Steve Guttenberg takes a walk through the latest high-end headphones and headphone amps, selecting what he’s calling “three contenders for the world’s best headphone”. In my fantasy den, I’m kicked back in my leather chair, feet on oaken desk, smoking a cigarette and swirling a bourbon while listening to the finest Ukrainian pornography soundtracks through those gorgeous wooden Grado Labs GS-1000 headphones.
Pardon me while I gush over the way the GS-1000 clarifies live recordings. The sound seemed to surround me, with a rare ability to resolve depth, just as you would in a concert hall.Ditto for the way this headphone reveals rhythmic underpinnings in rock and jazz CDs. Grados have always been exciting, but classical music now sounds more refined. The bass is deep, yet more controlled and precise than ever before.
The GS-1000 was a natural for home theater. Every scene change on The Mad Men: Season One Blu-ray placed me in a different location.
First there was the clickety-clack of an office full of 1960s era IBM electric typewriters, then the hushed ambiance of an upscale New York City department store, and later the low rumble of a commuter train. The GS-1000′s unfailing resolution of micro-details revealed the spatial cues and ambiance of each locale.
While I’m dreaming of owning $1,000 headphones primarily because they look nifty, let’s throw in that gorgeous Woo Audio WA5-LE headphone amplifier, besides. It’s only $2,400.
High End Headphone and Headphone Amp Roundup [HEMagazine.com]
you’ve made steve guttenberg a star
any recommendations for a decent headphone tube amp affordable for mortals?
@Thaddeus what is your definition of affordable? I yearn for a ZVex iMPAMP but it’s still $700. Maybe spend some time learning and build one?
Mmmm, Benchmark DAC1-USB. I am so tempted to get one for xmas. Lot of money, but the sound …
BTW, has anyone heard one with mp3′s, rather than nice EAC ripped FLAC’s?
I’m perfectly happy with my Beyerdynamic Dt770′s (250ohm) and my BBCMOY amp.
Headphone’s on sale from scamazon : 129
CMOY BB AMP in a cool altoids tin : 70
Amazing, warm, sound with deep, moving bass = priceless
If you don’t care about retro-futuristic, steampunk, chilean mountian goat (or whatever) leather or those things, but care about sound without spending the equivalent of a decent new car, I recommend the following: Go to a decent largish music store. Go to the back, waaaay to the back, to the studio section. NO, NO, NO, NOT the “Home Studio” section! Further back, where they have the mixers that are about one hectar in area and have 3 LCD screens built in.
Ask for “Reference Headphones”. The ones that have a flat response from 5Hz to about 50kHz (ok, ok, 28kHz). As for comfort, people that wear these things all day long in their line of work are aware of these things.
I have a pair of ATH-M40fs – closed design, 5-28k, cheap. Biggest problem is the pad covering will disintegrate after a few years. Oh, and people can sneak up on you too well since you won’t hear anything from the outside once any sound is playing.
More expensive, but with better padding and less isolating (open design), I have a pair of Beyer-Dynamic DT880L. Great for casual listening.
Personally, I don’t find huge differences with amps these days (in headphone amps, that is). Look for one that has the least noise when idle. Even cheap M-Audio or Edirol crap will be decent enough – if your source is the computer, as long as you get your D/A as far as possible outside (electrically noisy) chassis (desktop or laptop) you should be good.
Grado’s low-end headphones are pretty sweet, too. Even their lowly $69 SR60 will stomp overpriced mass-market headphones (I’m looking at you, Bose). Keep in mind, though, that all Grado ‘phones are of the open design, with little or no isolation of the outside world.
My own somewhat-affordable setup: an E-MU 0404 USB audio interface (which has a built-in headphone amp) and the aforementioned SR60s.
Good headphones and amps, to me, are like good eyeglasses. I wear them almost as much, so I got “almost the best” quality at “almost reasonable” prices. I have the BeyerDynamic DT770s from last year. Totally great closed cans. I’ve worn them literally thousands of hours in the last year. That deal at Amazon recently, I told all my friends to BUY OR DIE.
I have heard the DAC-1. It is PHENOMENAL. Sounds great, AND it is custom-designed from top to bottom, and built like a tank. Totally worth $1000.
On the cheap, you can do very well with HeadRoom’s Total BitHead. $150 list, and the size of an iPod, and it’s a DAC.
Digital audio means that you are not listening to the “very best audio $1 can buy” (which is what computers have), AND the analog audio signal stays FAR AWAY from the inside of your computer, the worst place to have an audio system, by far, ever. (Just plug in some sensitive in-ear monitors if you don’t believe me.)
I have the HeadRoom “Micro” DAC and Amp combo (amp $300, DAC $400). It uses a pretty standard, high-quality design that provides minimal path length and excellent shielding. The parts, if you bought them, would cost about $100, so although the price seems pretty high, the markup is actually typical for niche hardware.
I also have a homebrew tube amp that a friend designed. It’s called the “Kludge 4 Single-Ended OTL Headphone Amp.” It is documented in a magazine called “Vacuum Tube Valley,” and it’s a simple design using a 6SL7GT driving a 6080, and actually quite inexpensive to build — if you can find the required supply transformers. (If not, you’ll spend $150 to get new ones.)
It, and the Headroom amp, are both excellent, but have different sounds. One friend with the Golden Ears hates it, because it’s SO powerful it tends to emphasize defects in less-than-ideal digital signals. I’m not so sensitive, so it just sounds nice and beefy, to me. The other downside is that it consumes 50 watts of power, 49.5 of which is emitted as heat, and that it is susceptible to GSM noise. I turn off my cell phone and I’m OK then.
I mourn the loss of the ATH6 from the Audio Technica product line.
Didn’t Magnapan or someone make electrostat headphones? (I’m serious here.)
I’ve stuck with Sony MDR-V6 headphones for years. Sound great. No over-priced tube amp reqd.
I don’t think Magnepan ever did headphones.
Claud9999 is probably thinking of the Stax Electrostatic Earspeakers. http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/895/
If you go to a headphone meet-up (check http://www.head-fi.org/ and other such sites), someone will probably bring a pair. Expect to have to take them off, one of the saddest events of your life.