Headphone Amplification

You've lived your whole life as an audiophile experiencing the natural goodness tubes bring to headphone amplification. While others sought refuge in new technologies, in solid state design, you were content to relish in the warmth of heated glass, ignoring any design that did not implement your selfish, no, sinful obsession, with hot, glowing metal through sometimes tinted glass. But what will you do when all the NOS tubes are gone? What will you do when Sovtek 6sn7s go for $750 a pair? Today, this is a lesson you must learn. Look around you. All around this room are popular solid state amp designs in the $1000 dollar or less range, maybe a bit more if you can stretch…

Hey Kevin: how is this amp progressing? Last I read you had build a proto and seemed happy with it. Was that last board layout tested? I'd like to give a hand testing if needed.

This was introduced at High End 2025 in Munich and here is a blurb about it There are no internal pictures at all but it sure looks like they stole some of our Megatron here. Yeah, if that is the case, that is not okey. At first I didn't know what driver tubes were used and since those look a bit like 6N6pi's... I thought "well that is stupid but it might kinda work if used with some transformers". No... it is far worse. Single tetrodes, likely triode strapped, so are they trying to out compete the Woo WES for the worst all tube electrostatic amp design...or maybe the Triode H1? Time will tell but there simply aren't enough tubes here if the EL34's are used a…

I would like to build a Solid State balanced amp and need recommendations. I have LCD-2's non fazor to power. I've built in the past(guitar amps too) soldering skills good, I'm not coming up with anything besides B22 amps. Suggestions please.

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?

Here's an interesting new pro headphone amplifier, hand made in Serbia: BoZo Electronics - Sparrow It has very good specs !!! For the amplifier gurus here, a question: how does it compare with the beta22? Pics:

So, this is coming out in a week. As I'm busy trying to learn about such things, I'm curious as to why someone would choose to build a Class D portable amp, or if it's such a good idea, why, with the explosion of portables, hasn't it been done more (I think Headroom has a Class D desktop, but I don't know of others)? http://www.i-qube.nl/index.php?id=18 EDIT: I'm thinking mainly in terms of sound.

I have a set of Behringer ms16s, and I was listening to my headphones through them (Sony MDR-V6) and the headphones sounded better than ever before. Is it possible my Behringer monitors were acting like a headphone amp, boosting and enhancing the sound of my music? Cause it just sounded so good. Thanks, Eddie

Why do some amps have two volume controls? My HeadAmp KGSS has two volume knobs. I always set them at the same setting. I would prefer one knob and not have to set the volume twice or use both hands at once. They are stepped attenuators so it isn't too difficult to do so, but one knob would still be more convenient. Is there a reason for this?

i've seen a couple of these on sale recently, and was wondering if anybody has any impressions of this amp. google doesn't turn up much, except some HF threads which, because of the reshuffled urls, lead to dead links. i remember reading somewhere that it shares the same circuit as the RA-1, which in turn has often been referred to as a glorified Cmoy. i'm not sure what to make of that, so if anyone can enlighten me, it would be much appreciated. *and for anybody who might be interested, the person auctioning the one on eBay is also auctioning a pair of RS-1s. The picture of the HPA-1 shows a pair of RS-1s with the brown leather headband beside them, so i assume it is…

So the amp arrived today. I got it set up, turned it on and no sound. I then noticed that the 6C33C tubes were not lit up. I shut it down and turned it on again and slowly the tubes came to life. i had it playing for about an hour and the sound slowly faded as the 6C33C tubes shut down. Any idea on the cause. I am waiting to hear back from the seller and I'm guessing I will need to send it to Craig to repair.

