Tube vs. SS General Purpose Headphone Amp

[JRHemmen]

I'm back after my really long hiatus, as I've got a pair of the Massdrop HD 6XXs on the way, and I need a headphone amp to drive them. My musical taste leans heavily towards rock (alternative, post-hardcore, classic) and hip-hop, but I do listen to the occasional acoustic session as well. I often hear people saying that music like that requires the speed of a solid state amp, but I've never seen a definitive answer. I'll also be using the headphones for gaming, as they'll be replacing my HyperX Cloud II's.

I thought I had decided on the Bottlehead Crack, but now I'm looking into Schiit (Asgard 2 & Valhalla 2).

Two sources that I will move between:

Desktop PC > Meridian Explorer DAC > Headphone Amp > Headphones

Pro-ject Debut Carbon DC Turntable > Little Bear Tube Phono Preamp > Headphone Amp > Headphones


If this belongs in a purchase advice thread, mods, please feel free to move it. It's been a long time since I've been out here and I forgot how things work.

Any input is appreciated!

 

[Lavane]

I'm now running a tube amplifier, passive preamp, tube phono preamp and a hybrid headphone amp and very happy so far. The. Headphone amp has a tube front end and a single ended SS output. Around $65. There are several variations of it. A headphone jack on the front and one input and even a line level output so it can be used as a preamp to drive an amp. I replaced the Chinese 6J1 tubes with GE JAN 5654W's for about $6 per tube. Its very quiet and sounds really good.

 

[Lavane]

I am also using the new Little Bear T11 phono preamp in this setup.

 

[Chris Brown]

What impedance are your headphones? It's important to match them up to the amp in that regard. For a high-impedance headphone you need an amp that can supply a lot of voltage. For a low-impedance headphone you need an amp that can supply a lot of current. Full tube designs usually match best with high-impedance headphones. If it is a hybrid tube amp, then it usually has a solid-state output and just uses the tubes as a built-in buffer, just for effect, and it should work better with low-impedance headphones.

Remember that in full tube designs, if you drive it too hard you will cause the tubes to clip. Tubes experience soft-clipping as opposed to hard-clipping with solid state designs. Soft-clipping can actually sound good to some people, in some situations.

I use an older Little-Dot II+ full tube headphone amp, and I also use a Yamaha C-4 preamp as a headphone amp. I switch back and forth depending on which headphone i'm using and depending on my mood. I tend to prefer solid state for songs with extremely heavy bass, as that can take a lot of power and if that pushes a tube headphone amp into soft-clipping it can sound mushy - though that does work well with some songs.

You could always get a solid state amp, and a cheap tube buffer (example), compare how you like it with the tube buffer in the signal path vs not. That would be pretty close to what you get with a hybrid tube amp anyway. If you do get one with Chinese 6J1 tubes, I agree that upgrading them to pretty much any 6J1/EF95/6AK5/5654 tube will be an improvement.

 

[bigx5murf]

I use an objective2 and a chinese 6j1 tube buffer. I can go between tube sound, and ss with a simple cable swap. I also have a little dot i+, and a few other ss amps. The o2 + 6j1 is my current favorite.

 

[JRHemmen]

What impedance are your headphones? It's important to match them up to the amp in that regard. For a high-impedance headphone you need an amp that can supply a lot of voltage. For a low-impedance headphone you need an amp that can supply a lot of current. Full tube designs usually match best with high-impedance headphones. If it is a hybrid tube amp, then it usually has a solid-state output and just uses the tubes as a built-in buffer, just for effect, and it should work better with low-impedance headphones.

Remember that in full tube designs, if you drive it too hard you will cause the tubes to clip. Tubes experience soft-clipping as opposed to hard-clipping with solid state designs. Soft-clipping can actually sound good to some people, in some situations.

I use an older Little-Dot II+ full tube headphone amp, and I also use a Yamaha C-4 preamp as a headphone amp. I switch back and forth depending on which headphone i'm using and depending on my mood. I tend to prefer solid state for songs with extremely heavy bass, as that can take a lot of power and if that pushes a tube headphone amp into soft-clipping it can sound mushy - though that does work well with some songs.

You could always get a solid state amp, and a cheap tube buffer (example), compare how you like it with the tube buffer in the signal path vs not. That would be pretty close to what you get with a hybrid tube amp anyway. If you do get one with Chinese 6J1 tubes, I agree that upgrading them to pretty much any 6J1/EF95/6AK5/5654 tube will be an improvement.

This is the most helpful comment I've seen anywhere so far on the topic, thank you.

The headphones are the Sennheiser HD 650s, 300 ohms.
I don't need an amp that necessarily has a solid upgrade path because I'll be holding on to this can/amp combo for a long time.

Vahalla 2 offers 800 mW RMS at 300 ohms.
O2+ODAC offers ~150 mW max at 300 ohms.
Asgard 2 offers 380 mW RMS at 300 ohms.
Bottlehead Crack offers ~333 mW RMS at 300 ohms.

I'd think with the power output of the Valhalla that I wouldn't have to worry about any clipping, but I obviously have no real testing to confirm this.

 

[Lavane]

I use an objective2 and a chinese 6j1 tube buffer. I can go between tube sound, and ss with a simple cable swap. I also have a little dot i+, and a few other ss amps. The o2 + 6j1 is my current favorite.

Have you tried the 5654W's in place of the 6J1's yet? Its a cheap and nice sounding upgrade.