Tube-y Tube Amps

[TuteTibiImperes]

I’m considering picking up a tube headphone amp.

I already have a Schiit Midgard for a neutral and honest amp, but I’d like to play around with something that has those tube distortions and harmonics to contrast, and preferably find one that’s as tube-y sounding as posssible.

Ideally I’d also not like to break the bank, but I’m flexible on price. Having the convenience of both 1/4” and 4-pin XLR jacks would be great also.

Aesthetically speaking I’m a bit picky, which is the problem I’m running into with a lot of amps I look at.

I dislike the plain-looking tubes like 12AX7 or EL34 but really enjoy the look of tubes with some curves like the 2A3, 300B, KT88/90/100/120/etc, some 6L6, etc.

Any ideas of amps to check out?

 

[mhardy6647]

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.

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

Cosmetics are a bit bare-bones, though, without significant end-user intervention.

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:

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 cabling Those 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.

 

[fpitas]

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.

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

Cosmetics are a bit bare-bones, though, without significant end-user intervention.

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:

Darling Amp, JE Labs Style

jelabs.blogspot.com

View attachment 340525
(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 cabling Those 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.

When they are attached to strategic points, BlackDiscus improves the clarity of the sound, enhances the stereo image, makes sibiliants purer, and lowers the noise floor.

Impressive!

 

[DVDdoug]

The thing about "tube sound" is that if an amp has a particular sound, it will sound different from another tube amp. So you really have to personally choose one you like. And I think a lot of if comes from the output transformer (on power amps) and I don't know how many headphone amps have transformers.

There are tube simulation plug-ins but they are designed to be used with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) application so they aren't very convenient for everyday playback, and most are designed to simulate guitar amps. But I think there are some that emulate particular tube preamps. And it's an inexpensive (perhaps free) way to experiment.

Amplitube (maybe only guitar amps) seems to be very popular and there are plug-in hosts that might work in place of a DAW.

 

[Deleted member 21219]

I don't know how many headphone amps have transformers.

I'm sure that I don't, either, but here seems to be one:

Headphone Amplifier – Quicksilver Audio

quicksilveraudio.com

The problem is that the tubes aren't the type that the OP has said he prefers. I have no idea how flexible the OP is.

Jim

 

[Count Arthur]

The thing about "tube sound" is that if an amp has a particular sound, it will sound different from another tube amp. So you really have to personally choose one you like. And I think a lot of if comes from the output transformer (on power amps) and I don't know how many headphone amps have transformers.

There are tube simulation plug-ins but they are designed to be used with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) application so they aren't very convenient for everyday playback, and most are designed to simulate guitar amps. But I think there are some that emulate particular tube preamps. And it's an inexpensive (perhaps free) way to experiment.

Amplitube (maybe only guitar amps) seems to be very popular and there are plug-in hosts that might work in place of a DAW.

You can use VST plug-ins in JRiver media centre: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,126706.0.html

Tube Sound emulation on PC (Foobar and VST stuff)

Hi everyone... i thought i'd share what i did for past few weeks on the head-fi since it might be useful for someone like me in the future. I have always wondered how Tubes might sound like, I live in a wasteland for these kind of things so getting them down is impossible. but two months back i...

www.head-fi.org

I haven't tried the tube plug-ins, but I did install a nice VU meter simulator at one point:

 

[mhardy6647]

When they are attached to strategic points, BlackDiscus improves the clarity of the sound, enhances the stereo image, makes sibiliants purer, and lowers the noise floor.

Impressive!

And free.
Of course, termites will also lower the floor and also for free.

 

[Count Arthur]

ahem. Pay no heed to the small discs on the loudspeaker cabling Those are the infamous Mad Scientist Audio Black Discus free trial version tweaks!

Did they work?

Also, if you're trying to lower the noise floor, aren't you hamstringing yourself by starting with a tube amp?

 

[mhardy6647]

Did they work?

Also, if you're trying to lower the noise floor, aren't you hamstringing yourself by starting with a tube amp?

They were worth every penny that they cost!

 

[Platypus20]

Black Discus

if you use more than one per cable is there any chance of altering the space-time continuum ??

 

[wunderkind]

Just my 2 cents. With the plethora of EQ presets, you might be better off finding a tube-y EQ preset for your headphone. And it doesn't cost ya anything.

I wonder how many headphone folks buy a tube amp hoping to colorize your sound and EQ it back to the Harman curve.

 

[MAB]

Perhaps software is a better option.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/search?s=tube+emulation&Category=Software+%26+Plug-ins#search-header

Since tubes don't really have much of the tube sound, and when they do it often is not particularly pleasing as folks claim.

