REQUIRED: Headphone Amp advice for Sennheiser HD 650's

[corpu5]

Hello fellow forum users, not posted here for YEARS, so much has changed! Anyways I’ll get right to it.

I currently run lovely set of Yamaha hs80ms through the wonderful Roland Quad Capture – everything’s gravy here; I love the combination except the neighbours don’t quite share the same enthusiasm. It’s fine during the day but at night they get a bit tetchy because they’ve got kids, which is fair enough. That’s why I bought the Sennheiser HD650’s to use at night and use my monitors as a reference during the day.

Now as you may know, the Sennheiser HD650’s are incredible at reproducing detailed sounds, but they are high impedance phones (300 ohms) and so they require a dedicated amp to get the best out of them. Now my Quad Capture doesn’t quite cut the mustard when it comes to powering my cans as they are:

a) USB bus powered
b) lack the impedance output through the phones jack and therefore cannot power a high impedance headphone

Now I have looked at various forums online for the past week and I cannot find a clear producer’s prospective on what amp I should purchase as most opinions are that of Audiophiles who like vintage tubes and what have you, which is the complete opposite of what I am looking for. I use my HD650’s for analytical reasons, not musical reasons – if you catch my drift.

I do not want to purchase an amp that will colour the sound of the HD 650’s with tubes – I am not looking for ‘warm’ mids and highs. What I am looking for is an amp that will purely drive the cans to the power needed whilst helping the cans maintain a flat response throughout the spectrum. Any enhancements on HD 650’s ability to pick out detail would be a huge plus!

My budget would be under £250, but I think for the sake of future reference, a list of cheap/middle of the road/high end amps should suffice as there will undoubtedly be a number of people searching for information on headphone amps, and different people will have different budgets, so perhaps they can look upon this thread as a reference to a range of headphone amps at different price brackets.

Thank you very much for your time!

[Hashkey]

I power mines with my duet 2. Dunno if it drives em good. Always had the same question as yours!

[outbound]

Why not look at getting a decent D/A with headphone socket? I just ordered some HD600's (should be arriving this morning!) and plan to use them with my benchmark DAC1 (which isn't actually too much more than your budget 2nd hand considering you'll be upping your D/A conversion too!)

[fragments]

Why not look at getting a decent D/A with headphone socket? I just ordered some HD600's (should be arriving this morning!) and plan to use them with my benchmark DAC1 (which isn't actually too much more than your budget 2nd hand considering you'll be upping your D/A conversion too!)

outbound, I am always looking to improve my signal chain. If you are running a pretty decent audio interface (MOTU 828MKII in my case) what are the benefits of an additonal D/A and what are the basics on how your interface and the D/A work together? I am just getting used to a new pair of AKG 702s, which are not high impedence, only 62Ohms. It doesnt feel like I need an amp for them as I cant turn my interface up more than half way before I get into a painful realm of volume.

I feel like a lot of this is just rambling and stupid questions...I guess that the D/A would give me a more accurate response from my monitors and cans?

Im also not working in a treated room and am not sure that is a realistic posability as my studio is also our guestroom and my girl isnt real keen on having weird foam pasted to the walls...but I am working on it...so in that regard I am wondering if money spent on a D/A is even worth it. I also feel like if I am going to spend between 700-1k dollars I feel like Id rather just upgrade my audio interface?

[corpu5]

Why not look at getting a decent D/A with headphone socket? I just ordered some HD600's (should be arriving this morning!) and plan to use them with my benchmark DAC1 (which isn't actually too much more than your budget 2nd hand considering you'll be upping your D/A conversion too!)

Thats interesting, can i just use the DAC1 plugged into the PC or do i plug it in through the Roland Quad Capture? I was thinking about maybe selling the quad to help pay for the DAC1, ive looked at second hand prices and they're like £500-600 Have they shot up in price recently?

[SunkLo]

Schiit.

The Modi and Magni are exactly what you need. Analytical 96khz DAC and headphone amp for $200 for the pair. I've read reviews saying the HD650 pairs excellently with them. The DAC, if anything, is a hair on the forward side so it's a perfect complement to the slightly laid back signature of the 650. Practically speaking, it sounds flat to me, on HD595s and ATM50s. No tubes, no bullshit, just neutral.

The Magni is louder than fuck. Picture how loud fuck is. Louder than that. It's also stone silent. You can turn the volume knob all the way up and hear pure silence (hope to god you don't get a message from someone that blows your ears off) The 595 are low impedance at 50 ohms, so my volume knob stays at about 8 o'clock. 11 o'clock is unbearably loud. Above halfway turns my headphones into speakers. That gives you an idea of the range of loudness it's capable of.

They're both very compact as well. As wide as my hand and about an inch less in length.

You could actually forgo the Modi and use the DAC in your Quad Capture, with 1/4" to RCA cables. Not sure about the convertors in the Quad Capture.

One of the guys from Schiit has an ongoing thread on the story of their startup on Head-Fi. Pretty cool to read how they got to where they are.

[corpu5]

Schiit.

