Headphone Amplifier Tier List!

Below, is a list of everything mentioned for your convenience :)
S-TIER:
A-Tier
B-Tier
C-Tier
D-Tier
F-Tier

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#Headphone​​​ #Amplifier #TierList

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[BoostedBill]

As an audiophile noob, keep the tier lists coming. It’s a HUGE help

[camoturtle]

Updated headphone tier list with DMS would be amazing, keep it in mind!! (:

[ernievarhola]

Really surprised the THX789 doesn't even get listed considering it's the only amp anyone could talk about a couple years ago...

[JohnScheppler]

There are so many headphone amplifiers, but a few a wish were included the Nitsch Schiit Piety, Drop THX One and Little Dot. Thanks for these lists, and I hope you feel better soon.

[Allaces]

Dx3 pro + is amazing price vs. performance... definitely a great buy and it sounds right there with the best topping makes plus it's feature loaded. At $200 it's hard to beat... On sale it's crazy.

[CockatooDude]

An amp I think is heavily underrated is the iFi Zen Can (NOT the Dac). It has all the relevant features of the more expensive iFi products like xBass and 3D, it has a ton of power, balanced outs and pre-outs, and sounds super god damn clean to the point where I'm not sure why people are spending thousands on amps for headphones, or even spending big money on headphone amps in the first place. For under 200 dollars it really is a steal, and it's even built really well too. Super smooth knob and all metal chassis, not flimsy cheap metal either. I run mine with an E30 and Avantone Planars and I'll die on the hill that it sounds better than most setups costing triple what mine does. Not to mention that if your headphones have large drivers but are slightly bass shy, the xBass is really what you need to get them sounding full. It only boosts sub-bass (60 Hz and down) and does it kind of dynamically so percussion is affected more than something like a bass drone would be.

For another system I think is good; this is some oldschool shit, but a setup I remember super fondly was the original HD800's paired with a DNA Stratos tube amp and a Matrix something or other (maybe Xsabre?) DAC. This was back in 2013, when the go-to option for high end headphones was the original HD800, which was famously amp-picky. However it paired fabulously with the DNA Stratos, made every song I played through it sounded like I was in a concert hall, crazy width but without losing any detail. I will say that the width was artificial, it was definitely not there if you played the same song through some highly accurate monitoring headphones, but I've never heard another set of headphones sound as much like speakers as that set.

As for amps I think are not good... anything costing huge money unless it's bringing some special feature to the table. I can understand why speaker amps are expensive: high power + high precision is very expensive to achieve unless you have GaN class D, and even that costs thousands. However with a headphone amp you could have pure class A if you wanted to because your transient peaks are at like what, 15, 20 watts even for hard to drive headphones? I am of the opinion that a pure headphone amp (no auxiliary features) should not be costing more than 2k for any reason. I'll extend that up to 4k if it has features or an integrated DAC or something like that.

[jafizzle]

Well, based on my limited experience of only a handful of amps, the 789 is my personal S tier seeing as it really doesn't leave me wanting anything more and it's driven me to sell/get rid of a few others that I've tried because they all sound worse. The A90D is in my sights for another clean and linear king at some point in the future. Right behind the 789 is the M17 even though it's a DAP. I use it for desktop use at work every day. I put it behind the 789 just because it lacks a tiny bit of bite (texture?) that the 789 has that I love so much. It's still clean and linear though and that's what I like.

The most disappointing amp I've tried is the FiiO K9 (AKM). It blunted the treble while still somehow adding sibilance and harshness where literally no other amp I have tried shows either trait on the same roster of headphones/IEMs. If I desired those traits then I'd rather mace myself and shove a sock down my ear canal to get the same effect. Also I hate the interface. Those puny little cheap feeling switches that require a flashlight to use, the volume knob that wobbled and felt like a paddle in mud.... It's big, heavy, and runs hot to the point that it concerned me. Hate that thing so much.

[PHILIPP_ONLINE]

S tier - BURSON Soloist x3 GT, one of the best amps I’ve heard and owned.
F tier - never thought about it, but I was shocked that HD 800s sounds really good on Burson (I could listen to it without eq easy) and how sharp, piercing and flat they are on D90, but D90 relatively affordable… so for F tier (from what I owned) - Musician Andromeda. Not the worst overall, but power is not it’s strong suite. For AMP it’s crucial in my opinion.

[isbuttery]

Love the list, just wish some more tube amp were included. Recently got the mt-604 and would definitely put it in S tier after about 4 months of use. Was able to get it for 100$ usd, and genuinely just sounds great (tube-ish but not over dramatic, makes eqing easier imo) with enough power to drive everything I own. Would put the khadas tea in F tier, its great for convince and has a warm neutral-ish signature, it doesnt really come close to the resolution of bt dac amps half its price (btr5 and quedelix 5k), and i didnt end up keeping it

[sergiygonchar]

Consider keeping this list a live list, published online and updated every time you get an amp .. though you may need different categories like build quality vs sound. Would be immensely useful for someone 4 years down the line who found a thing on used market and wants to know if it was any good.

[tomas_m]

So this is a value tier list ... I'd rather see a ranking not relative to the prices. Everyone could derive the value proposition from that, but not so easily the other way around.

[RandyDaMan]

S Tier- Audio GD Master 9-
F- Tier - Most op amp based amplifiers except for the Burson stuff.

[arthurhaywood]

I think that this list says more about your preferences than it does about the actual equipment. Your list seem to be an outlier relative to others I’ve seen.

[Firebottleman]

Why so many people are stuck on how a component measures is beyond me. Our ears and the music we listen to are anything but flat. We are not machines. Sources and amps should be flat, but most cans and speakers that are, do not sound natural or pleasing to the human ear. The design teams and engineers that make our stereo components are finally starting to make good sounding gear that is musical and enjoyable once again. These said stereo components measure anything but ruler flat. It's about time as far as I'm concerned. Why do you think so many people nowadays have turned back to buy various stereo components from the seventies and eighties? Because we weren't fixated on measurements, just good sound, if we had the right synergy. Thanks for the video Josh. These are a lot of work.

[coltonbardy]

How would the IFI Zen Dac 2 compare? I know it is a DAC/AMP combo but how would it rank compared to these on the list?

[brook]

What about the THX 789/887 that you once recommended? Which tier would they be in?

[ninja_boy]

I know there's not a lot of talk of portable amplifiers on this channel, but would be nice to see how the Fiio Q7 and the iFi Gryphon stack up. Or any iFi product, like the Zen CAN or the Zen DAC! Because to me, the Zen DAC V2 is absolutely S-tier for its price point and its sound quality. I'm not sure about F-tier, I just haven't heard that many bad ones. Some Schiit Magnis have noisy volume knobs and I've had that with more than one (lots of crackling in the right channel). To me that's unacceptable, so that might move them into F-tier.

[oliverjr]

Ay bro, just wanted to let you know that the audio on your videos is consistently top-tier. Bought a pair of LCD-2's, but had some stuff to do before I could actually listen to music. Decided to listen to some youtube vids in the background while I worked, and my first "Whoa" moment with them was when one of your vids popped up in the queue. Love your content, keep doing your thing!

[damienvalites]

How come I've never seen you review or "rank" the RME ADI-2 DAC FS?

[radinan]

It's funny to see how tastes differ, I bought the Lyr + for my Arya and I'm very happy with it, it's exactly what I needed to tame these headphones brightness in the upper range and it's very fun to roll the tube to get different flavors. I even directly compared it to the Pro Ican Signature (4 times more expensive than le Lyr) but I returned it and kept the Lyr.