Headphone amp combo ideas?

04-29-12: Podeschi
Headline looks cool - never heard it before. I imagine Naims pace and punch would be a good match. It's specs show it should easily drive 600 ohm T1s. Nice thing about Beyerdynamic A1 head amp is I bet they voiced te T1s with it, it has two inputs and an output.

Headline specs:
Suitable for headphones
8 Ohms to 2 KOhms

Frequency response
-3dB @ 10Hz & 72kHz

Power output (into 8 Ohms)
560mW per channel

Max output voltage
3.7V rms into 2kOhms

Voltage gain
+13.5dB

Dimensions (H x W x D):
57 x 121 x 187mm

Noting that this headphone amp outputs 0.56W/ch into 8 Ohms, I do not see how this amp can effectively power a 600 Ohms headphone. It will run out of voltage swing very quickly as the power supply rails are not large enough in terms of voltage.
I also note that it outputs 3.7Vrms into 2KOhms. So, if you had a 600 Ohms headphone your max line output voltage would be linearly scaled 600Ohms/2Kohms * 3.7Vrms = 1.11Vrms. Maybe 1.11Vrms is enough to drive a 600 Ohms headphone? Maybe not.....

OTOH I see that there are a multitude of power supplies available for this headphone amp such as NAPSC, FlatCap XS, HiCap, SuperCap. If you got the "correct" NAIM power supply to match up with the "correct" headphone then I could see how this amp could be "Suitable for headphones 8Ω to 2KΩ".
I think that there is something hidden/not obvious re. this headphone amp in that, I feel, that one cannot take any headphone & any powersupply & be successful. It might cost you a bomb (the power supplies are EXPENSIVE!!) to successfully drive a 600 Ohms headphone.
If I were you I would not take the "Suitable for headphones 8Ω to 2KΩ." at face value.....
IMHO. FWIW.

Bombaywalla, you raise a good concern about voltage swing capability, considering the 600 ohm impedance of the T1's, but I don't think that your analysis is quite right. Consider that 0.56W into 8 ohms corresponds to about 2.1 volts. Surely the amp will be able to put more voltage into 600 ohms than into 8 ohms.

Within the limits of the amp's current capability, its output voltage capability will scale down as load impedance decreases based on the relation between the load impedance and its output impedance. It can be calculated from the two sets of figures (3.7V into 2K, and 560mW into 8 ohms) that the output impedance is about 6 ohms. That is essentially negligible with respect to 600 ohms, so the voltage capability into 600 ohms will be close to 3.7V. That corresponds to about 23 mW.

The specs for the T1 shown here indicate a sensitivity of 102 db/mW (which is typical of many headphones). 23 mW will therefore drive the phones to an SPL of almost 116 db.

For most listeners that would seem likely to provide enough margin so that non-linearities (and consequent sonic degradation) that may occur as the amp's voltage swing limits are approached will not come into play. But if material having very wide dynamic range will be listened to, such as well engineered minimally compressed classical symphonic music, which IME may for some works reach peaks of about 105 db, I would be hesitant to go with that combination.

Best regards,
-- Al

That's why I kept it simple and bought the matching A1 headphone amp.