 

[MAB]

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.

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

It's developed by an ASR member. You can see if you actually like 2nd order HD, or even vs. odd, etc.
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:

https://americanradiohistory.com/Archive-HiFI-Stereo/80s/HiFi-Stereo-Review-1987-01.pdf

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.

 

[majingotan]

Build your own 6SL7 front end with KT88 Triode Strapped zero feedback single ended amp with @L0rdGwyn design here: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/aegis-diy-tube-headphone-amplifier.399473/#post-7354944

 

[mhardy6647]

KT88 is kinda curvy -- in a masculine sort of way.

PS In all seriousness, the triode sections of a 6SL7 make for a fine "front end" in an amplifier.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I'm sure that I don't, either, but here seems to be one:

Headphone Amplifier – Quicksilver Audio

quicksilveraudio.com

The problem is that the tubes aren't the type that the OP has said he prefers. I have no idea how flexible the OP is.

Jim

This little Quicksilver is probably a good thing to use as a preamp to inject a little tube sound into a solid state power amp. Or headphones too.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I had a weird little Chinese amp about 20 years ago. It was an SET triode headphone/speaker amp, pre-amp. Had outputs for each use. 3 watts for speakers, I think 1 watt for headphones or RCA's for preamp use. It did have a tube sound. Turned up a bit much it became glassy. Otherwise a smooth, calm kind of sound. Also great for feeding into SS amps for that SET sound. I forget the name, and doubt it is still available. I think it used 6BQ5's strapped into triode with a transformer output. I paid something like $150 at the time and sold it for $200 a couple years later. Maybe someone still make something like it. I think it was let down by a fairly poor transformer.

With headphones an SET using a parafeed design is probably a good way to go as you can get low hum levels.

Parafeed-Amplifier Design

 

[Blumlein 88]

Here is a parafeed design you can just buy for $789. I've not used one.

Tuba - Vacuum Tube Headphone Amplifier

The TUBA is a world-class vacuum tube headphone amplifier designed to operate with either low impedance (Grado) or high impedance (Sennheiser) headphones. The power stage is a single-ended, zero-feedback, parafeed EL84 triode into an impedance matching transformer, offering very low distortion...

hagerman-audio-labs.myshopify.com

A write up about it.

Hagerman Audio Labs "Tuba" Parafeed Headphone Amp - Review

I was recently contacted by Jim Hagerman from Hagerman Audio Labs in Honolulu, Hawaii and Jim asked me if I would like to try his new TUBA headphone amplifier. How could I refuse! Well being an old tube guy remembering my electricity (yes electricity) class and labs where we had to draw load...

forum.headphones.com

Review: Hagerman Audio Labs Tuba Headphone Amplifier

Let's take in-depth look at the Tuba - a vacuum tube headphones amplifier produced by Jim Hagerman.

www.headphonesty.com

Part way down this page another write up.

Gramophone Dreams #35: ZMF & Hagerman headphones & headphone amplifiers Page 2

The ZMF Vérité Closed were dancing in the same ballroom as the top models of Focal's headphone lineup. The Vérités' basic sound reminded me a lot of my beloved Focal Clearand even more of the Focal Stellia headphones I've auditioned at CanJams. But to my taste, the ZMF Vérité Closed headphones...

www.stereophile.com

No curvy tubes though.

 

[Blumlein 88]

This DIY from a member here has curvy tubes. Quite nice build.

More Tubes - Interstage Transformer-Coupled Type 45 Headphone Amp

I have another DIY project to show off! Going to keep this post short and sweet, and light on measurements, not likely they'll impress anyone lol. This is a type 45 headphone amplifier built for a friend, Zach Mehrbach of ZMF headphones. Here are the design highlights: -LED biased 5687 /...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[L0rdGwyn]

@majingotan tagged my DIY project, if you are up for doing it yourself, it's beginner friendly as far as DIY goes. You can see lots of photos on the Head-Fi thread, maybe some 30 or so of these amps have been built. People are very happy with the sound. I wouldn't call it super "tube-y" though, as far as non-hybrid tube amplifiers go, distortion is relatively low. But it sounds good.

Head-Fi thread - https://www.head-fi.org/threads/aegis-diy-tube-headphone-amplifier.965530/

You can put ST shaped tubes in it, like EL37, or KT88. Or EL34...it can take almost any power pentode.

Or if you don't want to build it, this circuit is going to be a commercial product Q1-Q2 this year, it's being released as a collaborative project under ZMF Headphones branding. So it will have wood front panel, vintage aesthetic, etc. relative to the DIY version which is very minimalist. We should have a demo unit at CanJam NYC in March.