Headphone Amplification

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

I recently bumped into this site decware, where they make SET amplifiers without circuit boards. Being a complete electrical engineering idiot, Im wondering if there is any merits to it. If im not mistaken, audionote uk does not use circuit boards too. There's the internals to one of his speaker amps. Im quite tempted to put down an order for one just for novelty sake and the lifetime warranty. If im not mistaken he makes headphone amps and kind enough to include the schematics. Quite skeptical about the beeswax caps though. http://www.decware.com/newsite/TABOO.htm

hi guys, it looks as if the mark 2 get a brother, I found this note on the website of audio valve. look its : http://www.audiovalve.info/rkv3/audiovalve%20rkv%20mark3.html roger

I know this is insane but I absolutely love the sound of my JH 13/16s powered by either my Fetastic or Zana but both are obviously noisy in this application. They both (noise aside) sound way better than the portable amps I have tried but wonder if there is a desktop option out there that is under $2k that would be silent with these but also sound fantastic. If the Fetastic was quiet it would be the best option as it sounds great with them and is balanced to boot but there is a hiss present at all volumes. Not a knock on the amp as I am using outside it's intended purpose.

I was dumbfounded to see this photo from RMAF, showing off the $15K combo of Woo 234 monoblocks, which is able to use 2A3, 45, or 300B with both speaker and headphone outputs. The Abyss planar 'phones at $5500 costs a little more than Stax SR009 even. Anybody tried either product? woo234 by drjlo2, on Flickr

In the past few years I've gone through a few headphones but favor the HD600. I recently sold my Headroom Desktop amp and picked up the HRT microStreamer, which is fine for portable use with my Macbook/Android. Drives the HD600 adequately and is good with my Phillips X1. I am interested in trying out the the LCD-2/3/X sometime soon after the new models launch. I've read the microStreamer can drive the LCDs fine, remains to be seen. If I wanted to reinvest in an amp + USB DAC (all-in-one or separates) that happens to gel particularly well with the HD600 and LCDs, are there any decent recommendations going not much higher than $1.5K that I should look into? Seem…

Short version: Do the 6SN7 tubes in the Woo Audio WA5LE (300B SET topology - see pic below) need to be matched? Long version: I am getting ready to sell my Woo Audio WA5LE to make room and money for the future BHSE. However, one of the stock "matched" driver tubes that Jack sent me with the amp (a cheap Tung Sol 6SN7gtb) was very noisy and tested much much lower than the other when I got it. Since I never planned to use the stock tubes, it wasn't a problem. Now that I am selling it, I am thinking of selling the amp with an option to buy the amp stock (without "upgraded" tubes) and so I feel that I should include one pair of cheap 6SN7 tubes. I do have another Tu…

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 ;

Anyone heard this thing? "For electrostatic + magnetostatic + dynamic headphones." Just showed up on a Todd email.

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

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.

Hi, Does anybody have SRM-006t schematic? Thanks!

Hello Everyone This is my first post here. I have done some research about T1 troubles here and didn't find any topic about hot trafo. In my opinion this trafo is too hot but I don't have another SRM-T1 to check. I have removed tubes and then trafo is only warm - seems ok. Picture shows where I put temp sensor (blue wire). Did anyone had similar problems? P.S. I have just bought SR-Omega with Mk1 driver and SRM-T1 - amazing sound My previous system was SRM-727 and SR-507 and it wasn't so good.

Folks, friend of mine is looking to upgrade his rig. He's toying with the idea of Cavalli amp. I tried to talk him out from it since it looks to me that this folks is way to greedy in charging his work lately. $6500 for an SS balanced amp with whatever mumbo jumbo parts inside is simply too much IMHO. So now he's torn between Eddie Current or Headamp or Cavalli. Everyone knows Justin work, but I'm just curious about the repo of EC and Cavalli in your eyes. Which one you'd prefer to have?

