[witters]

Can anyone recommend a decent pair of heaphones upto £100 please. They will be used with an Arcam A85.

[Hawklord]

Have a look here:-

http://www.askdirect.co.uk/uview?cal...351&topcatid=7

the senn HD590's are highly thought off (or so I've heard) if you can stretch to £140 then I'd recomend the HD600's (used to be rrp £250) a bargain for the quality you get. You need a headphone amp to get the best out of them though, but you could possibly get one later.
I also own a pair of dyn Galactic DT231's which sound superb for the money (£39 when I bought mine). They've been relegated to the pc now I have the HD600's and my solo which gives unbelievable clarity for the money. I'd even go as far as to say it beats my regular HC set up hands down on the level of detail and overall sound but obviously lacks the omph and feeling my regular speakers and subwoofer add to movies.

[witters]

Thanks for a very comprehensive reply. I'm not sure how much I will use them, hence my £100 limit. Now my kids are growing up I get a lot of stick for playing my music too loud. Must be something wrong there

[TameRacingDriver]

Try the Beyerdynamic DT531 from www.veronica.co.uk

I've had lots of headphones, including Sennheiser HD580, HD650, Beyer DT880, DT931, DT990 and the Sony MDR-CD3000 and those Beyerdynamics are real bargains for £60. They sound better than the HD580 and probably the 590 as well, they also sound better than any of their bigger Beyerdynamic brothers. They even sound fine when driven by the headphone socket of an integrated amp. Excellent bargains.

the girls come free with these headphones

[337GUS]

I currently have the HD590's running through the Project Headbox amp and they do the job for me, before that they were on an A85.

Very good sound quality and comfortable to wear.

Now they are reduced to £89 they are a bargain. Try to listen against the DT531 which I have seen mentioned on other forums.

Gus

[witters]

Thanks guys - I think I like jmack's recommendation the best

[NicolasB]

While some people like the Sennhesier HD590s, many others regard them as inferior to the (cheaper) HD580s. You can often get a pair of 580s for <£100, which is extremely good value, IMO. But they're getting a bit thin on the ground these days. Try asking Harrow Audio for a quote.

[Crocodile JD]

witters

You can get the 590s for around £80 if you shop around. I have a pair used with an Alpha 8. Fantastic sound and extremely comfortable.

337GUS

I currently have the HD590's running through the Project Headbox amp and they do the job for me, before that they were on an A85.

Did you get a measurable improvement when you went over to a dedicated headphone amp? I nearly went for it some time back, but thought the sound I have is already really good and didn't know whether the improvements would be big enough to justify the cost.

Cheers

Croc

[alexs2]

Originally posted by Crocodile JD
witters


337GUS
Did you get a measurable improvement when you went over to a dedicated headphone amp? I nearly went for it some time back, but thought the sound I have is already really good and didn't know whether the improvements would be big enough to justify the cost.

Cheers

Croc

I think you'll get the same answer from NicB,with a different flavour of amp,but adding a dedicated headphone amp can produce an amazing increase in detail,power and quality from even a cheap set of 'phones.
There are a range of good ones now,from the Creek at a bit over £100,through the MF X-cans in the £250 region and the Earmax at around £450 to some stunningly expensive models from the US based Headroom range.

I'm very happy with the Earmax...superb detail and very smooth.

[Crocodile JD]

Hi alexs2,

I am aware of the general stance taken by resident Cans experts, with regard to addition of dedicated amp. I posted a while back with the exact question and got a very good response (you included I seem to remember ) I nearly went for it, but have added a power amp to my HiFi and Prog Scan DVD to my AV kit as priorities over the headphone amp. I'm still toying with the idea, but I just wanted to get 337GUS's opinion as he has the same Cans and a very similar amp to mine

What do you reckon 337GUS ?

Cheers

Croc

[alexs2]

Croc....your memory is much better than mine!...too many beefburgers in the 80's here,I think....hope it helped though,and on the same note,Musical Fidelity have just released the latest version of their headphone amp which is supposed to be very good in quality and value terms.

[337GUS]

Croc

Not that comfortable doing a review, don't feel particularly qualified or find it easy to put what I hear into words, but here goes, all imho of course.

MF308CD feeding Tag DAC20 via Chord Prodac Silver. Tag to A85 and Headbox via Cable Talk Monitor 3. Tag used as it has 2 analogue outs to save cable swapping. Everything warmed up for a bit

Avril Lavigne - I'm with You - good left and right info

Coldplay - Clocks - piano riff

Eminem - Stan - effects and samples

Kosheen - Kokopelli - general gut feeling (great album by the way)

Basically I think that the Headbox has a better overall character, it is a fuller more detailed sound, a bigger sound is the nearest I can come to describing it. Snare drums, basslines, background vocals and instrument fill ins are easier to follow, it's easier to just lose yourself in the music, more enjoyable.

Is it worth £150 over the Arcam’s output? Well if you are just a casual user of cans then I don’t think it is, if you listen to several cd’s a week then yes I think it is definately worth it. Would I get the Headbox now, not sure, I think I would seriously consider the MF X-Can V3 instead.

HTH

Gus

[TameRacingDriver]

I've got an X-Can v3 here, and its pretty good for the money, and for various reasons, it is likely to be better than the current crop of high street headphone amps (Creek, Rega and Project amps), but I believe that one can still do better for the money. There is an amp available called the Perreaux SXH-1 that costs about the same as the X-Can v3 and looks more substantial for the money, and also has a tubelike sound without requiring tubes. The X-Can v3 as stock does not sound like a tube amp. However, the Perreaux will have to be imported from New Zealand. Email Totally Wired: totallywired@compuserve.com about the Perreaux if your interested.

If I were buying again I'd go for the Perreaux. The X-Can v3 is still plagued with a few problems, like hissing valves, just like the last one, although it does sound markedly better than the v2 model.

[Crocodile JD]

Thanks for that guys - itchy palms again

Cheers

Croc

[alexs2]

Originally posted by pbirkett

If I were buying again I'd go for the Perreaux. The X-Can v3 is still plagued with a few problems, like hissing valves, just like the last one, although it does sound markedly better than the v2 model.

Interesting comment re the valves on the X-Cans V3....hiss isn't a problem with the Earmax at all,and the thing is practically silent even at maximum vloume apart from a tiny amount of PSU related hum,which you can only hear with the music muted.
With valve designs,a lot comes down to PSU design and choice of the valves themselves,with some having higher intrinsic levels of hiss etc than others.

[Bassbin]

I've got some of these rrp was £200. Pleanty of reviews on the net and great if you aren't using a headphone amp as they are easy to drive.

[TameRacingDriver]

Originally posted by alexs2
Interesting comment re the valves on the X-Cans V3....hiss isn't a problem with the Earmax at all,and the thing is practically silent even at maximum vloume apart from a tiny amount of PSU related hum,which you can only hear with the music muted.
With valve designs,a lot comes down to PSU design and choice of the valves themselves,with some having higher intrinsic levels of hiss etc than others.

The X-Can I believe uses a Jan Philips tube, which is a cheap POS. I've decided valve amps arent for me anyway, and am getting a Corda HA-2 solid stater instead, should be a lot better than the X-Can.

I can hear the tubes hiss quite easily on 32 ohm Sony MDR-CD3000 but you cannot hear it at all on 300 ohm HD650's. Its clearly designed for the HD600 + HD650 IMO.