headphone, and that amp would be the Wheatfield HA-2 tube amp, I am a lover of that glowing bottle. Have been using one in my system for well over a year. One must sample this amp to truly understand what it can do to headphones. I will say there is no substitute for the main system, but, when the requirements are that my house be quiet, I do use it with great success and infact look forward to the session. The Headroom people are the sole sellling agent of this amp. Good luck.......

I got both the X-Cans & Creek SE amps from AA for a couple weeks. The X-Cans worked a little better w/ these cans. However, REPLACE STOCK TUBES ASAP W/ AMPEREX NOS and now it is no contest. Either Bugle Boys or A-Frames softened the Tizzy sound on some mainstream recordings while letting great extension come through. Incredible difference in the bass w/ the NOS tubes. Much deeper and tighter bass. These cans are very easily tweaked w/ interconnects too. I either use the Harm Tech Pro Silway MKII or Cardas Golden Hexlink 5C w/ them & again it takes it to another level.

Thanks to everyone for excellent advices. Although the Wheatfield is a nice amp, at over $10K, I think my wife would hang me before I finish listening to my first album. EarMax, MG Head, and X-Can v2 all seemed to be good contenders with MG and X-Can at roughly the same price.

I am leaning towards the X-Can as I have a huge collection of 6DJ8 NOS tubes available already.

I got it confused! I was thinking of the Sennheiser tube amp that I saw at HeadRoom's website for $12,000!

I have been using a CReek OBH-11 with the updated power supply with very satisfactory results. The Sennheisers are
going "at market price" of around $350 new so a "package deal" with amplifier maybe your best solution.

Another option is to find a good tube amp or integrated that has a headphone jack. ( CARY - AES, ANTHEM etc.)

The HD580 headphphones are almost as good and if you can find them they are going for around $200.

I use the Earmax Pro with the HD600's and can't be happier. Try rolling the 6922's to suit your taste. I also auditioned various headroom amps (nice but boring), MG Head (nice but a little noisy - ralatively), Sugden Headmaster (very nice great detail but I am a tube guy. I also used the Sonic Frontiers Line 3 for a number of months which has a fairly good headphone circuit based on the Headroom circuit. After hearing the Earmax I felt the SF was a bit sterile. I haven't heard it but a lot of my friends tell me the Berning Micro ZOTL is in the same league as the Earmax Pro. Use a Pioneer DVD into a Bel Canto DAC 1.1 as a source. To sum up the Earmax sound - great midrange (no surprise) and the best LF I have heard in any tube amp and most SS amps.