great headphone amplification in vintage gear?


I am currently powering some Denon AH-D7000 headphones with an old Luxman L480 integrated and to my ears, it sounds noticeably better than a dedicated Headphone amp Musical Hall 25! The Luxman has a little more hiss than the MH but only noticeable when music is quiet, still it is so much more musical to my ears!
So I was wondering if there is other vintage preamps, amplifiers, integrated amps or receivers known for having great headphone amplification out there?
Thanks!
csacred
Any of the old NAD 7100 series receivers have a really good headphone amp in them.
I too have a MH25 and am want for something better. I recently auditioned the Luxman SQ-38u integrated and it was hands down the best "headphone" amp I've ever heard. Even though it didn't work with my speakers (ProAc) I was tempted to buy it anyway to pair with my AKg 702's and change speakers. Alas, the $6,000 price tag dashed those thoughts.

I think the key is that Luxman are Class A amps for the most part (not sure of your L480, but seems likely) where the Music Hall is A/B. I was going to start a similar thread looking for Class A HPAs, but your idea of just looking for a vintage integrated might be the ticket.

If you pick something up, let me know - I'll be curious of your thoughts.
Hi, I realize that this is an older thread but I am going to purchase a pair of audio technica m50x headphones this weekend as my first venture into headphones. My question is that while I continue to get a feel for headphone amps and additional cans, can I safely use a Yamaha CR820 receiver in the meantime? Any potential issues to be considered. And hopefully not a totally dumb question, do I have to have a set of speakers hooked up to avoid damaging the receiver? Thanks much, and Happy 4th to all!! Thanks, Dave
Dave I would not risk it. Some amps are designed to have a load across the ouput terminals of the receiver/ amp when powered on. You would not know without asking Yamaha. You can always send an online inquiry to Yamaha tech support although they may take a day or 2 to respond.
Dave - You'll probably have this question answered before Audiogon prints this response, but just in case, here goes.
Receivers of that era often had provision for multiple speaker connections with some means of selecting the speakers you want to power - or no speakers at all. Look for a "speakers off" position, select it, and use your phones.
Tandberg. I'd be willing to bet Nakamichi would do quite well also, as does NAD, and 70's vintage Sony, Onkyo, and Nikko.
Thanks to you all for your responses. They were very helpful. The 820 does have the ability to shut off the speakers but I will contact yamaha to get their take. Again many thanks. Dave.
I seem to recall a Mac unit, either from the 70's or 80's that boasted that's its headphone section was powerful enough to drive some speakers.
Ah, Mapman mentions Nakamichi … Well, I had a Peachtree Nova, which I thought had quite a good headphone amp in it (its best feature actually… and certainly no worse than the W4S uDac) and I move up to a vintage Nakamichi System One with a Nak 610 as my preamp. I was fully expecting it would be a disappointment and … it blew the Nova away. So there is a vote for the Nak.
I second (third?) the Nakamichi. In my case I am using the 630 Tuner-Preamp with Beyerdynamics 880's.
using technics se-a3000 power amp headphone output to drive grado ps1000 ,it sounds much more muscular than beyerdynamic a1.The chain looks like that cd player-sonicwave optical cable-bryston bda1-technics se-a3000,suc3000(preamp headphone out is on leaner side like a1)
I'm using a 1977 vintage Yamaha CA-2010 with BeyerDynamic DT880s. Very nice sonics....
For me the headphone section of an Accuphase C200 did very well in powering a set of Sony MDR V6 and BeyerDynamic DT48 25 Ohm headphones for me.