Headphone Amp Recommendation

Which headphone are you using. Matching amp to phones is critical.

Try www.headfi.org if you haven't already. There is tons of headphone info there. I recently purchased the Aria and Senn HD-650's. Pretty good but, I am still getting use to headphones rather than my Quad system.

Good luck.

I just purchased the VHP-2 and matching VAC-1 to go with Senheiser HD650's. I am relatively new to getting back into headphones, so I may not be the best one to listen to on this. I like that the amps are small, good looking, offer gain selection (high or low) and have a monitor pass through if you need it. I run them off of my record outs on my TEAD Vibe and so far everything sounds great. I also like not having to mess with tubes. You should look at the Wes Phillips Stereophile review. Interesting how he likes the sound of the CI at least as well as (although implies better than) the MF X-Can with his 650's but the X-Can gets Class A and the CI gets B. Draw your own conclusion.

My headphones are Audio Technica A-900s if that helps.

I'm not sure I understand your question. If serious headphone listening is your quest, you'll want to look at Stax electrostatics, which have their own amplifiers. Hardly any dynamic headphone comes close. Putting an amp on even an expensive dynamic phone is throwing money away, compared to even the least-expensive Stax outfit.

Go to HeadFi.Com, there is a hugh headphone community there w/ plenty of input/experiences..

I'll just chime in here about head-fi...what a bunch of persnickety TOOLS! and i'm not saying that just because i was banned ;-)

Really...be careful of the advice over there. Many are younger guys who don't have much money to spend and rave about everything they own. and they ARE a bunch of persnickety tools. I hate it over there.

I would match up your AT with an amp that works best with lower impedance phones. Creek OBH21 can do low or high impedance (more dynamic) or the GRADO RA-1 battery (smooth and very natural sounding with very good detail).

Not sure of the Meier but I think the ciaudio works better with Sennheisers.

Head-fi is full of 20-somethings who like bass so loud it crushes their brains.

I find Head-fi to be a valuable source for headphone related questions. I've contributed/received information several times and I'm an old fart FWIW. I'm not familiar with either of the amps you mention, but I just purchased a WA 6 from wooaudio.com and can recommend it very highly.

I agree with Uraniumcommitee about the Stax sound (I've got Omegas --the most comfortable for me.) For dynamics, The Headroom Max (the affordable previous generation) works well with my Senn 650s and AKG 701s. (The AKGs are the best-sounding dynamics and are by far the King of Comfort in the entire headphone world, IMHO. At about $350 street price, I think every headphone user should have a pair.) But nothing really sounds as pleasant and detailed and non-fatiguing and integrated and just plain real as the Stax Omegas with the matching amp (I have the tube one). I only wish there were speakers that sounded so nice.