Headphone Amplification

I was skimming some hi-fi magazine this weekend and I noticed the announcement of this product. Teddy Pardo is mostly known for his aftermarket power supplies for Naim products. Does anybody have experience with this amp or his other boxes? There's very little useful info on the product page (e.g., gain or power), and no reviews yet.

Does anyone here know/remember the specs on the Moth EC2a3? Trying to determine the headphone and speaker output impedance.

Hello all! I'm looking for a decent but cheapish DAC/Amp that has significant negative gain, and was wondering if anyone knew of anything? I'm using it to connect to my digital piano software, with which I use a pair of Etymotic 4XRs. At standard levels and 0dB gain I usually need to attenuate by at least 24dB before I can even get close to half volume with most pots. I'll add that I'm also using it at relatively low output levels because of my messed up ears, so it really would be nice to have some meaningful volume range without having to use massive digital attenuation. Also, using that kind of digital attenuation still leaves the amp itself at a much higher outpu…

Would there any electrical issues with using my old-chassis SDS as a preamp in my speaker rig? As I splurged on the speakers and power amp, I'm not immediately going to have the funds for a high quality dedicated preamp. The SDS doesn't have RCA outputs, so I've been using a 1/4" -> RCA Y cable from the headphone output. My current SS monoblocks have an input impedance of 33K, the new tube monos I have on the way will be 100K. Would the output impedance of the SDS be a concern for preamp duties? I've got the 5687 output tubes in my SDS; can I assume those will be better than the 6sn7 for preamp use as well? I have briefly tried this (lesson learned - keep volume at …

Hello everyone, it's been years... (for anyone that remembers me anyway) I am researching what amp best suits my somewhat bespoke needs, and thought there might be some useful opinions here, especially since I've been rather out of it for ages. To cut a long story short, about one year ago I suffered an accident that damaged my ears, the result being that I have severely reduced dynamic range in my hearing. Though my sensitivity is normal and frequency response is good (i.e. little to no hearing loss), my pain and distortion threshold has been lowered to around 80dB. This means that for real music listening (classical in my case), I can manage with a level that …

it's incredible the virtues of this amp are putting my head to rest , and ears to pacifically drool over it. this amp is easily the best amp I've come across , it's absolutely linear smooth outraugeoulsy extended at both ends , it gives the most effortless presentation , while keeping the bass solidly firm and never an inch out of the picture . It's solid state , but other then this it's difficult to tell it has transistor related character , which is a very good thing . It does a very nice job with ps-1 finally . Bass and bass to mids frq.s region are both very smooth and very well rendered ; there's a great sense of deepness , coherence and authoritative con…

Long time lurker, first time poster... I've managed to assemble the following rig, however, since I haven't been able to attend any meets, my purchases have been based solely on other's opinions. My current setup is MF a3.24 -> Opera analog -> RS-1s/HD650s What would be the most cost effective way to upgrade? I'm happy with my current cans, so an amp upgrade is probably in order. Would a se b22 be a significant step up?

Wow, a few minutes at this site is like a slap in the face after spending a lot of time at head-fi. Apparently I own the ultimate "hella shitty" amp, the PA2V2. I always thought of this as a temporary solution, necessitated by my purchase of an ALO dock connector (also apparently crap), and for $60, why not? It seems that there is some consensus here that portable amps are kind of silly, and do nothing to improve SQ, esp. if your source is a DAP. As my source will be either a laptop or iPod (maybe iMod?) for the foreseeable future, and I need my gear to be portable (out-of-the-reach-of-children portable, room to room and home to office portable, not walking around…

I'm waiting to hear back from Stephen from Rockhopper audio about a possible home B22 trial. While I wait, can anyone comment on comparing tubes to a B22? I have a Woo Audio 6 SE so any direct comparisons would be great. As far as music goes, I listen to almost everything (no country) but right now I'm mostly listening to folk and indie rock. Thanks in advance!

