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headphone amp

Looking for suggestions for a headphone amp that will drive either grado or sennheiser phones (low to high z). Something that retails for under a 1 k $. Have considered the Creek amps and the Grado amp - any experience with these (and what phones wre used with the amps), or other recomendations for amps in the 1 k $ retail and below would be appreciated?
musicnoise
karelfd
476 posts
 
I have no experience with Creek or Grado, but I would recommend in the strongest possible terms to look also at the Yamamoto HA-02. Granted, it will fill out your $1k budget completely, but if it cost twice that much it would still be an excellent buy imo. It sports two small Western Electric WE 408A tubes and is designed for low impedance headphones if I understand the website correctly (Yamamoto-san's explanations are, erm, somewhat idiosyncratic, but then again, my Japanese ain't that brilliant either, so what am I complaining). I am using the amp with Audio Technica ATH W1000 Sovereign headphones (40 ohm). Should you be interested, there is a review by Srajan Ebaen on 6moons with a lot of technical information.
buconero117
2,311 posts
 
check out the Cayin unit, great tube sound, great value.
tim_j_thomas
43 posts
 
Check out www.head-fi.org
Post removed 
james63
534 posts
 
There is no real need to spend that much on a headphone amp to get good sound. I own both Grado RS-1 and Sennhiezer 650HD.

If you need just an amp (no remote) the Gilmore Lite from headamp.com will do the trick for $400. They also sell "better" amps too. If you want a tube amp the brand Single Power is worth checking out.

Also benchmark's DAC1 has a good headphone amp too. It could also upgrade your system's DAC depending in what you own and start at $1000.
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