Headphone Amp Advice

Soldato
Joined
21 Mar 2005
Posts
11,768
Hi.

I use HD650's with a TEAC UD-H01 for DAC/AMP.

I'm happy with this set up but would like to upgrade what I use for an AMP.

I'm looking to spend up to £200 or thereabouts.

So far I have been looking at the Vali 2 and the Marantz PM5005 which seems to be on offer at the moment.

Any suggestions or advice appreciated.

Cheers.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2009
Posts
11,175
The Marantz PM5005 is a speaker amplifier if I'm not mistaken. Not really ideal as a headphone amp, unless you plan on using it for both speaker and headphone. Purely for the headphones, a valve amp is a far better purchase.

I think the Little Dot 2 will be a good choice. For £100, seems like really good value. I've been pondering about getting one myself for my HD600. Maybe I will when I'm a bit more flush with spare cash.

Vali 2, is also a good choice.

Little Dot is full tube and the Vali is a hybrid. Might come down to preference, although Schiit will likely provide better customer support should it be needed, due to coming from an official Euro distributor; so that may be something to consider.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
21 Mar 2005
Posts
11,768
OK thanks both.

I think I'll go with the dot given the price and suitability. Seems all round the right choice.

Cheers.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2008
Posts
11,618
Location
Finland
If that Teac had output designed following proper electric engineering for its price there wouldn't be much of possiblity for real audible differences from separate amplifier in non-biased blind testing.
Except for tubes/valves which aren't neutral/transparent and have real effect to sound.

But it seems to have been designed using some ancient standards with over 100 ohm output impedance...
Possibly using output resistor also as cheap and dirty short circuit protection and/or to keep amplifier stable with reactance of some headphones.
http://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/amp/teac-ud-h-01.php
Amplifiers for speakers can also have headphone output simply connected to speaker output using resistors instead of having separate headphone amplifier.

Interaction with it is going to have effect to frequency response of non-flat impedance curve headphones.
HD650 have higher base impedance, so effect isn't that huge unlike it would be for low impedance HD598s:
http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=7&graphID[]=853&graphID[]=2851&scale=30
With HD598's only 1/3 of output power would drive headphones at most frequencies...
But at driver's resonance frequency that would rise to almost over 2/3 boosting bass lot.

Besides frequency response output impedance has also effect to damping factor which tells how tightly driver's movement is controlled by voltage source.
For technically "close enough to perfect" control headphone impedance should be at least ~8 times output impedance.
With damping factor decreasing headphone's drivers start gradually following signal less and less tightly with their own natural vibrations starting to show up.
Thanks to HD650's highish impedance that's not much of problem in this case.
When and how much effect of decreased damping factor appears likely depends on headphones.
But at some point sound eventually turns to total mess and bass loses all of its power.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
21 Mar 2005
Posts
11,768
Very close to making the purchase now. Little Dot ll is around £125 and as mentioned wouldn't be coming from a proper supplier which is a worry.

Richer Sounds have a sale on and this looks great with great reviews. A solid state amp admittedly...

Arcam rHead.

A decent review here which suggests they would go well with the HD650's

https://www.innerfidelity.com/conte...e-arrives-headphone-world-arcams-rhead-page-2

So it would be USB to TEAC, RCA to rHead and then HD650's.

This sound like it will be a winner here?

Cheers.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2012
Posts
7,381
Location
Ankh Morpork
Making the choice between the Arcam and the Little Dot isn't really fair though, you should be comparing it with amps like the Schiit Lyr II (hybrid) and Jotunheim (solid state), both of which work brilliantly with the HD650s
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
21 Mar 2005
Posts
11,768
Making the choice between the Arcam and the Little Dot isn't really fair though, you should be comparing it with amps like the Schiit Lyr II (hybrid) and Jotunheim (solid state), both of which work brilliantly with the HD650s
Ha yeh maybe I should save a few more quid...

The Arcam is bang on 200 notes in the Richer Sound sale. I could go grab it tomorrow. Too tempting... ;)
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2012
Posts
7,381
Location
Ankh Morpork
I didn't realise you could get it for that kind of money - if I were in the market for a headphone amp I would be snapping up that Arcam. :)

Just reading the specs, 130mw @ 300ohms, which is roughly double what is needed for the HD650 and it uses a resistive ladder for the volume control, which is normally only seen on high end amps.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
21 Mar 2005
Posts
11,768
Okay I was all set for the Arcam however the Little Dot 2 came up in the MM with upgraded tubes so I grabbed that :)

Quick question.

Should you have the headphones connected when you power up the Little Dot (or tube amp's in general).

Basically I read the headphones should be connected as otherwise you create an open circuit, but then came across this video when looking for reviews...


:confused:
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
21 Mar 2005
Posts
11,768
Just to conclude...

I have now had a blast of the Little Dot 2 and am immensely pleased. Everything sounds, I dunno, exciting! :)

I have picked up the HD650, TEAC UD-H01 DAC and now the Little Dot 2 tube Amp which combined is amazing really... All bought on advice from this forum.

Cheers for the help ;)
 
Associate
Joined
25 Apr 2004
Posts
2,496
Location
Chelmsford
Just found this thread when looking for little dot mkii vs mkiii/se

Not sure on the video above, I've left my HD650's connected without issue on my mkii

Now that you have the amp it is time to look at tube rolling
 
Back
Top Bottom