Headphone Amplification

I still haven't seen my Absolute Sound for July/August but I am looking forward to the Pinnacle review. Has anyone read it?

I know this is insane but I absolutely love the sound of my JH 13/16s powered by either my Fetastic or Zana but both are obviously noisy in this application. They both (noise aside) sound way better than the portable amps I have tried but wonder if there is a desktop option out there that is under $2k that would be silent with these but also sound fantastic. If the Fetastic was quiet it would be the best option as it sounds great with them and is balanced to boot but there is a hiss present at all volumes. Not a knock on the amp as I am using outside it's intended purpose.

I just have some perfunctory questions before I plunge for this purchase. Did Craig make any official statements regarding the differences between the new '09 models and the earlier ones? (I'm getting the earlier model # 18.) Similarly are there any revisions between serial numbers? Secondly, is the ZD specially tailored for Senn HD6XX? It seems that most OTL amps are. It's a short list, but any tips right now would really help me submit my final decision. Thx.

knowing u guys are interested in the schematic for this amp so i went around begging people in other forum for this, finally got it is this the correct schematic for that amp?

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=215264 <GE> suppose he paid for any of that <GE> that stupid dock is going to break his ipod good seriously, the review makes no fucking sense at all. just another example of shameless headfi marketing. i am willing to bet 10 bucks that the UE-10 pros sound best straight out of the ipod.

Hi! I am renewing 25-years 717's and I observe strange things: I noticed a lot of wet places - as if sweaty - I suspect it has something to do with high voltage, have you noticed such symptoms in your old Stax? It's probably old flux - but these are places where it shouldn't be - output sockets, bottom of heat sinks (between PCBs). The second issue - how does the output protection system work - it draws voltages only from two outputs +L and +P? Because that's what I saw on PCB. What are the soldering points marked 81,82, 83 and Test: R,L,V for? I know that Kevi n had a diagram of this system somewhere, but it is no longer available .

I just received back from Cary Audio in North Carolina the Cary SLP-05 preamplifier. This is their top preamplifier and was purchased a couple of months ago to serve as my main preamp in my speaker-based system. I also wanted this to work as my home headphone amp when the wife and the neighbors want me to keep it quiet. The preamp is fully balanced and sports something unique in the high-end stereo preamp world, namely a true dedicated built-in headphone amp. The headphone amp section uses two 6SN7 tubes to power the headphones, while the preamp section runs off another six 6SN7 tubes, for a total of 8 tubes. The separate power supply uses 5AR4 tube rectification. You…

Heh...I JUST found this place. I had a uestion about the predator, and there hasn't been an answer. I'm thinking it won't be answered because my suspicions are right. That and any negativity (even if contructive) towards RSA is frowned upon over there. Apparently not so much here, so I'll ask here, lol. Here's the post I made, and it hasn't gotten a response yet: -------------------------------- I have a question about the gain. You say the gain is set at 11 in high. An iPods line out is 1vRMS, which is 2.8vpp full scale(volts peak to peak, according to Vinnie on various threads). Wouldn't you need ATLEAST 32 volts to have a gain of 11 on an iPod so you don't…

Hi everybody! Greetings from Barcelona! This is my first post and I want to thank the attention of anyone who responds. I'm interested in buying a tube headphone amplifier, but I have a low budget so it would be interesting to hear some advice from more experienced owners. Looking for through the web I have ended with two interesting candidates: the Little Dot Mk II and the Appj PA1502a. Both have received quite good reviews (not many, but there are some) for the price so I'm undecided. The Little Dot is a class A OTL push-pull amp, while the Appj seems to be a class A transformer output single ended. As for …

Eyeing some Quad 22L2s to replace 12L-as. Really love actives as the less components the better in my book, but if going with an external amp (I haven't seen encouraging signs of ~$2K floorstanding actives) does anyone have a suggestion for a smallish unit that would power the 22L2s? Pretty out of my element with speakers. Was originally eyeing the Parasound Zamp v.3 as nearly everything else I have is half-rack, but if I'm not sure it will be up for the task from the numbers (if reading correctly). Even up for altering the speaker pick (Shelly's choice of RX6s is also tempting from reviews), but my limitation is they and the amp would be best if sold by Amazon (gift cert…

I see during several of the FET-A reviews the Gilmore Lite/GS-1 were understandably brought up as natural competitors, but as reviewers didn't have the HeadAmps on hand at the time, I wondered in the last few months if anyone has had a chance to A/B (especially with Senns)?

My ass is getting very sore sitting on this fence. Need some help sorting out the technical advantages, design features of these two. I currently have a 2ch B22, once upon a time I had a HeadAmp Reference single ended. That said, it was a long long time ago and while the B22 decimated the Concerto I wonder how it compares on paper to the dynamid, GS-X specifically? I listen at low levels, 70dB is loud for me. So on paper, how does the dynamid compare to the b22? Slew rate, noise, all that jazz. Maybe Ti and Kevin can chime in? Side question, given I listen at unity gain at best, are the advantages of going balanced pretty much moot?

