December 10, 201411 yr Author Oh I ended up buying a GS-1 not a Beta 22. Sorry for the confusion. Is it the power output of the Beta that's the dangerous part? Did I hurt my GS-1? I've done it once or twice. Eagerly awaiting your response. :/ Edited December 10, 201411 yr by dreamwhisper
December 10, 201411 yr Author What's in these modules? Any specifics? This is an all-new module designed in-house. It will be the first non-Gilmore amplification circuitry I have offered in a home amp. It is a 100% discrete design, real Class A circuit. The output consists of a pair of Hitachi MOSFETs designed for audio -- good for a substantial couple of watts in this circuit. Edited December 10, 201411 yr by dreamwhisper
December 10, 201411 yr Nothing to do with mosfets in general. It's due to the TRS shorting the outputstage to ground
December 10, 201411 yr Some output stages are more fickle with this than others. That being said - it's a good idea to turn volume down when swapping headphones or just putting an XLR pigtail on the amp. Edited December 10, 201411 yr by RudeWolf
December 10, 201411 yr To add to all of this, there are two resistors on each channel board that can be upped to provide some additional protection against the TRS shorting. I don't remember the details but they are over at the AMB forums.
December 10, 201411 yr What I do is to put a mute circuit at the output. There is a switch that direct the signal to the headphones or to ground through a resistor (I use 300R).
December 11, 201411 yr Depending on when this beta was built and how the output is configured I'd first start by saying that you should never hot swap or plug in headphones on a beta²². That's a good way to release the magic smoke and render the amp useless. Unless you're talking about an amp configured with a connector other than the usual 1/4" TRS jack. That jack causes a momentary short on the output when plugging/unplugging headphones that has been known to cause major issues. That said, there should really be an issue powering two headphones at once off of the beta, just that if the sensitivities/load are significantly different it may be difficult or impossible to find a happy listening volume. Someone killed Asr's B22 at a headphone meet by hot swapping phones with music playing. It sucked.
May 1, 201511 yr I find increasing the quiescent current of the output device from amb's recommendation of 120 - 160 to around 180mA helps warming up the sound.
May 1, 201511 yr I found that plugging in a TRS jack with the unit at a good volume warms everything up.
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