Jump to content

Headroom's Balanced Desktop


n_maher

Recommended Posts

hey hey.. stop bombing... i meant it as an "oversimplication" it's not like i'm going to ride off an amp before i actually hear it...

OK. No worries.

Yeah, I know, the four-pin XLR thing. A) Those combo jacks are sweet cuz you can still plug in reg'ler cans, and 2) The thing won't drive K1000s properly anyway. I guess we started things with the BlockHead and can't really turn back now.

I, Tyll do solemnly swear to send a demo to grandenigma1... and before thesloth

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 64
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

The thing won't drive K1000s properly anyway.

Technically true, but that little convertible produced some of the nicest sounds I've heard out of a K1K within its volume limits! With doubled up modules, it might do quite well for less dynamic music.

And GE (who happens to be first in line), you'll have to get in line! ;):D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Technically true, but that little convertible produced some of the nicest sounds I've heard out of a K1K within its volume limits! With doubled up modules, it might do quite well for less dynamic music.

And GE (who happens to be first in line), you'll have to get in line! ;):D

ABUSE OF MODERATOR PRIVILIGES :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police:

:angel::laugh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ABUSE OF MODERATOR PRIVILIGES :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police: :police:

No shit! These guys go on and on, Head-Fi this and Head-Fi moderator that, blah blah blahhhh! And then I find MY OWN POST with this in it:

I, Tyll do solemnly swear to send a demo to grandenigma1... and before thesloth

? Last Edit: Today at 05:38:50 pm by Grand Enigma ?

Holy Crap! Moderator abuse for sure! You never know where the shit will be flying from around here. I'ts like living in the headphone world equivalent "The Clockwork Orange"

Back to your normally schedualed broadcast.....

Congrats on the great looking new amp! I have a feeling my GS-X will be happy to have a new friend in the world.

Yeah, man. You going to the Florida meet? I can't keep up with that thread, I have no idea if you've chimed in over there.

Technically true, but that little convertible produced some of the nicest sounds I've heard out of a K1K within its volume limits!

Oh you're just an obsesive HeadRoom fanboy! The K1000 needs so much more to sound good! :o

Makes me wonder why I'm so darn willing to send you one to play with? But I am. :-* Let me work on it a bit; and sending some 650 cables soundln't be a problem. my guess is sometime after Christmas.

I promise to give me unbiased opinion Cheesy

Sounds like mastopinionation to me.

That and I am a mod and you need to suckup to headcase so we treat you nice?

It's hard to know how to suck up to CHAOS but I promise to be a good boy and do my best. :angel:

....small squeeky fart....

...gentle oily egg fragrance....

And in closing, I do solemnly swear to send EdipisReks a bottle of good Scotch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh you're just an obsesive HeadRoom fanboy! The K1000 needs so much more to sound good! :o

Hey now! I decided to plug in the K1K into the convertible after a head-fi'er asked me to try it - he swore that it sounded pretty good in his system. And it did. Yep, no dynamics whatsoever but the tone was smooth and balanced, which is much more than I can say for a lot of other amps I've heard powering the K1K. I did for fun try out one of the original module designs and it sounded pretty disastrous.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey now! I decided to plug in the K1K into the convertible after a head-fi'er asked me to try it - he swore that it sounded pretty good in his system. And it did. Yep, no dynamics whatsoever but the tone was smooth and balanced, which is much more than I can say for a lot of other amps I've heard powering the K1K. I did for fun try out one of the original module designs and it sounded pretty disastrous.

my first offtopic chance to RSA bash:

At least headroom is willing to admit what it's amps can and can't do, rsa put the k1000 on the raptor and tried to sell it as a K1000 amp (surprize surprize, the next thing i know, there are at least a couple of poeple with that same meredian>raptor>K1000 rig), and then he put a Hd650 on the tomahawk and told us it could do it well, but he won't "officially" market it as that....

so when could we expect these things to be sold? when, do you think, could be our first chance to hear it? (like when it actually gets built and ships to people).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey now! I decided to plug in the K1K into the convertible after a head-fi'er asked me to try it - he swore that it sounded pretty good in his system.

Danny, our previous engineer, tried it on the BlockHead and thought it sounded pretty good... I did spend a little time listening and, OK, our amps put out a pretty good signal and you can tell, but soooooo underpowered. I really wish I thought we'd have an amp out sometime soon that would power the K1000 well, but it's not to be, I'm afraid. The first chance will be the 300B amp that's something like 4 years out. But who knows, maybe we'll strike it rich and be able to develop products willy nilly; I'd love to do a sweet FET amp for them. OTOH, what could I do that Nelson Pass hasn't done so much better than we could in that regard.

so when could we expect these things to be sold? when, do you think, could be our first chance to hear it? (like when it actually gets built and ships to people).

