Reddit mentions of Bravo Audio Ocean Mini Valve Class A Tube Headphone Amplifier

As mentioned in other comments, the usual suspects from Schiit's budget-friendly selection are a good start:

• Amplifiers: Schiit Magni 2 or Schiit Vali 2
  
• DAC: Schiit Modi 2
  
  As for products not made by Schiit, any of these will give you good performance for the price:
  
  Amplifiers:
  
  
• JDS Labs Objective2
  
• Bravo Audio Ocean
  
• Little Dot I+
  
  DACs:
  
  
• JDS Labs OL DAC
  
• Micca Origen+
  
  Now I can't guarantee that all of these amps will reliably drive the AKG K712 Pro with authority or anything, but they should all be able to let you use them without turning the volume up to 11.
  
  Hope this helps :)
  
  Edit: Ok so smaller USB-powereds are not sufficient for the AKGs, as pointed out by the commenters below (Thanks for correcting). That would explain why I perceived so much improvement upgrading from the E18 :P

Just bought some new 'AKG K7XX Massdrop Limited Edition Headphones' and am looking to get an amp for them :D I will use these for music listening at my office (via PC and Spotify) and on my home system which includes a PC w/ Spotify, turntable w/ pre-amp, PC w/ my music library and a lot of FLACs

Options I've been looking at:

• SMSL Q5 Pro DAC/Amp - $100
  
  
• Gemtune APPJ 1502A Tube Headphone Amplifier - $150
  
  
• TEAC HA-P50 Portable Headphone DAC/Amp - $150
  
  
• Bravo Ocean Tube Amplifier - $95
  
  
  Right now I'm leaning towards the APPJ or TEAC but would love some feedback from /r/audiophile! Note: The prices are from Massdrop, not the site linked

Add a headphone amp between the turntable and speaker:

• Monoprice $69. Also has a DAC USB input for your computer.
  
• Bravo Audio Ocean Mini $75.
  
• Schiit Magni $99.
  
• JDS Labs Atom $99
  
• Liquid Spark $109.
  
  Then do you also want to upgrade your speaker to a pair of speakers? What is your budget after the headphone amp?

Hey, just thought I'd give you an update since you helped me so much. I'm currently in the middle of saving up to buy furniture and stuff for my new home (because I'm done living the squatters college life), so I'm a bit tight on budget. I still 100% plan on buying the LCD2C in a month or 2 after my saving is done, but I decided to go out on a limb and buy an amp to kind of get a baseline of how much better it makes the quality and I wanted an amp that would serve me for multiple headphones for a while until I could save up for better equipment. Also wanted a good baseline and not drop too much when I didn't know what i was doing.

​

So, I did some research and found this little guy for $90.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A2QKSVI/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza

​

It came in the mail today and I've been grooving to the beat the whole day. What I noticed before is still true now, but the amp really brought my headphones alive more than they even had been before. And for a pretty cheap price, I think it's a good baseline (even though I don't know what a good baseline is because this is my first amp) I still wanted to thank you again!


You've helped a lot! And I'm excited to get my new LCD2C and hear the difference with those and the HD650's!

It's this one: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B00A2QKSVI/ref=pd_aw_sim_sbs_23_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=HSTM5XFPEM1MYNQK629D&dpPl=1&dpID=41pSnd%2Bb%2BPL

I'm running it into Sennheiser 598s

Yeah I know that's the price everywhere right now, but I thought I remembered them usually being around 4-500 Canadian, I just don't know if the price was always that low or if it's actually a sale.

I use the Behringer UMC-404 with my DT-1350's right now. I'm a little wary of using an audio interface as a headphone amp, but I feel the 1350's do benefit from it.

....maybe I'll buy a dedicated amp this boxing week idn.

EDIT: perhaps this(Bravo Audio Ocean Tube amp) connected to the line out of my UMC-404?

I have a pair of 598s I use for gaming as well as music production/listening to music. They sounded great before I added an amp. After I added an amp, however, they sounded amazing. An amp for these headphones is not necessary for quality sound, but if you have the extra cash it definitely makes a difference.

This is the amp I'm using by the way. Coupled with a xonar dx soundcard.

https://www.amazon.com/Bravo-Audio-Ocean-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B00A2QKSVI

DAC : https://www.amazon.com/SMSL-Audio-M3-Powered-Decoder/dp/B019Y5TR6O

AMP : https://www.amazon.com/Bravo-Audio-Ocean-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B00A2QKSVI

is this any good ?

It's strong enough to power nearly any headphones, but I don't know, I am always a little nervous of Monoprice audio gear. It's kind of... meh.

I am sure you'd get better performance at a better price out of something by Topping, SMSL or similar.

And at the same price point there's this which seems to get great reviews: Bravo Audio Ocean Headphone Amp