Tube Nube

[bubba_pa]

New to forum, only tubes owned were old Luxman 3045's (sweet in their day).  I am very intrigued by the numerous posts applauding the Bottlehead kits.  I am interested in a proper headphone amp (kit) for an equally old pair of Yamaha HP-1 phones (currently unmodded).  I did try the search, but was coming up empty of the best recommendation between the S.E.X. and Crack.  I tried to sort out the fact that they are 130 ohm headphones and require decent power, but got confused when trying to select the proper output impedence of the amp to match with the headphones.  Kind of felt like giving up.

Can someone just help a tired guy out who would like to have some fun building a decent kit?  Which of the Bottlehead headphone amps would fit my purpose?  Light listening, classical, jazz, R&B not too loud, vinyl and CD.

Thanks.  Looks like an incredible site! I'm offline for a while but will check back when I can.

[fromnowon]

First, welcome!
This is a great forum full of helpful people.
I'm wondering if you saw this:
https://bottlehead.com/which-amp-should-i-buy-for-my-headphones/
Good luck with your decisions.

[bubba_pa]

Thanks for welcome.  Yes, I did see that link.  In part that added to my confusion.  After searching seemingly endless threads some responses said that OTL amps weren’t compatible with the higher impedance of the HP-1’s, yet others seemed to disagree.  I tend to over think things and then never move forward.

If I am understanding correctly, the Crack should be fully compatible with HP-1’s and I certainly like the price better.  Don’t want to invest a lot of time and $$ only to find out I was wrong.  Been there, done that too many times.

Any input (high or low impedance) is always welcomed.

[Doc B.]

Even though 130 ohms would be considered a relatively high impedance headphone that is actually a little lower than we recommend for use with the Crack amp, which is best with headphones of around 200 ohms or higher. The S.E.X. amp would be a solid choice.

[bubba_pa]

There’s the response I was looking for.  Thank you.  I also mis-spoke in above post, I had seen some other discussion that didn’t like the Yamaha orthodynamic’s with the Crack.  I will focus on the S.E.X.