Headphone amp advice

[jpfreestyler]

Hi,

I have just bought some Grado 225i headphones ,they sound much better than my old sennheiser 475's. I am considering buying a headphone amp. Currently I am using the headphone stage in an Arcam A32.

I guess a project headbox mk2 will not be much better than the Arcam ? I have also looked at musical fidelity Xcan v2's on ebay, but its a bit of a gamble.

What about a Graham Slee Novo, will that be an upgrade from the Arcam ?

How good is the headphone stage in the Arcam vs a headphone amp ?

Thanks for the advice

[ShaunG]

As you rightly guessed the Project Headbox II is not much better than your average integrated amp's headphone output. The Project is really designed for providing a headphone output when none is provided, e.g. on a TV or amp with no headphone socket.

I'm afraid I don't know how good the headphone output stage on the Arcam A32 is, so it's difficult to say if the Graham Slee Novo would be a big improvement. The Novo is an great little amp.

The Graham Slee Solo is the reference that other amps are judged by, so if budget can stretch that far is definitely worth considering. I would be very surprised if the Solo was not a significant upgrade from the Arcam A32.

At HiFi Headphones we do offer all out amps on 14 day money back guarantee, so we'd be happy for you to try any of the amps out and if it didn't work out you could return the amp for a full refund.