Headphone Amplification

Well I just got done doing tests on the HD650 using my ECM8000 measurement mic and dummy head and room EQ Wizard (that some of you have seen). I kept the mic and headphones in the same spot and tried the following: HD 650 running Balanced from the GS-X (of DAC3 Balanced) HD 650 running SE from the GS-X (of DAC3 Balanced) HD 650 running SE from AE-2 plugged in with wall wart(off DAC3 SE) HD 650 running SE from AE-2 running off battery (off DAC3 SE) I attempted to volume match all 4 configurations but ended up having about .3 db (at 1kHz) variation that I could take out using the software so they all have the same value at 1kHz. Attached are the frequency response…

So, I understand Doug is working on some new stuff. Anyone heard anything?

Here is something that has been cooking for a while but I've been just too busy to do anything about it. So JR Audio out of China have been building our amp designs for a while now and I started to hear horror stories almost immediately. They naturally have no right to use our designs and work in their crappy products but since when has that stopped anybody... I have been looking for one of these amps for a while now as I want to rip it apart and well... one owner contacted me. I'm going to ask him to come here and tell his story which is quite the tale. Let's just say Caveat emptor... So here is the amp and it arrived dead which will soon be clear. It is the K…

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 …

OK I've gotten off the binge & purge wagon, and have settled in with 840c/Almarro/K1000 as my main rig (and Earmax AE for other phones like HD650). Now my main system is pretty much perfect (to me) except for one annoying thing: 840c is fixed out RCA to the Almarro integrated amp. Even with low 5wpc output of the amp and the K1000, I can only use the volume knob up to about 9 o'clock before it's too loud (maybe a bit more for classical/opera). That is, very limited range of volume knob. I wish the 840c had some kind of variable out option, then I could optimize so the amp volume can turn to, say, 10-12 o'clock. Is there some device, like a passive line attenuato…

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…

Yes, this could go in any one of several forums, but the amp/preamp choice is probably the heart of the matter, so here it is. I find I do almost all of my listening -- headphone and speaker -- at my desk now, so I'd like to upgrade my current (and, I admit, quite adequate) setup to something with a little more polish. I'm very happy with the Duet and the Senns, so those probably stay. Source is Apple Lossless from the iMac -- secondary goals are simplicity, reasonable component footprint and (again, I admit) good looks. So far I've looked at: -- SE tube head/power amp (Cary SLI-80) to passive monitors (Dynaudio Audience, Totem Rainmaker or similar) -- SE tube h…

So I recently purchased a Yamaha RX-V365 A/V Receiver for use with my new 5.1 system. The receiver has 3 HDMI inputs and one HDMI output. I had intended to hook my Blu-ray player and my satelite receiver into the A/V receiver via the HDMI inputs. As it turns out this receiver will not send audio to the speaker outputs via the HDMI inputs. This seems pretty lame to me, as the whole idea with HDMI is to have one cable carrying evrything. It also seems that this is fairly common. My receivers manual says to use the digit output of my Blu-ray into the digital input of the receiver. That works fine for 2 channel playback, but the manual says that it's only compatible…

Hey all, Just heard from my friend Renato [looser101] and Peter has finally dropped my amp off to him, so I will be getting it back tonight. I'll be sure to take pics and let you know how it is and if there are any improvements. Apparently the faceplate still looks pretty ghetto, but I will be having a nice wood one made by Steve [swt61] anyways. Now on to the tube question: He has removed the 4 6H30's from the amp and installed 4 6BZ7's. I haven't talked to him about this, so I don't know the reason, but I am sure he will explain it to me tonight... though I doubt it will make any sense. Anyways, what do you know about hte 6BZ7? What brands would you recomme…

I figured I would start a thread on the above amp I just picked up. A real beauty and sounds gorgeous. I believe this is the exact model that Kurt owned, Saint1 owns (from James3toe who got it from a user "Bob"), and Nightfall. One of only 5 that Craig built that was supposed to develop into an actual EC 2a3 line with the top of the line black rose being at the top of the lineage. By far the si2a3/45H is the best sounding of the different moth 2a3 iterations and may be slightly better than the ec2a3 version due to the external power transformer and inductor chassis. Power supply is all film caps as well, same output transformers. Now I …

Thoughts on Eddie Current Black Widow?

After doing my first recable I find that I would like to see if really running left/right separate make a difference. So now I am looking for a nice easy cheap (!) solution. Ideas anyone?