So, I have owned the Moth 300B for years and have never once experienced what is happening right now. I was playing speakers through it earlier just fine, and was putting records on shelves, etc., so not being too critical. Wanted to switch to K1000s out the back so switched the speaker cables for the pigtail and went out on the porch. In order to adjust volume on the lousy recording I was listening to, I went into the room again and was thinking that the K1000s were really loud through the window and 10 feet away. But even after unplugging them from the pigtail, music played on quite audibly... So for some reason, this straight up power amp with now speakers attac…

So, would it be possible to have the gain lowered on a Pico so those with IEM's can enjoy more of the amps sonic characteristics? I would also like to have more volume control for IEM's. What I have gathered from home amplifiers (ex. Macintosh) is that the less gain and more volume or (the other way around) really has a dif effect on sound. Is it possible to change this or is the gain set in stone? I really think you can get a better taste of the sound of a headphone amp When the gain is set propperly for your headphones. Witha portable like Pico, I think users will usually use the same headphone. Way back 7-8 years ago, the META42 and penguin builders always asked wha…

Maybe Beefy knows something about these Aussie blokes? Their new Headamp popped up on HF this morning. It looks quite interesting as a potential match with HD800s. It's powered by their own discrete opamps, which they apparently also sell separately. Has anyone had any experience with rolling these?

Hi, I am interested in the best electrostatic amp for jazz (instrumentals and vocals) with the Stax 009. Any thoughts or reccs?

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.

Has anyone experience with the Audio Consulting MIPA Stax Amplifier from Switzerland? Battery powerd spec as follows Product Features This is a 100% battery amplifier suitable to drive all Stax headphones Mipa power amplifier 30 w per channel , battery powered Silver Rock level transformers suitable for all Stax headphones Silver Rock TVC volume control 3 inputs Polarisation of membranes performed by batteries Price CHF 18`500.00 in Wood/oil, CHF 15`400.00 in Black Copper versions available http://www.audio-consulting.ch/?Products:Amplifier:MIPA_Stax_Amplifier

I have recently come to an agreement with a very talented builder. He is going to build two reference tube amplifiers (One for himself and one for me). It?s going to be a two chassis, all premium parts, Siltech G6 point to point wiring tube amplifier. He?s a single ended guy and I remain unconvinced that balanced is worth the trouble. So it?s going to be single ended. Since my source is single ended only it should work out well. We?re still working out the exact circuit topology and ergonomics of the units; number of inputs, type of volume control, preamp outputs ect. I?ll be lucky if I get the finished amp by September. I think it?s more likely to be a killer Christma…

3 years ago I gave some equipment to a friend to store for me and I just picked it back up. 99% of everything looks great, but it appears my RKV was left out on a shelf (unplugged) and has accumulated quite a bit of dust. Before I fire it back up any suggestions on how to get it relatively clean? Would not look forward to scraping out a ton of dust with a Q-tip.

Do you like stepped attenuators in your amps? I had one in my Corda HA-2 MKII SE which I've since sold, and find myself missing it. I never really had the problem of finding the "right" volume level that other listeners have. Right now, I think I will definitely have one in my next amp. So, what is it for you?

Untill now I read only severe negative posts for SRM-727II. But I still can't find anywhere concrete opinion what's the problem with this Stax amp. I see most people own SRM-007tII, SRM-006t and even SRM-717 but not the 727 How many of you had the opportunity to compare 727II with another amps?

Sorry for the quality of the pictures... I really need to get a tripod. A few points: - Yes, the 1/4" jacks are different. Yes, it will be fixed. - The Power keystart switch failed and Peter had to bypass it... I'm glad this happened before he handed the amp over. - The faceplate didnt really turn out as Peter and I wanted it. Neither of us payed anything for it though so no harm. Steve [swt61] should be able to remedy this for us in any case. - The XLR jacks are way too close to the volume knobs... this is one of the things that we will try to remedy with the new faceplate. - I believe Peter mentioned that there is some more exterior finishing th…

This is something I've been thinking about for quite some time now, why is it that some headphones are automatically assumed to require super-expensive over the top amps while others aren't? The examples I'm specifically thinking of are the Senn 580/6x0 and AKG K701 along with Grados like the RS-1. As most of you have likely heard by now, everyone "knows" that the Senns & AKG "need" the best amp money can buy, and if the sound isn't quite right it's always the fault of the amp because it's not good enough. I've also noticed that scores if not hundreds of people own $1000+ amps for the above headphones. On the other side of the coin we have (John) Grados, everyon…

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…

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