Headphone Amp

[Batty]

Love the Avatar Rare Bird

[Rare Bird]

Thanks Steve.. Just some old tat that's took me months to restore..

[Maximum]

Been very happy with my NJC...

http://www.njc-audio.co.uk/html/monitor2.html

Should tick the looks department too, it's a bit like the CI.

[alan47]

My vote goes to the Neco Soundlabs Bosfet.won't beat the sound or quality..

[wee tee cee]

The epiphany head amp EHP 02 is very good.
The only downside is connectivity, it has a 3.5mm input and output .

It is portable and the battery and charging circuit are kept seperate.....so no mains nasties from the wall wart gets through.
Maplins do a good quality 3.5mm-phono connector.

It is very well made and sounds sublime, if the aesthetics offend, you could tuck it behind kit in your rack.

Epiphany as a company are great to deal with. I rate mine very highly.

[Rare Bird]

This Lehmann 'Black Cube' looks like the winner up to yet.

[Tim]

Those are extremely good André, I have HD650's and spent sometime evaluating head-amps about 2 years ago and got close to buying one, but just didn't have the spare cash at the time, so bought an M-Stage clone, which sound wise *seems* to match it to my ears. However, I would still like a Lehmann when funds permit as the M-Stage has a few failings. The build quality is poor compared to the Lehmann, also the volume pot on the M-Stage is very different to the Lehmann and I think you would absolutely hate it, its stiff and just feels wrong compared to the Black Cube. Cosmetically the M-Stage looks are inferior to the Lehmann as well, I really don't like the front panel graphics. The blue LED on the M-Stage is too bright, the Lehmann is very subtle and perfect for my tastes. You can buy under the counter brackets for the Lehmann too, so you can clamp it under a desk. The Matrix M-Stage is very good indeed, don't get me wrong and you get what you pay for, but the Lehmann is a premium product and worth its cost IMO, it just oozes quality and has been superbly engineered, topped by the fact is sounds darned good too

I was very impressed by both its sonic capabilities and build quality and it works exceptionally well with the higher end Sennheiser headphones - the volume pot is gorgeous on the Lehmann. The only other head-amp I would consider (but its valve not SS) is the Schiit Valhalla.

This is my M-Stage.



















Its very, very good, but its not a Lehmann Black Cube

[Rare Bird]

Thanks for that Tim. Yes that Lehmann is beautiful, looks superb inside too. I hear they do a unit with USB

[AlfaGTV]

I have built meself a Lehmann Black Cube Linear clone off of eBay.
It has cost me around £50 inl freight and a toroid trannie (60VA)
Built into an old casette deck, it sounds truly astonishing! It beats the socks off of a Little Dot MkIII!

Regards Mike
Edit:



The left side houses the two separate trafos, a 60VA toroid for the HP amp and a 30VA R-core for the DAC. The small PCB is the DAC, an AK4396 based jobbie with a very appealing sound. To the right is the Lehmann clone, an absolutely stunning piece of kit, at peanut cost.
Both the dac and hp amp uses OP-amps, NE5532 as std, but they have been exchanged for a much better option, the LME 49720HA (metal cased).

[Firebottle]

I have built meself a Lehmann Black Cube Linear clone off of eBay.

Have you got a link to that Mike?

Alan