Hi tube gurus... so I'm www surfing for various "preamp" tubes and running into the usual trendy-hot flavors telefunken, mullard, brimar, amperex...etc. Some as much as $100-160 each from various NOS and used sellers. And then I see EVERYWHERE, an underlying seemingly abundant surplus of GE tubes going for a fraction of that, like $6-7 each. In general, then just how bad are GE tubes?... are they really "that" bad that people are literally giving them away? What have been your experiences with them and what amp, source or preamp are/were you using them in? thanks!!

Ok guys after plenty of surfing...i've decided "bang for buck" DIY is the way to go. Im looking for synergy with my T50RP. I got to hear Millet minimax that TomB brought at the 2010 meet and was very impressed. More research i find the Bottlehead Crack receiving accolades as well. Cut to the chase. Which and how intense would either build be for someone that walked by a soldering gun once? Trav

I've recently purchased the C&C BH from ebay and it doubles the perfomance of the JDSLabs C421 for almost half the price. It's a top amp. Battery last 80 hours from a single charge! I can't wait to put my hands on the $300 C&C XO2 for an A/B. As we proceed I'll let you know more details about this little gen, that beats amps that cost twice as much. It has the performance of $300 amps, with the resolution/detail/clarity of much more expensive amps. If you live in the USA you can get it for just $99 and odds are that in your country you don't pay customs tax. I think the same applies to Australia. The C&C BH is a BIG BIG BIG step up from the FiiO E11. I…

I missed this. Appears to be on sale at Audio Advisor now for $1295. 3-pin and 4-pin balanced out seems cool. Haven't read the specs yet. I assume it has that Canadian sound. BHA1_BROCHURE.pdf

I own a pair of Transcendent Sound Beasts and would like to power the H2+ with them. Will this work well without the TR2? Thanks in advance to anyone who might know.

Finally I was able to acquire an SRA-14S and it has arrived now! No phono equalizer modules however. A previous owner had been cutting copper tracks on the input/switching pcb and added a lot of wires (in different places than the cut traces). Neatly done, but still.... Maybe he had some problem with the switches? So restauration will be a major undertaking without documentation. Can anyone help me with the service manual and/or schematic diagrams? That would be highly appreciated. Paper copy or electronic, everything is welcome. The headphone amp looks at first glance like the circuitry of the SRM-1 (of which I also have no service manual), but the power…

Got an email advertisement today introducing a new line of Samsung hybrid amps. Here is a link to the product page: http://www.samsung.com/us/2012-vacuum-tube-amplifier/?cid=smc-nahq-mult-0702-10000079

Last month Craig Uthus of Eddie Current debuted a new amp at a smallish gather of friends in NorCal. I've heard many amps by Craig and I've been impressed by his output with some of his amps like the BA and HD25 hitting it out of the park for me. I've owned a few of Craig's amps notably one of the original Moth 2a3s that was a visual masterpiece and sonically one of my all time favorites. To this day it is the one piece of gear that I regret selling. He's made better sounding amps like the HD 25 and Balancing act since then but the marriage of industrial almost gothic design, old school innards like brass plugs for switching output impedance and wax cloth wires and pluse…

Currently just a pic on the home page, but looks like Craig's getting into the 'stat amp market: http://www.eddiecurrent.com/ Edit: OK, so google points to discussion about it on the other site including (as would be expected) some of the usual suspects here, so to the stool in the corner with a pointy hat for me and a note to self to check the other place before posting startling revelations that everyone already knows about.

When using Normal Bias Stax SR-Lambdas, or any normal bias stax can; can the sb energizer, paired with a great amp, deliver sound on par with a stand alone stax amp? Or will it always be lacking? example: Pair a fully restored Fisher 400 tube amp -> srd-7sb -> sr-lambda (normal bias) What level of sound can you expect from this? would the performance be on par with anything modern or classic? and is the srd-7sb the weak link here? is the standard srd-7 preferred? I have been pondering this, as it can be much easier, and less costly to find and restore an old tube amp then to buy or build a new amp. The Fisher for example is a well regarded amp. is …

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: