Awesome!
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The Stellia and VC are both great headphones,however when I a/b’d them I could detect a distinct metallic flavor to the sound of the Stellia,something that I didnt notice until I swapped back to the VC.
The VC just sounds more natural to my ears.
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Hi everyone. First time posting here. I’m looking to get some advice on what headphone amp to pair with my recent order of the VC that might also work with the HD650 and Grado HF-2.
This is a short list of headphone amps I’m thinking of, in no particular order. I prefer to demo if possible:
-Phonitor XE or E
-ZMF Pendant
-Feliks Elise
-Monoprice THX 887
-A Schiit amp
Just some background - I stopped listening to headphones for a long time, favoring my speakers instead. The last headphones I bought were the HD650 a decade ago. However, I’m starting to listen to headphones from a bedside setup more often now that we had our first baby.
I recently bought the RME ADI-2 DAC fs, and enjoy it running from an iPad Pro via USB. I have the HD650 and Grado HF-2. I was enjoying it so much I decided to try out a bunch of headphones from Focal, ZMF (no Verite though), Sennheiser, and Audeze from different local dealers. Man, headphones and amps have really changed a lot, and the choices are overwhelming!
I ended up making an order for the Verite Closed recently since I want a more upfront and energetic presentation. I am not someone to buy in anticipation of upgrading constantly - I buy the best (within reason), and just enjoy it. Buy once, cry once.
Also, I enjoy a lot of different genres of music, but primarily listen to indie rock and jazz (modern and contemporary).
Thanks to everyone for your help!
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I don’t own one, but the Phonitor seems to be the go-to amp and it’s on my list of upgrades (next amp purchase). I know it’s also commonly paired with the ADI-2 as well, for what it’s worth.
Good luck with the amp-quest! Looking forward to hearing about what you end up with. 
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My favorite amps for Verite, in order: EC ZDS, ECP Ravenswood 3F or ECP T4, Pendant w/ Zach’s NOS tube selection, Mjolnir 2, and Phonitor X.
Source matters. You put a poorly implemented DAC in front of these amps, like a grey sounding ESS, warmbutt AKM, or cheap-fi R2R, and you’ll hear it.
Good, but not amazing: Asgard 3, gsx mini.
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Hello and welcome @Caffeineandmusic.
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If you already have a competent solid state in RME ADI-2 DAC and are going to get something to complement that for use with ZMFs and Sennheisers I personally think tubes are the way to go. There are a lot more good tube options you didn’t mention across all price ranges that are really good pairings with both ZMF and Senn (they tend to work well with similar amps). Off the top of my head, the tube amps I have heard with both ZMFs/Senns that worked well were Vali 2, Valhalla 2, Lyr 3, Massdrop CTH, BH Crack, EC ZDT Jr, Cayin HA-1A, Euforia, Liquid Platinum, DNA Starlett/Stratus/Stellaris, and EC AF. I haven’t heard the Amp&Sound stuff or the Glenn OTL stuff, but those are worth looking into based on all the positive reviews.
If you are set on going toward solid states, some others that work well are Asgard 3, Gilmore Lite mk2, Cayin iHA-6, EC BW2, and ECP Ravenswood 3F.
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Butt…butt I love my warm butt AKM DAC chips 
but I will say l’m slowly converting to only the Bifrost2 as my primary DAC!
In all seriousness, what you said is very accurate! Synergy in your chain is important as well as how well the gear was implemented.
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What does this mean?
I always thought ESS chipsets were ‘bright’.
(“Warm butt” means elevated low-end, I assume.)
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good question Luke!
I would refer to the SMSL SU-8(ESS) sound as “brittle” and less velvet or smooth, if compared to the RME ADI 2 fs (4493)
if a surface is grey, it is less plain vs a pure white, silky smooth one - if this makes any sense?!
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I think the key phrase in @ProfFalkin’s post is “poorly implemented.” Any of those can be executed horribly.
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Very important note there. I am not the most knowledgeable about DAC chips, but from what I gather it has more to do with implementation and design, than the actual chip. So, referring to just the chip, doesn’t tell much. Correct me if I am wrong.
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It’s true you need to know more than the IC involved to say much about a specific DAC’s output.
But the vast majority of DACs out there use “reference” or “data sheet” designs. Which, assuming done competently, don’t vary much based whether InkyWanky Corp or DodgyDoo Inc is doing them. As such, for these majority-case designs, the choice of IC dictates the features used (usually ALL of them, as it saves complexity and cost elsewhere), and thereby the reference design, so you wind up with fundamentally the same thing.
And since that’s the majority implementation, it tends to be what gets described as that IC (or a complete chipsets) sound, because that’s what most people wind up hearing.
It’s a bit of a lazy habit … but then so are most DAC designs/implementations.
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Grey is very vague. Insert your own term for etched or sharp.
Warm is also vague. The hd650 is considered warm, but it’s not an elevated low end kind of warm. I think warm is used for anything North of neutral in any part of the spectrum, but others may disagree.
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Got it!
Thanks for clarifying. I’m pretty much in agreement with your assessment (with my limited exposure to dacs).
Thanks, I’ll check these out! I might lean towards tube amps from what people are bringing up since I have the ADI-2 Dac (the most recent version). It seems like ZMF and Senns will work nicely with the same tube amps, but not so sure about the Grado HF-2. I could always just run that out from my RME.
Thanks for taking your time to give me these recommendations. I have some field research to do! I think I might agree with you about getting a tube amp to mix things up a bit since I do have the updated version of the DAC fs. I had a feeling that the VC and HD650 would play nicely together, but was hoping to find something that would work well with the HF-2. I guess I could always run that out from the RME. It’ll be a lot of fun to check these all out!
Many tube amps(but not all) are OTL designs,which typically do not work well with low impedance headphones such as your Grados.
One exception that I know of(there may be others) is the Glenn OTL,which sounds phenomenal with ZMF headphones,HD650 and all other high impedance headphones as well as Grados,K701 and most other low impedance headphones,including many planar headphones as well.
Downside to owning a Glenn is a wait time for a build,but as you said you like to buy the best once and be done with it. Glenn is a good way to be done with amp rolling.
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Thanks! Yea, it’s why I didn’t list the BH Crack since I know that doesn’t work well with low impedance phones. I was hoping that the ZMF Pendant and Feliks Elise might do better, but as I’m reading more reviews, it doesn’t seem like they would work as well with Grado despite their marketing. I’ve read a lot of mentions of the Glenn OTL, but not sure how long I would need to wait, and the fact that I probably won’t be able to demo it easily. I’m going to look into though.
You do not want to pair any OTL amplifier with Grados.
At least not unless it specifically designed to drive low-impedance headphones.
It’s just the nature of the (OTL) beast …
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