The Modi and Magni are exactly what you need. Analytical 96khz DAC and headphone amp for $200 for the pair. I've read reviews saying the HD650 pairs excellently with them. The DAC, if anything, is a hair on the forward side so it's a perfect complement to the slightly laid back signature of the 650. Practically speaking, it sounds flat to me, on HD595s and ATM50s. No tubes, no bullshit, just neutral.

The Magni is louder than fuck. Picture how loud fuck is. Louder than that. It's also stone silent. You can turn the volume knob all the way up and hear pure silence (hope to god you don't get a message from someone that blows your ears off) The 595 are low impedance at 50 ohms, so my volume knob stays at about 8 o'clock. 11 o'clock is unbearably loud. Above halfway turns my headphones into speakers. That gives you an idea of the range of loudness it's capable of.

They're both very compact as well. As wide as my hand and about an inch less in length.

You could actually forgo the Modi and use the DAC in your Quad Capture, with 1/4" to RCA cables. Not sure about the convertors in the Quad Capture.

One of the guys from Schiit has an ongoing thread on the story of their startup on Head-Fi. Pretty cool to read how they got to where they are.

Oh, that actually sounds quite good, I think in the case of the modi/magni I would get both and maybe sell my quad capture. I’m assuming the modi/magni can power my monitors too, is that correct?

Im not really looking for a lot of ins and outs, just something I can plug my headphones into, my monitors and maybe a guitar lead. So really I don’t think I need to shell out a lot on a lot of ins and outs.

One final question – does the modi/magni turn up as a separate driver on my computer and Ableton?

[SunkLo]

It could run to your monitors but you'd need RCA to XLR cables or whatever input your monitors take. You'd have to unplug the Magni and run the cables to your monitors instead. It only has a single set of RCA outs, no ins. It's meant as a headphone monitoring set up not a full featured recording interface.

Regarding drivers, there isn't even a driver you need to install with the Modi. It just shows up right away and works. I use Asio4All in Ableton and it pops up in the list and works fine.

[outbound]

Why not look at getting a decent D/A with headphone socket? I just ordered some HD600's (should be arriving this morning!) and plan to use them with my benchmark DAC1 (which isn't actually too much more than your budget 2nd hand considering you'll be upping your D/A conversion too!)

outbound, I am always looking to improve my signal chain. If you are running a pretty decent audio interface (MOTU 828MKII in my case) what are the benefits of an additonal D/A and what are the basics on how your interface and the D/A work together? I am just getting used to a new pair of AKG 702s, which are not high impedence, only 62Ohms. It doesnt feel like I need an amp for them as I cant turn my interface up more than half way before I get into a painful realm of volume.

I feel like a lot of this is just rambling and stupid questions...I guess that the D/A would give me a more accurate response from my monitors and cans?

Im also not working in a treated room and am not sure that is a realistic posability as my studio is also our guestroom and my girl isnt real keen on having weird foam pasted to the walls...but I am working on it...so in that regard I am wondering if money spent on a D/A is even worth it. I also feel like if I am going to spend between 700-1k dollars I feel like Id rather just upgrade my audio interface?

The main benefits beside your frequency response that you'll be looking for with cans is noise floor. With a higher impedance pair of headphones when you crank 'em if you have a poor D/A then you're gonna be bringing up a whole load noise from it which is just gonna get in the way of your sound. Good D/A minimises this.

[corpu5]

I thought i'd give an update on the amp/dac front. I ended up getting the magni & modi stack from electromod.co.uk (really fast delivery, ordered monday morning and received the items the day afterwards!)

Having sold my Quad Capture i had to rely on plugging the HD 650's to my laptop (whilst my yamaha's have been put on hold till i upgrade to a separate DAC), and while they still sounded great, it was quite apparent that the mid's were a tad bit muddy and the lower mids/bass seemed quite prevalent. I spent 2 weeks listening to my cans through my laptop speakers so i'd say i was pretty accustomed to the quality of sound that came out. .

I had to wait till the end of the month to buy the m&m stack, but thankfully once ordered the stack came through the next day and i have to say once i plugged the beauties in and ran the hd 650's through them, the one thing that really hit me was the clarity that came through! The lower mids/bass have really tightened up now and they sound punchier than before, without really loosing a lot of the low end. The highs really shine as well without being too fatiguing which is great.

All in all i must say im a very happy chappy - this combo seems to be great bang for the buck and from what i've heard and been told, they can hold their own against amp/dac combo's much higher up in price.

I'm now looking forward to spending time getting my ears trained to the combo and highly recommend this to anyone looking for a budget set-up

[SunkLo]

Glad you're digging it, the Schiit guys are pretty dope. When I ordered mine, I asked for one of the magic ones with the unicorns inside. When I opened my package, there was a bunch of cutout unicorn prints stuffed inside the box.

I like their no bullshit style. Making quality gear for as cheap as possible, without any middlemen or overzealous marketing copy. Let the product speak for itself.

[sunny_b_uk]

The only thing i disliked about HD 650's was how often i had to replace the wire..
The official detachable wire is shit IMO id suggest using another wire thats actually built to last