Headphone Amplification

Reference Amplifier for Electrostatic --------->>>>>>>> what do you think? does it look good or bad? found this on the net today

I tried to collect some pictures of the super popular high end headphone amplifier Riviera aic10, wishing for some engineering insight and professional assessment.

There has been very tranparent and clear pictures of the 32000 USD base model of Warwick Aperio. Sonic wise, while it doesn't have the stage height of Hifiman Shang SR and maybe even the seperation of Stax X9000 driven by T2/ Grand Cayman with TOTL source, it does have the best low extension as well as the most normal shape of stage. While I feel TOTL AIO electrostactic systems as HE-1 and Aperio have better transducer and headphones (or most current after market electrostactic headphones are problematic here and there ), they might be limited by the geometery to accomodate the best amplification. Looking inside of the chasis, while I won't judge the component…

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 …

Remanufacture of the Western Electric 300B to start........... https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-return-of-the-legend.870227/

Birgir finally has his hands on the SRM727, and evidently does not like the thing at all. Extended comments hopefully coming from the big guy soon. Comments on the 300 should also come soon once he can get his fingers inside the chassis to rewire the transformer. I've come to the conclusion that the srm323 is stax's best sounding amp that is still in production.

I'm interested in building the Stax Transformer project here: the STAX Transformer as it seems relatively easy to build but I've searched everywhere I can think of but can't find any reviews on this beast. Has anyone built this project or know of any reviews detailing performance, SQ etc? Tim

Hi, After scaring the shit out of me (as someone coming from headfi, many of the topics here are very "enlightning"....), you gotta tell me "the truth" about my amps ;-) I have a RSA Hornet, and although i`ve never quite got all the fuzz about it over at headfi, i thought it was ok (i have to add, that i did buy it used for a very good price. The retail price always seemed crazy to me...), some of the comments here about RSA products in general caught my eye: "Safety hazard, errors in the layout, a.s.o". So what?s the truth about the Hornet? What are his faults? Where does it stand performancewise for real? My home amp is the Corda Aria. I always liked it a lot …

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…

Ok, so we all know about the various issue SP has delivering product on time. Several long standing members here have had rather large issues but everything always seemed to get sorted out, with the exception of Elephas. And, quite frankly, because I've always found Mikhail to be a nice guy when I've seen him at meets I've treated this all pretty lightly and figured that he'd just gotten behind again or underestimated the amount of time that it was going to take for a custom build. That was until today when I read some of the more recent posts in the SP thread on Head-Fi (thread starts here). What I find most troubling are the posts by Elephas, tom hankins and Kan…

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?

Hi All, I have had my MAD HD Super for a while now, and I am very happy with it. I am not very versed in circuit design for audio, but I am curious by nature. Upon first glance, I gather that it is a simple but effective lower powered circuit. Since I know many here are very skilled in this area, I am curious about your thoughts about the design. I have no intention of replacing it; rather, this is me asking for a layman's explanation for how it works and how it compares to other similarly priced tube amps. I have attached the User's Manual in case anyone is interested in looking at it. I have never seen it on Dr. Peppard's website, but his regular HD Manual ca…

Was looking over at HF and saw this: Styleaudio's Topaz and Emerald DAC/AMP Sale!! - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio :palm::palm:

Well this just arrived and as is our fashion, it has not been plugged in at all before I rip it apart. I'm having some camera issues (bloody Lightroom) so not as many as I'd like. Now first off why this belongs on a trashpile... here is the output: It's a pain to get a camera to focus between the transformers so I ended up grabbing the phone. Those are the ballast resistors, two 1M units in series and one 3M3 unit, all in 1206 package so likely 150V rated. Yeah no... just no, this is not good enough!! It gets worse though... It's a shit angle but here is how the transformers connect to the output socket: Now do you notice any parts on this PCB e…

Hello, looking for Info where to find a new trafo for my KGST headphone Projekt. Thanks for Info Bart

Hi all. I stumbled across this headphone amp. I found it on this site: Trafomatic Audio - Experience HEAD ONE Here is what it says: Experience HEAD ONE Continuing with our line of fine amplifiers in Experience series, Experience Head One tube stereo headphone amplifier has been released on audio scene recently. Following basic design principle in accordance with philosophy of whole Experience series, this product offering an extended functionality unusual with amplifiers of the same type. beside it's general purpose to drive different types of dynamic headphones, this device is designed with some additional and very useful features. Owners of transistored audio sys…

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

Hello, I dont have a great grasp of these topics so if I have some fairly base misunderstandings or bad assumptions let me know. Now onto the question. My understanding is that estats behave pretty predominantly as a capacitive load. If this is the case it would seem to me that a transconductance amp (that has not be rectified to voltage drive output/aka a 'current drive' amp) would be a fairly ideal way to run estats. Are there any amps that do this? is this how all estat amps do it and I am just not aware? If not, what are the reasons that we dont use an OTA output stage given basically all TOTL estat amps have a solid state output stage (only ex…

Now that this amp has been released and we finally have an internal pic, it is time for a dedicated thread. Here is some info about the launch event: http://hifilounge.tumblr.com/post/162193518708/trilogy-h1-energiser-for-stax-earspeakers-launch So 5000UKP... and nothing else which is relevant at all. The usual HF retards claiming this was the second coming and all that BS but here are the internals...enjoy: Not the best quality but good enough to know what is going on. In before Jim and yup...this looks a lot like an SRX. Some Russian dual triodes for the input and those look a lot like 6N6pi's to me. Two plate resistors as well. So over a…

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 am the recent owner of a DIY tube integrated built by a friend. It uses 2 6SN7s for input, and a single 6BX7 (or 6BL7) for output. Pics: Picasa Web Albums - hagbard - Tube Amp Here's my issue - there is a very slight hum audible with my Grados (I don't notice it with my higher impedance Beyers). I should note that this is the second iteration of this amp from the same builder. The first one had a significant hum (along with occasional buzzing), which the builder explained was caused by the cheap parts he used in too small a chassis (he told me he threw it together in an afternoon with parts he had laying around). This version is much quieter with only the bar…

OK, getting right to the point: My experience has primarily been solid state amps to date, but I am itching to get a tube amp into my portfolio. My headphone stable has been whittled down to: L3000 (my pinnacle...erhh Barry Bonds??!!) w5000 (sold first pair, then reacquired 2nd...yes assinine behavior but I like the w5000...) HD650 (initially unimpressed, but really impressed the longer I use them) RS-1 (my first intro to hi-end headphones, sold off all other Grados including PS-1 and HHF-1, but still attached to RS-1...) few other phones, but they're secondary Of course, there isn't a "one-shot" magic solution, but any suggestions on a complimentary tube amp…

I am thinking, just maybe, of switching back to K1000, but not sure if I could do it, because of financial issue. That's why I would like to see if I can find some reasonable priced tube speaker amp for them. Budget within USD 1500. I was thinking of Cary Xciter, but he is to pricey if not say more, however the tube rolling options of it is quite nice. Let see what you all think of that guys/girls THX

To me these are 100% identical, but I am not expert, so thats why I need your critical / professional opinion please. THX Sylvania GOLD BRAND National Electronics

Dear All - What tube improvements can be made to Stax007tA over the stock tubes? Are matched pairs available or is there any change needed to be done to the board? Also any recommendation on exernal PSU to improve SQ? Thank you