HD600 Upgrades

The Little dot MKII & III is excellent as long as you don't stick with the stock tubes(mainly with the MKII)

The Little Dot MKII or III with the Mullard M8161 Tubes is one of the best parings with the HD650 I've ever heard.

The M8161 tubes can be had for £30 so they are a bargain as far as upgrades go.
 
i just thought i would test my HD650 with my Cinema setup

amp: https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/products/hifi-and-home-cinema/azur-651a

Arcam IRDAC

The sound was infinitely better, Much clear Not as much bass pounding my ears. it was a joy to listen to.

So, At the current moment I think I will Definitely be using Arcam for now for testing with the new amp. just time to decide on a good headphone amp!
 
smogsy said:
also if i use the gain button distortion is really noticeable.
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One of the problems here is that unlike most contemporary designs the O2 puts the potentiometer as a load on the gain stage (I believe it also works as some kind of hybrid class A biasing but I'm not well versed on that) between it and the buffer which is great for reducing noise but is relatively easy to drive it into distortion with some configurations.

I like the O2 but there are definitely some areas where it falls down.

rids57 said:
With such a huge difference, I wonder if your E-Dac or O2 amp are faulty?
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Might be due to changes to the op amps in the O2 - I seem to recall some sellers substitute them a bit and the original ones were specifically chosen due to the potential for the distortion issue I mention above - especially the 4556 which I believe it commonly swapped out for one of the other 4000 series.

EDIT: I'm not convinced the 4556 (even assuming that is what is in that O2) is the best pairing with the HD600s - I've been using them as buffers in my current amp as they generally work pretty well but the mid-range seems a bit muddier with them with the 600s compared to the other choices I've tried in there which I don't really notice with my other headphones.
 
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trouble is now ive heard the difference i want to buy a headphone amp quickly but soooo much choice :(

Now with amps. If you go tube, I.e Schiit Valhalla or any other OTL you will be limited to high impedance headphones.
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downside to this is? wont work on low impedance sound crap etc?
 
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After reading up. I definatly don't want tubes cleaning changing etc

So I'm pretty certain on the following setup now
Little Dot MKV MK5 Solid State Mosfet Headphone Amplifier [Electronics]
Arcam IrDac

Is their anything I should be aware of about the littledot?

I know headphones below 64omhs can pop but my plan is to get hd700/800 or other high end phones in the future so doubt this would be an issue.

But please tell me anything technical that might be important

Today I'm moving my whole cinema out to my desk :)
 
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I don't think many have heard the MK5 including myself. I'm not sure how it's signature is or how powerful it is. They are known for budget tube amps mainly.

Garage 1217 has a website

http://www.garage1217.com/garage1217_diy_tube_headphone_amplifiers_006.htm

The Project Polaris is a cracking option and will drive literally anything. It also has a lot of backing with the 5 year warranty and it's musical! You said you don't want to import from the US but buying the MK5 would mean it only gets a year warranty and you'd have to send it back to China for repair. Garage 1217 will cover you for repairs so no fees or rubbish like that and they are reputable.
 
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Ryanr1987 said:
I don't think many have heard the MK5 including myself. I'm not sure how it's signature is or how powerful it is. They are known for budget tube amps mainly.

Garage 1217 has a website

http://www.garage1217.com/garage1217_diy_tube_headphone_amplifiers_006.htm

The Project Polaris is a cracking option and will drive literally anything. It also has a lot of backing with the 5 year warranty and it's musical! You said you don't want to import from the US but buying the MK5 would mean it only gets a year warranty and you'd have to send it back to China for repair. Garage 1217 will cover you for repairs so no fees or rubbish like that and they are reputable.
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Question: How do i know if an amp can power my headphones well?

Im currently using the Azur 651A & my Arcam
25% Volume is quite loud, does that mean its enough?

im not to sure what im looking for in the headphone amp specs, so quite wary on my decisions. Also been looking at stereo amps.


Part of me is also tempted to keep This setup on my Desk & get new amp/Arcam for my cinmea room.

whats your thoughts on this?
 
Headphones that are not being driven great may have some blaring of instruments, sounds a bit congested. The HD650 has quite low distortions and is a clean sounding headphones so it should be easy to tell. I use the HD650 as a reference for testing tubes.

