I would look for a used stax amp in your price range, as you can also find some good deals on some older amps
any recommendations?
I feel like it would depend on whats actually available to you, and I also donāt think I know enough about older stax amps to give a recommendations
Gotta say, after some listening time with the 888 on my sendyās this amp sounds fantastic. I feel like its smoothed out the treble a bit and gave the low end even more power and timbre. Last amp was an el amp for comparison. Matched with a d50s dac you can also go full volume on low gain with 0 background noise. Super worthy upgrade.
Mine just arrived today from China. My HE-560s also arrived recently (freshly RMAed), so time to give it a bit of a test when I get home.
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Topping D90 uses XMOS+CPLD+AK4118+AK4499 and Thesycon drivers. USB and IIS support up to PCM32bit/768kHz and DSD512 native; Optical, Coaxial, and AES support up to PCM24bit/192kHz; Bluetooth supports up to PCM24bit/96kHz(LDAC).
Learn More: https://hifigo.com/blogs/news/topping-d90-desktop-bluetooth-dac-coming-hifigo
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Curious to see what you think of both the amp and the headphones
Before I sold the 560ās I tried them on low gain with the SP200 and it almost made me not want to sell them. To me they sounded better than the BasX and also on high gain w/SP200. I canāt explain why, they just sounded more full for some reason. Iām interested in hearing his thoughts on the pairing as well.
It was probably because it was a better quality headphone amp with enough power compared to the basx imo. 560 = amp dependent
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Oh definitely. You taught me that lesson and itās proven here. What I donāt get is why it seemed to sound better in low gain compared to high gain in the SP200. I thought the more power, the better it would sound, but with low gain, the 560 sounded fuller in the treble and the highs didnāt bug me as much.
Gain does not necessarily = power. It would either be down to that the sp200 possibly preforms better in low gain, or that with a lower gain you can increase the volume on the amp more, allowing for more power output
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I donāt really want to comment yet on the HE-560 becauseā¦ itās a very different beast than anything Iām used to. A lot of my audiophile āknowledgeā is from warm to neutral headphones like the HD6XX. The HE-560 is a very different beast. Iām still getting used to it and coming to grips with what it can and canāt do.
What I did notice is the thing loves power. I had the opposite experience of XyleFBB, on the SP200 it improved on the high gain setting than on low. Or maybe it was just the songs. Is there a particular genre that the HE-560 loves?
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I mean imo itās a pretty good well rounder, and it really more depends on the song. Also strange that you have different experiences with the gain
I think what you experienced is more typical of what most people find. Take my results with a grain of salt because my testing wasnāt very extensive. I would say my experience was more of an anomaly than what youāre experiencing so far. I look forward to hearing your further thoughts. Iām definitely glad I took a turn with those.
Well I think he also has a v1 not a v3, so that would make a difference
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Got my SP200 today. I will have a go at it tomorrow. I am still in the middle of my E95X marathon and I canāt take them off.
But tomorrowā¦
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what kind of music are you listening to on your E95X?
90ās hits playlist. I have a 90ās playlist of 840 songs, but then I whittled another list down to 299 and called it 90ās Hits.
Since I hooked up the Schiit Loki these things are just rockinā! I am curious how the jazz will sound EQād this much.
SP200 tomorrow.
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is this a good rule of thumb for most amps? iām always a little suspicious of increasing gain, i think its better to just turn up the volume on no gain. on other applications i noticed increasing gain also increased grain. or distortion.
are you sure this isnt just the volume thing?
I canāt be 100% sure, but I think so. The music sounded a bit better to my ears with high gain and a more middle volume setting than what sounded like the same heard volume at low gain, which needed a higher setting on the dial.