jarnopp
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2014
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The 500W amp probably is darker sounding then, because you will never go beyond the limits of the 70W amp (even in peaks).
In my experience power and brightness is not always related. For instance, I have a headphone amp doing about 5W (in 50 Ohms) which sounds slightly lighter than directly out of the HM901S with balanced amp card which does less than 10% of that. In other words, it's how the amp "does it" rather than how much power it has.
+1
I’ve never understood all the recommendations for vintage amps to drive HE6. Coming from a traditional speaker system perspective and 30 years in the hobby, you always want a better, cleaner, more transparent amp. I’ve tried the HE6 with various amps with predictable results based on the amp quality, and better gets you better. I like the Cavalli Liquid Carbon sound best with them, and with 2.8 watts into 50 ohms it seems to do fine. I judge that based on comparing to a speaker amp (Odyssey Stratos Stereo with 150 wpc and >60 amps current delivery. A bit cleaner sound, but no better at “driving” (dynamics) than the LC. The Emotiva 100a is an ok amp with ok results, but nothing great. I haven’t listened to a vintage receiver since it was the 70s, but that sound was what I’ve been trying to improve for 30 years. Use a better amp, whether HP or speaker, to get better sound. Or just listen to what you like. If the vintage amp tames the brightness with lack of range, that works. I’ve chosen the felt (bass lens) mod to tame the brightness, because I prefer the transparency and other characteristics of more audio-oriented amp designs.
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