What headphone amp to buy-Sennheiser HD 600?

Sugden Headmaster, it fits all of your requirements I guess: solid state with tube-like sound, built with HD600 in mind, remote, excellent line stage as well, Stereophile Class A headphone amp (for what it is worth), about $700 used. Only issue is to find one second-hand. I had been looking for one for over a year and found one on Agon...I was read number 8 on the Ad and bought it right away! I sold it since (no time for headphones) to someone who had been looking for one for 18 months...no depreciation, I can tell you this!

http://www.onhifi.com/product/sugden_bijou.htm

Quick Update, and request for additional opinions:

I just listened to a Stax Lambda Signature Pro System using the Stax SRM T1 dedicated vacuum tube amplifier. The signal is routed to the headphone amp thru the same player, dac, and preamp as the Intuitive Design Summit Loudspeakers and the Rel Storm 3 sub bass unit are.

The phones don't express the bass as well as the speakers driven by the Odyssey Extreme monoblocks and supplemented with the Rel Storm 3, but my guess is that I shouldn't expect that. They aren't BAD in the bass and it's certainly tolerable. There appears (on initial listening) to be a touch more detail, but not nearly as much more as I had expected: the difference is not that impressive. Furthermore, the high end is not as sweet as the Summits', but it isn't TOO harsh, and my guess is that the vacuum tube output stage is helping in this regard. Midrange proficiency seems overall similar between the Stax and the Summits; there MAY (or may not, I can't be sure yet) SLIGHTLY better midrange detail with the Stax, but timbre and tonality MAY (or may not, again) be SLIGHTY better on the Summits.

I'm sort of (but not really, I guess) surprised that the Summits hold up so well against these esoteric electrostatic headphones, and in fact, the Summits plus the Rel are CLEARLY the preferred listening mode, especially when soundstaging and bass reproduction are factored in. However, in the other areas mentioned, these seem to be at least close to the Summits, so they should be listenable in the long term (at least during the short interval between when my wife makes me turn off the Summits after 9:30 pm on school nights and when I go to bed).

All of the above having been said, here's the decision to be made: whether or not to purchase the Stax Lambda Signature Pro Earspeakers plus the SRM T1 vacuum tube headphone amp for the price of $850, all inclusive. I'm told that this 10+ year old system (which is in very good condition, by the way), originally retailed for about $2500.

So, what do you guys think? In the absence of strong advice against it, I'm about to pull the trigger.

Marco:

You said:

...the new Svetlana tubes that are only around $240 pair from CONUS in Canada.

Holy guacamole! "only" 240 clams, for a pair of TUBES?? Just how long can these tubes be expected to LAST (I'm reeeaaally hoping you say at LEAST a year or more)?

Are tubes really that expensive? GOLLY!

Holy guacamole! "only" 240 clams, for a pair of TUBES?? Just how long can these tubes be expected to LAST (I'm reeeaaally hoping you say at LEAST a year or more)?

Well, yes, they should last at least a year. I don't know about the Svets, but the WE's are rated for around 10,000 hours. But if you think the $240 price tag is pricy, you don't wann'a go there! The Svet's are aiming to be, at least structurally, a copy of the very popular WE's. In terms of sonics they sound different indeed on my amps. The Svets have a crystalline mid-range, striking in that effect...almost etched. The WE's give up a bit of that kind of sharply focused clarity for a better overall balance throughout the range (IMO and in my amps) reaching a bit more into the lower registers and delivering better detail there as well as in the highs. But that Svet midrange is pretty amazing...I was very impressed with them.

I forget how you got into 300B amps...was it you or someone else suggesting a Cary? This started out as a headphone amp thread....now if you are still looking at headphone amps that utilize tubes you don't have to worry as much about dropping that kind of coin on tubes, as most use smaller, less expensive tubes. If you are listening to your headphone amp to supplement your main system then I'm quite sure your tubes there will likely last you several years before having to change them. My MicroZotl takes 2 12AT7's and two 6SN7's. Total cost to retube is about $80 for some nice NOS stuff. You could spend more, and you could spend less depending on what you're satisfied with. Kind of like buying wine in a way. The tubes definitely have different flavors which can be more or less accentuated by the actuall circuit/component they are going into. There are tube amps that just use two tubes as well...even cheaper to retube, and not necessarily better or worse than amps using more tubes, bigger tubes or different tubes. Certainly they'll all sound different...but it is really up to you to decide which you prefer.

Marco

Marco,

It's beginning to look like I'll be using a Stax SRM T1 headphone amp to drive a pair of Stax Lambda Signatures, {{{{{although I now understand what Swampwalker meant about the "head sweating" problem!! }}}}}. I haven't read the manual yet, but they sounded better this morning after the amplifier, which has a vacuum tube output stage, was allowed to sit overnight plugged into my system with the "power" switch turned off, but the "pre-warm" switch turned on. I don't even know what kind of tubes it uses.

Stax questions:
--How expensive are these to get serviced, particularly with respect to the diaphragms?
--Given what I said (in the post before the tube sticker shock post) about their sound, does this seem like a reasonable way to go? {{Swampwalker?? Others??}}