Sennheiser hd820 or hd800s with Naim Amp Question

[lakitu]

Hi,

I am buying either the Sennheiser HD820's or the HD800's next week and would like to avoid if possible having to buy the pre amp HDV 820 Sennheiser produce as it's £2000.

I have a Naim Nait 5i which I use currently with The Naim CD Player does anyone know if the Naim Nait 5i will work ok or well enough with these headphones or will I will really missing out not buying the balance Sennheiser pre amp, whatever that means.

While I love music my knowledge on these things is poor.

 

[PapaLazaru]

They deserve a dedicated amp at least, though you can get away with spending less than £2K on the Sennheiser one.

Schiit Jotunheim 2 would be a good choice for less than £500 if you can get one.

 

[Radox-0]

Definitely will want a dedicated headphone Amp. Will want to first decide between the 800s or 820s and ideally listen to them as quiet different. Personally I settled on the 800s.

Headphone amp wise, do not need to buy the Sennheiser one, infact for 2k heard better pairings with it then that, but all personally preference. The Jotunheim 2 suggested above is a very good shout and pair well with the HD800s and is a general all around solid DAC / AMP.

I personally use the Schitt Biforst DAC going into the Valhalla AMP and Asgard AMP, lets me go between the two depending on flavour of music I want and as I have other headphones, but the Jotunheim 2 is a lovely single box solution. Only problem is stock can be hard to get in UK.

 

[rids57]

A better shout than the single box solution Jot (would still need the DAC module) would be a Schiit Modius DAC feeding a Jotunheim 2 (no module), the Modius provides excellent balanced output (better than SE) and with a balanced cable to the headphones would provide a balanced end to end solution - otherwise there is little point in getting the Jot and the Asgard 3 or Lyr 3 would be just as good single ended. As already noted, stock is currently an issue in the UK and Jason Stoddard has said that they are primarily a direct sell company and that people buying from their US based site will always get priority over sites like Schiit UK (Electromod). I waited many months for UK stock of Bifrost 2 and eventually gave up and bought an SMSL SU-9 (DAC) and SH-9 (THX Amp) stack, which I am very happy with.