What’s next up on the docket for you?

The Shure (?) headphones I refer to were accounted for in Playback Magazine

Found it, thanks. I hadn't heard of them - just introduced; Shure SRH840. Good review too.

Good. For anyone else:

http://www.avguide.com/review/playback-23-shure-srh840-professional-monitoring-headphones

I thought so as well.

I feel as long as I stay out of the 'big HP room' SOMETHING ALONG THOSE LINES PLUS A MIDDLE OF THE ROAD AFTERMARKET TUBE HP AMP SHOULD YIELD SATISFACTORY PERFORMANCE AND VERY GOOD TO GREAT VALUE, and keep things under the $1K mark. Allowing then for some later playing around and possible upgrades down the road.

I would like to find an HP amp with twin vol - gain controls that is above the middle of the overall HP amp pack too... and 2 source inputs, suitable of course for their imp load.

If you look over on headfi you will see those cans have met with a response that places it in distinctly lesser offerings. There are a few threads on the SQ there, fwiw. I've learned to take all such input with more than a grain of salt, but certainly have found one can get a pretty accurate overall impression as feedback builds up. The Consonance amp I just sold (Cyber 20) is a damn good little amp for the money. I'm not sure I know what you mean by an "aftermarket tube hp amp". There are some nice tube hp amps coming out of Taiwan (DarkVoice), no experience there but plenty of 'followers'. I can tell you first and that Woo Audio stuff (made in Brooklyn) is top notch. One thing about the good HP amps, they seem to hold their value on the used market and are actually in demand. Check out the internals on this Woo...like I said, very nice stuff. I'm using a maxxed out Woo WA6SE and it pairs wonderfully with AT W5000 cans. The dual-volume request you had is going to be a difficult one to find. I haven't even seen HP amps with a balance knob on them. In fact, the trend is to include an optional filter switch that allows sending some of the right signal left and left to right to blend the channels to some extent. This is to try to compensate for the psycho-acoustic effects that happen when a very exagerated spacial recordings have when listened to on HP...something like the first cut on Sgt. Pepper, or much of Pink Floyd...those kind of spacial exagerations don't play well with your brain on headphones, and it sounds better to blend the two channels to some extent in those cases. Not all HP amps have that option. Meier-audio would be one that does. A mono option would be a nice feature too. Not many amps with that. I personally HATE dual-volume controls on preamps, and I have no doubt I'd hate'em on a head amp. They require too much attention to fiddle with every time you want to make a volume change. Two source inputs are fairly common. There are also some good headphone amps that double as conventional preamps (see Woo 2 and HeadAmp's GS-1 and GS-X, among others). Also, of course, some full on amps with great headphone stages (Woo 5, Portal Panache, Cary various, etc.).

Here's some info from the Meier Audio site on crossfeed filters. I can't provide a direct link and it was a bit difficult to ferret out, so forgive the bandwidth and skip this part if HP listening isn't of interest:

In normal daily life people use various mechanisms to locate sources of sound.

Firstly, the sound of a source to the right side of the listener (e.g. the right loudspeaker) not only reaches the right ear but, attenuated and delayed, is also heard by the left ear. The level of attenuation and the delay time of this crossfeed signal provide important directional information.

Secondly, the soundwaves are partly absorbed and partly reflected by the tissues of the head. Reflections at the oracles (pinnae) interfere with the soundwaves that directly enter the ear-channel and amplify or attenuate specific frequency components. Since these reflections depend on the direction of the soundwave the "color" of the sound changes with the direction of the source.
Thirdly, reflections of the soundwaves from the walls, ceiling and floor of our listening room produce reverberation that conveys an extra feeling of space.

The information obtained by these mechanisms is further refined by movements of the head. Changes in sound levels, delay times and sound color refine the sense of direction. For a demonstration, blindfold a friend and ask him to locate a ticking clock that you have hidden in the room. He will start turning his head although he can't see anything. With his head in a fixed position an exact localization is much more difficult.


Listening by headphones
All the mechanisms of directional listening are missing when we use headphones. The sound at the right ear will no longer reach the left ear and pinnae-reflections no longer interfere with the original soundwave. Moreover, the headphones are directly attached to our head, and so head movements no longer add information. Reverberation is also not present.

As a result, the sound heard by headphones seems to stick to the inside of our head and to our ears and an unnatural soundfield is created. The brain misses logical clues for direction and this subconsciously results in mental stress. Some people cannot tolerate this stress and are unable to use headphones.


The natural crossfeed filter



In principle, digital soundprocessors can simulate all the mechanisms for directional listening but the results are, thus far, not very satisfactory. In particular, pinnae-reflections are very complex and listener-specific and impossible to simulate accurately.

Fortunately, the mean directional information is provided by the time delay and level of attenuation of the sounds that reaches the opposite ear. The CORDA headphone amplifiers can electronically simulate this process and, with appropriate attenuation and delay, add some of the right audiosignal to the left channel and vice -versa. This considerably reduces the adverse symptoms of headphone listening.

A unique feature of the crossfeed circuitry of the CORDA headphone amplifiers is that it "recognizes" the virtual positions of the instruments and singers in a recording. The sound of an instrument in the middle of the soundstage will be equally present in both audio-channels and isn't given any crossfeed. A crossfeed signal is only generated for instruments that are not placed at the center. The more off-center the instrument is placed, the stronger the crossfeed and the longer its delay. This feature is called "natural crossfeed".

Jax2

Well. Thanks much.

My 'aftermarket' note was an anomoly. Beats me why I put that in there.

The thought on twin gain controls is due to the loss of sensitivity in my left ear by about 4db or so... and why I listen in the nearfield... with the volume moderately up.

it's enough of a concern currently... that's for sure. It's also deforming my sound stage as the right side is well forward of the left side forming more a parrallelogram instead of a rectangle or sphere.... until the volume is up of course.

HPs, speakers,amps. Oh my! What to do? For a bit now it's full speed ahaead on putting together an actual home server, and acoustic room treatments... oh, and redoing my conduit that decided after a year to reside on the floor instead of the ceiling where it belongs. I think it will wind up on the wall this time just below the molding and get another paint job. Again. This time with anchors though.

the server project I feel will have far reaching benefits. Data, film, audio, and organizational help.

The thought on twin gain controls is due to the loss of sensitivity in my left ear by about 4db or so... and why I listen in the nearfield... with the volume moderately up.

Ah, that makes sense now. I'm not aware of any HP amps that have that. I would choose a Balance knob over two volume controls simply for convenience of volume adjustment (supposedly set the balance knob once). The reason those things are not included on headphone amps, of course, is because you are not having to deal with room-generated imbalance since the speakers are right on/in your ears.

The server project sounds like fun too. I use Squeezeserver and have three separate listening areas now. I'm very happy with it except for their crappy, slow interface. I've gotten used to it, but it could be a whole lot better. The actual gear that forms the system is pretty darn good for the money. With tweaks/mods, it is excellent. I have no experience with the other options (Sonos, Olive, etc.) to compare though. I do love having access to a central library of all my music though, and occasionally enjoy internet radio and Pandora as well. Have fun with that!