Best Amps for Sennheiser HD800

Gonna add the new TIII as a great amp for the HD800. It drives it with authority, and has a wonderful 'low fatigue' delivery.

 

What is this TIII? A new amp from which company?

 

Torpedo III, Beezar DIY amp.

 

I'm using an amp with my "seriously un-Sennheiserized"( No non specific inner detailed huge left to right soundstage, even on recorded music that it doesn't really exist on) HD800 that it's sounding pretty good with, a Fosgate Signature Headphone Amplifier. I normally hesitate to say too much about it as I'm not quite sure how well it work with a stock HD800.

I didn't particularly care for the way it sounded using various NOS 12AX7 or 5751 (including the triple mica, black plate RCA). I thought the current Philips 5751 sounded less "romanticized"(wrong proportion of wide dynamics in Orchestal music) than the NOS versions. I'm currently using a pair of Electro Harmonix 12AY7 that seem to be pushing all the right sound reproduction buttons for me. The only problem I seem to come across with this amp is that I may have to use the Rothwell -20db Inline Attentuators rather than the -15db Attentuators I'm using now !

At about the same time I switched to these tubes , I also switched to cryo'd interconnects, powercord & a Hifi Tunning fuse on the amp. I think I recall that Tyll was only "lukewarm" as to his thoughts on this amp. I think I might have agreed with him at the time. Fortunately,this amps current characteristics aren't reminiscent of how I recall it sounding .

 

Supplementing Purrin's reply, WA2 can be enjoyable with hd800's with some music, but at the end of the day it is, in fact, slower, "tubier" and less detailed and dynamic than many other comparable options once you have heard a fair selection of what is out there. The high output impedance means more midbass, with less bass tightness. It uses cheap electrolytic output caps and doesn't have constant current sources loading the tubes. BH Crack is arguably a more sophisticated design (and a livelier, better sounding amp, IMO), at a fraction of the cost - you just don't get the lovely case work.

I owned a WA3 for many years, which sounds a whole lot like the WA2 (less a little resolution to be fair), with some of the best tubes available (holland 7308 PQ's, etc.), and it didn't hold a candle to my crack, even before all the mods, speedball etc. A modded crack,in turn, although enjoyable, is not quite on the same playing field with higher end tube amps like mainline, zana, etc.

 

get a zana don't s

 

lol @Judeus ("zana don't s") I see what you did there.

 

I'm pretty much set on a HD800S with an Yggdrasil but I'm stuck on an amp. I'm in Australia so the EC amps are not a really viable option. How does the Mjolnir 2 compare (either with LISST or tubes)? Any other options that might be more readily available? For reference, I had a HD800 running out of the amp on a Dangerous Music Source and was quite happy with it (didn't find it overly bright or fatiguing) but I'm sure it can sound better.

 

cavalli liquid crimson is a really nice amp for the hd800s if you can get one, the liquid glass is also really nice

 

Thanks. Unfortunately looks like they're sold out on all except the Gold which is a bit out of my price range. And nobody seems to have any stock locally either. I might just have to wait for the next run of the Black Widow in the redesigned chassis and import if there's no other decent option for a similar price.

 

The Torpedo III with Cinemag transformers does a fantastic job with the HD800's. Tom has some built for sale. Beezar.com

 

Agreed. Since I'm an idiot and haven't modded my HD800's the combo can get fatiguing with treble heavy tracks, but the Torpedo III seems to do a great job at showing off the HD800's resolving capabilities.

 

I'm fortunate there Dr; mine aren't modded by my 'old' ears roll off after 16K anyway.

 

Hahaha, you're fortunate indeed. I listen to a lot of obnoxious punk music so YMMV depending on sensitivity to treble, HD800 mods, & music choice.

 

What combination sound better KSA5 KLONE or DNA Sonett?

 

I just tried @firev1 's HD800s on my chain with the Torpedo III, worked excellently, which isn't something I can say for most. The 4-6k issue doesn't quite go away but the rest of the range is very agreeable.

 

Oh yes really second that recommendation, Torpedo III> Val2> Pimped out BH Crack from memory.

 

I pulled my Consonance Cyber 20 down off a shelf I had it sitting on in a bookcase (with some other equipment I've "retired")

The Cyber 20 is no longer retired. "Purtty Nice Sounding" with a nice amount of dimensional lush sound ! At this point I'm debating what set of "non-NOS" EL84 tubes I'd like to try in it . I don't have any issues with the current set sitting in it except for an occasional very faint & brief touch of what appears to be "tube ticks" in one of the channels. It is very faint & brief enough to only be a minor annoyance to otherwise really nice sound. (It almost reminds me of very slight ticks you might hear on a clean vinyl pressing but it's not that steady state) (I did remove the tubes & cleaned the pin sockets & tube pins, so I don't think that was at fault here)

Rather then wait for this to develop further , I'll head it off with a new set of tubes !

I can't remember which cans ,I'd been using with this amp, but it wouldn't have been sitting on the shelf had it sounded this good. I believe this amp was discontinued . I believe it was replaced by the Cyber 20b,but I'm not even sure what that amps status is.