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Paradigm studio 100 v2. amp. Headphones concerns

Hi,
I am new to Audiogon, and any help in getting this young music lover would be very apprecited.
I am looking for an amp to power the paradigms for under 1k used. I will be doing a lot of listening on headphones. I currently have a Grado headphone amp, but I would like to get additional juice by connecting this to another power amp. (I use this set-up to crank the heaphones loud enough to play drums along to music- with earplugs of course.) I currently have a cheap amp and I run a cable out of that amps headphone jack into the grado. I them run my headphones directly out of the Grado.
I am hoping to find an amp that sounds good with the Paradigms and can serve this function. Does the amp need to have a headphone out, and if so, what is a recommended choice? With a headphone out on a good amp, would it even make since to continue to use the Grado? Is their any threat of blowing out the Grado by feeding it a loud signal? Should I run the Grado into other amp or vice versa. Should I only consider integrated amps or would separates make since, even along with the Grado?
I know that my questions are probably very ignorant, but any help would be hugely appreciate. Thank you in advance.
Dylan
dylano
6 responses Add your response
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
a creek or audiolab integrated for the speakers.....the grado exclusively for phones
s7horton
1,077 posts
 
anthem makes some good integrateds that would work well with the Paradigms (unless you crank it ridiculously loud) They do have headphone outputs that would work.
dylano OP
7 posts
 
Jaybo, Thanks for the response, but the Grado alone will not produce enough volume for my purposes. That is why I am looking for an amp with an headphone out, that I can either run into the Grado amp for more volume. I did look into the Creek and this might be good for me.
Thanks,
Dylan
arni
313 posts
 
Creek Classic (2x90) or Portal Panache (2x100) are two integrated amps that should have enough power and punch to drive your Paradigms. They have received excellent reviews, and both have good headphone sections, maybe the Portal in particular. I have no experience with neiter (I have heard the Creek in demo and was impressed), but you might want to take a closer look. Both headphone sections would put out more power than the Grado RA-1, which is designed to drive the "easy to drive" grado phones.
Good luck
vicdamone
850 posts
 
Play along. Look into Tascam trainers, CD players/headphone. The ability to loop sections in itself is worth the $200 cost. Effects, tuning (for string players), is simply icing on the cake, and it's portable. Obviously, you can't plug your drums in but with some open back phones this is a great aid in learning covers quickly.

I've owned v.1's and 2's. I auditioned in home v.3's and S8's. In my room the v.2's were a clear winner. I was powering them with a moded PS Audio HCA-2. I've since sold the Paradigm's to a neighbor who borrowed the HCA but has since replaced it with a McIntosh 401. Even though the Paradigm's are an easy load they really come alive with more power. Tilting them back and using a tallish listening chair can help their focus. I used Avalon Acoustics method of speaker placement as a starting point.
dylano OP
7 posts
 
Thank you for the input so far. I am wondering if I should consider another option: If I used separates instead of an integrated would the headphone out of a preamp such as Anthem pre 2L or Aragon 28k put out as strong and quality of a signal as the headphone out on an integrated such as Portal Panache, Anthem 2 integrated? Help is appreciated.
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