Has anybody experience of using Sennheiser 650s on both of these amps? I imagine all will say Headline is better, but is it miles ahead or close?

Naim say a Headline can run off a NAPSC or FLAT/Hi-CAP - both have different voltages so how can that be?

Also, are these "after market" cables a good improvement on 650s? If so, which do the job best?

Thanks.

Opps, should have said "Rega Ear" so as to avoid any confusion

Miles ahead...but you knew that!

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Another Headphone amp to consider is the Creek OBH 21SE, I am very happy with mine.



Regards


NB

In a German hifi forum there is a very long discussion of very informed headphone freaks.
hifi forum
The favourite headphone amp of these people seems to be the CEC HD 53. I have no personal experience in this field though.

quote:

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Also, are these "after market" cables a good improvement on 650s? If so, which do the job best?

Thanks.

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Hi Shaun,

I have the Cardas cable with the HD600s. The improvement is so stunning that I wonder why Sennheiser bothers to put the cheap stock cable on. The stock cable clearly does not portray the HD600s in their best light (sound?). That said, I understand that the 650s have a better stock cable, though surely still not as good as the Cardas. I have not tried the other after market cables, but several of those are well reviewed.

Norman

Rega EAR grooves and both amps are pretty warm sounding but EAR doesn't have the clarity of Headline.
Adding on a Hi-cap on Headline definitely improves things. i.e. better authority, definition and imporved resolution. ( usual Naim power supply schtick )

EAR, considering the cost, is pretty good. Altho, I think it's better off with a lean sounding 'fones such as AKG K501 than warmish Senn.
Whether the cost difference is worth it or not is depending on how often you use your headfones.

Bought an Ear a few months back - modded it to run with a Flatcap and its a superb little box.

Well recommended.

James.

You may want to check out the Zu Mobius B3 cable which is supposedly better than the Cardas, although I have not directly compared the two.

I run my 650's with a flatcap 2 (the only load on the flatcap) and use Stefan AudioArt Equinox cables. I listened to both the Cardas and AudioArt cables and found the AudioArt to be less "edgy", whatever the hell THAT means..hard to describe, they just sounded better to my ears, and I didn't know which pair I was listening to, so I choose the more expensive set by sound, not because I thought they would sound better...

Tom