n_maher

Thanks for all the kind compliments. It was a pretty brutal build as the instructions that came with the kit were pretty lacking. I would like to take a moment to thank Legos for teaching me to learn visually, without that ability this thing would just be a pile of parts and some pcbs. I hope to work with DIY Hifi to create a better set of instructions as right now I'd be hard pressed to recommend the kit to anyone. The technical aspect is simple as can be (well, mostly) just plug parts in where they go, but taking that stack of stuff and getting it all to fit together as intended was a doozy. She's small, but don't let it fool you, I'd be the thing weighs in the neighborhood of 20lbs. And yeah, it's redbook only as far as I know. You can find more information on the kit here. The chassis alone is probably worth half the cost of the kit, the remote is milled from a solid chunk of aluminum (no joke) and all of the buttons used are turned aluminum bits. It's roughly 91/2" wide, 3-1/2" tall and 14" deep. I really like the fact that it, plus my DAC should be able to share shelf. And Haj, given what your current source is you can hardly expect me to feel for you, right?

Well, I'm happy to report that one half of my source upgrade is now complete. What started life as this: Is now this! This all started when I discovered that I knew the owner of HifiDIY through my Millett Hybrid PCB connections. I ordered up a kit and after dealing with the pain that was customs losing a bunch of parts the transport was completed about an hour ago and is now confirmed as working. It's a bummer that for whatever reason it is not compatible with the Denon DAC that I have on loan from Ian but it works just dandy with my HT receiver so I don't think there's a problem with the transport. I'll take some pron shots later with the top cover off if I can stand the idea of taking it apart again. And I'll also be posting a build diary at some point in the DIY forum for anyone interested. Please excuse me, I really must get to work on my DAC!

I wonder if there are issues using it without the specified LOD? It would seem to me that if you used another dock, without the decoupling caps, that you could be feeding your amp a signal with large amounts of DC offset. That DC offset, then amplified could easily be headphone lethal. Hopefully when the mod is announced there will be more info about this. I can just see the newbs using their ALO Cryo Jumbo Blamo dock and cooking headphones right and left.

I didn't think it was all that bad, I'd rate it "entertaining" but certainly not great. I'd also say that based on what I'd heard going into it I had lowered my expectations.

I guess my point was, in a thread asking for a comparison between two amps it might be helpful if you said that you hadn't heard the ppa or that knowing that the two bass boost circuits are identical that your experience had been negative with the M3. You comment reads as if the M3 is the worse of the two. FWIW, I agree with your opinion of the bass boost, I didn't care for it in either amp. And I retract my statement saying that you speak about things that you don't know about, I have no idea what your knowledge level is.

You know, I'm trying to give you a second chance here outside of Head-Fi but comments like this aren't giving me much hope. Your appraisal of Dr. Wells is pretty close to mine of you. On Head-Fi you come across as judgmental, overly critical and like your opinion is the only one that matters. Take the following quote for example: What makes this comment odd is that it was in a thread asking about the M3 vs. the PPA and their bass boost, which just so happens is implemented in exactly the same way. Now luckily enough amb came into the thread and corrected you but this isn't the first (or even second) time that I've seen you post something in a way that makes it read as if you know what you're talking about when you don't. I guess what I'm trying to say (as I've said on Head-Fi) is that you should choose your words a little more carefully if you don't want to become the second Dr. Just my 2c, probably not worth that much. Nate

Congrats on the new source! With a little bit of luck I'll be able to post some details of one of my digital upgrades this week. I just finished the last bit of soldering now, all that's left is assembly and testing.

Just so you're aware, the good Dr. is ripping you a new asshole on Head-Fi.

Ok, for me the most disturbing part about that picture is the little african-american boy on the left hand side. Dude, even when he hangs out with Jesus he's still starving and has a distended belly. Come on! Wait, maybe it's the little girl on the right hand side lifting her skirt about to flash Jesus... Hmmm, that could be a tossup.

Dee, What amp are you using these days with the 580's? The Melos probably does just fine with them but I'm wondering if you might like them even better from an amp like my HA-2. I find that it mates very well with Senns.

Yup. Pretty sure that's Wes Philliips of Stereophile fame.

Ken, I'm honestly not trying to pimp Headroom's gear here but if you're nearly that sold on the unit I'd give them a call and ask them if there was any way that you could get a hold of the demo unit with the expectation that if you liked it you'd buy a new one and that if you didn't like it you'd send it back in 30 days? I have no idea if they'd go for it but it can't hurt to ask right? It strikes me as you trying to save them the hassle of another used amp to sell if you returned a new one during the 30 day window. Just give it a fair shake for what it is, an 8" x 8" box where the DAC (assuming the Home DAC) certainly isn't going to be the better of your $1200 Stello (but might be close) and the headamp, with the Home module, really is pretty neutral.

