Headphone Amplification

Per a ravenous consumer on HF, Justin is making an upgrade version of the BH - any clues? Justin, would you comment?

Ok, so we all know about the various issue SP has delivering product on time. Several long standing members here have had rather large issues but everything always seemed to get sorted out, with the exception of Elephas. And, quite frankly, because I've always found Mikhail to be a nice guy when I've seen him at meets I've treated this all pretty lightly and figured that he'd just gotten behind again or underestimated the amount of time that it was going to take for a custom build. That was until today when I read some of the more recent posts in the SP thread on Head-Fi (thread starts here). What I find most troubling are the posts by Elephas, tom hankins and Kan…

I've been the proud owner of a Cavalli Audio Liquid Lightning for over a month now. Now as most will know, this hasn't been exactly a dream of mine but the owner practically begged me to take it and the price was low enough to waste money on it. The normal market price on the Mk1 model has dropped well below half of retail (2400$) at this point and this one was even cheaper. What finally made me buy it is the very unhealthy discussion about this piece and the clear attempts of the manufacturer to kill any negative discussion about it. My views will be questioned because of my history with Cavalli but that's exactly what should be done to any impression that is read. …

http://www.head-fi.org/t/683115/the-apex-high-fi-audio-teton http://www.ttvjaudio.com/Apex_High_Fi_Audio_Teton_Preamp_and_Headphone_amp_p/aaa0000020.htm The Apex Teton - NEW from Apex High Fi Audio and TTVJAudio! Come to RMAF CanJam and be one of the first to hear it!!! The Apex Teton is a single-ended output-transformer-less (OTL) vacuum tube preamplifier and headphone amp. Its roots lie in the Wheatfield Audio HA-2 from nearly 15 years ago. While similar, it is far superior to the original design. Retaining the same tube compliment and amplifier topology, it has been greatly improved through the use of a better power supply and higher quality co…

Can someone explain to me what constitutes a discrete op amp? Secondly, does this discrete op amp actually offer better performance than a typical op amp? KG, Nate .... anyone?

Pictures of the A-10 have been released. Looks interesting to say the least... http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f38/10-thunderbolt-ll-fully-balanced-electrostatic-amp-pre-amp-417185/

First things first - I have no direct affiliation with this product or the vendor but I'm friendly with the designer. If that makes me biased, so be it, I guess I'm biased. Now, onto the amp. Basically it's a single ended amp with transformer coupled inputs and outputs to provide balanced operation and was designed to drive anything from IEMs to the K1000 (via selectable outputs). The tube compliment consists of a 7N7 input tube and two 307A output tubes. More details are available on Todd's site. I'm certainly looking forward to giving it a listen at CanJam even though it far exceeds the ability of my wallet.

I recently built this Bottlehead kit (actually, I had it at Chicago), and I have to admit, it's crossed my mind a few times to sell my beloved Zana Deux since I started listening to it. The kit is about as easy as they come (more cutting/stripping wires than anything else) and I did it in about 4 hours. Here's the killer part. The cost of the basic kit is just $220 and an upgrade kit with CCS boards for both the 12au7 and 6080 cathode follower is another $100. The stock Crack has a strong tubey character but with killer bass and liquid mids and highs. With the upgrade (called the Speedball), the sound becomes more transparent and fast. The frequency extension sounds …

This is my fist posting for this forum. I hope it’s to your liking ! Apart from the audio qualities, I am also interested in the technical qualities of equipment. So my posts sometimes will be a bit technical. Just skip the uninteresting bits. If that is almost all: so much the better. That way you have more time left for enjoying the music ;-) Quite recently I finally managed to obtain a Stax SRA-12S pre-amplifier with built-in ES headphone amplifier. According to the previous (first) owner the amp got very hot. Well, since it is supposed to run quite hot, I was not alarmed and bought the SRA-12S unseen (well…. just a photo). Unfortunately one channel of the …

From RSA's site: Another amp/dac combo for your portable applications. So many of these are available now. I rather save my hearing for my home/work rig.

Was meandering over at H-F and noticed another new little amp that grabbed my interest, the Schiit Asgard FET amp. Looks like it might be a fun little amp to play with. I'm contemplating getting it as it's pretty cheap and has a decent amount of power to use as a small SS living room amp. We're still waiting on internal pics but was wondering what the gurus here think of their design philosophy.

I am trying to wrap my mind around what must go into a solid-state amp to explain a $4250 sticker price. I understand that chassis costs are often one of the largest expenses, but I look at that chassis and it seems many DIY amps on here are more impressive in that regard. It's certainly far short of the RSA A10, looks-wise. Unless there is a few ounces of platinum inside, this seems pretty outrageous. Or am I missing something?

