Which Sennies?

Sadly I am the guilty recipient of a one month trading ban here so there's no point in looking at your ad. The World's a cruel place for we international criminals.:-(
 
Hi sorry to hijack this thread, but i myself am about to buy a pair of 650's but i have a question. I am the very proud owner of a denon a1sra, now how much would i have to spend on a headphone amp to better the one built into my denon ?
Thx !
 
Leporello, sorry to say the Headsave has sold now.

Stanleh, with the HD650s I'd say it would benefit from a good amp but you need not go too overboard. From my own usage I would have said Headsave Classic, WNA and Ant Amber in ascending price range. Spending more than those cost would benefit only if you have or intend to get some high quality source.

The Classic will only be available used now. The WNA can be built or purchased pre-built and the Ant Amber pre-built only.

Check the links above and persue the head-fi.org forum. If you are UK based the choice without importing is limited, importing and it gets very complicated.

My listening is mostly via headphones so the amp is important, if you use them infrequently then see how you like the sound unamped.

If you can get to hear them through an amp from a friend or on trial basis I'd say go for it.
 
I believe Alex Nitkin from ANT has some pre-production Amber amps for sale at £150, that's a big £100 saving over the normal price; it sounds very, very good and should be a great match for the Sennheisers
 
Well, I've got the HD580s and I think they're terrific. They sound nice and are much more restrained than the Grado SR80s which I found very uncomfortable indeed. I'll sell the Grados to offset the cost of whatever amp I buy.

I've set my budget to £150 to £200 maximum, so my requirements are as follows. I'd like a good sonic match to the HD580s, I don't need portability and I'd like the box to be aluminium. I'm not by nature a "do it yourself" enthusiast and I don't want my study to resemble a workshop.

I've looked at loads of amp reviews, but sadly, with diminishing returns. The more I read the less I understand and the more confused I get. The problem is that I'm frankly uninterested in the technical stuff. I'm more of a week-end pilot than a mechanic.

The Creek models don't look too bad, the ANT look slightly home grown to me, and there's a couple of US models that look attractive. However, as all this began last November when I decided to attach 5.1 speakers to my PC, since when I have aquired a Denon AV system, speaker stands and three sets of headphones, Grados, Bose and now Sennheiser I've just got to restrain myself. As I'd like to keep my life options open to other activities such as yacht racing, polo or Heroin addiction, I must call a halt to this! My buy, try and discard strategy simply doesn't work.

So there's my situation. Humour me.

Leporello
 
AlecF said:
I believe Alex Nitkin from ANT has some pre-production Amber amps for sale at £150, that's a big £100 saving over the normal price; it sounds very, very good and should be a great match for the Sennheisers

I'd jump on these, if I didn't have one already :D
At £150 they're a STEAL.
 
Very full and detailed review of the A.N.T. on Headfi.org,with the only real criticisms being the build quality and component quality,but no gripes about the sound at all.
 
The title say it all really.

Get over the cosmetics or do what I will do - put it in a bigger case with a nice shiny knob.

Steve
 
I've emailed Alex Nitkin re. the offer. This looks promising. Thanks for the advice and the review. God speed to your nice shiny knob.
 
Very nice Steve....where did you get the bits from and how much did they lighten your wallet? Oh....and hows the sound?
 
HD 25 (not SP's) all day long for me!

You can get these for about £99 at ASK in TCR, they used to be £99 at DJSTORE.CO.UK but they are now £119 there!

You can replace every part on them if damaged, they use them as defacto on most outside broadcasts now like SKySports etc!

Frequency response is amazing too!
 
Grif said:
Very nice Steve....where did you get the bits from and how much did they lighten your wallet? Oh....and hows the sound?

Parts from Maplins cost around £10 I think.

I don't know if it's because the Ant Amber was tested out on Alex's Creek and with Sennies which is what I'm using but together the Amber, my Creek CD50 and the HD650s sound really great. It sounds great on my PC setup too, using an M-Audio Transit and a DAC so it's not limited to the source.

I'm not ditching my WNA amp it's just taking turns on which gets connected to the CD and which to the PC. Everytime I sit down to find a good track to use as a comparison between the two amps I end up just listening to the music and forget about finding key points to listen for.

Spoilt for choice is a nice position to be in.

Steve
 
diverse said:
HD 25 (not SP's) all day long for me!

You can get these for about £99 at ASK in TCR, they used to be £99 at DJSTORE.CO.UK but they are now £119 there!

You can replace every part on them if damaged, they use them as defacto on most outside broadcasts now like SKySports etc!

Frequency response is amazing too!

Or get the HD25sp cheap and use the same parts. I've put the velour pads on mine and a better diy cable, though they take the same cables as the HD580/600/650s. And still have change.
 
As a few people in this thread are discussing headphone amps that go well with Sennheiser 'phones, I may as well put in my customary plug for the Graham Slee Projects "Solo" amp. It's not cheap (£460 for the full version, but you can get the same amp with a cheapie power supply for £330 and upgrade the power supply later). But it sounds very nice indeed. I'm just trying it out with my new HD650s and enjoying myself a great deal. :)

Sennheiser themselves used one of these at several audio exhibitions last year to show off their HD600 and HD650 'phones to the public.

Click here for more info.
 

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