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Newbie question - dedicated headphone amp or is my McIntosh MA352 sufficient

Hi forum members,

I recently purchased the Hifiman HE1000 V2 headphones.  I currently own the McIntosh Ma352.  Is the headphone amp on this unit sufficient bring out the characteristic sound of this headphone or am I better served buying a dedicated headphone amp?  I appreciate your input.

soundbyjordan
overthemoon
438 posts
 

My advice is tread lightly....

I picked up some headphones and enjoyed listening through my preamp.

Then decided to try a headphone amp - the Chord Mojo2...it was a drastic improvement. Oh, yes you guessed it then I listened to a 'high end' non-portable headphone amp.  And now I have two headphone amps - 1 for travel and 1 for the bedroom.  I'm happy listening to them.  But if I know the type of rabbit hole I was going down I might have joined another wine club!

soix
9,745 posts
 

@overthemoon Ah yes, it never ends.  But at least when the results are tangible you can feel like it’s worth going down that rabbit hole, no?  I started with a Dragonfly Red and was very happy, then upgraded to a Singzer SA-1 amp and Musician Pegasus DAC.  Then I added a Denafrips DDC so I could feed my DAC with i2S, and then I upgraded to an LTA MZ2 headphone amp.  That’s not even including my headphone upgrades.  How’s that for a wabbit hole?  

overthemoon
438 posts
 

@soix hopefully Elmer Fudd is preoccupied

soix
9,745 posts
 

@overthemoon Wine clubs and audio definitely a good pairing. 

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