Headphone Amps


BaDToaD

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I've just bought myself a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M40 studio monitor headphones. My first impression of them is wow my old sennheisers really were more knackered than I thought and the M40s haven't even burned in yet.

TBH I don't think the headphone output socket on my CD player or Amplifier can do these phones justice and was wondering have any of you guys ever used dedicated headphone amps before and are they worth the money for the lower end models? I don't want to spend between £100 and £250 on a headphone amp if it's not going to make me dribble uncontrolably. Well ok maybe not dribble but at least be pleased with my purchase.

Some models that have caught my eye in my price range are

Btech BT928 (ok with some modifications and cheap)
Xenos 3HA cheap but the few reviews I can find seem to indicate they are very good for the money.
Xcan v2 and v3 (good but better with mods)
 
I'm afraid my electronics tinkering days are way behind me, well apart from fixing the odd dry joint etc. :)

BTW anyone thinking of getting some new cans these ATH-M40s are awesome for the cash. The more I listen to them the more I like them especially now my amp has warmed up properly.

Edit: Review here
 
£100 - £250 on a amp for headphones????!!! Sorry but that sounds like a complete waste of money :p... most I would spend on headphones is £20, DAMN for £250 you could get a PSP and teh GPX2 :p
 
Whoever says this has never ever listened to really good Headphones... Everytime i buy new ones (who cost usually way more than i wanted to spend) The first thing i do is listening to my favourite music and discovering it again, it is amazing how much "new" things you hear in a song you heard 100 times before when using superior headphones/speakers. Headphones for £20 may be enough for playing Counterstrike, but Music won´t be satisfying with that.
 
Yeah, headphones for that price are okay, but a simple amplifier shouldn't be that much.

A one for max. 20 Euro should do the job as well.
 
Steve-O posted on Aug 27 2005 at 03:55 PM said:
£100 - £250 on a amp for headphones????!!! Sorry but that sounds like a complete waste of money :p... most I would spend on headphones is £20, DAMN for £250 you could get a PSP and teh GPX2 :p
Why bother buying an expensive tv? Why bother buying a nice car or hifi? Shut the fuck up.
 
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I just bought myself a nice little Btech BT928 for 35 pounds inc P&P off ebay. The sound surprised me by being slightly better than the output from my old but quality CD player (380 quids worth at the time I bought it). I will probably mod the amp with better components at sometime in the future but for now it's good enough.


Steve-O posted on Aug 27 2005 at 03:55 PM said:
£100 - £250 on a amp for headphones????!!! Sorry but that sounds like a complete waste of money :p... most I would spend on headphones is £20, DAMN for £250 you could get a PSP and teh GPX2 :p


You've obviously never listened to a quality pair of headphones Steve-O The headphones I use are used in studios throughout the world alongside speaker system costing many thousands of pounds. I can't afford speakers like that but I can afford the headphones. The end result is an awesome listening experience.

Just to put things into perspective I have a 450 watt 5.1 Yamaha surround amplifier (Thats RMS power BTW not peak) with JVC fronts, Akai rears and a Yamaha centre. My headphones and headphone amp give a better musical sound than my amp and speakers and yet my amp and speakers make the local cinema sound crap.

EDIT: the 100 to 250 quid headphone amps are budget by the way. Decent ones cost up to $4000. :blink:
 
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aahhhhhhhh, these are going to be for home use or portable??.. I was thinking they were for portable use (Eg in a Ipod or mini disc player etc)
 
Well mine is for home use as it needs a power supply. :) It is nice to be able to take the headphone amp up to the bedroom on Saturday night so I can chill out for an hour or two when I wake up on Sunday morning. The amp boosts the volume and quality of my MP3 portable CD player and MP3 player nicely meaning I can use the decent cans :)
 
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