Headphone Amplification

Head-Direct.com | YUIN

What is the general consensus on running the Headamp Pico as a preamp in a system?

I got a quickie HF-style poll for y'all. Got me some HF2s and AD2000s, and I'm looking for a cheap, temporary amp about $200ish. I'm probably gonna have a chance to buy one of these soon. I don't care for amp coloration; I just want my source and phones to do their thing. The amp just provides the power and keeps the signal clean. Other suggestions welcome, preferably used and available right now. Edit: Oh yeah, and impressions/comparisons are very welcome. Thanks.

I'm seriously considering purchasing one of these, and as of right now, is the only amp on my list. I've gone through and done "research" on many other amps close to this price, and the GS-1 seems to be extremely flexible with the headphones used (ie wide variety) and seems to be a top-notch amp. The GS-X, despite how badly I want it, can't afford it. Maybe I missed one, that you guys can recommend. And what's your opinion on this amp, for those who have listened or owned it. Any other recommendations on amps at/very close to $1,000? I'm not totally set on which HP I want, but am considering both the RS-1 and Senn 650 w/upgraded cable, or SR100's w/HP1000 drivers. A…

Hi, Can anyone give me a list of amps with some balanced input (I don't care if it has unbalanced input or not, but if it does, please note it)? I'm thinking about getting one of those....but not necessarily to use balanced headphones with it. Just want to use balanced sources with headphones. Thanks in advance!

ZDT <- This is very similar to the Nautilus amp that he had prototyped but better (Partial Silver Electraprint transformers last time I heard). I think it's a steal at this price versus the price of a new Zana Deux.... anyone on board or considering?

I'd like to get a longer USB cable for my Pico so that I can sit on a couch probably about 10 to 15 feet away from where my computer is. I know I could get a headphone extension cable but I like to be able to control the volume and a longer USB cable would minimize the extra connections an extension would add to the mix. So my questions are, is there a maximum length for USB? If a longer cable is possible does anyone know where to get them in such a length because they're not available round these parts?

Hello all, I have this unit, but it stopped working so I opened it up. It seems that in right channel are shorted mosfets on output stage. But LEDs are not lit on both channel so I need to check it more. I started drawing schematic from the board. Since this is only one sided pcb, it was easy. But there is one thing I don't really understand. It is the cascode pair of 2SA1699. It should be that emitter is connected to the drain of the 2sj109 and output is at collector. But there it is connected differently. Or there is something I don't see. If we look on the board, there is drain of the 2sj109 and it is connected to the base of 2sa1699 according to …

Reports from Craig as follows: The Zana Duex: Yes I am making the ZanaDuex, it will be firm at $1800.00. Separate power chassis. The caps used are the paper, poly soy caps. You will not find them on line. They were made custom for Moth, in America. I have enough to make 12 Zana Duex's. The first proto will be hand wired from the input jacks to the front switch. The production amps will use relay switching at the rear panel. The tube compliment is one 6SL7 and two 6C33C-B's, and two 6DM4A damper diodes. Now onto the new EC-H:The EC-H does not sound as good as your ZanaDuex, but may offer an alternative for people not wanting to get a second mortgage to support this h…

Well, I had to send in the red hat proto to craig to fix. Unfortunately, it is deemed "unfixable" and Craig refunded back my money. So I'm ampless. I will probably end up getting the balance discrete he is coming out with, but he gave me a time frame of late January. Knowing craig it will probably be a couple of months after. So in looking for somewhat affordable options that I can use now and sell later when its time to get the balancing act from EC, i thought of woo audio. Affordable and KG has had nice things to say. The woo audio 6 is a transformer coupled amp that uses the 6DE7 tubes for driver/power and a 5ar4 for tube rectification. The only question would be ho…

I'm new here. Just bought a Shure SE530 this week on impulse. Actually I was a little tired of the Etys during my last business trip. They are just a tad too bright and lean for my taste. Anyways, I was trying to plug the SE530 to my various amps at home last night and got a really loud buzz coming out of both sides when the volume was set at 0. Today, I tried it with my portable Headroom Airhead and samething happened again. I plugged the SE530 directly into my iAudio X5 and they sounded great. I checked Shure's website and in the FAQ section it says that it is not necessary, but OK to, plug these into a headphone amp. I did some search here, and others have use headp…

-=Hey Guys=- I have my 880s and 650s in another room and was wondering if my 701s can be powered by my Woo3, without distortion, if volumes are kept low. I understand the problems the "3" has with low impedance headphones, but I'm wondering if it's a volume issue, where more power is called for, or it just won't perform at any volume level because the volume control is an attenuator? Thanks USG

Yes, I've finally took delivery of my Diablo. I just picked it up a few minutes ago, it's charging at the moment, so I don't have too much to report. I'll take some pics and report on it's performance out of the box in a few hours.

