Best Headphone for Headline

[anon82117578]

Thank you for your apology but there is no need to apologise because I have not been offended by any of your posts.

[Dunc]

Thats good, i had a look inside mine at all the dip switches and as yet haven’t altered any, but the gain ones could be interesting to see what they do, in regards to volume position, sound quality, also the different ground options, got mine set to the xlr inputs as i run true balanced all the way back to the rossini, but again not tried the other settings as yet.
Will you be using the pre outs? Or just headphone amp only?

We should really start a new thread as this doesn’t have much to do with the original thread question

[Thegreatroberto]

Haha. Yep. Violectric 281 owners thread. Doubt there would be many others.
Just using mine as an amp. No DAC ( got qutest). Single ended inputs from my MF nu vista pre amp. Then balanced out to whatever headphones I get. Doubt I’ll use the pre outs. The Gain for those is inside apparently. Violectric seam happy for their to play inside. No disclaimers about warranty. Just the usual H and S stuff.
I wanted an amp that could drive any headphones. I think the 281 could double up as a MMA welding set too!

[razzzor1963]

Hi Bruce!

To benefit from a balanced headphone set-up, it is important for the headphone amplifier to have a discrete-design.

A true balanced set-up has two discrete amplifiers driving the headphone.

In my opinion, balanced amplification is beneficial to owners of a flagship headphone (Focal Utopia, Hifiman HE1000se, Abyss AB-1266, etc.) who want to squeeze a bit more performance out of their headphone. It is a “tweak” similar to changing the stock cable or the ear pads.

I would love to hear from other members who enjoy balanced amplification with their headphone.

[feeling_zen]

I think it is critical to remember that there is no such thing as a Headline headphone amp. On it’s own it does nothing.

Headline/NAPSC
Headline/FC
Headline/HC
Headline/SC

Are 4 distinctly different headphone amps with different capabilities. Especially between NAPSC and the other power supplies because there is a 3v difference in output. I found that some headphones really need the beefier power supplies to come alive. HL/NAPSC into HD800 for example is a bit meh. HL/HC on the other hand is another thing entirely.

[suzywong]

Whereas I felt there was very little difference between an olive HC and NAPSC on my Olive Headline Into HD650. I haven’t yet tried using my HC on my Headline 2, and I’m intrigued by Richard’s suggestion of running the HL/HL2 from s Supercap (olive naturally). One for an afternoon in lockdown…

Perhaps even a “coronavirus, made me do it, Dear” new pair of headphones might be on the cards…could headphones count as Essential Purchases?.

[Michaelb]

The Supercap is transformative, as one might imagine. I never really go on with the HD650, especially on bass detail and general PRaT…

[olive72140]

I’ve recently upgraded the power supply for my Headline from napsc to flatcap, and in my all olive setup with Senn HD600 the quality uplift is significant. The Headline and napsc were both serviced in 2019, as was the recently purchased flatcap (all by Class A) so I feel the comparison a valid one.
The decision to buy the flatcap was definitely a “coronavirus made me do it” one as I found myself using headphones so much more with no daily structure to keep social hours, and not wishing to annoy ajoining flat occupants!! Tom Tom service was excellant! The one negative though is I hadn’t truly appreciated the physical size of an olive flatcap box, and it looks rather ugly to me next to my shoebox 72/hc/140 and when restrictions are lifted I’m pretty likely to try to change again for an olive hc, offseting by reselling the napsc and flatcap!! In the meantime the sound is great, and a Qobuz subscription means I’ll never run out of new music!