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TUBE HEADPHONE AMP
- Thread starter FAST
- Start date
It depends on how much you want to spend and possibly the impedance of your favorite headphones. Some transformer coupled tube amps have an output impedance of 30 Ohms or higher and work best with 300 Ohm phones like the Sennheiser HD 650 or HD 800 S. Lower cost options would be a Schiit Vali 2 or Valhalla. Then there are very highly regarded TOTL tube amps like the Eddie Current Studio Jr. at over $3000 and the Donald North Audio Starlett at $2000.
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
For what headphones?
If 300 ohms or higher cans, there are several tube headphone amp options that are competitive with solid state in ability to have a good impedance match.
For 32 ohm headphones, the selection of valid choices get much much smaller.
So to answer, we need to know which cans you want to use.
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
Never even heard of Ollo Audio. What's the impedance?
Sennheiser 6XX 300 ohm version has a high enough impedance to do well with tubes.
MRC01
Major Contributor
If you have high impedance cans like the HD580 or HD600 (over 300 ohms), a tube amp can work. The best tube headphone amp I ever listened to was Pete Millet's Wheatfield HA-2. It is SET design, and OTL so it can only drive high impedance cans. Not made anymore, and pretty rare. But it's a well designed nice sounding tube amp, may be worth looking around to find one used. Or build your own. It's a simple amp, and Pete might send you the design paperwork. He's that kind of guy.
However, the best pragmatic advice is to stick with solid state! Then you can have a single amp that can drive any headphone, with lower maintenance, and more transparent sound quality for the dollars spent.
However, the best pragmatic advice is to stick with solid state! Then you can have a single amp that can drive any headphone, with lower maintenance, and more transparent sound quality for the dollars spent.
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
So now you have a problem.
There aren't very many purely tube amps that have low enough output impedance to be equally good at driving a 32 ohm load (Ollo) and a 300 ohm load (Senn).
What's your budget?
Hybrid tube amps are a different story, and can play well at both ends of the impedance spectrum.
I built the Pete Millett Butte headphone amp for a friend, upgraded it a bit (larger aluminum case, Alps blue volume pot, internal power supply). I also added a Glassware tilt control to a second switchable input and set that up for a +/- 2dB swing.
He listens with planar headphones and it sounds great. He uses the tilt control 99% of the time for a downward tilt towards the treble.
I set it up with a 5 ohm output impedance to add a little uncertainty or "tubeyness" to the frequency response (on purpose).
He listens with planar headphones and it sounds great. He uses the tilt control 99% of the time for a downward tilt towards the treble.
I set it up with a 5 ohm output impedance to add a little uncertainty or "tubeyness" to the frequency response (on purpose).
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watchnerd
Grand Contributor
Didn't our own Solderdude design a solid state headphone amplifier which replicated the sort of sonic signature of a tube amp? It was on this site not so long ago but I have forgotten the name of the product, sorry. That offered the sound tube buyers seek with the painless ownership of solid state and it wasn't expensive. Might be just the ticket for you.
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Garage1217 Polaris
It's solid state, yes. A higher output impedance causes freq response to be slightly modified by the load just like in a tube design. But there's less distortion.
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The Monoprice Liquid Platinum is excellent BALANCED. It is just an okay performer on the 3.5mm output.
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
Okay, that makes sense.
solderdude
Grand Contributor
Planar headphones are insensitive to output resistance, the FR doesn't change not even 0.01dB because the impedance of planars are completely flat.
I played with the SRPP+ (Glassware) kit and have enough measured results. It works, it is not bad, but you will get better parameters with solid state, of course. In case you want to have some fun, go for tubes, at least for once in your life 
.
https://glass-ware.stores.yahoo.net/srppnoval.html
.https://glass-ware.stores.yahoo.net/srppnoval.html
You're right, but he has other low z phones that it does impact.
For info, this is the frequency response and distortion of the tube headphone amplifier shown above, into usual 32 ohm headphones.
Frequency response with 32 ohm headphones
Distortion vs. frequency with 32 ohm headphones
Such results may be expected even with other tube headphone amplifiers.
Frequency response with 32 ohm headphones
Distortion vs. frequency with 32 ohm headphones
Such results may be expected even with other tube headphone amplifiers.
