Topic: killer headphone recommendation-price not an object?

[George]

Brian, do you have a headphone amp with those akg 501's? Thanks, Marc.

No headphone amp at the moment, since right about when I got these my Airhead amp took a dive.  I'm running PC / Waveterminal 2496 digi-out > smART D/IO DAC > 2 x RCA / mini stereo adapter > K501s.  They're plenty loud for my tastes in that setup, though ultimately I'd like to pick up a tube amp to drive 'em.  An amp should drive better low-volume detail than I'm currently getting.  But...gotta settle into the new house first.

Would love to hear/read about what amp you settle with, i did a quick search on head-fi and this thread had some users posting different amps they use to drive their 501's:  http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=101664&highlight=akg+501+tube+amp

My brother runs my (well, his now) 501's via my Yamaha receiver's headphone jack for movie watching late at night.  It's great for dialogue and spatial cues.

[marc0789]

thanks all, much appreciated! thinking I'll pick up a pair of 501's, and see whether the headphone out of either my yamaha sr-70 receiver or fostex d5 measure up before I kick down for a headphone amp, probably the grace. 

[George]

thanks all, much appreciated! thinking I'll pick up a pair of 501's, and see whether the headphone out of either my yamaha sr-70 receiver or fostex d5 measure up before I kick down for a headphone amp, probably the grace. 

Nice!  Good choice, i think you'll dig em...and oh, sorry about your wallet   

[marc0789]

ended up opting for the senn 555's instead...like the description of the sound, and still really want to spend the $$ I had earmarked for the 722 on playback...figured these give a lot of bang for the buck, and got a real good deal at amazon. Thanks for the help all!

[marc0789]

To me,.. headphone playback feels like an icepick is going through my head, straight through the ears, after about 5 minutes of listening.
protect your hearing, or suffer the same!

fwiw,... I'm a long time sennheiser fan.

thanks Moke, plan to carefully monitor the volume. I had to go the headphone route in order to listen to any music when my wife is home. She really wanted this house, and her selling point was that the basement is "my room". Well, it turns out that *my room* is so poorly insulated that anything over a whisper makes the floor above shake.

and that's the same reason it's hard for me to pour a lot of cash into playback. I have max an hour a day I could make it worthwhile to own good stuff, and that doesn't cut it. So I might end up opting for a 722 anyway, not sure.

[George]

To me,.. headphone playback feels like an icepick is going through my head, straight through the ears, after about 5 minutes of listening.
protect your hearing, or suffer the same!

fwiw,... I'm a long time sennheiser fan.

ouch, hope you got a pair of earplugs handy for loud concerts nowadays or i cannot imagine you would be in afterwards.   

[George]

I don't do very much loud music anymore, and all of my playback is via spkrs, unless I'm trying to cue something up for a track mark or something more critical. Speakers aren't as wearing on my ears, and I can listen without issue.
The last loud music I went to/recorded, I had foam plugs in my ears. with my closed ear headphones on over them (h.phones unplugged).

lol...thats safety for you Moke!  I've been thinking about using my shure e2c's and plug them into my M1 when taping...but i'm not sure how that may affect batt life if i have the volume set to 10 or so.  Or if i'll be able to hear anything thru them regardless...