As PBirket will know (because he does too), I listen to a lot of music through headphones...

So, my newest electrical purchase is one of these:

http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/ha1mk2.htm

"Hand Made in Germany"...

Super piece of PCB design. I trust it sounds as good as it looks.

Thanks Bryan... I'll let you know when it gets here!

Looks like the basics are there - good quality tracks, high quality components too.

Looks quality. I'm after a headphone amp too as it happens. Got a pair of Grado SR60's which are fairly wasted being driven on just my laptop. Was that little fella expensive?

A used one went for

If you want to get a basic headphone amp that will sounds LOTS better than your standard headphone jack...

www.evilfire.com

I have one of his amps, and for what it cost, it really does sound good...

... just not as good as the one I've bought (I hope!).

Sweet! Just ordered one of those little things. It looks great, can't wait for it to arrive.

I'm surprised you didnt go for the ANT Amber

I had the original HA-1... it was ok, but all a little clinical and characterless for me, but that said, the HA-1 mk2 is meant to be a lot better. Enjoy it

Heh...

I was offered a used ANT Amber for

I'm still using the Amber ATM - i know what you say about its looks, but i've forgotten about that now, the sound is truly excellent, and its the only amp i've owned for more than a couple of months (i've had it for 10 months now). I'm still using the DT531 too, theres just something i really like about those cans - decent impact, lively sound, and just soo comfy

Well, my amp arrived and somehow jinxed both of my headphones:

My Shure E3C's left hand "tube" snapped off inside my ear, leaving the foam tip stuck in there, and my DT-531's right driver started farting.

The Shures are being swapped under warranty, and I removed a thin paper-like dust shield from under the foam which had split on my Beyer's which was causing the vibration. Beyer UK Tech told me that it shouldn't affect the sound, and so far, I can't hear any difference.

So, after fixing up my DT's, I can safely say that the Corda is conciderably better than my cMoy, although you have to listen for the differences. I'm sure a casual listener would probably say they sounded the same, but the Corda just sounds SO much more fluid and far less bright.

I'm not one for spending much time burning hardware in (except of course speakers and headphones)... I just let this amp come to room temperature for about an hour before powering it up, then i've left it powered on since I got it while listening to music through it. It's nice and warm now (the case, not the sound lol) so I'm just enjoying it right now.

I really need a better USB DAC though, as the one that I was given at the Nottingham Head-Fi meet, while sounding pretty good, has some very strange digital noise when high frequencies are played through it.

I've been thinking about the Turtle Beach USB thing, but I'm not sure it'll be much different as it also upsamples to 48k, which I'd rather it didn't do.

At the moment I'm just listening to my iPod with Pocketdock Line Out and some QED QNEX2 RCA's (with a gold-plated 3.5mm to RCA adapter) and it sounds lovelly.

We should hook up sometime! I'd like to compare the Amber to the MKII

Well, my amp arrived and somehow jinxed both of my headphones

My Evilfire Apheared 47 came a few days ago too, and the first time I powered it up, the left side of my Grados were slightly imperfect - there was something wrong, seemed like they were just about reaching their limits, but I hadn't turned it up much at all :( Tried them out again the next day and the sound was wonderful, I'm not sure what was going on, but they have apparantly fixed themselves.

Anyway, hooked up to a Sony portable CD player, and the amp makes a great difference, there is so much more depth, its great! I tried it out on my Empeg as well - the sound is very clean, and there is a lot more volume available but it has to be said the difference is not all that much. Connected to my Powerbook is a similar story. There is a slight difference, but it does depend on what you are listening to. Streaming MP3s through iTunes and there is hardly any point using the amp, its going to make little difference. But last night in bed listening to Madeleine Peyroux on FLAC through XMMS, and it just couldn't be better

Hehehe

Welcome to the world of Head-Fi:

www.head-fi.org

"Sorry about your wallet"

You really need to use a Line Out, rather than plugging the amp into a headphone out of your source, because it's the built-in headphone amp of your source that you need to avoid.

Try plugging your amp into a CD Seperate, using an RCA to 3.5mm lead.

I think you'll be impressed.