I met Donald North over at an audio dealer's house a few months ago. Nice guy. That's the extent of my involvement with DNA. I guess this is his first headphone amp. I'll copy what he wrote me: When we met I talked about developing my own tube headphone amp. The design is now done and operational. I'm calling it the DNA Sonett. It uses the 6H30 dual triode with transformer loading for the audio amplification. Power supply is tube rectified using the 5AR4 and choke filtered. I played the prototype for Elliot and thought it sounded very good. I have also played it for some friends who liked it and placed orders. The audio circuitry uses no coupling capacitors or …

Back in the '70s the amp wars were on, and Japan (Sansui, Pioneer, and others) challenged the burgeoning U.S. HiFi (yes, that's what it was called back then) stalwarts Marantz, Fisher, Scott, McIntosh, and Harmon Kardon with high quality, low cost premium gear. Heck, even Sony had a presence in high end, high quality iron in those days. Much of that gear is revered today, including the relatively exclusive Pioneer Series 20 line. I was recently fortunate to land a Series 20 M-22 Amplifier - 30 watts, Class A, and as sweet as any amp I have ever heard - right up there with any Pass Labs, Krell, McIntosh, or Levinson. When I got it, it was in very good (7.5/8 of 10) c…

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Found this lurking around the other place. I know nothing, just thought I'd share. Lost link to a Dynalo amp? - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio Acoustic-Fun Kevin Gilmore backed it up in the Head-Fi thread.

I figured I'd start a topic on this where people can actually find info about the amp. I'll quote Kevin's post from the DIY thread in below. As with so many other of these projects, curiosity got the better of me so I actually bought one of these amps. It had gone back to Cavalli to be fixed so no claims possible that it was an early unit and the new ones aren't like this at all. That is the usual Cavalli defense plus that we are doctoring the pics to show his crap in an unflattering light. Well for some pics I'll link in Kevin's post now: So let's discuss what is wrong with this thing. First of all, it's not actually balanced, more a quad of single end…

A couple of pictures from Craig to get it started: Very Moth-esque.

Hi y'all, Got my entry ticket into the Stax world in the beginning of 2018 with a Lambda Signature SR-407 earspeakers / SRM-T1S energizer combo. Got them from a Japanese seller and therefore I'm having to use a 100V step-down transformer for Japanese electronics here in Brazil (power outlets at home are 127V, 60 Hz). Only recently got the nerve to open the energizer to remove some dust and check the components (a bit scared of touching those big-ass 100 uF caps, but an anti-static brush and a lens cleaning blower sort of did the job). As far as I could see, all components seem original: The tubes are Gold Aero 6CG7's, Stax Signature selection. I understa…

So my birthday present is finally here, the SRM-T8000. I just quickly plucked it into my computer rig with the Denafrips Ares as a source: Here I can compare directly against the Carbon CC and the as yet unrealesed new KGSSHV, budget edition. Think of this one as the 727 if Stax had any sense. Anyway, back to the T8000. The packaging is classic Stax and no complaints there. I do have some complaints about the casework though, the front panel looks awesome but who decided what to do with the rest of it? Seriously that sparckly silver paint is just horrible. Reminds me of some super cheap Chinese amps. Yeah... not great. I had a quick peek inside to…

Several of us own them, and there seem to be many differing opinions on amplification. So I thought it might be fun to see what people are using. Post about current or previously owned K1K systems you like. ATM I'm driving mine with an Opera Audio a120 integrated. That's really the only amp I've used thus far, but the plan has always been to use the Beta22 once it's finished with repair and recase. Even though I've little to compare it to, the Opera is a quality unit. I've heard that a good 300B amp is a fantastic mate for the K1K, but I doubt I'd ever spend that kind of cash. So what are your favorites?

Birgir finally has his hands on the SRM727, and evidently does not like the thing at all. Extended comments hopefully coming from the big guy soon. Comments on the 300 should also come soon once he can get his fingers inside the chassis to rewire the transformer. I've come to the conclusion that the srm323 is stax's best sounding amp that is still in production.

One of these just came and went on Agon for $845. Looks like a whole lot of happiness for the money. Anyone know anything about the builder? 807 Tube Stereo Amplifier

I thought the King of all headphone amps would deserve his own thread. This is a beast of epic proportions, 11 power supplies, an overload of CCS and it draws close to 300W from the wall. I'll be updating this post later on with more specs about this monster. Well, here are some pics for your viewing pleasure. They are huge so may take a while to load.

What do you guys think of a B22 as headphone duty and preamp duty? How do you think feel about a B22 as a preamp? Is it a bad idea?