Headphone Amplification

First, let me point out that I don't know much about amps and electronics. I've been wondering about how Single Power amps use tube adapters. I have an ES-1 and several types of adapters which allow the use of a variety of tubes. The default configuration is 2x 6SN7 per channel in the two gain stages, for a total of four 6SN7, and then 2x EL34 power tubes per channel, for a total of four EL34 tubes in the amp. Four 3D21A adapters allow the use of 3D21A tubes in place of the EL34. Two 2C51 adapters and two 5687 adapters allow the use of the respective tubes in the 6SN7 positions. Two "ECC-1" adapters also allow the use of 12AU7, 12AX7 and 5751 in the 6SN7 positions. …

Possible production of new units. I am working on Craig to do a special "limited" run of the full size Zana Duex like I have. This would be for 10 to maybe 15 "hard in the books" commitment of people. He would point to point wire each and do one at a time with the possibility of some very limited assembly line type of thing going on. This amp has to be done by him personally to be correct. A one man operation. If you are last on the list it could be some time. Price is a guess at this point anywhere from $1500 to $1800. He thought he could do them cheaper but probably can't. Disclaimer: I am not an employee or partner of any kind to Eddie Current. I make nothing on this.…

I was wondering if anyone knew the going rate for a used ARC PH3 phonostage in a good condition? I've been thinking of selling it and replacing it with a solid state phonostage since it's not exactly the quietest phonostage. I'm wondering if I can resolve some of the noise issue by replacing the tubes, but I know very little about the design of PH3 and 6922 tubes it uses. EDIT - I've been looking on A'Gon, but haven't seen any PH3 on there of late.

Hi guys. I just bought a Stax SRS-005 system which consists in a SRM-Xh amp and SR-003 earphones. After some time spent on thinking, I've decided to experiment some configurations. Basically, I'm looking for a better amp. I know the SRM-Xh is a vintage amp, and there should be better alternatives to use with the babystax. I'd like something that's an upgrade over the stock SRM-252 amp. I have been advised towards the SRM-313 as a good match, but I'd like to know if there are any others. I really want to exploit the best potential of the sr-003, especially since they tend to be dark, while higher models, like the Lambdas, tend to be very forward in the upper midrange, w…

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I'm trying to think -- I don't think I've heard a worse amp than the Raptor. (Mints don't count, because they're not commercially available.) Am I forgetting something?

Hello all, First a little background: I recently switched to cranking my GS-X up to high gain and then a buddy came over with Edt. 9s I heard hiss (even when the volume is set to zero). I checked and I can't hear the hiss with my HD650, D5000s or SA5000s. I tried my Shure SE530s and the hiss was there with them too. I did all these checks after disconnecting it from my DAC3 at the back of the amp. On medium gain the hiss is inaudible with the Edt. 9s and slightly audible with the SE530s. On low gain the hiss is barely audible with the Shures when the amp is cranked. This all makes sense since the gain switch is in the feedback loop on the amp so it should drop gain …

Hi everybody at Head-Case forum! It's a pleasure to finally join you as well. ) Lately I've been checking out the Woo Audio WA6 tube amplifier. Does anyone here have any experience with this product and care to share some impressions/experiences? How does it sound and compete with other amplifiers? Does it sound very tube-like, for example very colored and veiled? Is the tube-upgrades worth the money, both rectifier- and drivertubes? Does anyone have any experience in tube rolling? I really like the properties of transistoramps, and I currently have two, but I really want to try out a quality tubeamp. Which tubes would you recommend to achieve a sound si…

Damn you LAiV. Just after I’m satisfied with your Harmony µDDC and µDAC you release a new, cheap combo DAC-headphone amp. Yo Rob!

Or, as they call it on Head-Fi, the Xiansheng. Alright, I found the tube compliment as being 1 6N3, 2x 6922, 1 6Z4 and 1 6N1. Meh, the only ones of those that I have are the 6922's...and not even that many of those... My boss just bought one (under my recommendation, so there's a little bit of pressure to do well, here). It's distorting. My first guess would be one of the tubes, but he does have a whole new system (using the MF A308 as transport, to long digital cable to cheap DAC to short ICs to Xiang Sheng to Sony MDR-7506/-V6's [i forget which, but it's actually a nice match]), so there's a possibility that it's something else, but I figure: check the tubes first…

Last month Craig Uthus of Eddie Current debuted a new amp at a smallish gather of friends in NorCal. I've heard many amps by Craig and I've been impressed by his output with some of his amps like the BA and HD25 hitting it out of the park for me. I've owned a few of Craig's amps notably one of the original Moth 2a3s that was a visual masterpiece and sonically one of my all time favorites. To this day it is the one piece of gear that I regret selling. He's made better sounding amps like the HD 25 and Balancing act since then but the marriage of industrial almost gothic design, old school innards like brass plugs for switching output impedance and wax cloth wires and pluse…

