April 23, 200818 yr My interest in tube amps has been growing since around last October, and now that I have my own Aikido hybrid I'm only even more interested. I'm personally more interested in what I can DIY, but I'm cool to hear whatever. I fully expect that the ZD, HD2, the Luna, and the SDS (is this just a really charged up Waarde?) to be part of the list, but I like to hear about what else is out there, again especially in the DIY realm (like dsavitsk's cool looking shunt-regulated, single feed, spud amp).
April 23, 200818 yr you really want one of these... notice the price http://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EMXAMPANIV
April 23, 200818 yr you really want one of these... notice the price http://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EMXAMPANIV Wow - hasn't that been out for a few years...and they still haven't sold out the 100 units worldwide! I guess Nik's stint of calling it the "world's best" system with whatever headphones he was using at the time, wasn't long enough to sell 100
April 23, 200818 yr Raptor. RAPRPAPTAPRPARPAPTRPATPAPRAPRAPRPARPTORORPARPARPAPRAPRAORAOPTPAOROAROAROPATOPAROP
April 23, 200818 yr I've actually wanted to try Earmax for sometime now, too. I've never had the opportunity, though.
April 23, 200818 yr That's about $200.00 per square inch. Must be good! Oh yes indeed. It is. Mine's only the silver edition, though. Sound comes out more tinkly. saint.panda has one too, correct? I saw his post about hooking the pico up to it, which piqued my interest.
April 23, 200818 yr Author I've heard two different Morgan Jones amps. I thought they sounded good, but not quite the level of performance I'm looking for. Of course, maybe they weren't perfect builds. One of them, the builder said he'd spent over $900 on O.O
April 23, 200818 yr SDS or Dragon The EarMax Pro that KG linked to Wheatfield HA-2 (not current production, but schematics are available) Blue Hawaii (but that's electrostatic)
April 23, 200818 yr This. I'm told there's now a slightly improved variation using WE 205E's on the input, but I haven't heard it yet.
April 23, 200818 yr Author aerius, that looks awesome but the cost is probably a bit out of my league for now, and I'm not really sure my skills are anywhere near to handling DHT yet. I've heard the Dragon, but it was briefly and with music I wasn't familiar with. It sounded good. I've never heard an SDS, though I'd like to since it always gets so much praise. At least these are all things I can work with. EarMax Pro is a Morgan Jones (correct?) and Wheatfield HA-2 and most (all?) of SP stuff is based on Van Waarde (right?), so I have some options. -edit- I've also considered making something of a clone of the Dared VP-20 as it's gotten good comments with headphones. I'm also interested in pentodes, triode-strapped or even using them in a SEP circuit.
April 23, 200818 yr Moth Xana ? Out of production, uber expensive, super limited and unobtainable haha !
April 23, 200818 yr just to give some more details, The Dragon is the only headphone amp i've ever heard that actually provided sound stage. that's really something. the Zana Deux doesn't do that, but it still sounds amazing, especially with HP-2s. I'd rank the soundstage of The Menace above both of those
April 23, 200818 yr you really want one of these... notice the price http://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EMXAMPANIV i heard it with the l3000s, not impressed at all with it. the best tube amp i've heard to date is the Eddie Current HD2. i would like to hear Mikhail's high-end stuff, but when the opportunity has presented itself i've had repeatedly bad luck because it's not working right, in transit to SP for repair or already there--sad but true. plus SP high-end stuff tends to easily break $4K and that's the inexpensive ones.
April 23, 200818 yr just to give some more details, The Dragon is the only headphone amp i've ever heard that actually provided sound stage. that's really something. the Zana Deux doesn't do that, but it still sounds amazing, especially with HP-2s. the balanced ZD provided what seemed like doubled the sound stage of a single the ZD and HD2 (single ended), but most amps and should I probably say headphones as well don't really convey sound stage well (like speakers). i'd liked to hear the dragon. did it do the sound stage thing with the HP-2s?
April 23, 200818 yr i've heard the HD2 prototype on more than one occasion (once for more than a week), and while it's very good, i don't think it's ZD good. well sorted MPX3 good. are you sure about that.. \ Craig only made one and it belongs to jp#s. DHL damaged it in shipment and when Craig fixed it plus doing a few changes and modifications did it turn into this special amp, imo. i don't even think this amp has left California in it's current state.
April 23, 200818 yr yes. the soundstage with the HP-2s on the Dragon is what wowed me. that's impressive.
April 23, 200818 yr One of the best I've heard with 650's is tjkurita's Blackie Pagano Duality. I tried to find a pic but no luck.
April 23, 200818 yr http://www.stereophile.com/news/042406heaven/index.html fifth pic down--i believe and it's the one with the copper top. i spoke with blackie about a year ago, he now lives in Los Angeles, and he charged over $10K for that amp.
April 23, 200818 yr http://www.stereophile.com/news/042406heaven/index.html fifth pic down--i believe and it's the one with the copper top. i spoke with blackie about a year ago, he now lives in Los Angeles, and he charged over $10K for that amp. That's the one. I remember it was big bucks. It sounded pretty sweet, as I recall.
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