Well, I'll be taking one to the Florida meet this weekend. Sloth will have one for a little while after the new year. They'll be up for sale in Feb. I'll be at the National Meet. And....well....where do you live? Maybe I can swing by one of these days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I'll be taking one to the Florida meet this weekend. Sloth will have one for a little while after the new year. They'll be up for sale in Feb. I'll be at the National Meet. And....well....where do you live? Maybe I can swing by one of these days.

hi.

I live in Berkeley CA, it would be great if you could drop by. there are berkeley mini meets all the time, and i'm sure we could set one up for you (berkeley head-fiers have amps such as the F1, dynamight, mapletree hd150, mpx slam, zana deux and whatever filbert has, and a great range of souces to try it out with). Also, i'll surely be at the national meet...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm about 90 percent sure that I'll get this with the home module. I'm currently not going to get the DAC since I like my Lavry fine as it is. The only thing that I could wish for is pre-amp outs to drive my power amp directly. But it's not a deal breaker by any means.

I think you'd be crazy to get this without the dac. The headroom dacs are among the best values in audio. Even if it's only 99% of the lavry...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you'd be crazy to get this without the dac. The headroom dacs are among the best values in audio. Even if it's only 99% of the lavry...

You may be right, but at this point, I don't feel an urge to get another DAC. Besides, Headroom's designs are modular, so that if I feel like getting the DAC, I can always add it later. But in the short-term, I don't spend as much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But if you like it, you can sell the lavry, and the amp costs you almost nothing.

he can't sell it if he's using the lavry to power his F1>K1000, since the headroom doesn't have preamp or dac out. ... and that reminds me; humanflyz, when am i going to hear that new amp of yours? ;)

wait... how are you going to connect it to the lavry if the lavry only has one set of analouge outs?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's a bit misleading to say a headphone amp can't be used as a preamp, you just need the appropriate cables and/or adapters to make the connection to the headphone ports. This is what I do with my powered speakers and Dynamid. Sure it would be nicer to have a permanent output with a cut-off switch, but the basic functionality of volume control and driving the speaker amp is still there in almost any headphone amp, let alone a nice balanced unit like the new HR.

As for the headroom DAC being 99% of the Lavry (or its' brethren), I'd like to hear it, though I at least believe it could be true, based on the design.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's a bit misleading to say a headphone amp can't be used as a preamp, you just need the appropriate cables and/or adapters to make the connection to the headphone ports. This is what I do with my powered speakers and Dynamid. Sure it would be nicer to have a permanent output with a cut-off switch, but the basic functionality of volume control and driving the speaker amp is still there in almost any headphone amp, let alone a nice balanced unit like the new HR.

As for the headroom DAC being 99% of the Lavry (or its' brethren), I'd like to hear it, though I at least believe it could be true, based on the design.

Well you can run into issues using the headphone outputs (at least the single ended ones) in that way. I don't know the science of it, but I know that using my 'convertible' as a preamp through the headphone socket yields very strange sonic resulsts - a very thin, lean sound, with an obvious bass roll off. Something is clearly wrong, perpaps relating to impedance matching or something, but either way it just doesn't work in that setup. I have used HR amps that had dedicated output RCA's which differed in their output impedance and some other factors I seem to remember from the headphone outputs, and they sounded fantastic in the same system.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, the rear outputs are totally in parallel with the front jacks---no difference what so ever. You might have not had a connector in all the way or something, Daniel, because it should sound exactly the same from rear or front outs. Bottom line: a headphone amp is just a ballsy pre-amp with a low output impedance; there should be no problem whatsoever with driving a power amp from the front jacks on ANY headphone amp---ours included.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, the rear outputs are totally in parallel with the front jacks---no difference what so ever. You might have not had a connector in all the way or something, Daniel, because it should sound exactly the same from rear or front outs. Bottom line: a headphone amp is just a ballsy pre-amp with a low output impedance; there should be no problem whatsoever with driving a power amp from the front jacks on ANY headphone amp---ours included.

This one mystified Jamey as well, but if you heard what it sounded like, I think you'd agree. The only other culprit would be the 1/4" to RCA adapter, but how bad could one of those be?

And don't those rear RCA's have a different output impedance?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.