Reccy’s please for a good headphone amp?

[Mand]

Pm sent

[Lawrence001]

I've been thinking about selling my Iota Audio Reference two box headphone amp. The two boxes combined are probably as heavy (and nearly as big) as a typical UK entry level integrated amp and it has the most natural sublime sound of any headphone amp I've used.

It's balanced inputs only. I tried phono to xlr converters but there was a quiet background hum and I decided not to risk it and use one of my balanced DACs instead.

Strangely it's single ended out though, although this balanced headphone thing seems to relate to a separate ground per channel, not genuine hot/cold so I'm not sure it's not all a scam to get people to buy new cables (arguably like biwiring).

Very rare and made to order, there's mention of its existence on their website, but they concentrate on phono stages where they are (slightly) better known.

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[Ali Tait]

Did a fair bit of research when I got my Dan Clark cans mate, was leaning towards SMSL or Burson, who get a lot of good reviews. In the end I went for driving them directly from my OTL amp. All you need are resistors in series and parallel, sounds great and far more drive than any headphone amp. Much cheaper too, just the cost of a small box, connectors and four resistors.

[dreamer69]

There’s a lovely NJC reference for sale on eBay. Lovely sound and beautifully made. Absolute bargain

[Gazjam]

Thanks Chaps,

I'll have a think.

[mikeyb]

THX 789 is one I've been looking at, £300 or so. No idea if that's any good for you but worth a look going by reviews.

[Maximum]

There’s a lovely NJC reference for sale on eBay. Lovely sound and beautifully made. Absolute bargain

The one that is on for £300?

Had the mk1 version for a few years now and recently pulled the trigger on the mk2 as I have been so happy with it. Have a Jds Atom to compare it to and the NJC seems to winning. Considering the mk1 cost about 260 and the atom 115, I think that is win for the NJC considering its case/components/sound/power is better.

NJC customer service is excellent to. I had a channel issue about 5 years after I bought it and they fixed it and returned for the cost of postage.

Kinda curious how their dacs compare to the more modern stuff..

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[Bourneendboy]

I have an NJC headphone amp and it really is very special, lovely handmade item.
As above, their customer service is second to none. Richard and Nick always reply to questions with detailed unbiased answers.

I'm also very interested in their DAC and although it's older technology, they say it uses very high quality components and sounds great for it.

I do wish they had some demo units to try at home.

[Gazjam]

Thanks all for the replies.

To close the thread off, I went back to my PS Audio preamp, which has a great headphone stage built in, so panic over.
After upgrading my AC again, the BHK amp is really strutting it’s stuff now now, thanks God it never sold!