Headphone Amplification

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

Don't get excited, this is not an in-depth comparison but I'm on my second day with my new SMv6 with the AD8620 and switches and thought I'd post some thoughts. Well my thoughts are pretty flat lined right now... I'm asking myself what I paid for The amp is a vast improvement over the previous SM3v3 and once again sounds great and drives my DT770-250 without a problem. It's slightly dry but still airy and detailed. I've yet to roll any of the included opamps and this is only about 25 hours of burn-in. One of my main reasons for replacing it was the Hornet seemed rather poor at driving my DT770-250 (songs with heavy bass had low end distortion at high volumes). I…

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.

Hello I am pretty new here and am seeing some really impressive knowledge on this site. I looked but did not find anything on changing the voltage from 100 to 117 on an RSM717. I saw a post on the 727 which someone also said was similar. It looked like on that, the leads were cut from the transformer and that did not look like fun to do. I can measure resistance, voltage, etc, but don't have the expertise to do what some of you guys can do. If there are step by step instruction (esp with photos) I can do it. I don't see a lot of posts that are dumbed down to that level though. I also was wondering if there are any mods to be made on a 727 that would make it a b…

Find more info here: http://www.rudistor.com/rp1000.htm

i found some internal pic of this portable amp, and posted in the headfi thread. http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f105/rudistor-xj-03-a-347133/ some1 pm me asking me to remove it. was there something wrong i did posting internal pic to be share with other? anyway,what do guys think of this amp? some1 in headfi reckon it's better then the pico, it look like a ra-1 to me?

I'm looking for a balanced SS amp for a second rig and have turned my attention to this line. I've not paid much attention to Rudi's offerings in the past but have been peeking at his website of late. Any users(past or present) of his gear care to give me some thoughts/impressions? Build quality looks good on the surface, but I've been down that road before. It's nice to have the cosmetic appeal, but I'm really concerned about the inner workings and performance. Appreciate any feedback.

Somebody save this guy. Anyone who flies an airplane should be concerned about fires.

which solid state amp should i go for? the 717 or the KGSS? i know a stock kgss is 1.5k but i don't know how much does the 717 cost...

Hi, This is my first post on the forum. I have a STax SRM-323MK2 driver unit and a pair of SR-303 headphones. I would like to do some checks on the voltage levels (AC and DC if possible). Is there any service information or a schematic diagram available for the SRM-323MK2? Thanks.

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.

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

In our ongoing quest to buy random shit to try out, Kevin bought a Jotunheim as he was interested in the circuitry. He thought they might have done something novel... but it is utterly mediocre as one has come to expect these days. One interesting bit is the horrible assembly quality (hello hand soldering at minimum wage) and dubious parts such as no name switches... which arrived broken. Now this is a budget piece so corners have to be cut but not cleaning off the flux is just sloppy. sj.pdf For me the biggest letdown with all of this is the major disservice Schiit and others are doing to the community. They are toting these frankly "shit" amps…

I was thinking of upgrading or supplementing my old Headsave Classic amp (3 x Burr-Brown OPA627, hooked up to an Arcam FMJ CD36 or Sony UHP-H1) with something new, not too expensive. I may still get a Chord Mojo 2, but this looks interesting at $219... just announced, with impressions coming out in a few days. The Schiit Midgard has a different discrete design, with a mixed-mode feedback and more power than the Magni+ I was looking at:

Has anyone here heard Schiit's balanced amp the Mjolnir? Looks interesting and apparently puts out more than enough power to drive any headphone. I'm thinking of starting my headphone rig over from scratch - most likely with the LCD-3 phones.

http://schiit.com/products/ragnarok http://www.head-fi.org/t/731216/oh-schiit-its-the-end-of-the-world-announcing-ragnarok Schiit is doing a public beta. Retail is $1700, public beta folks pay $1500 with a two week return period. Its an interesting amp, the big deal as I see it is it uses the same amplification section for the speakers and for the headphones, not sure if this has been done before in an integrated. Of course this also has the potential for terrible things to happen for that one dumbass who uses his IEMs on the high gain setting. I don't own, nor have I heard, a single piece of Schiit but I admit the company fascinates me. I love of course t…

Where the hell should this thread go? Any thoughts on Schiit’s new “universal surround” dac/preamp/headphone amp? https://www.schiit.com/products/syn Some development history over on the other site (linked in announcement email).

Good Day, I'm wondering if you'd be so kind as to reply to some questions I have. I am just getting into this hifi headphone world. I want to hear your thoughts good, bad or otherwise. here we go, I'll start with what I have. Senn HD-650's and have a cardas audio cable coming in the mail atm. I have a headroom coda amp le ( It just don't seem to cut the mustard) therefore my endeavor for better stuff. The more I look around and research the more overwhelmed I get with the seemingly endless list of choices. I try to take anything I read on forums with a grain of salt as I know that most posters push the products that they own as being the best, as it helps…

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/4233707-post19.html I've seen this for nth time, how true is this statement?

Not much info, but... http://j.mp/HSsiUj Seems to be amp/dac combo?

Raffy is looking for a pair of TS 5998's for his SP and I have a pair that are supposed to be NOS. I would be happy to help him out but I don't know how to test these on my tube tester. I have a B&K 747B. I tried testing them with the 6as7 settings but they both test low this way. Since they are not equivalent to the 6as7's, I am not so surprised (I think this has happened with every pair of 5998's I have tested this way). So can anyone help me/us out? Pretty please.

seriously, somebody gotta take a look at this $3.5k amp, grab some pictures from the net, that dac board shouldn't be there, we can not see the whole main board now.

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. …

I found a post by "morphsci" listing his ES-1 options in his thread titled "Custom ES-1 about to find its new home" on that other site. 1). Power Transformers Plitron Custom Toroidal 2). Cardas Silver Solder surcharge 3). Cardas Audio Wiring 4). Audio Note Silver Foil in oil coupling capacitors 5). 4 Channel GoldPoint Attenuator 6). Solen Plate Voltage Input Capacitor 7). Black Gate Power Capacitors Stage I . Black Gate Cathode bypass capacitors ES 9). Dual Umbilical cord upgrade for maximum separation 10). Quad Regulators for maximum separation Other than these options, plus maybe some extra inputs and preamp outputs, what other options would be nice to ha…

Each time I hear sacd lover's MPX, or Edipus's PPX Slam, I reall like them. But I pretty committed to not getting a tube amp because I pretty much don't want the tweakability a tube amp provides -- switching tubes, spending lots of money on NOS tubes, not being able to find tubes that sound exactly like what you had before, etc. I just know it would drive me a bit nuts. So.... Does Singlepower have plans or has it ever considered making a solid state amp?