Headphone amp + headphones

OK, so the new flat I've moved into has criminally bad soundproofing to the flat below (probably as it's a converted house rather than built specifically as flats), which means I can only play music at a remotely sensible volume when my neighbour is out :grrr: After nearly a month of this I'm suffering serious music withdrawl and so am going to have to look into the headphone route. This is an area I know bugger all about though, so I'll be grateful for anyone's thoughts to help me in the right direction. I reckon I could spend up to a maximum of £500 on amp plus headphones, but I'd like to pay a lot less. That said, I don't really know what I should have to pay for a 'reasonable' setup. I'd be happy looking at secondhand as well as new.

My current pre-amp doesn't have a headphone output at all, so I'll have to be looking for a headphone amp as well as headphones. In terms of new models easily available in the UK the choice seems very limited; I've come across these in my browsing so far:

Musical Fidelity X-can V3 (not sure about this - it has these strange vavle things in it ) (~£250)
Creek OBH-21 (~£150)
Creek OBH-21 SE (~£250)
Grado RA-1 (~£400)
GSP Solo MkIII (~£400)

I get the feeling I'm going to struggle to find places to demo many of these but I'll obviously be looking into it.

Headphone wise, for comfort I'd be looking for the sort which are large enough to sit pressing against the side of you head around the ear, rather than pressing on the ear itself. "Circumaural" is the term for this I think? At the 2002 Bristol show I did listen to the range of Sennheiser headphones, starting at the cheapest and working my way right through the range, and in every case found them overly bassy and lacking in detail, so probably these aren't for me. I have no idea what was driving them though. I think I'm basically looking for open back headphones, as I'm not worried obout sound leakage into my room, just the flat below. By the sounds of it open back ones might be better in terms of your ears not getting so hot, which sounds good to me.

I've been doing some nosing about the web, and am obviously looking at head-fi.org, but any thoughts from you guys would be most welcome.

Thanks,

Martin

 

Calling PBirkett, Calling Pbirkett

 

FWIW I'm using Grado RS-2's with X-Can v2 and it sounds fine to me although I probably only use it a couple of hours a week (I may tinker with the X-Can but only because it's fun, not because there's some glaring problem with the sound). The RS-2's were about £350 s/h and the X-Can was £110 new.

 

Hi Martin,

I am not sure what your tastes in music are, but it sounds like the Sennheiser sound is not to your liking, but suffice to say, £500 has the potential to buy a very good headphone setup.

For starters, I am tempted to recommend my very own combo of the Sony MDR-CD3000 with Perreaux SXH1 headphone amp, which will weigh in at around £500. Unfortunately, it will be impossible to audition, but if your ever in my area, you would be more than welcome to audition mine, but I suspect with me living in the North East, that you probably live hundreds of miles away and thats probably not an option.

However, this combo is as far removed from a Sennheiser as its possible to get, and I much prefer it, after discovering the hard way that the Sennheiser sound also does nothing for me either - too laid back, and boring.

The Sonys on the end of the Perreaux sound wonderful, even dare I say, magic, and good enough to make me settle down, quite a feat when you consider how many headphones and amps I've had The sound is detailed, very dynamic, quite forward, very lively, with good slamming bass, and very crisp, extended highs. I reckon if dance, pop and rock music is your thing, you'd struggle to beat this combo at ANY price.

However, if the thought of not being able to audition, or importing from abroard scares you, then I dare say for the money, you wont quite do as well as this, but there are still options out there for you.

If you are ruling the Sony's out, then please come back to me, and let me know what type of sound you like, and what music you like, and I'll try to come up with some other suggestions for ya?

 

given your tastes Martin I feel Stax 2020s would be appropriate. around £400 secures.


don't forget they come with an amp (its an 'energizer' really) which you can upgrade later on.

Fantastic sound- i had the Lambda basics and only sold them to due lack of use...sounded more listenable than my then £2500 speakers

 

Thanks for the thoughts guys; I had PC problems at the end of yesterday or I'd have replied sooner...

My musical tastes? A bit mixed I'm afraid which never makes things easy. I guess the biggest thing for me is music with a clear vocal, especially a female vocal, (Jewel, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey etc.). But I also listen to the likes of Faithless and Massive Attack, and even heavier stuff like Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach and Rage Against the Machine. I've also got quite a bit of guitar based "Britpop". That said, I'll also listen to classical stuff sometimes, although this perhaps only makes up 5% of my listening time so isn't a major concern here.

Sound wise I like a fairly clear sound, with some life/attack to it. I definitely like bass to be there, as it's very important for the overall 'groove' or foot tapping nature of the music, but I don't like BIG bass which swamps all the detail. Bass where you can tell the notes played rather than just a low boom.

I'm not sure if any of that helps or even makes much sense, but I've tried...


NOS-4-A2 (why not NOS-4-R2 ?) - I'm not sure what you think, but X-can V2's seem to be going for slightly silly second hand money these days. One went on eBay yesterday for £132 for instance! From the little reading I've done the consensus seems to be that the V3 is a significant step forward so I think for now I'd be prepared to pay for that. Hopefully the V3 is one of the few amps I might actually be able to get to hear. I'll see. Actually, dumb question on the Musical Fidelity amps; how long do the valves in them last before needing replacing (which I naively assume they do)?