Got any? I am probably gonna be doing it up with an ipod classic and am looking for a portable amp that will not only ensure enough voltage but also a flat frequency response. I know the ipod isn't flat accurate by any means but I have heard that the right amp can compensate for this.

All my little boxes of little tubes are starting to drive me crazy. They are all over my desk, all around the house. I've read not to store them in drawers, because the constant opening/closing could shake things up, so I've been keeping them on the top shelf of a dark closet, but they must creep out at night and spread all over my desk. So what do you do with your unused tubes, and do you have any nice, tidy, tube storage solutions?

Hi, I am not sure if this is right sub section for this and this is my first post a head case My requirement is following: I need to be able to share my music with my gf. So, the main question here is, can I use a y splitter with any amplifier. Lets say with a pico? Or do I need to go only for units with 2 headphone outs. I need a single unit as my UAB DAC/Headphone amp for convenience of moving it around. I am ready to shell out around $1k for the unit apart from headphones. My choices with 2 headphone outs: 1. Meier Audio Opera/ Symphony - Symphony is really costly and for Opera I am getting only the 0,120 ohm versions. Shouldn't I need both h/p outs as 0 ohms 2…

Just saw this over on that other forum: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2062510&postcount=5 Looks somewhat interesting but I'd like to hear comments from the more technically inclined members here.

I decided to build a SoHA II while waiting on the Stacker II project to get out of grid lock. The SohaII is a very interesting design with a few limitations. The tube current is very low, I can only get about 1.5 mA thru each section and the plate voltage is only about 40V. That said this is a terrific sounding amp. I didn't like the recommended RCA 5693 tubes, they were too congested with distortion in complex passages. I switched to 8416's which sound very nice. In comparison to my Bijou this little SOHAII actually has clearer better defined mids, I was very surprised to hear more of the ambience of the recording in voicing and guitar. The Bijou beats it in p…

I'm debating which amp I should get. Right now, I have a home based Pimeta. I would like something warmer though. Which of these amps should I get? I only use Grado headphones (sr225 and sr100) thanks

I bought a Pioneer A-27 Integrated Amp a few months ago and sent it to Hamad at Amplifier Surgeries to have it rebuilt. I and others here have had Hamad do wonderful work on Pioneer M-22 amps. Since I will be using this amp sometimes with headphones (but mainly driving my Sound Lab speakers) I asked Hamad to check the headphone circuit to make sure it is optimized as much as possible. He indicated he would and asked what headphones I was using so he could "check to see if the resistor network can be matched for my headphones". The hard part is I don't know which headphone to have this amp optimized for. The dynamic headphones I use are the LCD-2, HE6 and HD800. I l…

I've got an old Headamp Gilmore Reference (single-ended) on the way. I believe this unit was later modified to a gain of 1, which should be a good preamp gain. But, it doesn't have pre outs, just a 2nd headphone out. In these older Headamps, is there any circuitry difference between the pre out and headphone out, or does it merely boil down to the physical differences in connectors? Any other reason why I shouldn't try this as a preamp with a Y cable/adaptor? The V2 I recently picked up is a real performance killer, as both preamp and headphone amp, for the $200 I paid. Super-nice match to the L3000 w/ Duet, and to the HD650 or L3000 with vinyl

Hi guys, I possess a wonderfull, like new, melos sha-gold and a pair of vintage grado rs-1!!! I need a pair of very good tube to use but, I've not sufficient money for experimenting different options... So between these tubes, which one is the best for my needing? Mullard E88CC-01 Telefunken E88CC Amperex 7308 Siemens E88CC A0 If you have other options in mind please let me know! Thanks in advance!

Well I have an AT W10LTD, W10VTG (soon), and AKG K280 on the way, and I'm gonna need a more versatile amp to drive them. I was thinking of something like a PPX3, but I'd like to see what all you old AT (and AKG) fans have to say.

May I present to you the New Zana Duex. Get you wallets out. http://mail.google.com/mail/?view=att&disp=emb&attid=0.1&th=10cd67a0fc56d1d9

Relatively new around this forum, Ive lurked before but thats chnging now. Looking to OP amp roll my PPA. Its running with a 24V ELPAC. Would it benefit from a better P/S? What are some BASSY, open sounding OP amps for it? I have some OPA2107s, can those just drop in? thanks!! Garrett