Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Is it worth getting a headphone amp

It's more like if it has dissolved rather than been lifted!

[quote=lkv_11][quote=alan]
Also, I don't think they change the sound in the original recording, but rather they bring the sound closer to the original recording as it was meant to be heard.
/quote]

I am not defending tube amp sound or discrediting it but I had a recent experience that made me think of this thread. I actually enjoyed this experience at a colleagues house a few weeks ago but it got me thinking about the the comment above.

I was there for other reasons but when I saw his home made Tube Amp glowing like it was alive in his living room, I had to ask if I could have a listen. I wouldn't even try to fake my way through putting the sound of his home made speakers and home made tube amps into words, except to say that I enjoyed it as a very pleasurable experience.

As part of what turned into a much longer visit, he started proudly demonstrating that he had three different tube amps ( two homemade), each with different tube setups. He explained how he has been experimenting with different tube types to perfect his sound. We wired in an A/B switch (you guessed it, home made) and he started switching back and forth. We hardly fell into any controlled blind listening standards but I am very sure I could hear a n obvious difference in what I will call tonal quality in at least one of the three different setups. Between two, I couldn't tell them apart but he did his best ot try and explain the subtle differences.

So my point is, if the hobby of tube amps has experimenting with different tubes to perfect the sound as part of the fun factor (which I think is great) then obviously, tubes do color the sound as each one is potentially capable of coloring it differently.

Again, this is not to demote or promote the use of tube amps, but I think this does indicate that unless you have found that elusive holy grail of tube combinations, it is not automatically bringing you closer to the real thing because coloration seems to not only be involved, but be part of the hobby itself.

That being said, I think I'm more of a purist but I do now want a tube amp just for the fun of playing around with them. Yet another expensive item to add to my "my wife is going to kill me soon" list.

Not more news (still very, very happy with both headphone amps), but I received a tall telephone table I ordered to make it nicer and more convenient. I am also waiting (a few days overdue actually) a HH10 Sennheiser headphone holder to make it nice.

Table is a bit pricy (140$CAN), but it is very sturdy and I will order two more to replace the small, ugly 2-foot high stool holding my back surround.

Here's the "corner" view.



The table has a drawer so I can put headphone-related cables and stuff. Makes the rest of my tables less crowdy with rarely-used stuff. (it also help hide the mass of cable in the corner!)

I completely agree. I remember going into a hifi store looking for new speakers. The salesman tried to get me interested in a valve amp/speaker package. First we listened to a quite good pair of speakers (can't remember what they were) through a mid range Rotel solid state amp. Then he switched to a "Fat Boy" valve amp (why do they have such silly names?), and the difference was realy obvious. I couldn't say which one sounded the most inoffensive, but the difference was SO marked that the valve amp must have been coloring the sound significantly.

I agree - the more netural the better. That way I know what I am getting, and if I need to tweak it, I can get consistent results.

I must add though, that I don't think all solid state amps sound the same. The differences are obviously more subtle than what you get between different speakers and sources, but they exist

Shane