Good headphone amp?

BuToNz · 3 Apr 2016 at 13:06

Hi all,

Looking to get a headphone AMP so the Mrs can listen to her vinyl (or record

) collection without using the floor standing speakers which are hooked up to my AV receiver.

So the requirement will be to allow pass through of the sound without the need for messing around with cables each time we want to switch from the AV kit to the headphones.

The turntable is a Project Carbon Debut with Project Phono Box which currently connects directly to the CD in on my AV receiver (No built in Phono stage).

I see a lot of headphone amplifiers with an RCA in but barely any with an output as well. I have found the Project 'Head Box' which seems like it would do the job but at £100 should I be looking at something else?

I assume I can just run an RCA directly from the Phono Box to the headphone AMP without any problems?

Thanks for any responses in advance!

Psycho Sonny · 4 Apr 2016 at 00:06

schiit vali 2

http://schiit.eu.com/schiit-amps

BuToNz · 4 Apr 2016 at 14:00

Thanks for the response but reasons? Don't tube amps 'taint' the sound somewhat?

Psycho Sonny · 4 Apr 2016 at 14:49

I have the schiit vali 1 and it's amazing

I've owned and tested equipment from £10 all the way up to £800 within the DAC/AMP world.

Tubes to me sound more natural. You can get reference tubes or those that taint the sound. Solid state amps to me sound too clinical. Tubes is a more natural sound.

You can't go wrong with schiit tbh, if you don't want tubes buy one of their solid state amps. The vali however IMO is their best amp.

firstborn · 9 Apr 2016 at 00:05

Psycho Sonny said:
I have the schiit vali 1 and it's amazing

I've owned and tested equipment from £10 all the way up to £800 within the DAC/AMP world.

Tubes to me sound more natural. You can get reference tubes or those that taint the sound. Solid state amps to me sound too clinical. Tubes is a more natural sound.

You can't go wrong with schiit tbh, if you don't want tubes buy one of their solid state amps. The vali however IMO is their best amp.

What are you judging in reference to out of interest?

Psycho Sonny · 9 Apr 2016 at 10:38

firstborn said:
What are you judging in reference to out of interest?

well i've owned quite a few high end sound cards.

also own an aune t1. 2 different mixamps. schiit vali.

i've also had items like this

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-xonar-essence-stu-sc-026-as.html

all the way up to £600-£800, ocuk sent me their top 3 amp/dacs from various price ranges to test as well as 2 other forum members. i didn't publish my findings as i thought it would be too critical of the higher end stuff and effect sales. basically they aren't worth it.

i currently own HD558's, HD600's, HD700's, AKG Q701's, DT770's, HD25-1 II's and momentums.

and have owned hifiman HE400's and fidelio x1's as well as HD595's.

so i've tested a lot of headphones and a lot of headphone dac/amps.

the best for the money i would say is a schiit dac/amp or nad d 1050 or the aune t1.

the more expensive options are only slightly better with law of diminishing returns kicking in very badly.

e.g. a £600-£800 dac amp the difference was very small to say a £200-£250 setup or even an aune t1 with the right valve £120 plus the cost of valve.

there is currently an aune t1 for sale in the members market for a very cheap price. i would snap that up. i have one and for someone starting out it's probably the best option below £200.

you would need to spend £250 on a schiit stack to get noticeably better sound