Amp for Senn HD580?

[Roob]

Hallo,
Have just managed to find a pair of Senn HD580's at a very good price and may now be able afford a secondhand amp to drive them. I have a NADC352 80w amp, which, I've been told will produce good results but it seems to reach their full potential, they will benefit from being driven by a separate amp. Can anyone suggest what I should be looking for?
Many thanks again,
Roob

[Reano]

Originally Posted by Roob

Hallo,
Have just managed to find a pair of Senn HD580's at a very good price and may now be able afford a secondhand amp to drive them. I have a NADC352 80w amp, which, I've been told will produce good results but it seems to reach their full potential, they will benefit from being driven by a separate amp. Can anyone suggest what I should be looking for?
Many thanks again,
Roob

Have you tried it with the amp first? May not need anything

For the cost of your headphones probably best to stick with reasonably priced headphone amps like

1) Musical Fidelity V3 (secondhand about £150)
2) Project Headbox v1 or 2 (under £150)
3) Creek 21 headphone amp

Or similar like Rega, etc. I'm assuming you mean for home use?

[Roob]

Thanks Reano,
Home use, they haven't arrived yet, so yes, I'll wait & see. Thanks again for your suggestions,
Roob

[DorKnight]

I take it you're Oldfogie on Head-Fi?

Run before your wallet is sucked dry

[Roob]

Right! I know exactly what you mean! I'm getting sucked in.....but what the hell, I don't smoke or drink!

[alexs2]

Originally Posted by Roob

Right! I know exactly what you mean! I'm getting sucked in.....but what the hell, I don't smoke or drink!

Nor do I,and it made no difference here!

Also worth searching here for a flavour of the various amps and prices available,and the used/ex-dem options around as well,to stretch the budget a bit further.

[pbirkett]

Originally Posted by Reano

Have you tried it with the amp first? May not need anything

For the cost of your headphones probably best to stick with reasonably priced headphone amps like

1) Musical Fidelity V3 (secondhand about £150)
2) Project Headbox v1 or 2 (under £150)
3) Creek 21 headphone amp

Or similar like Rega, etc. I'm assuming you mean for home use?

TBH, I doubt any of those will be a significant improvement on the NAD.

My old Rotel did a fine job with headphones, just as good as any basic headphone amp, if not better in some cases. I know NAD amps have decent headphone sockets.

You'll be needing to step up to an amp such as the Heed CanAmp or better before you begin to notice any significant improvements.

[DorKnight]

I think you would see a difference with a MF, especially if you mod it.

[Reano]

Originally Posted by pbirkett

TBH, I doubt any of those will be a significant improvement on the NAD.

My old Rotel did a fine job with headphones, just as good as any basic headphone amp, if not better in some cases. I know NAD amps have decent headphone sockets.

You'll be needing to step up to an amp such as the Heed CanAmp or better before you begin to notice any significant improvements.

Have you heard these amps vs the NAD? Also the Project you can plug into the 'output' socket and it actually gives a better sound than plugging into the line in's

[girliedrinker]

Originally Posted by pbirkett

TBH, I doubt any of those will be a significant improvement on the NAD.

My old Rotel did a fine job with headphones, just as good as any basic headphone amp, if not better in some cases. I know NAD amps have decent headphone sockets.

I'm no expert (I've just been looking into my first new phones for about 10 years) but I'm sure I read somewhere that NAD amps had notoriously bad headphone outputs. It was because of that I've been looking in confusion for a reasonable headphone amp, something I have no knowledge of at all. My amp is a 16 year old NAD 302 and wish to get some HD650s and got the impression that a separate amp really would be needed. The Rega Ear looks like I might enjoy it (and so will my wallet). But really, I imagine anything will sound good after my old, overused, low-priced Beyerdynamic DT331s!

[pbirkett]

Right, to explain myself, I have listened to various NAD amps through their headphone sockets with various pairs of headphones. I would say it's somewhat unfair to say the NAD has a notoriously bad headphone out, as that just isn't the case. They may not be optimal, particularly for high end Sennheisers, but notoriously bad is doing it an extreme injustice.

However, I have not had lots of experience with a NAD amp. I have had a lot of experience though with a fairly similar rival, a Rotel RA-01 which I owned for well over two years.

I have owned a lot of headphones too, and quite a few headphone amps, including the v2 and v3 X-Can, Rega Ear and other budget amps.

As such, I have had many opportunities to discover how these amps measure up against the headphone socket of a reasonably well designed integrated amp versus that of a budget headphone amp.

It is my personal opinion, that at least in the Rotel's case, the Rotel was easily the equal of most stuff for much less than £200. I didn't find any of them any better in almost any respect, except perhaps overall clarity in some (but not all) cases. The Rotel often had better bass and a more substantial, weighty sound.

Of course, sound quality is subjective, but in my subjective view, these amps were not worth spending money on if you already have a decent integrated with headphone socket.

However, once you begin to up the ante a bit, with amps like the ANT Amber, Heed CanAmp, Meier Audio amps, etc then you can begin to get appreciable improvements, where they sound just as weighty and substantial, yet offer better clarity and dynamics.

All I guess I am saying is that knowing what I know now, I would not bother trying to spend money on a budget headphone amp to try and improve on a decent integrated, because you will be throwing your money away, IMO.