headphone amp between £50 and £100?

G

garrad

Guest
I have sennheiser HD 580's and I use them for my computer. Now the computer is uselss at powering these babies so I was wandering what headphone amp at a reasonable price between £50 and £100 are around exist and where i would be able to order one.
 
Don't think you'll pick one up that cheap. Musical Fidelity and Creek do some - occasionally crop up on Ebay
 
Project (Of Turntable fame) do a nifty little headphone amplifier for £150 RRP
 
You're really doing those a bit of an injustice with anything less than a Creek or MF as suggested above,and they definitely benefit from significantly more expensive amps as well.
The Creeks don't come up secondhand very often,but there are plenty of used MF X-Cans about(don't be put off by them being tube designs either...it's a superb little amp,and the valves last for thousands of hours...I use an Earmax which is somewhat more expensive,but the valves have lasted over 6yrs so far,and are easily replaced).
Make sure you use a good quality sound card as well,to get the best out of them.
 
Yeah a good sound card. The computer I'm about to buy aparantly has terrible sound so I was going to buy an external sound "card". Some USB thing, but i've not decided which one yet.

So I know from the past that internal sound cards have pretty terrible sound quality. My two computers at work are ok, but just sound so weak and don't do my headphones justice.

Yeah the Creek amp, but its just a little bit too expensive for me right now, maybe I'll hold off a while and get it at Christmas.
 
If you're interested in sound cards,have a look at some of Branxx'z posts on the subject and maybe drop him a line for advice....he's probably the most knowledgeable here on that topic.
 
Originally posted by garrad
I have sennheiser HD 580's and I use them for my computer. Now the computer is uselss at powering these babies so I was wandering what headphone amp at a reasonable price between £50 and £100 are around exist and where i would be able to order one.

Check the ads at Head-Fi and you'll find quite a few.

Also, check out the "amp gallery" at the ipod studio
That'll give you an idea of what's available.

You could also build your own via plans found at HeadWize
 
Originally posted by garrad
I have sennheiser HD 580's and I use them for my computer. Now the computer is uselss at powering these babies so I was wandering what headphone amp at a reasonable price between £50 and £100 are around exist and where i would be able to order one.

Garrad, actually the HeadRoom BitHead seems to be EXACTLY what you're looking for;)
 
The headroom bithead is a possible suggestion, but the only low cost commercial headamp I'd recommend would be the Rega Ear. The Creek has a high output impedance which will muddy the sound (much like integrated amps headphone sockets, so dont even bother with a creek if you have an amp with a headphone socket), the Project is not highly rated at headfi, and the X-Can is a mediocre amp which has an expensive habit of using valves rather quickly. It can be made to sound good with mods, but for the price, you may as well buy a better amp to start with.

Alternatively, PM someone like JMT at headfi.org to get him to make you a PIMETA.
 

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