irbaboon

Very nice work. Love the black/white colour scheme.

Yea I know the Little Dot 2 is more than enough to drive the headphones but main reason that I'm looking to trade the LD2+ is to get something more portable for use with my Ety HF5. Tubes sounded good with the SR60 but with the HD555, it just makes the sound too mellow and smooth. I really like the amp though, since it's my first tube amp. The tubes are already well burnt-in so no issues there. Another question: Which affect SQ more, the preamp tubes (smaller ones?) or the output tubes? The output tubes are still stock, but the preamps are Mullard. Thanks for the replies so far.

Okay nice. I'll have to do a little reading first before heading down. Any estimates on the price of a pair of tubes?

Yep, my Little Dot 2+ are up for trade but I'm willing to fork out some money for some new tubes first just for experimentation purposes. Right now I'm using Mullard EF92 W77 tubes, but the sound is way too warm and the bass sounds kinda loose. It worked great with Grados but Sennheisers sound too mellow. Any ideas on what types of tubes that will give a more balanced sound signature? I'm really blur when it comes to these things. If you included the price/where to get that'd be great also. So far I've only found stock Schiit tubes for sale but the price is just too steep. I'm only wtb tubes locally, since I'm not really familiar with ebay, paypal, etc. Thanks in advance.

Superlux models? Only available from woodwerkz, though. They don't allow auditions so you have to rely on online reviews.

I wonder what more Grado can come up with, without actually coming up with new designs. Apparently the Magnums sound a lot better than the Grado drivers.. wonder how they stack up against the PS500 anyhow, OP, I'm not sure what the ES7 sounds like. But if it's warm and bassy, then the HD555 would be perfect. Or if you want something cheaper, maybe the HD438. It's a slightly less detailed and boomier version of the HD555.

Dalethorn, are you comparing both running from the same rig? I've only heard Grados from the Prestige line but they have a very small soundstage, and are not very revealing. @OP Try the Sennheiser HD555/595/558/598. The HD555 and HD595 use the same parts, so there's no reason to get the HD595, unless you want a headphone clamp. You can look around for used pairs which can go for less than S$200, especially if they're Amazon sets. Good bass impact, warm sound, very comfortable. Doesn't need any amplification, runs fine out of an ipod. The biggest flaw with them is that they sound quite muddy if you don't turn the volume up.