Well, I was supposed to get my new balanced McAlister Audio amp Sunday morning... turns out that the faceplate guy had issues with the green sublimation process. I decided to get the amps name in a forest green colour. Should have just left well enough alone! But then again, maybe not! I get a call from Peter on Sunday afternoon. He says he has been listening to my amp, and while it sounds incredible, he decided that he wants to go a little more 'over the top' with it. A man after my own heart. So, it looks like there will be 4 more tubes, for a grand total of 13... as well as two more metal can capacitors. He says that it looks like a BEAST. I can't wait to se…

website The short write-up in December's issue of Hi-Fi Choice says, "...by using CRT technology, these valves can be run at a lower power and offer significantly improved lifespans." That'd be the part that got my attention.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/superioraudio/ Not a bad review but I wish the reviewer did a better job at reviewing the B-52 as a headphone amp rather than pre-amp. I'm wondering how well does the B-52 handle the R10, Qualia, and L3000.

link Disappointed in the lack of 1x, but I have to admit, I like the price point. It's within what I can recommend to muggles, I would just like to know if it's any good, first.

I bought a CEC HD53R for exactly 40 000 Yen in Japan (which is around $370 USD), to pair with my Edition 9s. While it does sound nice, I have some lingering after thoughts... Unfortunately I only found one reference to this amp in this forum. I'm hoping somebody with experience with the HD53R can help me. For it's price, did I make the right choice? Are there any other headphones that magically synergizes with this amp?

Hi I am going to build energizer for Orpheus and Stax with LL9202AM. For Stax I will copy PSU Bias from T1. I wonder if I can use the same kind of PSU from T1 for Orpheus (with lower voltage of course)? I think so, but it could be very expensive mistake if I am wrong ... Any advice? http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2891/9135996783_0911380a26_o.jpg

.

I posted this on head-fi a while back and thought it might be interesting reposting it here for the ones who haven't seen it and just to post something interesting... I already forgot what was in it so I'll have to reread again I guess, it's very long: "Audio Power Amplifier Fundamentals Introduction The term amplifier is very generic. In general, the purpose of an amplifier is to take an input signal and make it stronger (or in more technically correct terms, increase its amplitude). Amplifiers find application in all kinds of electronic devices designed to perform any number of functions. There are many different types of amplifiers, each with a specific purpo…

AFAIR, there is a diode after each 9v battery, and two sets of caps between V+ and ground and V- and ground each. There is a series resistor inside each 9V rechargeable lithium battery, as I recall, but I can't figure out why they won't work with the SR-71. Any ideas why?

I guess dCS decided that headphone-based systems are now worthy of their time: https://shop.dcsaudio.com/products/lina-system Figured most people would be interested in the amplifier so I put it in this section: DAC includes crossfeed EQ (didn't look into whether it was software/hardware), compute module on the side for either Roon or whatever dCS decides to do in-house. Looks like a scaled down version of their ubiquitous Ring DAC External clock lets you use the DAC with OCXO's instead: Full system cost seems to total 29,150 USD. Price aside I think the casework is pretty cool, I saw esoteric do similar things with some of their new …

Until now, I've been using the included GE 8CG7s in my 007t. Today, however, I received a set of Japanese-made B&K 6CG7s and swapped those in place of the GEs. I then went through the re-biasing procedures (akin to trying to enter a revolving door in the middle of a tornado). Now for the problem... With the pot turned all the way up, I'm barely getting any volume. This is compared to the ear splitting volumes the 86G7s put out at about 9 o'clock. Are the tubes bad, or did I not bias them properly?

I never thought I'd get a tube amp but it looks like I am. I know nothing on the subject but really need a crash course. Is there a good resource out there that I can read?

Well here is some fresh meat for the peanut gallery. I got this off our resident gear whore Tyrion a while back in a gear swap. The Berendsen IPA 80 is from Germany and retails for about $2000 but they recently pulled out of the US market. From the website and visually there are three transformers one for the pre and one for each side of the amp. They talk about the power of the amp coming from ring emitter transistors ( I have no idea what the fuck that is). I will say this cleanly slays the Krell 400xi I owned briefly and thought sucked. The main bonus this amp presents in a killer headphone amp that is so ergonomically challenged it has me questioning the designers…

Audeze King Amp. What does everyone think? Odd approach for Audeze in my opinion.

Yo...whadya all think of the headamp AE-1???