Headphone Amplification

Was doing some research on the available dac/amp combos to use on a desk. Noticed the Sony TA-ZH1ES. Anyone know anything about this? https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1295894-REG/sony_tazh1es_premium_headphone_amplifier_with.html https://www.sony.com/electronics/audio-components/ta-zh1es

Hello It occurs to me that the Cary 300sei is selling mostly under 2K on A'gon. which gives me the impression that maybe i can start thinking about trading in my ZD.... anyone have any idea about how these compare?

Over on an other forum, there are 210 pages of posts from people who are wiating 6-10 months for amps made by Xin and then sending them back to get modded and waiting another 6-10 months. I have these questions: 1. Has anyone heard an Xin and what do they sound like? 2. What do they cost? 3. Is this an amp for which there are no close substitutes at the price, and that explains why people are waiting so long? (Sort of the SP explanation for waiting)? 4. If not, then why are they (or you) waiting so long without doing anything about it?

Okay, maybe not, but can anyone who's familiar with the Extreme topography suggest a reasonably affordable tube combination for a fast, neutral presentation? Stock or with ECC adapter? Any help would be greatly appreciated. The Extreme Plat may not end up working with the HD800s, but I want to give it a shot as it works well with my other phones.

I have a 100V SRM 323A that I am trying to rewire for 120V. I haven't been able to find a diagram for the transformer, so I was hoping that someone could help me figure out how to rewire it. Right now the yellow, white, and grey wires are connected to one side of the plug and the brown and green wires are connected to the other. The blue and orange wires have been cut off, but I should be able to reconnect them with some careful soldering.

The impressions will come late tonight or sometime tomorrow after I get around to listening to it in a short while. I'm over at Roam's place and we just finished de-fucking one of my tube amps.

Hi. This is a $6000 TTVJ tube amp: I'm not gonna say it's arm gnawingly ugly, but even Mr. Takei gets a chuckle at that faceplate. Yet, for some odd reason the headphone cognoscenti lust after it madly. One might start to get the idea that Todd has some kind of wacky function-over-form philosophy. Maybe he should he should start to imitate the Denver business model.

I've got an old Headamp Gilmore Reference (single-ended) on the way. I believe this unit was later modified to a gain of 1, which should be a good preamp gain. But, it doesn't have pre outs, just a 2nd headphone out. In these older Headamps, is there any circuitry difference between the pre out and headphone out, or does it merely boil down to the physical differences in connectors? Any other reason why I shouldn't try this as a preamp with a Y cable/adaptor? The V2 I recently picked up is a real performance killer, as both preamp and headphone amp, for the $200 I paid. Super-nice match to the L3000 w/ Duet, and to the HD650 or L3000 with vinyl

Hey look, our products are so great we encase our 'special sauce' in a red enclosure so you can't really see what's in our amp. The mystery is what makes it sound so divine! I reckon if you open it up you'll find something like this inside:

This week I was browsing the net and I came across this: http://bbs.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2239622 Now it is all in Chinese but these were the first pictures of the insides of the Woo Audio 3ES. This was an amp I never really paid any attention to, I'm so fedup with Woo and their sub-par crap, but finding internal pics does warrant a look. First off the pics aren't great but at least there are some schematics there and we need to try to verify they are correct. We have no further info than this as I can't find any more internal pics, so this is what know at this point. First the PSU: Now, nothing new here, same old …

It's been a while since Justin mentioned the new modules... I know he has been having trouble sourcing some of the parts. Has anybody heard the new modules yet? Also, are they being used in the GS-X as well?

