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Gear / Technical Help => Playback Forum => Topic started by: Brian Skalinder on March 20, 2007, 03:10:01 PM
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Well, selling off a slew of playback gear has given some cash with which to play around. ;D VR-2s (B-stock) are ordered for the LR, now it's time for a headphone amp in the office.
Yes, yes...I know I should head over to headfi.org. Already have. The amount of information there is a bit overwhelming, though I'm slowly working my through it. Any other forums to consider for buying used?
Just curious if anyone here has recommendations for a tube headphone amp to drive my AKG K-501s? Full system will be:
PC/Audiophile 2496 digi-out > Bel Canto DAC 1.1 > tube preamp > AKG K-501s
- Budget: ~$300-400
- Prefer a wide variety of available (and reasonably inexpensive) tubes so I can play around with my sound quite a bit
- Portable not a requirement - will sit on my desk
- Used is fine, in fact preferred
Options that caught my eye (though not necessarily all quite within my budget above):
NEW | DESC
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~$400 | Antique Sound Labs MG Head DT/OTL MKIII
~$470 | Woo Audio 3
~$425 | DOGE 6210
~$450 | Brocksieper Earmax
Huh...they're all at or just above my budget. Go figure. :P Right now, I'm leaning towards the ASL MG Head. Thoughts?
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fwiw my integrated tube amp is an ASL and it is a great piece of gear. very well built, sounds excellent. I'd definitely consider buying other products of theirs
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Well, selling off a slew of playback gear has given some cash with which to play around. ;D VR-2s (B-stock) are ordered for the LR, now it's time for a headphone amp in the office.
cant comment on the amp, but I just bought some B stock VR-2s and honestly it is the best purchase I have ever made for listening...you will love them...
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The Woo 3+... I have the Woo6 and cannot say enough about the sound... Jack is a very nice guy at Woo Audio and given that you only need a low impedence amp with no pre.. He might customize a Woo3+ to better fit your needs..
Jeff
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congrats on the vr-2's brian - damn those b stocks are tempting
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congrats on the vr-2's brian - damn those b stocks are tempting
Thanks, Tim - really looking forward to 'em. The B-stocks are cheaper than used on Audiogon, too. Once I get some more cash together, I'm probably going to pick up a tube pre / ss amp integrated for 2-ch listening in the LR and keep the Sony just for HT. Can't do it all at once, though, but at least I can enjoy the VR-2s til I get there. ;D
Thanks for the nod on the Woo, Jeff. I've read entirely positive reviews on the Woo, but it's a bit more than I'm want to spend. Heh...of course, they all are. Decisions, decisions...
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I'd add the Musical Fidelity X-Can V2 / V3 to your list. IMHO when you find the right tubes it blows away every other amp I've heard at that pricepoint. The only real drawback with the X-Can (and the Woo3 for that matter) is that the current production 6922s are pretty awful and the NOS tubes can be very expensive.
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http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=216531&highlight=akg+k501+tube+amps
older thread:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63002&highlight=akg+k501+tube+amps
I own a pair and I know those suckers need a lot of power to be driven properly. Otherwise, they sound lifeless.
By the way, headphone.com (aka headroom) has a 30 day return policy and they do sell a tube amp (the millet).
If your looking for used, find out what you think will sound good with the 501's then head over to the for sale forum for amps.
Toobs are fun :D
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I agree with Nick's suggestion. You should look into the X-Can V3. I'm pretty pleased with mine. I know there are better options out there, but I don't know of any in its price range. The reviews I read before buying were all positive.
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Checked the specs on the X-CAN v3 and didn't see what tubes it takes. Nick, Stu - do you know what tubes it uses?
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Check out the Little Dot 2... a hell of a lot of amp for relatively little, $$. Also a lot of knowledge out there for tube rolling... and since you're a taper you gotta love experimentation.
Also... Spend some of that cheese to step up to the 701's they really are that much better!
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(http://kittycat.net/images/stand_side.jpg)
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http://hollowstate.netfirms.com/#headphone%20amps
(http://hollowstate.netfirms.com/Ear+Puristblack.jpg)
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Checked the specs on the X-CAN v3 and didn't see what tubes it takes. Nick, Stu - do you know what tubes it uses?
It takes two 6922 tubes.
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http://hollowstate.netfirms.com/#headphone%20amps
(http://hollowstate.netfirms.com/Ear+Puristblack.jpg)
I have one of these MAD Ear + Hd and it's awesome with Grado SR325i, Senn HD580, and AKG 501. Comes as a kit or assembled
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hate to hijack, but had to comment on all you recent Bstock VR2 owners.
