deepak

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106037 Dew eat

I believe you're correct.

The SHA-1 is pretty mediocre with anything other than the HP-2, I would really love to hear a better amp in the under $1000 price range that was a better amp with the HP-1000, excluding the SHA-Gold. Hence why I sold it, and the soundstage issues I mentioned. With the L3000/Amperex OGs it was better than my M^3 with STEPS (run of the mill parts all around). It's not even that good with John Grado headphones, there definitely isn't much synergy with my HF-1 and SHA-1. And it is basically a $400-600 amp (depending on tubes, mine had 2 faceplates); nothing more. But computerpro3 said his Maestrobated SHA-Gold and RS-1 kept up with the Zana Deux and a few other high end amps. How true that is I have no idea, but I'm willing to bet meet conditions came into play and favored his amp/his preferences/experience or lack of.

Yeah I appreciate it purk but I've chose not to buy from SinglePower. I'm going to try contacting Craig at Eddie Current in the coming months. Anyone feel free to offer more suggestions.

I should have clarified this in my post, sorry. I would have to buy a SDS new as I've rarely seen them come up for sale. And I would want the newer chassis and not the toaster oven.

I don't want to plunk down a few g's and be waiting a year? I'm just going to avoid SP on this purchase, I appreciate all the feedback from everyone regarding their amps.

I'm not buying an SP amp new. And I was under the impression MagneQuest iron was pretty damn good?

Thanks for the thorough reply Mike. I'd definitely like to hear the SDS, as a Supra/SDS probably isn't out of my price range. Still I'm not sure if I'd like something that "tubey". I actually really liked the more "SS" sound of the Melos with tubes I had in it, just the soundstage was too small with any headphones. I'll shoot him an email eventually but I don't want to look like a tire kicker right now. Are you referring to jp# HD-2? IIRC in the meet thread he said he just bought an L3000, so I guess I'll send him a PM asking him how he likes it. Thanks for info on the tranys.

Thanks Nate I appreciate the feedback. But I'm really set on getting tubes for both the L3000 and K1000. I'm sure the B22 is a great amp but for my listening tastes I feel I can only get that "real in the room sound" with tubes. An all in one solution is also something that I don't really need, as the K1000 amp might be sharing the same amps as my speakers, so I'm not in any hurry to rush into that. When the time comes closer for me to get the speaker setup I'm going to take one final listen to my friend's Avantgarde system and hopefully hear the K1000 with his 300B blocks.

Heaven? pffft

I have my old M^3 (which is now my friend's) but he doesn't really listen to headphones anymore, so it's sort of on long term loan with me.

I need my tubes!!!onetoo Plus I have a wicked nice source already, I doubt the one in the DHA3000 could compare.

The Noise Duality looks good, but probably way more than I'm willing to pay. I suppose I should have specified that I'm looking for something that is high performance and good value for the dollar as well. Very low output impedance was something I was gunning for as I can hear the output impedance mismatch with Grado headphones and some tube amps. More realistically maybe something employing a single 300B or 2A3 design might be more in my budget. But then again I have no idea how much good iron would cost to go along with that. The amp doesn't need to be ridiculously powerful or anything. Anyway I wasn't planning on getting one of these super amps in the near future, I think I'm going to get the Lo-spressivo as soon as time permits.

I've pretty much settled on the L3000 as the headphones for me (other than the K1000) and I'd like to look into comissioning a high end custom built tube amp for them. The L3000 specs from their website: Type Closed-back dynamic Driver Diameter 53 mm Magnet Neodymium Case Cherry blossoms wood, CONNOLLY leather Frequency Response 5 - 45,000Hz Maximum Input Power 2,000mW Output Sound Level 104 dB/mW Impedance 48 Ω Weight 380 g Cable 3.0 m Connector ?6.3 mm phone plug Accessories Furnished BOX So I'm probably looking for schematics that are available that I could have someone build the amp based on. Does not need to have a preamp. Headphone amp only. I don't want to let a budget hold it back so I'll leave it open for the time being. I like a pretty linear sound but I'm definitely a tube guy. Thanks everyone.

You completely missed grawk's point huh. Is it possible for you to post without the ADD tangents?

t.rose you can make fun of this forum all you want, but at the end of the day we're a tight nit community and most members will probably go out of their way to help out one another.

Truly ominous day it seems. 9/15 (unless that FS forums stuff was just shenanigans)

Thanks guys

That looks like a gorgeous phono-stage. Before giving up on it I'd drop in 3 current production JJ tubes and see if it makes it less noisy; they should be $10 each at tubedepot. If 7DJ8 tubes can be used as a substitute the Tesla 7DJ8s ran a bit quieter than the Tesla 6DJ8s in my amp.

Me? Probably not, my vacations I'm planning Greece, Thailand and Banff.

Good ice cream Fast cars Good music/hifi Quality lamb, rice, Indian food Livable/big houses American football Apartments suck *grumble*

I think I really need to hear your amp, I'm with Icarium, they're just not that impressive to me (for how much praise they get), IMO they're comparable to Sennheisers classic line or Grado/Alessandro upper prestige series. I did love the K340 with electronic music, but they were just too genre specific.

Sounds like you're working at Initech

Yup I know where you're coming from. A passive pre should in theory add or remove nothing to the sound, but that's not always how it goes \ (and the convenience of having a remote with a DAC/preamp combo is something I'd have to have with speakers). I might actually get a traditional preamp if neither DAC allows me to input a signal from my phono-stage if I do decide to keep the vinyl setup.

The speaker rig is going to be pretty high end so I'd rather not have any preamp in the signal path. Loop out of a headphone amp is an option, but I'd prefer to have my source/preamp in 1 to go straight to the speaker amps. Prima DAC SE and DCC2 SE are high on my list of sources I'd want to hear with the speakers.