Headphone/HP Amp impressions

Or how to make yourself crazy on cold rainy days.

I recently picked up a set of Sennheiser 600 phones. At the same time I got an Audio Alchemy headphone amp. Both are used and in excellent condition.
I've never had an external hp amp before and my current headphones are MB Quart 75X's. The Quart's score a 10 for comfort and a seven for SQ. I'm willing to give up a tad in comfort for an increase in SQ.
I perfer listening to speakers but because of differnet work schedules for my wife and I, headphones late at night are a must. Even for television.
I use two receivers. My HT receiver is a Kenwood 6060 and my two channel is an Onkyo 8011.
I listened to two formats. Redbook CD's and Internet Radio (Mostly Blue Ears (Blues) and Inside Jazz).
I have not done headphone comparisons since the late 70's so I don't pretend to know any secrets about how to best judge these things.
With the Senn 600's, I've definitely gotten the bit of improvement I was looking for. Bass is tighter, the mids are more forward and the highs are more pronounced without being overly bright. Without an SPL meter to babysit me, I had a devil of a time gauging sound levels. To compensate for my lack of accum in this area, I purposely used volume setting that I thought were equal, slightly higher and slightly lower on both phones. It was time consuming but it was a good workaround. I didn't want to be fooled by one phone playing at a higher SPL than the other and not realize it. Can you tell I'm not one of those people who can hear grass grow or hear Mars orbiting overhead? ;)
The comfort level of the Senn's is somewhere between eight and nine. A step below the Quarts but still acceptable. I'm buying the Senn's from the same person I bought the Quart's from years ago so I look forward to owning a set of Senn 650's in a few years. Hand me downs are often a good thing.
The Audio Alchemy amp was a mixed bag. I could not detect any improvement with the Senn's vs either receiver. Sometimes I would think that there was a bit of improvement but again, with phones, subtle differences are not easy to pick-up on every occasion. With the Quart's, the AA amp made a small but noticeable improvement in the mids. If it weren't for the Senn's, I'd probably keep the amp. The MSRP on the Senn's is $450. (typically available in the $300 - $350 range) so I'm not surprised it would take more to improve the sound than the lower priced Quart's.
If anyone is interested in the AA amp, drop me an email. It will probably go for $150. shipped but make an offer and we'll talk.
Next up. My impressions on a California Audio Labs external DAC. Stay tuned.

David

Thanks for the impressions, David. I'm looking forward to your comments on the DAC.

Since I only use headphones with my iPod......I more interested in the DAC as well. You have been making us wait a while since you first mentioned it. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bikeman

The Audio Alchemy amp was a mixed bag. I could not detect any improvement with the Senn's vs either receiver. Sometimes I would think that there was a bit of improvement but again, with phones, subtle differences are not easy to pick-up on every occasion. With the Quart's, the AA amp made a small but noticeable improvement in the mids. If it weren't for the Senn's, I'd probably keep the amp. The MSRP on the Senn's is $450. (typically available in the $300 - $350 range) so I'm not surprised it would take more to improve the sound than the lower priced Quart's.
David

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Instead of returning the AA amp right away, I used it for several nights and then went back and used the Senn 600's without the amp. Doing it this way displayed a noticeable difference. Once I became accustomed to the HP's with the amp, it was much easier to detect the difference. I'm keeping the AA amp.
Auditioning headphones and hp amps is more difficult than speakers and front end hardware. Maybe it's because I'm not as familiar with headphones as I am with speakers. A good learning experience.

David