The problem you face is that most all tube headphone amplifiers are OTL(Output Transformer Less) are & not designed to drive very low impedance headphones..
What you want is a Transformer Coupled amp...
Also do you have a source like a DAC to drive the amp?
A lot of folks will recommend the a Woo Audio WA6 but I do NOT like the 13DE7 tubes it uses..
If you already have a source I recommend:
at very low budget I HIGHLY recommend the APPJ PA1502A(about $250.00),re- tubed with good NOS tubes(a couple hundred more)...
At about $900.00 I can also HIGHLY recommend the Cayin HA-1A,leaving $ in your budget for some good NOS small signal tubes,with an eye to upgrade the power tubes later to a pair of Gold Lion or Mullard new production EL84's...
There may be others but these 2 are the ones I have personal experience with...
You could also go with a Hybrid,using Class A Tube pre drive & Class A solid state power but they don't compare to a true tube amp when it's all said & done...
ISO: Tube headphone amp for Planar headphones
Hello everyone. I recently purchased set of Audeze MM-100 headphones.
https://www.audeze.com/products/mm-100
At 18 ohms and 98 dB/1mW sensitivity they shouldn't be difficult to drive. I'm currently driving them with a beyerdynamic A20 Headphone Amplifier that I was using with a pair of beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO 250 cans.
While the new headphones sound okay with the A20, I can't help but feel that the current amp isn't driving the MM-100s to their potential. Granted, the MM-100 are analytical as they're meant to be studio monitors but I'm thinking that perhaps a decent tube amp would warm them up a bit.
So I'm looking for a tube headphone amplifier that will work well with the planars.
Budget is $800-1100. Thanks in advance!
Happy listening.
Although not familiar with your specific Audeze headphones, I own the LCD2 and the Audeze LCD3s and my choice would be the Yamamoto HA-2 headphone amp. This little amp is amazing and looks amazing as well. I have owned mine for 10 years with no issues, just beautiful music using 2 WE408A tubes. Try it you will like, love it. Enjoy the music |
With my suggestion given above, I would like to add that my main headphone amp is a Dennis Had Inspire headphone amp that I purchased new from Moon Audio and it is marvelous with Shuguang 6SN7 WE Plus replica tubes and a round bottom Brymer rectifier tube but over $2,500.00 and am very satisfied with it especially when the xtra power is needed for the more power hungry cans, WTS the little Yamamoto will never be sold. Enjoy the music |
@freediver Thank you for the info regarding OTL designs. I was not aware of that being an issue. Because it's the internet I had to look it up myself and lo and behold you are correct. Please don't take it personally. My digital front end is Bluesound Node2 into a Border Patrol DAC then into an ARC SP-11 Mk2. To drive the HPA, I have leads coming from the tape out on my SP-11. This allows me to use my headphones for all sources including my California Audio Labs Aria CD. The problem I'm seeing with the APPJ PA1502A, Cayin HA-1A and the Yamamoto HA-2 that @tooblue was recommending is that there are no US dealer/distributors. Not even AMZN and they carry everything. And not that I have anything against "Chi-Fi" but the Cayins I find are 100VAC for Japan. I also looked into the Auris Euterpe but alas, as it's 4+ years old, there are only close out/used examples available from Serbia. So the search goes on but at the very least the OTL thing is a very valuable lesson. Thanks folks. Happy listening.
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I've owned both the HA-1A & the CS-55A integrated amplifier..Both were SUPERBLY built & in 5 total years of ownership never a single problem or hiccup.. |
@freediver Thanks for the info on the Cayin. I finally found an image showing the internals and was impressed with how it looks. https://cf.shopee.co.th/file/40719695d2fd237fd6c597227d88277f And it is pretty outside as well. The other candidate is the Quicksilver HPA suggested by @larsman. What I like about it is it's simplicity and rugged build. And it's JUST a HPA; No extra electronics to drive speakers that I won't use. It's not as pretty as the Cayin but it gets rave reviews and it's built just down the road in Stockton CA. It is however almost $300 more... I've pinged Quicksilver to see if there's a dealer in the Seattle area. Decisions decisions... Happy listening.
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