So I have this nice new LG OLED TV but my receiver can't pass 4K video through it since it is too old. So I need something that will be HDCP 2.2 compatible I believe. I have a Marantz SR6005. I've been really happy with the Marantz receivers so far and would like to stay with them unless there is something significantly better that won't break the bank. Trying to decide between SR5011, SR6011, and SR7011. Any thoughts? This will be for a 3 (maybe 3.1 at some point) setup. Setup: PS4 Pro/Apple TV/Oppo BDP-105D -> receiver (would use DAC in receiver for everything buy music and would use the Oppo for that) -> TV and Monitor Audio silver ser…

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstube&1194912658 Looking at the parts used and the design it sounds like it might be kinda neat. Custom tango iron for 2.5k? Maybe I'll grab this for a K1000 amp. Some of direct coupled design? Yeah okay I really don't know enough to know if this is any good ;p

Just found this article on the web: http://inearspace.com/2015/05/22/questyles-cma800p-breathes-magic-into-stax-a-munich-high-end-show-2015-report/ Stax themselves comissioned Questyle to design the preamp. Info and internal pics of the preamp: spam deleted What do you think? Price is rumoured to be around 3k usd. PS: They also did a "golden edition": spam deleted

Here's Step 4 of my 12-Step Plan: How To Stop People From Laughing At Your Amplification. Step 1 was simple: Join the head-case forum. Be polite and humble. Try not to cry too much when people laugh at you and post mean things. :'( Step 2 was to refrain from posting too much at head-case, in case someone points out your inadequate amplification. Sure, it's good, clean entertainment for everyone but you don't want to be the butt of the jokes all the time. You can continue posting at Head-Fi as much as you want, your posts will blend in nicely with all the other idiot posts there. Step 3 was to divert attention from your amps by posting exclusively about headphone…

I know they don't get many (any?) mentions over here and this will probably mark me as irretrievably jejeune -- but, for the money, I've been pretty happy with the Little Dot MkIVse I picked up used on HF. Anyway, their new balanced tube amp is apparently now available at a fairly tempting $724 shipped to the U.S. and I wondered if anyone had any thoughts on the basic design? Haven't been able to locate any specs, though they explicitly say it was designed to be able to drive K1000s. Any idea what the driver tubes might be? Pity about the gold tube sockets, but what are you gonna do?

I'm a bit slow on the uptake, but I just noticed the Balanced Home amp is discontinued. So is the Millett Desktop Hybrid and both Max amps. The Balanced Home was my favorite "all-in-wonder" solution for DAC/amp/preamp. It covered all the bases and did so pretty well. I suggested it to a friend of mine in the antique business (who ended up going with speakers, the cretin.) The Max products were never in my price range, but their existence amused me. Anyone know what HeadRoom has in the works to replace these models? Maybe Tyll can get off Daisy long enough to enlighten us.

via: Schiit Audio reveals gorgeous six-watt Lyr headphone amplifier, dares you to touch 11 -- Engadget Product details: [url=http://schiit.com/products/lyr/]Lyr

It's a hp amp/preamp, I don't know what to say about its PSU, is +/- 60V necessary?

"The Tomahawk" "...resolution you can never imagine." http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=205466 http://www.raysamuelsaudio.com/index3.html Discuss

I saw this pic and I thought this could be something new and interesting to try out. But then I saw these posts from the Tube Asylums and this unit sounds like a build quality/ customer service nightmare! http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=tubes&n=190381&highlight=frihed89&r=&session= http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=tubediy&n=116589&highlight=frihed89&r=&session= http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=tubes&n=190718&highlight=frihed89&r=&session= http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/tubediy/messages/116891.html I know Phil sent his McAlister amp back for some changes. I hope he is having…

http://www.6moons.com/news/news.html About a third of the way down the page, an October 7th entry, any notice this or know anything about it? Sure looks puuurty Unfortunately the websites product pages links don't seem to be working http://www.trafomaticaudio.com/products.php

I've seen a few Cary SLI 80s go for pretty decent prices on audiogon lately. Been thinking about picking one up to use as a headphone amp and to drive a pair of monitors in a secondary rig. Does anyone have experience with it as a headphone amp? Is it good with all phones? Or just low or high impedance phones?

Always wondered what the differences were between the Beta and Dynahi and only knew one other person who truly articulated them. Just decided to get them both and find out for myself. I'll also throw in Justin's version of the Dynalo to make it more relevant. HeadAmp GS-1 w/ DACT Dynahi built by Fallenangel, w/ Gilmore PSU 3-channel Beta22 + Sigma22 dual chassis, built by SolderWorksAudio (fishski13) Rockhopper M^3 + Sigma11 (and another with STEPS) Headphones used: HD800, HE6, SRH1840, SRH940, HD650 and the recently sold K1000 and T1 (all but the Shures recabled) Source: JKSPDIF MK3 feeding a modded Eastern Electric Minimax DAC Cables (for anyone who cares): a…

After surfing at much forums and reviews ,I came to narrow it down ; stax sr009 he90/ 60 lcd3 mdr r10 he500 dt880 as the worlds best headphone up to date ; would love to hear from readers ,their experience in comparison of those each other ;