The Lavry DA11: For your ears only

[thisbenjamin]

ooo - the DNA is a great example tube amp, finally got to listen to it a week ago and was very impressed - it's got a solid appealing sound without all the tube fuzz.

Personally I'd go GS-X

Side note - Danne, how are you going to be using it? what transport, headphones, etc

[danne]

Originally Posted by Jeremy

Did you decide on an amp as well? I remember in another thread you were concerned about the built-in amp sounding too thin alongside dedicated headphone amps. I think the built-in amp is extremely good, but I confess I'm sorely tempted to add the DNA Sonett to the chain, which is even better, though not by much.

Havent fully decided on the amp side yet, I did really like the Sonett at the meet, I thought it was one of the best amps present, but Im leaning towards going for something balanced, WA22,Apache,GS-X are the thoughts.
Wont be having enough money to buy an amp right away after the DAC so I'll have a month or two to decide on that part :-)

Originally Posted by thisbenjamin

ooo - the DNA is a great example tube amp, finally got to listen to it a week ago and was very impressed - it's got a solid appealing sound without all the tube fuzz.

Personally I'd go GS-X

Side note - Danne, how are you going to be using it? what transport, headphones, etc

The transport will be either coax from the creative x-fi fatal1ty Ive got or USB from the computer right away, what ever sounds best :-)
The headphones will be the newly purchased HD 800 and maybe the ESW10JPN from time to time.
Im planing to sell my HD 650 and my very old HD 555 are purely back up.

[USAudio]

Originally Posted by danne

Havent fully decided on the amp side yet, I did really like the Sonett at the meet, I thought it was one of the best amps present, but Im leaning towards going for something balanced...

FYI - I see there's a balanced version of the Sonnett:
DNA Sonett (not Sonnet) single ended triode SET vacuum tube headphone amplifier

[Dan Lavry]

Originally Posted by USAudio

FYI - I see there's a balanced version of the Sonnett:
DNA Sonett (not Sonnet) single ended triode SET vacuum tube headphone amplifier

Regarding balanced, you may be interested in my post #6 at the "balanced-senns-lavry". My comments cover all headphones, not just the senns...

Balanced Senns and Lavry

Regards
Dan Lavry

[danne]

Originally Posted by Dan Lavry

Regarding balanced, you may be interested in my post #6 at the "balanced-senns-lavry". My comments cover all headphones, not just the senns...

Balanced Senns and Lavry

Regards
Dan Lavry

Thanks for some good reading!

[danne]

Ive just pulled a 13 hour nightshift at work, picked up my lavry on the way home, finally got home from walking the last bit out in the cold.
Now Im sitting here 09 in the morning with some scotch and my HD 800 hooked up to the Lavry and just feeling the love of music..
Cheers

[winzzz]

what vol are you using with hd800 ?

[danne]

Originally Posted by winzzz

what vol are you using with hd800 ?

Got the volume at 35 right now while listening to Jack Johnssn.

[USAudio]

Originally Posted by danne

Got the volume at 35 right now while listening to Jack Johnssn.

I was also curious at what levels folks were listening with the DA11.
Typically I find myself somewhere between 28 and 31 (HD800's) ... sometimes a bit lower and sometimes a bit higher depending on how the CD was mastered.
CDs that are mastered too loud drive me nuts: they sound flat, compressed, lifeless, etc. ... makes me want to get my money back!

[winzzz]

between 23-26 with grado for me...

[Hadden]

Stupid question maybe, does the volume go to 99 clicks?

[Dan Lavry]

Originally Posted by Hadden

Stupid question maybe, does the volume go to 99 clicks?

There are 57 volume settings, and the volume is shown on the 2 digit display when you change the volume.

00 means mute - no sound.

That leaves you with 1-56. Of course 1 is very low level, and 56 is real loud!
As you step through the volume settings, each "count" is 1dB. For example, 31 is 1dB louder than 30.

Regards
Dan Lavry

[Anders]

Is the output impedance the same for the balanced output and the headphone output? Question is in the perspective of the balanced versus SE discussion. As I understand it the output voltage is the same.

[Dan Lavry]

Originally Posted by Anders

Is the output impedance the same for the balanced output and the headphone output? Question is in the perspective of the balanced versus SE discussion. As I understand it the output voltage is the same.

The rear panel XLR's yield a full scale balanced signal of 24dBu, which is the AES standard for studio music production work. You can always set the XLR rear panel outputs to be single ended (with pin 2 hot, or pin 3 hot, your choice), and at single ended, you get 18dBu maximum level. Such levels are very high for headphone use, so I expect folks to set the volume below maximum.
The headphone jack maximum level is 18dBu, and that is also very high level.
In all cases, each digit on the volume setting is 1dB.

Regards
Dan Lavry

[Anders]

Thanks for the answer about voltage but I also wonder about output impedance. Is it the same output impedance on the headphone output and the XLR outputs when configured as single-ended? And I assume that the impedance is different when using the rear outputs as balanced compared to SE.

The relevance of the output impedance is that it affects the frequency response of the headphone (if the headphone impedance is frequency dependent and that is common).