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What amp should i get for my first time

AMKAM

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I am planning to buy a new headphone amp. What I am coming from is the ifi zen dac + can.
As you can see, I have never experienced a class-A or tube-amp. I have seen multiple reviews of both amps and I get a small idea of what they are.
So the question is, what should be my next journey ?

I have AKG K712 pros, DT 770 80 ohms, Fostex T50rp with Alpha Pads, Harmonicdyne Zeus, and Koss kph30i with Grado GS1000 pads.


I am eye-balling for
Schiit-Asgard 3 without DAC, Schiit-Valhalla 2, Little Dot-MKIII GE, and xDuoo-TA-26.
 

DVDdoug

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I am planning to buy a new headphone amp.
What's wrong with what you have now?

As you can see, I have never experienced a class-A or tube-amp.
Both of those are "gimmicks". Tubes makes it harder and more expensive to make a good amplifier. They are inefficient (the have to be heated and they run at high voltages) and they age, their characteristics change and they eventually die. Class-A is also inefficient. It burn power and generated heat even with output. Although, that's not too important since headphone amps are low-power anyway.
 
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A

AMKAM

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What's wrong with what you have now?

Both of those are "gimmicks". Tubes makes it harder and more expensive to make a good amplifier. They are inefficient (the have to be heated and they run at high voltages) and they age, their characteristics change and they eventually die. Class-A is also inefficient. It burn power and generated heat even with output. Although, that's not too important since headphone amps are low-power anyway.
That is a perfect question to ask :p. i was curious and wanting to step-up.
i am totally opposite from audiophile, i like warm and fun sounds.
 
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HarmonicTHD

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That is a perfect question to ask :p. i was curious and wanting to step-up.
i am totally opposite from audiophile, i like warm and fun sounds.
Then keep what you have and maybe look into measuring your room, eliminate room modes and EQ to your preference curve.

For starters and little money a raspberry pi or PC already will feed your DAC while running a SW EQ (via Moode or Volumino) or EQAPO. If you want to spent more miniDSP is a good option etc.

Class A and Tube are introducing unwanted alterations to the signal more or less. But if you really insist on tube sound get Foobar or a DAW and run a distortion VST plugin or a digital simulated amp at pretty much no cost.

Edit. Typo.
 
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kemmler3D

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as @HarmonicTHD said, if you want more distortion and effects, you don't need to spend money. EQAPO will actually run VST plugins as well as give you robust EQ options.

I would just make sure you have an amp with high power and low distortion, but even the JDS Atom will do well with most cans.

If you are interested in adding some nice color to your headphone sound, get EQAPO and add some of these VSTs: https://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/

If you find one you like, but you still want tubes, you can then take measurements of the VST's output and select a tube amp by comparing measurements. :)
 

Doodski

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I would just make sure you have an amp with high power and low distortion, but even the JDS Atom will do well with most cans.
Schiit Magni Heresy has almost double the power output of the JDS Labs Atom Amp+. If one is a bean counter about distortion the Atom is slightly better but the difference is splitting hairs.
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