2. analog
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Any good tube headphones and headphone amps for vinyl playback?

I have a pretty good analog setup: SME deck, Koetsu cart, Pass Labs phono preamp.  I'm not sure if this is a thing that many people do, but I'm interested in listening to vinyl exclusively through headphones.  If I connect a tube headphone amp to my phono stage to listen with headphones, will it be too noisy and not worth it?  Most headphone listeners use digital playback which makes sense.  Does anyone have any good experience with listening to good vinyl playback via headphones that is quiet?
tyan42
big_greg
6,711 posts
 
The only tubed headphone amp I've owned is the one in my preamp, so I won't make any recommendations there, other than to say I would give the Schiit Mjolnir 2 some consideration.  I owned the first one and it did a lot of things right.

If you like the Harbeth sound, you might like Hifiman, Audeze, or Sony MDR-Z1R headphones.  They are all close to neutral with nice detail, good mids, and maybe a little on the "warm" side.
big_greg
6,711 posts
 
Echo Audio in Portland has a pair of Sennheiser HD 800 headphones for sale for 700 bucks. They won't last long. There are more analytical than Harbeth speakers but are very nice headphones and very comfortable.
bydlo
142 posts
 
Blue Hawaii SE with Philips metal base EL34 + Stax 007 mkI
tyan42 OP
75 posts
 
Doing some research spending the money on the headphones themselves seems to be what most do.  Considering I already am using a phono stage which will be doing most of my amplifying, I can get by with a cheaper option headphone amp.  
tooblue
1,976 posts
 
With your budget at $2,000.00 you could get the Yamamoto HA-2 headphone amp direct from Yamamoto and a pair of Audeze LCD2F headphones and live happily ever after, if you buy the headphones on the used market you will have enough left over for a set of the Moon Audio Silver Dragon cables and still wind up under budget. Enjoy the music
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