Greatest vintage headphone sections...

[tfarney]

Well, this certainly doesn't start out vintage - I bought a big hard drive and ripped all my CDs to lossless files. This has sent me in search of a DAC, and a headphone amp, as most of my listening is in my home office on my trusty Senn HD580s.

Thing is, receivers and integrateds in the 70s used the main power sections, stepped down, to power their HP jacks, not cheap opamps like are found today. Some of them should be terrific headphone amps that would put me just a pair of speaks away from a whole other system!

So have any of you vintage conno..conna...fans paid particular attention to this. Which vintage receivers/integrateds have the best headphone sections? And are there any special maintenance issues to look out for?

Tim

 

[Fedallah]

Modern headphones are going to expose any flaws upstream far better than most speakers. I hate to say it, but my headphones sound better when driven by my laptop than through my ~1979 JVC receiver. I also have a Luxman integrated that's a few years older, and with it the opposite is true.

Look for something with a low rated noise floor (it's hardly a perfect strategy with used gear, but it's the best I can think of.) Low DC offset is also helpful, but for that you need a multimeter and an amp/receiver with adjustment pots. And most importantly, you need to have a service manual and know what you're doing before you go diddling around inside the case.

 

[tfarney]

Modern headphones are going to expose any flaws upstream far better than most speakers. I hate to say it, but my headphones sound better when driven by my laptop than through my ~1979 JVC receiver. I also have a Luxman integrated that's a few years older, and with it the opposite is true.

Look for something with a low rated noise floor (it's hardly a perfect strategy with used gear, but it's the best I can think of.) Low DC offset is also helpful, but for that you need a multimeter and an amp/receiver with adjustment pots. And most importantly, you need to have a service manual and know what you're doing before you go diddling around inside the case.

So that would be a reco for the Luxman and against the JVC then? Thanks.

I use Senn HD580s. Wonderful, warm, deep, detailed phones, but not the height of efficiency or sensitivity. There are noise floors that would drive you to distraction through a pair of ear canal monitors that wouldn't move the Senns. Still, that's a good warning. I'm kind of expecting that stuff like Marantz, Luxman, some HK, just good quality stuff where they would be likely to sweat the details like the headphone circuit, will be where the sweet spot is, but I thought I'd ask the experts.

Tim

 

[Fedallah]

So that would be a reco for the Luxman and against the JVC then? Thanks.

Well, kinda. It's going to vary more from model than it is from manufacturer. Go to thevintageknob.org or some such, look at some spec sheets, check it out. Obviously, stuff from the higher-end manufacturers is going to be better as a general rule, you get what you pay for and all that. Most headphone outs aren't much more than a resistor and a jack wired off the main section. I think there was one Sansui integrated that used a smaller, independent amplifier for the headphone jack, but I can't remember the model number off the top of my head.

 

[tfarney]

I thought a follow-up was in order. I have this old HK integrated - an A-402. I had it serviced, then donated it to my dad for listening to his old jazz tapes through his yard sale Minimus 7s. I went and borrowed it back yesterday to satisfy my "vintage as headphone amp" curiosity. The first thing I did was plug in phones and open the volume up all the way with no signal. Dead silent. Well quieter than my tinnitus, anyway. Then I ran a line out of my iBook into the HK and listened to some lossless files. Jeez, it sounds great. Huge, well-controlled bass, great imaging for phones, more than enough detail, though I'm sure this will improve by getting the signal out of my Mac's soundcard and into an external DAC. Overall sound sig is very warm and smooth. Quite tubey.

Of course it is complete overkill for a headphone amp - a conservative 45 watts per channel, about 40 pounds, big desktop footprint and lots of tone control (multiple hinge points, filters, loudness, etc.) I don't need for cans. Fortunately it has a bi-pass to go straight past all of that.

Best of all, it sounds really good. I'm gonna have to find dad a little vintage receiver somewhere. This HK is staying on my desk for now.

Tim

 

[philcib]

This has sent me in search of a DAC, and a headphone amp,

Why don't you get something like a Benchmark DAC-1 which is both an
excellent DAC and excellent headphone amp in one box?
BTW if you want a vintage HP amp, I really like my Dynaco SCA-35
in this capacity.

 

[Fedallah]

Best of all, it sounds really good. I'm gonna have to find dad a little vintage receiver somewhere. This HK is staying on my desk for now.

Glad to hear you like it. That's the only important thing. :thmbsp:

 

[tfarney]

Why don't you get something like a Benchmark DAC-1 which is both an
excellent DAC and excellent headphone amp in one box?
BTW if you want a vintage HP amp, I really like my Dynaco SCA-35
in this capacity.

I'm really enjoying the old HK right now. Not stuck on vintage, but the Senns are hard to drive properly, according to the headphile experts, and need an amp with some serious power, not to achieve volume, but control. I've got it in spades with the old HK. Bass is deep and tight as a nut. No boom. No hangover. So I'm good for a home amp. For the DAC, I'm thinking of going with the Apogee Duet. It will give me some additional functionality I can use, and a pretty transportable DAC/amp that gets its power from the fire wire port of my Mac laptop. And, well, I know it's shallow to care, but it looks so cooooool....

Tim