In the ongoing battle against the flying squirrel infestation in my house (that is not a joke) I have been emptying out the attic spaces upstairs. My house has a Gambrel roof, that lends itself to an awful lot of storage space. That means after 33 years in the same family, there is an ungodly amount of crap up there. Mixed in with the other detritus, I found this: Sorry about the lousy shot, I didn't have time to futz around and get a better one. My father dealt in antiques, including radios, and sometimes he'd get a collection of tubes. I am recalling some much bigger boxes full of tubes, but I don't know if he still had them when he died. This box might be …

No bugger excepting that vile, evil, murderous Belgian bastard wanted it when I tried to sell it last year but that worked out fine because a K1000 came into my life and the two of them got on just lovely. With my passion reinvigorated for the AMT though, it can't cut the mustard both ways. Theres the most irritating hum on the right channel. Only with the AMT and I'm buggered if I know why. It's also being pre-amped by the NAD which leads to one sort of complication or another for muting the speakers. The NAD doesn't hum but is too powerful, if I'm not careful with the volume dial I blow my ears off, thus it is that I don't really have an amp that is fit for the purpo…

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…

Eddie Current Equilibrato - two unbalanced inputs - will drive headphones true floating balanced, or unbalanced - external power supply, same as the ZD and ZDT - solid state rectifier Tubes - (1) Tung Sol 12SN7, (2) Sophia Electric PX4 I'll get more details when I pick it up on Saturday

I just unpacked a box from our last move in 2005. I found my HPA V. 1.0 but no power supply. When I packed it to move it was acting up so I just want to get workable power supply to see if it actually works. I believe the basic power supply for the HPA was 12V and 800 mA. Can someone confirm or refute this. Also if you know the dimensions of the power supply tip that would be helpful. Thanks.

Hi guys. I've owned to Xin amps (Supermini III and Supermacro LE) and I don't think very highly of them. On Headfi, Xin receives a lot of praise, especially for the Supermicro and the Reference. After my experience with the other two models, I'm not very keen on trying either. Has anyone had experience with Xin? What do you think of his work?

Hi all I just sold my SRM-717 to a Stax 009 user. As it landed at his place, he also had a loan Woo Audio GES to try out. I remember back in 2009-2011 there was a lot of posts from users about that amp, but now it has tailed right off. How does the GES stack up today against Stat amps at that price range (Stax SRM-007t or 727). Thinking the 009 is more efficient, maybe it will be a good match? Is the GES an adaption of a KG design? I spotted this on the Woo web page: Schematic re-engineering is based on Dr. Gilmore's design.

I own Grado SR 225 and i'm thinking about buying a great for the price headphone amp. I'm looking at the qinpu A3 amp but would like to know if theres anything better if i would pay a little bit more? What about something vintage thats not expensive would i get better quality and warmer sound? I'm listening to Beatles, Guitr related stuff (Satriani,Andy Timmons) Blues,Rock... Thanks!!!

I have read a lot of good things about the Es-1, aristaeus and of course the hev90. All 3 are obtainable and in the case of the hev90 if you know where to ask. But I wonder what are the differences between the three? I currently use a 007t to drive my electrostat headphone and am looking for something which improves on it. I am looking for something which tightens up the bass over the 007t and if possible goes lower. Also I find the 007t and phone has a kind of even tonal balance. I prefer things a little on the warmer side. Also I hear this metallic ringing or sheen to notes. This is distracting to say the least. So any amp which does not have any of these fl…

Always wondered what the differences were between the Beta and Dynahi and only knew one other person who truly articulated them. Just decided to get them both and find out for myself. I'll also throw in Justin's version of the Dynalo to make it more relevant. HeadAmp GS-1 w/ DACT Dynahi built by Fallenangel, w/ Gilmore PSU 3-channel Beta22 + Sigma22 dual chassis, built by SolderWorksAudio (fishski13) Rockhopper M^3 + Sigma11 (and another with STEPS) Headphones used: HD800, HE6, SRH1840, SRH940, HD650 and the recently sold K1000 and T1 (all but the Shures recabled) Source: JKSPDIF MK3 feeding a modded Eastern Electric Minimax DAC Cables (for anyone who cares): a…

I thought it was about time my cheap ass got a cheap headphone amp (I wouldn't be so cheap if I wasn't so broke ) and due to the overabundance of orthodynamics in my collection I need something with a good bit of powah, so far the only ones I've found that are both cheap and powerful seem to be the Darkvoice amps @1w. I'm thinking the little Figaro or 336. I've heard and liked the 336 but heard not the Figaro and that one is cheaper and looks less vulnerable to my clumsy ways. Anyone here heard one and have an opinion of it as a smallish and cheap workaday amp or others similarly priced ($200 inc shipping) with enough juice to run orthos?

FS: RSA P-51 Mustang - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio pictures say it all. i mean hot pink...really? question 2 - who the hell makes that case?

After surfing at much forums and reviews ,I came to narrow it down ; stax sr009 he90/ 60 lcd3 mdr r10 he500 dt880 as the worlds best headphone up to date ; would love to hear from readers ,their experience in comparison of those each other ;