Sometimes headphones can sound grainy, bass loose or sloppy. Not enough mid bass punch, again HD650 have good mid bass slam with good amps. Sometimes volume can be low but that doesn't mean that playing loud is driven correctly.
 
smogsy said:
so you cant just look at specs? :(

will make buying even harder!
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Specs can be useful and you can deduce some things from them but not everything. For example if you go to Schiit's website and you look at the Maximum power for each impedance, you can see that the Valhalla is able to better drive High Impedance headphones, if you want to drive low impedance ones better then you need to pick the Solid State of Hybrid ones, does it mean they will sound better, well that is really up to your ears.

The Valhalla was designed for headphones like the HD600 and HD650, so you off to a good start, however it does not mean you will like the sound of tubes vs solid state.

There is a 15 day return policy from Schiit minus 5% but as they in USA you going to lose out on shipping and tax as well.

Audio is not something you should hastily buy, always test and demo it, plus some products need to burn in etc.

Also if you only ever going ot use HD650 then I would recommend the Valhalla 2 for your budget, if you think you might go to lower impedance headphones in future then I would go more for the Lyr 2 which is an extra $100 which you can get with tubes or Solid State Tubes (LISST) or really push the boat out and get the Mjolnir 2, which sound amazing and have the benefit of being able to use both unbalanced and balanced XLR outputs for headphones then you could buy some XLR leads for your HD650's (which cost min £50 from ebay or upto £170 for official Sennheiser ones) and get better separation.

I am going to upgrade to the Mjolnir 2 later this year or next year after I finish my next contract of work.

You could also swap your Stereo integrated amp for a AZUR 651W power amp later if you got XLR setup which has balanced inputs so you could go full balanced for your speakers also.

You basically have a lot of options sorry :P
 
mjgr33n said:
Specs can be useful and you can deduce some things from them but not everything. For example if you go to Schiit's website and you look at the Maximum power for each impedance, you can see that the Valhalla is able to better drive High Impedance headphones, if you want to drive low impedance ones better then you need to pick the Solid State of Hybrid ones, does it mean they will sound better, well that is really up to your ears.

The Valhalla was designed for headphones like the HD600 and HD650, so you off to a good start, however it does not mean you will like the sound of tubes vs solid state.

There is a 15 day return policy from Schiit minus 5% but as they in USA you going to lose out on shipping and tax as well.

Audio is not something you should hastily buy, always test and demo it, plus some products need to burn in etc.

Also if you only ever going ot use HD650 then I would recommend the Valhalla 2 for your budget, if you think you might go to lower impedance headphones in future then I would go more for the Lyr 2 which is an extra $100 which you can get with tubes or Solid State Tubes (LISST) or really push the boat out and get the Mjolnir 2, which sound amazing and have the benefit of being able to use both unbalanced and balanced XLR outputs for headphones then you could buy some XLR leads for your HD650's (which cost min £50 from ebay or upto £170 for official Sennheiser ones) and get better separation.

I am going to upgrade to the Mjolnir 2 later this year or next year after I finish my next contract of work.

You could also swap your Stereo integrated amp for a AZUR 651W power amp later if you got XLR setup which has balanced inputs so you could go full balanced for your speakers also.

You basically have a lot of options sorry :P
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cheers i have decided one thing im not going tubes. to much maintaince for me.

i was tempted by following so far...
Creek OBH-21 MkII Headphone Amplifier
Schiit Asgard 2
Graham Slee Novo Headphone Amplifier
Beyerdynamic A20 Desktop Headphone < really liking the look of this

but not sure both get rave reviews.... but so many to choose from.
 
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thought you should know

i have ordered:
1x KabelDirekt 1 m PRO Series 2 x RCA to 2 x RCA Digital Stereo Audio Cable £10
1x Beyerdynamic A20 Desktop Headphone Amplifer £360

Going to use my Arcam For now. Until i decide to buy another or buy another DAC
 
Tubes are not much maintenance at all. I'm lazy as they come when it comes to gear lol

I'd just grab the Little Dot MKIII and call it a day. Grab some M8161 tubes( I can point you in the right direct for those) and just enjoy music.

Edit - Just seen you've order something. Hope you enjoy them.
 
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Seriously thank you so much for your help, even if i didn't pick your suggestions your advice really helped on what to look for & much appreciated.

Now i just got look for a DAC. it seems silly buying another arcam IrDAC. if i can find a good one that would work on my Stereo amp to i could swapp them out from time to time for different style
 
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