I use a Darkvoice 332 to power my HD 650s, it´s a fantastic combination!
Headphone amps?
- Thread starter mhdagley
- Start date
Most of these devices are just an audio op amp or three, two bucks worth of passive components, and $15 worth of connectors. I'd bet you could whip one up around a 30-cent TL074 quad op amp that would perform the same or better as most of the high-end commercial stuff. The most expensive component would be the power supply-- which goes away if you use batteries.
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VR6ofpain
The Gilmore guts:
Simple.
Simple.
Way over the top. Why make your own op amps out of transistors when there are extremely high quality op amps out there, with circuits that don't require a ton of 1% tolerance resistors and and two trimpots per channel?
I've seen plenty of stuff like this-- thirty year old complicated designs where a 15 year old design would serve better. My favorite is a head stage for a biopotential amplifier that actually still has a trimpot adjust for common mode rejection ratio tuning, where a $6 instrumentation amplifier chip would eliminate the need for a $4 trimpot, and gives you a 120dB CMRR, which is better than any manual adjustment can ever give you.
A headphone amp is great addition to any system. If you have a good quality set of cans, you really owe it to yourself to drive them properly. The headphone circuits in all modern amps are little more than a tacked-on after-thought.
The amp best suited to your needs will depend on what headphones you are planning on using with it. I don't really have any suggestions other than the golden rule of buying electronics: do your research!
Have fun!
The amp best suited to your needs will depend on what headphones you are planning on using with it. I don't really have any suggestions other than the golden rule of buying electronics: do your research!
Have fun!
I'll second the Gilmore. I have an earlier version (v2?) and love it for my Sennheiser HD580's.
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VR6ofpain
Because it sounds good. All I can tell you is this amp sounds much better with my AKG K601's than some of the op amp headphone amps I had used previously to it. I used to have a Cmoy amp, which people recommended earlier in this thread. It sounded terrible compared to the Gilmore.
An op amp is just a clump of transistors, pretty much. The output impedance of whatever circuit used is probably the biggest factor that will vary the audible qualities between different units, and probably the most important to get right, and correctly matched to your headphones. Op amps and transistors can both be used, but it's likely to come down to fifty cents worth of passive elements on the output side.
Try Acoustic Sounds for a good selection. I've long been a fan of tube amplification, and use a Musical Fidelity headphone amp, preamp, and power amp. There are lots of great options out there, and most of them pretty inexpensive.
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VR6ofpain
You can go on and on about the technical aspects if you enjoy it. The reality was I compared this amp to two other op amp based headphone amps I had, a Cmoy and a Pimeta, and the Gilmore blew them both away. More dynamic, more detail, more enjoyment.
