Advices for headphones amp for EU ?

[Tryagain]

Hi there,
I'm looking for a 200 to 300€ amplifier for headphones.
I've been looking for DACs aswell and the Topping D50s looks to be a good choice, I might take it !
What would you consider to be a good amp to go with it ?

I've also been looking for dac + amp combo for +- 400-500€ available in Europe but can't seem to find one that has good measurements.
Any advices ?

Headphone will be He4xx to begin with, but I may want to change it later

Thanks

 

[VintageFlanker]

SP200 will be EU imported by Audiophonics, and will cost 299€ inc VAT.

I cannot imagine a better option for the price.

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/sede...r-thx-aaa-888-2x-3w-32-ohm-black-p-14170.html

 

[Tryagain]

Hello and thank you for your answer =)
Would you consider it worth compared to the JDS Labs Atom which is cheaper ?

 

[Tryagain]

Hi everyone,
After 1 more day spent in research, it seems that budget choices are also very good.

dac topping D30 + amplifier Liquid spark (~250€)

Or

Dac Topping D50s + amplifier smsl sp200 (~560€)

Would you say it is worth spending the extra 310€ to power the he4xx ?

 

[VintageFlanker]

Would you say it is worth spending the extra 310€ to power the he4xx ?

Not sure. The only reason to get the SP200 is to go futureproof (meaning endgame-never-upgrade headamp).

The Atom is available to order from UK. It is a much better choice than the Liquid Spark (much cleaner and more powerful under 300ohms).

D50S and Atom (≈390€) is a good way to be happy long term.

 

[Berwhale]

+1 for Topping D50s + JDS Atom (see profile pic.) Works great with my HE-4XX and anything else I plug into it.

 

[Tryagain]

Thanks again for your answers

I was looking at the Atom as you can see from my previous message, but then I found this video :

In which the reviewer has 2 units with the same balance issues.

Not only that, but if you look at 8:35 you can see that JDS labs added artificial weight. From my personnal experience, this is done most of the time by manufacturers that want people to think that "wow, this is heavy serious stuff in here", whereas in fact the box is kind of empty. This, to me, is not 100% ethics by JDS Labs

In addition to this, the build quality is poor in comparison to the liquid spark + subjective reviews tends to say that they both sound the same.
In the case of the smsl sp200 for example you can see that manufacturers send questionnable samples to amirm , as there is a clear difference in the measurements of another smsl sp200 sent by a member of the forum : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...t-golden-samples-for-review.9673/#post-258843
Could JDS Labs send golden sample for amirm review ? Those performances are almost too good to believe xD

I would like to hear what you guys think about that, because I might be horribly wrong to think this way
Coming from car audio, I have seen sooo many fake specs on amplifiers by manufacturers so I'm cautious

 

[Cahudson42]

I personally am very happy with a D10 and downstream Liquid Spark driving HE400i. Plenty of power, even with the LS on low gain.

If you study the ASR report on LS, you see it takes a performance hit (-97db perf.) due to an unusual 30Hz hum (possibly in your case it might be 25Hz). But to the right of the 1kHz test tone, the spectrum is relatively clean with the exception of a 2nd harmonic spike about -112. IMO , in practice, this means the LS actually performs similarly to higher measured units. Subjectively, to me it sounds great and at this point I've stopped ruminating about replacing it with a 'higher performance' Atom whatever, as my belief is the D10 now is likely the limiting performance factor (excluding the headphones/transducer of course) with this setup..

 

[Berwhale]

Thanks again for your answers

I was looking at the Atom as you can see from my previous message, but then I found this video :

In which the reviewer has 2 units with the same balance issues.

Not only that, but if you look at 8:35 you can see that JDS labs added artificial weight. From my personnal experience, this is done most of the time by manufacturers that want people to think that "wow, this is heavy serious stuff in here", whereas in fact the box is kind of empty. This, to me, is not 100% ethics by JDS Labs

In addition to this, the build quality is poor in comparison to the liquid spark + subjective reviews tends to say that they both sound the same.
In the case of the smsl sp200 for example you can see that manufacturers send questionnable samples to amirm , as there is a clear difference in the measurements of another smsl sp200 sent by a member of the forum : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...t-golden-samples-for-review.9673/#post-258843
Could JDS Labs send golden sample for amirm review ? Those performances are almost too good to believe xD

I would like to hear what you guys think about that, because I might be horribly wrong to think this way
Coming from car audio, I have seen sooo many fake specs on amplifiers by manufacturers so I'm cautious

Read this: https://blog.jdslabs.com/2019/10/how-atom-amp-has-improved-in-2019/

The balance issues reported by some users are being addressed with volume pot. supplier (Alps). Personally, i've encountered no balance issues when using the headphones in my signatures (dial usually between 11 and 1 o'clock).

The case is plastic for the reasons detailed in the blog article linked to above. Sure, it's not a nice as a metal case, but I think JDS made a reasonable trade-off between aesthetics, quality and ability to produce the units in volume to get to a rather astonishing price point.

The weights are there to stop the unit moving around (i.e. by the headphone cable) - again, this seems like an entirely reasonable solution to me.

With respect to the SMSL SP200 - Amirm's conclusion was that the manufacture supplied unit was *not* a golden sample...

"I see little evidence of SMSL having picked a special unit to send me. Performance is as superb as the review unit. Volume control has some issues but as mentioned, I think there are other explanations for this then a golden sample."

 

[frogmeat69]

For the price, and performance, you can't really beat the Atom. If you decide on the D50s for your DAC, it has enough weight to hold the Atom in place. But even the Topping D10 is a great DAC to pair with the Atom, and cheaper.

 

[Berwhale]

For the price, and performance, you can't really beat the Atom. If you decide on the D50s for your DAC, it has enough weight to hold the Atom in place. But even the Topping D10 is a great DAC to pair with the Atom, and cheaper.

Yes, the weight of the D50s definitely helps. I've also added some 20 x 20 x 8mm rubber feet to both my Atom and D50s, this adds some more weight, separates the units a little and raises the Atom volume knob off my desk so it's easier to turn. It still sounds the same though...

 

[Tryagain]

OK I can understand that the weights are here to prevent any movement, unlike in caraudio amplifier where it doesn't matter because the amplifier is usually screwed in place.

Since no one is talking about the difference in sound between d30 and d50s, I'm assuming they are about equal ; the main difference being the bluetooth, screen, remote, filters etc..

I will go for the topping d30 for the price & liquid spark for the overall build quality & balance issues with volume above 1pm

I hope no one will get offended, sometime the heart has its reasons that reason ignores

I hope I will enjoy this setup as much as my previous teac ud-h01 on akg k701

thanks again & have a nice day =)

 

[AudioSceptic]

Hi there,
I'm looking for a 200 to 300€ amplifier for headphones.
I've been looking for DACs aswell and the Topping D50s looks to be a good choice, I might take it !
What would you consider to be a good amp to go with it ?

I've also been looking for dac + amp combo for +- 400-500€ available in Europe but can't seem to find one that has good measurements.
Any advices ?

Headphone will be He4xx to begin with, but I may want to change it later

Thanks

If the headphone out volume is enough (it wasn't for Amir but I suspect he's a headbanger), the Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital is good. You also get RCA outs.