HD650 and possibly speakers (in the future) - Crack or SEX?

[Loquah]

Hi all,

Late to the party here, but I have a question to clarify amp/headphone pairing before buying my step-up kit. I built my first kit, the Crack with Speedball, 6 weeks ago. I love it so much, that I now also want to drive loudspeakers with a tube amp. I'm trying to decide whether I should sell my Crack to a friend so I can upgrade to an S.E.X. 2.1, or complicate my home setup with two amps, the Crack plus a dedicated loudspeaker amp.

I use Sennheiser HD600s. It's clear to me that the Crack is designed for high-impedance cans, whereas the S.E.X. is always described as "versatile." What's not clear to me is: will the S.E.X. be versatile enough to drive my HD600s, or do I need to get lower-impedance headphones?

(Note, I've scanned the forums, and I really got a lot out of Loquah's detailed comparison on Head Fi! Thanks to this community for being so helpful and inclusive!)

Derek

Been away for a while, but just saw this...

The S.E.X. will be a great match with the HD600s. It's a brighter, more spacious presentation than the Crack so don't expect as much of a seductive, lush sound as people talk about from the Crack, but it will also drive basically any normal headphone (including most orthos) you can throw at it. FWIW the S.E.X. is still with me, but the Crack has officially been replaced by the Mainline - the S.E.X. is just too good to part with, even with the Mainline in house.

[crackaddict]

Oh man, that makes things complicated! :-)

I had just decided to build a Steremour and stick with the Crack + Speedball as my headphone amp: two amps is always better than one, right? One great loudspeaker amp and one great headphone amp.

On the other hand, I think this is just an intermediate step, with a Mainline project in my future, maybe a year from now...

Derek

[Loquah]

I haven't tried the Steremour because I have active B&O speakers, but I would imaging the Steremour + Mainline combo would be the ultimate combination for both speaker and headphone listening. As good as the S.E.X. is, the Mainline is better.

[crackaddict]

Agreed! My Steremour shipped today, so I'll be enjoying that plus my Crack for now. Some day in the future that Mainline will be entering my household I'm sure!