Who I am

I’m Elliot Marsh, and I write every review, pairing guide and comparison on AmperHeads.

I’ve been chasing headphone/amp synergy since 2009, when a pair of Sennheiser HD 555s and a home-built CMoy amp taught me two things: a $150 headphone can sound expensive on the right amp, and forum advice about “needs power” is usually vague to the point of being useless. Sixteen years later I still spend most evenings with headphones on and a notebook open, and I built this site to give the direct, practical answer I never found back then — which amp, for these headphones, at this budget, and why.

I’m not an engineer and I don’t own a measurement rig. I’m a careful listener who does the arithmetic (impedance, sensitivity, output voltage) by hand, cross-checks against published measurements from Audio Science Review and RTINGS, and refuses to publish a recommendation I can’t defend line by line. When a claim on this site is based on published data rather than my own ears, I say so.

Gear I have owned or lived with

  • Headphones: Sennheiser HD 555 / 558 / 598 / 58X / 600 / 650 / 660S2; Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω and 250Ω), DT 880 Pro, DT 990 Pro, DT 1990 Pro; HiFiMAN HE400SE and Sundara; AKG K712 Pro; Audio-Technica ATH-M50x; Sony MDR-7506; Moondrop Aria.
  • Amps & DACs: JDS Labs Atom Amp+ / Atom DAC+; Schiit Magni Heresy, Magni 3+, Modi 3 / Multibit, Asgard 3; FiiO K5 Pro, K7, BTR7; Topping E30 II, DX3 Pro+; SMSL SU-1; iFi Zen DAC 3; Drop THX AAA 789.
  • Reference chain (2026): Topping DX3 Pro+ → JDS Labs Atom Amp+ (single-ended) and Drop THX AAA 789 (balanced), with the HD 600 and DT 880 Pro 250Ω as my two anchor headphones for judging everything else.

How I decide what to recommend

The full methodology is on the How We Test page. The short version:

  1. Power math first. Every pairing starts with required voltage/current at 110 dB peaks. If an amp can’t do that with headroom, it isn’t recommended, however nice it sounds.
  2. Listening second. Same tracks, same volume-matched levels, same headphones, at least a week per amp before I form an opinion.
  3. Value always. I write for people spending $100–$1,000 total, not $5,000 flagships. If a $99 amp gets 95% of the way there, I’ll tell you and stop.
  4. Sourced when not mine. Where I lean on ASR or RTINGS measurements instead of my own ears, the article says so and links the source.

Contact

Corrections, disagreements, and “you missed this amp” emails are genuinely welcome: see the Contact page. I read everything and update articles when someone shows me I’m wrong.