PBirkett - Thanks very much for your offer of letting me hear your setup (which I'd love to do), but sadly as I live in Southampton you really are too far away. Oxford's about as far north as I go normally! For now I'd be reluctant to blow £500 on a blind purchase too; if I was to do that I'd rather go down the second hand route so I could sell things on at not too much of a loss. Or get something cheap online which I could similarly sell on - Superfi have some Beyerdynamic DT931s for ~£100 at the moment for instance...

Rory - Thanks for the suggestion. I noticed last night actually that the Stax 2020 system was ~£450 on Audiophilecandy and was wondering if that might be worth considering. What are Stax like comfort wise? You haven't heard the 2020 system I suppose?

I'm going to have to do some serious investigating to see where I might be able to hear some of these more expensive setups. If I were say prepared to make the trek into London is there anywhere in particular that would have a decent range for me to try, or is that too much to hope for? I won't be doing anything this Saturday as I'll be at the Heathrow show, but hopefully I'll be taking some time off over Easter when I can investigate...

Oh, I got out my Pioneer A400 amp last night and am using that to drive some particularly useless Panasonic headphones I got from Argos about ten years ago for maybe £20, so I'm looking forward to getting my hands on something a little better .

 

Well the valves in mine started hissing after just a month. Your mileage may vary, and I am sure that the problem was made much worse by the extremely high sensitivity and efficiency of the Sony's. If theres a problem with your rig, nothing will show you better than the Sony's. I couldnt hear it at all with my Beyers and Senn's though.

Thats a shame, because I really do feel that the combo I suggested would knock your socks off for your tastes, but I understand the reluctance.

 

Why, you forgotten to renew your passport?

Michael.

 

Over the last year my passport's been fine for getting to Seattle and Leiden, but Newcastle may be a different matter altogether .

 

Martin, i've been looing at a pair of DT880's from here to listen against my DT100's. i'm getting good results just using the a pm6010 with the DT100's, so good sound can be had pretty cheap

i'm going to be looking at head-amps soon too though

 

Given your music taste, I'd second the Stax suggestion. Excellent headphones/amps, hard to beat for all-round midrange goodness. They're pretty comfortable, although they warm the ears up a trifle over extended listening periods, but like all 'phones, a lot depends on the size and shape of your head...

Both Cornflake and Walrus stock them in London. Cornflake also stock Rega and Creek, both of whom make good, reasonably priced, headphone amps.

-- Ian

 

Ive been quite impressed with the Beyer 531's and Creek OBH21 (coutesy of P Birkett and SideshowB !! ).

I only mention it, cos you can pick the combo up new for 200, which has to be a bargain.

I prefered the Beyers to the 150 quid Seinheissers and Grados Ive heard... The grados being clearer but somehow ''shrill'' to my ears, and the Seinns being a bit wooly in the bass for me.......

Mileage varies of course, and Ive not heard Stax, which Id expect to sound better given the price differences.

Anyway, above kit is reccomended if you want to go for the ''quality on a budget'' route.

Chris

 

the Stax 2020s are rebadged Lambda Nova Basics (which I had).

Excellent sound quality- they are quite big cans but they are
a) light- about the weight of a largish set of Sennheisers or Beyers
b) very comfy...you can forget you're wearing them.

Excellent, detailed sound which really delivers with vocals and natural instruments. Tautest, tightest bass i've ever heard too.

Can't go wrong!
www.signals.uk.com had some on a good deal a while ago, may be beneficial to ask him if he has any more.

Thoroughly recommended

 

I'd recommend a trip to www.headfi.org and do some searches, and hopefully you can find out some more useful info

 

Cheers for all the thoughts guys. My figure of £500 was very much an upper limit, so I'm definitely interested in the cheaper suggestions too. I'm only going to spend Stax sort of money if I'm suitably impressed with it.

Oh, and Paul, rest assured I've been doing a fair bit of nosing around Head-fi .

 

NOS-4-A2 'cos that's the way it was on Buzz Lightyear (the joy of having a 4 year old is that you can watch the kids cartoons).
I don't understand why the V2's are so much, I'd go for the V3 now. As for the valves - mine are still OK at 6 months light use.

 

You should get several years use out of a set of valves in a headphone amp, and they're not expensive to replace.

WAD have a valve headphone amp kit that might be worth checking out.

-- Ian

 

Your best shot for listening to stuff in Southampton is Phase 3 hifi, if you've not already found them. They're hidden slightly out of the way on bedford place. It's only about 5 mins walk from where Sevenoaks are on the london road (since you're more likely to know where that is).

They carry Sennheiser and Musical Fidelity, so you can dem those at least.

 

Thanks very much for the tip Isaac, I hadn't found them. From web searching and Yell.com I'd only come across Sevenoaks and Audiot T (oh, and Richer Sounds). I e-mailed those two yesterday, and Sevenoaks have the Project Headbox and MF v3, along with mainly Sennheiser's, whilst AudioT have the Rega ear along with Grado and Senn 'phones. I'll be checking these out sometime soon.

I'll check out Phase 3 next time I'm in town.

 

Dont do it