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

So I've had about a week of listening time with TTVJ's loaner Corda Opera, and tonight some people came over to hear it as well. Basically we were pretty disappointed by it: it just did not have enough power plain and simple. I tried both the HD650s and the K701s, and the Opera had trouble driving them to levels that I consider acceptable. For some of my harder hitting music, I had to use up the entire range on the volume pot on high gain to get enough dynamic swing out of the K701s (of course the K701s are dynamic to begin with). It's a little bit better with the HD650s, but the sound just reminds me of every other mid-fi SS gear I've heard: which is to say, nothing …

Of course it is an arbitrary and ultimately an unimportant question, but it is something I was thinking about today. When do you consider an amp "high end"? I seem to have a pretty firm grasp on what makes a source or a pair of cans high end, but the amplification thing always eludes me. I know when I see the insane Singlepowers like the SDS or Maestro, or a custom job like tkam's, I think that is high end. But what else is out there, really? And then this makes me think, does the law of diminishing returns kick in faster with an amp then a source? Past the $2000 mark, where is there really to go in ampland?

Does anyone know about this? I didn't know Craig was working on one. Is it SS or is there tubes in it? Zana Deux Micro sneak pic! - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

so i received this amp yesterday and i plugged it in last night in the following order. 1. put bendix 6080 tubes all the way in the back 2 sockets. 2. put the sylvania 6sn7 tube in the front. noticed that the metal base was slightly loose and could be moved a wee bit. 3. attached the necessary cables and then turned it on with the headphone plugged in. 4. listened to music. the gear loop is very simple and as follows. lenovo laptop (line out) - mini - rca cable - sp extreme - hd 650s. problem that only occurred last night if i even tap the amp lightly with my fingernail it sounds like it would if i were inside a tube and someone were tappin…

Has anyone built a high quality transformer / convertor to run Stax headphones out of the speaker terminals of a power amplifier? I know there has been some negatives about the Woo Wee. I am thinking is there a much higher quality option that can compete with the KG Stat amplifiers and that is safe i.e. won't damage the headphones or the power amplifier feeding the converter. Many years ago I used an SRD-7 which was ok, nothing great. Any information would be much appreciated.

Hi, I'm asking for help because I can't understand ... so i installed in my 006 two tung-sol 6sn7gtb tubes (American NOS)with about 250 hrs on them (so out burn-in but new), I replaced the adjustment trimmers with multiturns to have more control, I use a ceramic screwdriver, my mains voltage is 220Vac constant, I let the amp warm up for at least an hour (with signal on and volume at about 2) before calibrating, put the volume to zero and select an input with no signal (the 1, which is connected only the 3). .. tester in Vdc...first I adjust the balance or then the offset, then balance again and then offset...then I switch to the other channel now this happens to …

Anyone here heard both? Thoughts?

I think it may be a weird question. But I am thinking about going for either a high end dynamic setup with RSA B52(with grado PS1) or a high end electrostatic setup with single power ES1 (with stax Omega). Having no experience about them. I wonder whether it is worth at investing on the single power ES1 or RSA B52. if you agree with ES1, how much do you think i should invest on it? My only taste is that super big soundstage and real sound thanks

I'm just wondering how big the worldwide market for portable headphone amps is. In october I bought my first - a Tomahawk, and it's serial # 697. With reading the various hifi websites, I'd guess that the Tomahawk has at least 30-40% of the market, or it did until the Pico / Predator came out. I live in London and have never seen anyone else with a portable amp, despite the fact that millions of commuters use portable audio. I've actually seen more Ultimate Ears 10-pros (1) than headphone amps! Of course this is hardly empirical; I've never met anyone else with Etymotic phones and I know they are relatively popular. By that very rough estimate, there would be 2000 - 30…

-=Hey Guys=- I have my 880s and 650s in another room and was wondering if my 701s can be powered by my Woo3, without distortion, if volumes are kept low. I understand the problems the "3" has with low impedance headphones, but I'm wondering if it's a volume issue, where more power is called for, or it just won't perform at any volume level because the volume control is an attenuator? Thanks USG

Haven't had mine long, but first impressions are very positive. Until I get more time (and tubes) to post additional comments, here's a new Playback/AV Guide review: http://tinyurl.com/peakvolc

Does anyone know what’s the best amp and dac for the utopia excluding the cavallis?

Very positive impressions from Stereophile. Go and read