Looking for some gear for my Sennheiser HD 518

Dr. Brown · 1622

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Offline Dr. Brown

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on: May 23, 2014, 04:50:00 PM
Hello everyone,

I recently acquired a pair of Sennheiser HD 518s from my grandmother for my birthday and I was wondering what sort of gear would be good to pair with it? I walked in to a headphone store in Bozeman, MT and feel in love with the sound of these guys, and for under 100$ hard to say no! When I was listening at the store the headphones where paired with a Hifiman EF-2A and now that I have them, I feel like there is something missing. I was hoping that you guys would be able to help me find out what sort of gear would be good to get to complement the sound of these headphones.

Also, I am just starting to get into DIY electronics and I love the idea of these kits, but when it comes to audiophile grade equipment, I am lost as to what I am looking for. Any advice on what to look for or some good intro to audiophileness(?) articles and stuff would be awesome!

Being a broke college student, budget options would be wonderful, but I would like to see what there is all out there.

P.S. I will mostly be using the headphones with my computer for music and video games. (My setup is attached for kicks and gigles (: )


Offline Paul Birkeland

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Reply #1 on: May 23, 2014, 06:00:09 PM
These are a very efficient, fairly low impedance headphone.  The best matches for them in our lineup would be the SEX or the Mainline, but at the same time there are some folks using the Crack with headphones of this impedance who report good results. 

There are loads and loads of inexpensive solid state amps that will work well for these.  There are also loads and loads of hybrid (tube/solid state) amps worth looking at.  Be very wary of a hybrid amp that uses a low voltage supply for the tube section, as this can make driving the amplifier harder than driving your headphones.


Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man

Offline JamieMcC

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Reply #2 on: May 23, 2014, 10:29:09 PM
Doing some research over on the headfi forums will be helpful.

Shoot for the moon if you miss you will still be amongst the stars!

Offline aragorn723

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Reply #3 on: May 24, 2014, 02:47:07 AM
I have 2 pairs of headphones-Sennheiser wireless ones (can't remember the model), and Grado SR 125s.  They are hooked up to an Audioengine D1 DAC (24 bit, 192 khz) thru optical out from a macbook.  The sound is very detailed, non-fatiguing, and has very deep/clean bass.  Highly recommend the Audioengine/Sennheizer combo (the Audioengine has a built in headphone amp as well). 

Dave 


Offline Dr. Brown

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Reply #4 on: May 24, 2014, 03:56:50 AM
Thank you for the replies!

I have heard of the Audioengine D1 and I looked into it and that looks like a great option! Right now my three major contenders would be the D1, the Crack, and the HifiMan EF-2A. Does anyone have any experience with all of these?

I am also looking for something that will do a good job with any audiophile headphones I pick up in the future. Would one of those three be more future proof then the rest?

Thanks again for the replies!


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