Thank you! That’s a ton of info to check out. The one thing I didn’t like about the Bottlehead amps were that they’re OTL, so they wouldn’t play well with some low-impedance headphones I have.All in all, yours is a pretty tall order, I'd opine! To find everything you want in one attractive, storebought package is likely to be very expensive or of dubious quality and thus perhaps of dubious lifespan -- and still fairly expensive.
Is a kit a possibility? If you're in North America, perhaps Bottlehead. For better or worse, ASR has, I believe, tested at least one Bottlhead headphone amp.
Cosmetics are a bit bare-bones, though, without significant end-user intervention.Headphone Amplifier Kits Archives - Bottlehead
The highest quality audiophile tube amplifier kits for headphones since 1995. Our kits pair great with AKG, Beyer Dynamic, Sennheiser and more. Made in USA.bottlehead.com
Does Elekit or Kits4Hifi offer any headphone amps? I don't know...
Most cost-effective option is pure-play DIY (or a bespoke build by someone who knows what they're doing) to get what you want.
I hear you vis-a-vis "curvy tubes"*
Has anyone ever built a headphone amp using the 1626 tube? Many years back, Bob Danielak designed a low-powered loudspeaker amp (ca. 750 mW per channel), the "Darling", around the (at least then) cheap and plentiful - and curvy - 1626. Many others and Danielak himself have built variations on the Darling amp; e.g., my friend and hifi fellow traveler Joseph Esmilla:
View attachment 340525
Darling Amp, JE Labs Style
jelabs.blogspot.com
(photo from the link above)
A 1626-based headphone amp would seem to me to be a (potentially) promising application of an interesting but limited power tube.
Food for thinking, as an old boss of mine (for whom English was not his first language) was wont to say.
_________________
* curvy 2A3s in my venerable Bottlehead Paramour loudspeaker amps (3-ish watts per). These are my backup 2A3 amps -- but now I'm getting down into irrelevant weeds.
ahem. Pay no heed to the small discs on the loudspeaker cablingThose are the infamous Mad Scientist Audio Black Discus free trial version tweaks!
They really and truly were free (mailed in an envelope from New Zealand to me on their dime), so I was happy to try them.
http://www.madscientist-audioshop.com/blackdiscus.html (link provided solely to practice good scholarship, and for information and entertainment purposes only.
It’s cool software that I’d like to play with, but it looks like it’s PC only and I have a Mac, plus my headphone setup is all driven by an iPad hooked via USB to my RME ADI-2 DAC.And before going off and buying software, might try pkane's excellent plugin to add specific amounts of harmonic distortion. 2nd-8th harmonics, any HD profile you care for.
It's developed by an ASR member. You can see if you actually like 2nd order HD, or even vs. odd, etc.PKHarmonic VST Plugin - Audiophile Harmonics Generator | Distort documentation
PKHarmonic 1.0 is the initial release of this software. Use at your own risk!distortaudio.org
You can also download one of pkane's other amazing analysis tools and see if a particular tube gear that you have actually has distortion, or noise, and maybe clear up the confusion, misconceptions, and false-mythologies that are associated with tube gear. Many tube gear has measurable distortion, but still well below audibility, but people keep talking about how this adds significant magic to the reproduction. Many tube gear has elevated noise, which is not good and may be an issue depending on the efficiency and use. Funny how that isn't discussed much while hypothesizing about the supposed benefits of tubes.
Regarding the supposed benefits, please read page 80:
Not many things more magical than a Futterman OTL, but it sounds no different than a Pioneer.
Even if the Futterman gear had a discernable sonic signature, tubes are not very useful for dialing in a particular sound.
Thank you. I’d love to get to a canjam, I’ve never been to one.Sorry, I don't do commission builds any more, just don't have the time (and frankly, it just isn't worth the money). The pre-built version via ZMF going to be released this year. As I mentioned, we should have demo units available for audition at CanJam New York and some reviews / impressions by then. Just don't expect a ASR endorsement, it is a tube amplifier after all
So very worth it to try a ton of stuff and get a clear idea of what you enjoy. It really helps cut through all of the hype when you can hear things yourself.