You LOVE it!
seriously, they are 90% of the 4jr. better in some regards even, but not overall.
They can throw you around in the right sized room. I was amazed at what they could do in my 17'x23' room. No sub necessary.
As for amps...
any class D that is noted for good bass extension and control will really shine w/these. Rick Schultz ICEpower amps mate well (thats what I ran) as they have awesome bass control and extention. and if you can truely feed them that signal, they'll reproduce it. Maybe one of those new Bel Canto i300 amps or integrated amps (w/USB DAC input) might be a pretty sweet / powerful setup. I"m sure that would reproduce concert SPLs in a medium sized room with out any strain.
As will a beefy tube setup. 40wpc or higher. Manley gear is a lovely match w/VSA speakers, and running a stingray in front of VR2s has been a dream setup of mine for quite some time.
so...so ahead and drop the coin on B stock and a used Stingray. Best $3k system you could ever possibly assemble. When new, $5550-6k.
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hate to hijack, but had to comment on all you recent Bstock VR2 owners.
You LOVE it!
seriously, they are 90% of the 4jr. better in some regards even, but not overall.
They can throw you around in the right sized room. I was amazed at what they could do in my 17'x23' room. No sub necessary.
As for amps...
any class D that is noted for good bass extension and control will really shine w/these. Rick Schultz ICEpower amps mate well (thats what I ran) as they have awesome bass control and extention. and if you can truely feed them that signal, they'll reproduce it. Maybe one of those new Bel Canto i300 amps or integrated amps (w/USB DAC input) might be a pretty sweet / powerful setup. I"m sure that would reproduce concert SPLs in a medium sized room with out any strain.
As will a beefy tube setup. 40wpc or higher. Manley gear is a lovely match w/VSA speakers, and running a stingray in front of VR2s has been a dream setup of mine for quite some time.
so...so ahead and drop the coin on B stock and a used Stingray. Best $3k system you could ever possibly assemble. When new, $5550-6k.
your comments on the VR-2s are dead on with my experience so far...simply amazed at how much they open up the sound that I am used to hearing...and at the price that you can get them for B-Stock...nothing comes close...
I am feeding mine with a Arcam AVR-300, biamped...200w per...and I couldnt be happier with the results...
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For about $200, you can get the Little Dot II++ and easy to get. The guy who makes it, David will answer your questions and sells it on Ebay. Easy to google for the find. Really excellent bargain.
Another choice:
The Music Fidelity X-Can V 3 is a very highly raved tube amp and goes for about $400.
http://www.musicdirect.com/products/detail.asp?sku=AMUFIXCANV3
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just saw this on AGon...not mine and no experience with the unit. but thought you may be interested...
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstube&1180913688
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just saw this on AGon...
Thanks for the heads up. :) Just dropped the seller a line...hoping I can snag this one. That's a much more tolerable price for me at the moment than the new MK III.
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nice, hopefully it works out...one day I will be in the market for a tube headphone amp, but I want to complete the surround part of my playback and I am beginning to seriously consider branching out into vinyl as I have quite a bit from my childhood/teen years, but no way to listen to id
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I had a MG head OTL...it didn't mate well with my K501's. It made my HD580's sound slushy and it didn't even mate well with my grado's. I had about 30 tubes to tube roll with and I couldn't get any synergy with that damn amp.
Honestly, the mg head is the bottom of the barrel of tube amps...you should research it on head-fi, there were a lot of problems with QC (ie. build quality) with those units a while back. A lot of people simply moved away from that brand when newer tube amps started coming around.
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I had a MG head OTL...it didn't mate well with my K501's.
What did/does mate well in your experience?
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What did/does mate well in your experience?
yo mama!
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What did/does mate well in your experience?
yo mama!
lol...
Brian Skalinder,
Not sure...I never did find an amp that worked well with my K501's, I currently own a millet and I personally thought it sounded a bit lackluster. Your best bet is to try head-fi's search engine and see what comes up as recommendations. I did drive them with my yamaha receiver's headphone jack and liked what I heard, even though they were still underpowered. Maybe you should look into solid state amps. By the way, headphone.com can also be very helpful, they do have a 30 day return policy on their products so maybe you can try out an amp or two and see how it works out.
You can also borrow my millet for a month if your interested.
edit: you can always buy used: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=55
Just check the feedback of the seller and read up on reviews on whatever amp you're interested in. I know this sounds like a lot of work for an amp, but its always worthwhile to read up on it before settling on anything.