I don't really want to beat a dead horse here but I think it's gotten to the point where there are so many squeaky wheels that there can never be enough grease. And good luck posting something like this on Head-Fi, the SP mafia will come out in full force.

Ken, I think you're already aware of my thoughts on the Balanced Desktop. If not have a look at the featured reviews forum at Head-Fi, my ramblings can be found there. Also, you might try shooting immtbiker a PM at Head-Fi, he spent some time with the amp after I did and he's certainly heard more high end gear than I have. Nate

I think the point was what good is a warranty if your without the amp for 6 months while it's being repaired. Maybe he treats repairs different than upgrades though? It's worth noting (as it seems like I'm bashing Singlepower here) that I like Mikhail. We've shared meals and candid conversations so I feel like I know the man in addition to knowing a bit about his business. My general feeling is that he's currently a victim of his success and a desire to please all of his customers. He's taken on way too much and needs to put a stop to it before he does serious damage to his brand.

Biggie, That's all well and good for new customers but the issue here seems to be people that have already paid for services and are not receiving them in any sort of timely fashion. And it's not just as simple as calling your credit card to cancel your order if you've sent the guy your amp to upgrade. And it doesn't seem like calling for an update really works since all he does is placate you by telling you that it's nearly done and should ship soon. The net result is that he gets to it when he gets to it and that's that. I didn't realize that things had gotten as bad as they appear to have based on recent threads and conversations with folks. Not good...

Well, $50 in parts from Digikey and my HA-2 is now back up and running pretty much silent. There is the slightest, and I mean slightest hum in the background but it is so low that there has to be no signal present and you have to concentrate to hear it. WUHOO! My new trafo for the amp should be in next week if all goes according to plan and while that will probably have no effect on the remaining hum I'm hopeful that the new trafo might be quieter than the current one. Now that the hum is gone the trafo noise, that is to say the actual noise that the trafo makes while it's working (sort of buzzish) is now what I hear more than anything. I tell you, living in the country with almost no ambient noise can be awful hard on the old audio system!

How that clown is not a member of the trade is a mystery to me. He claims that he's asked to be made one, maybe they took a look at his website and decided that he couldn't be serious?

Just be aware that he's still really only supplying the parts that you need to stuff the boards. For the balanced amp you're going to need a serious chassis and along with any build you'll always use more hardware than you think. From standoffs to jacks to switches and so on and so forth. Basically, I think you'd find that in raw parts costs if you were careful about what you did you could probably build a 3-channel version in a single-box (do so at your own risk) enclosure and be into it for about $500 or so. I tend not to keep track on builds like this as my configuration is somewhat fluid until I declare it done but I can tell you that I've got more than that into my 3-channel beta but it doesn't exactly look like your run-of-the-mill DIY amp either.

Not that this is of any help to you but I thought it worth noting that I always get a good chuckle out of the Oritek website. Where does he get those amazing graphics!?!?! I'm sure you've talk with Skullguise about his Ori DAC, right? Last I talked with him he was pretty happy with it and he's actually someone who I'd trust not to just believe the hype.

At least on the surface that would appear to be a pretty amazing price if it does include all the amp and psu parts even without a case which I find hard to believe that it would since 4 beta22 boards aren't fitting in anything in the 1455 Hammond series. And if that includes the trafo as well it's miraculous. Please let me know what the results of your email to jrossel are. P.s. You can't edit your posts after something like 5 minutes. It keeps the riffraff from saying one thing only to go back and edit it later.

Salty, I'm sure we can find a way to let you hear the β22. I've finally got mine behaving well, it had some low level trafo hum with low impedance cans which has now been cured. I'm pretty pleased with how I was able to adapt the interior layout to accept the shielding. As far as how much it would cost to have one built, I'd figure somewhere in the $800 to $1000 range for a 3-channel version, probably $1200 to $1400 for balanced, but that's really a guess as I haven't talked with Marshall about how much he's charging and he's the only one that I know of who's building them.

Perhaps your problem is the 4 pair of AKG headphones you've got right now?

You should drop your friend Todd (skullguise) a PM about the HPDac he just listed. Hard to beat that for the price in the "dac/amp thingy" category.

I actually found that it performed very well with both Senns and Grados alike despite it's Grado friendly Head-Fi rep. As far as Earl's opinion is concerned it's just that, his opinion. My own listening preferences vs. his reviews make me think that Earl and I might prefer a different kind of good sound. I haven't heard any of Mikhail's amps for over a year now and I don't use the RS-1s. My impressions of the Ear were with my HF-1s but I don't see why a good sounding amp wouldn't sound good with other phones that are similar. I don't put a whole lot of stock in tuning an amp for one particular set of headphones. At some point, a capable amplifier should be able to sound good with just about anything. Unless of course there are specific limitations stated by the manufacturer that would tell you right away that (for example) low impedance headphones need not apply. Just my 2? Nate