Headphone amps

gaul

Wammer
Wammer
Jul 22, 2005
2,576
0
0
LONDON, ,
Headphone amp calculator: http://www.headphone-amplifier.com/calculator.htm

Simply fill in the specific data of your headphone and the voltage level you are planning to apply. You will get the resulting sound pressure level as well as power and current drawn from the headphone amplifier's output.
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Produced in significant numbers by a Hi-Fi manufacturer:

Sorted by manufacturer, ascending prices

Creek Audio OBH-21 (£155 incl. all costs)

Creek Audio OBH-21SE (£245 incl. all costs)

CreekOBH21SE.jpg


Manufacturer specs: http://www.creekaudio.com/main_product.asp?prolook=obh21#Scene_2

To buy from the UK:http://www.hificablesandaccessories.co.uk

Headamp Gilmore Lite (£185 incl. all costs)
lite_front_thumb.jpg


Manufacturer specs: http://www.headamp.com/home_amps/lite/index.htm

To buy from the UK: http://www.headamp.com/order/index.htm

Headamp Gilmore Lite + Lite-PSU (GILMORE LITE DEDICATED POWER SUPPLY) (£300 incl. all costs)

litepsu_front_thumb.jpg
litepsu_withamp_front_small.jpg


Manufacturer specs: http://www.headamp.com/home_amps/litepsu/index.htm

To buy from the UK: http://www.headamp.com/order/index.htm

HeadAmp AE-1 (£215 incl. all costs)
ae1_front_quarter_small.jpg


Manufacturer specs: http://www.headamp.com/portable_amps/ae1/index.htm

To buy from the UK:http://www.headamp.com/order/index.htm

Musical Fidelity X-Can v3 (£250 incl. all costs)

2949.jpg


Manufacturer specs: http://www.musicalfidelity.com/mf/en/Products/SmallX/SXCANV3

To buy from the UK:http://www.ssav.com/product.asp?id=14052orhttp://www.ebay.co.uk

Solo MC with Intro Power Supply (£338 incl. all costs)

Solo MC with PSU1 Power Supply (£480 incl. all costs)

solo_mc.gif


Manufacturer specs - To buy from the UK: http://www.audiocontrol.co.uk/solomc.htm

Lehmann Audio Black Cube Linear (£520 incl. all costs)

linear_silver_01.jpg


Manufacturer specs: http://www.lehmannaudio.de/download/info/pdf_screen/EN_black_cube_linear_2p_screen.pdf

To buy from the UK:http://www.lehmannaudio.de/english/sales/salesuk.htm

Produced in very limited numbers, by a Hi-Fi enthusiast

ANT Audio Amber

Graham Slee Solo Mk3

Headsave Classic

Heed Audio Can Amp

Meier Audio Corda's

 

gaul

Wammer
Wammer
Jul 22, 2005
2,576
0
0
LONDON, ,
Done, also added the Creek, the standard one being the cheapest of all amps there.

If you have additional headphone amps ... that come with manufacturer specs and details of reseller... plsfire...

 

Papa Lazarou

Wammer
Wammer
Aug 18, 2005
12,602
137
123
Bletchley, Bucks
AKA
Phil
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Nice, the Lehmann is supposed to be very good indeed. I came close to buying one but went for the Gilmore instead.

MODS.....should we make Gaul's informativepost a sticky?

 
P

purplepleaser

Guest
I would say forget headphone amps.Beyer,Grado,Stax headphonesetc and try some Ergo Amt's use the switch box attatch to your amp and wait to be amazed.

Blows the rest out of the water.

Lee

P.S you may look silly but the sounds are about the best i'v heard.

 

vic

Wammer
Wammer
Feb 28, 2006
331
0
0
London, , United Kin
Since I listen to music at work for about 8 hours a day (actually night), in the last year I have focused (another way of saying "spent money") on my portable rig. So I had a chance of buying different set ups, going to meetings and listen to lots of Headphones, amps and so on.

The Gilmore Lite is a very nice entry level solid state amp and is really a good bargain in the US. Buyers in the UK would need to buy the power supply ; the whole thing is sold for $500: including shipping and, if you are unlucky, custom it would be around £350-400. Not such a bargain, but still good value. They have a two weeks, no question asked return policy.

Another popular choice for entry level solid state is the Headroom Micro amp (better with the desktop module); it sell for $300, it works on battery so it is portable, although not specially small and also has a matching DAC ($300) of decent quality.

If you need something really portable to go with a DPP or PCDP the best choice im my opinion are: "The Hornet" ($350) or "SR71" (around the same price) by Ray Samuel or the "Larocco Portable Reference II" (around $550); the latter is really well built and allows opamp rolling: you can radically modify the sound tosuit your taste.

I haven't tried the Creek OBH 21 or 21SE, but I have had an OBH 11 on loan from a friend for a few weeks, and I found that it was actually worsening the sound of any headphone compared to going straight out of my digital player; I stopped using it after a few days.

The Music Fidelity X-Can v3 is quite a good little tube amp and definetely smashing value for UK buyers at £250. Consider that you can audition it almost everywhere, buy from a shop and bring it home immediately;excellent supportif you get any problem (while for amps bought in the US it is a nightmare involving shipment, custom, etc.). I do quite like this amp as it is, but several DIY do some mods for very little money and, with improved power supply, better caps and tubes it sounds really really nice. Also you can have fun rolling tubes and getting different sound signature with different cans. I do not suggest buying the MF PSU, extremely expensive, while you can get a good DIY one on the web for a few dozen quids. Also I believe that opening it to roll tubes voids the warranty.

If you can strech you budget a bit, the indiscussed leader below $1000 is IMO the "PPX Slam" by Singlepower (around $700-800). It is a fantastic valve amp and you could spend much more and not get the same quality.

Finally a very interesting product, not only for headphones, is the Lavry Engineering DA10) (Lavry Black) which I ordered a few days ago: It is a really high qualiyty fully balanced DAC with two upsampling modes, or no upsampling, and a built-in solid state HF amp of quite good quality (from what I read a bit better than the Gilmour Lite).

All of the above of course IMHO and IME

 

Uncle Bob

Wammer
Wammer
Sep 23, 2005
246
1
0
, , United Kingdom
vic wrote

I haven't tried the Creek OBH 21 or 21SE, but I have had an OBH 11 on loan from a friend for a few weeks, and I found that it was actually worsening the sound of any headphone compared to going straight out of my digital player; I stopped using it after a few days.All of the above of course IMHO and IME
Just wanted to add a 2nd opinion here. I bought an OBH-11 s/h off eBay a couple of months ago which I've been using with a pair of Grado SR-225. Previously I had been using the integrated headphone output on my NAD C320. The Creek is noteably better than the NAD and I've no complaints at all.

UB

 
S

Sranang_Boi

Guest
gaul wrote:

Headphone amp calculator: http://www.headphone-amplifier.com/calculator.htmSimply fill in the specific data of your headphone and the voltage level you are planning to apply. You will get the resulting sound pressure level as well as power and current drawn from the headphone amplifier's output.
lightbulb.gif.2153bcfc1c810616a661c1a03e7a67eb.gif
Sorry chaps, but has anyone actually used that calculator? I am not quite clear about the mV level. Is that in RMS or Peak to Peak?
 

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