Gents, So, I bought into the H2 hype and have a shiny new one lying around. The thing is, it sounds like garbage out of my garbage gear. I am guessing that it's just being honest and revealing, so I will give it a chance with something decent behind it. At the moment, though, I have NO bloody clue as to what that something decent should be. I am also disadvantaged by not having bottomless pockets. So, I figured I'd ask your penultimate wisdom since head-fi hasn't produced anything satisfactory. I need a speaker amp. It has got to put out 10wpc minimum into a 16 ohm load, which is what the transformer box is (I think? Well scratch that, I don't think). It needs to be…

So, I've been impatiently waiting for the new TooleAudio balanced amp to come out, and am wondering when everyone thinks it will be done...

To make a long story short, I was banned from SuperBestAudioFriends.org (eddie current fanboy club and circle jerk community) by their lord and savior Marv(Purrin) and ZeroFeedex(total bully, back when changstar existed he changed my avatar to an IRL photo he found online from when I was younger and changed my username to my IRL name. He also constantly kept changing my user status to derogatory statuses that were insulting, all for simply voicing my opinion.) I was banned because I posted a thread explaining a situation about an amp I purchased second hand from Eddie Current asking for help to get the issue resolved. I was called a scammer and a liar and immediat…

here an interesting review : edit: no it wasn't

So as a counter point to the Massdrop amps, I also bought one of these Audio-GD units used. The R2R15 seems to have been replaced by the R2R11 which is more SMD based but it looks very similar. So this cost 350$ new, is not balanced but has a discrete R2R dac, discrete headphone amp and can also be used as a single source preamp. The Chinese version of the product page is still active: http://www.audio-gd.com/R2R/R2R15/R2R15CH.htm I must say it does look really fugly in real life (as so many of the Audio-GD product do) but it's amazing that they can do this for 350$.

I just fired up my spanking-new Rockhopper M3 (Thanks, Stephen!). Power is good. My k701 almost sounds bassy! My k271 almost has slam! My crappy music sounds slightly less crappy! There is still treble! I'm not even drunk yet! I have a half fifth of Gentleman Jack on my desk! If I had only known what this could sound like I'd have ordered one a year ago. I really hope this doesn't mean a β22 is in my future.

Hi there, I've got a strange and somehow annoying problem with my STAX SRM-1 / MK-2 (B Series). Sometimes, in about 3 to 4 cases out of 10 after switching it on in an cold state, I hear a strange clicking / buzzing noise on my Lambda on the left channel only. It's definitely faster or more often to be directly related to 50hz AC noise problems and it sounds more like a "ticktickticktick" kind of noise. This noise doesn't change if I make the amp louder and if it occurs, it's stays for about half an hour and slowly fades out, until the amp is heated up regardless of switching the amp on and off. Sometimes I also get a very distorted left channel which can happen anyt…

I am thinking of selling the Stello stack in my office (HP100 and DA100) and just using the Pico Dac/amp there with the AD2000. The Stello stack is probably better but most of the time I am working (or at least pretending to work) so I don't think I will really notice much of a difference. The thing I don't want to deal with is plugging and unplugging the amp when it needs to be charged. I think the Pico stops charging the battery when it is full and runs off the PS so I don't think there will be a problem keeping it plugged in, right? The only thing I thought of is that a rechargeable battery seems to discharge over time so it may often be discharging a bit and then …

Hi guys! I've done some extensive researching in the past few days to find an amp that would be a good match for Senn HD600 and I've pretty much settled my choice on the M^3. The problem is, there seems to be an incredible number of configurations and upgrades possible and I'm no DIY guru so it's hard to know exactly what I want and what's the best I can get for the price I want to pay. I want to spend about 500$-600$ and my source for the moment is a modest M-Audio Transit USB (next upgrade after the amp ). What's your suggestions for the parts? Also, I need to find a builder, so I'll take your recommendations on that.

A number of us have been contacting Hagerman over the past year or so regarding a SET headphone amp design. He said he'll do something about it independently. Oh snap. It's coming. Ultra excited. http://www.hagtech.com/castanet.html

I own a pair of Transcendent Sound Beasts and would like to power the H2+ with them. Will this work well without the TR2? Thanks in advance to anyone who might know.

Okay. I've been applying to new apartments and they keep asking me about my stuff (Berkeley people are notoriously stressing over conservation and such). The thing is that my rig keeps freaking people out: i use alot of electricity and many power cords and shit. At minimum i use: 1 outlet for my music hard drive, 1 outlet for my sound card, 1 outlet for my transport, 1 outlet for my dac, and 1 outlet for my Zana Deux. This is bad... very bad. It doesn't look good and such. The thing is that I want to say away from making me rig into a "benchmark dac-1 with usb." or worse a corda opera. If i do decide to consolidate, I want something that's gonna be the shit. here ar…

Hello, EDIT: the original "solution" proved to be a coincidence. So, I was writing a big long post (saved below) and may have solved my own problem whilst doing so. I'm still posting just because, while the solution was one of those "d'oh" things, it might help someone else in the future. TL;DR, I think my cheapo Amazon Basics power cable isn't grounded/shielded properly and was creating a static sound in the left channel. So, if someone from Google pops in with a similar issue, check a different cable before pulling your hair out like I have. ------Problem------ I recently purchased a used Mjolnir Pure BiPolar (S/N 020) and have an intermittent i…