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how is the pimeta?

post #1 of 26
2/9/06 at 12:55am
Thread Starter 
for its price range...how is the pimeta?
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post #2 of 26
2/9/06 at 12:58am
Hey cwuzer, how's the 595 treating you?

At its price range, pimeta is unbeatable.
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post #3 of 26
2/9/06 at 1:04am
Thread Starter 

595s

loving them.

i'm running them off a turtle beach audio advantage micro right now.

being new to amps...i'm assuming an amp such as the pimeta or something in a similar price range will make them sound a lot better.

i'd probably prefer a gilmore lite...but i can't really find one in my price range.

trying to get the opinions of other people on the forum.
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post #4 of 26
2/9/06 at 3:05am
the pimetas are pretty unbeatable at their price range.
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post #5 of 26
2/9/06 at 4:58am
Yup, $100-$200 you'd be hard pressed to do better. I think my next upgrade will be to a discrete design like the Gilmore Lite, because IMO further improvements possible (over Pimeta) with an opamp based design are not very big.
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post #6 of 26
2/9/06 at 5:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fewtch
Yup, $100-$200 you'd be hard pressed to do better. I think my next upgrade will be to a discrete design like the Gilmore Lite, because IMO further improvements possible (over Pimeta) with an opamp based design are not very big.
not true. PPA improves on every aspect of the pimeta and you will notice more articulate bass, wider sound stage and little better speed and attack, better notes decay and a little better extention at both ends.
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post #7 of 26
2/9/06 at 5:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chesebert
not true. PPA improves on every aspect of the pimeta and you will notice more articulate bass, wider sound stage and little better speed and attack, better notes decay and a little better extention at both ends.
Technically speaking, how would you explain this? I'll buy the wider soundstage (better channel separation) and lower noise floor purely according to the tested/measured specs, but otherwise the Pimeta is like a simplified version of the PPA.

Why is the more complex design the better (you say "not true" to my claim, which means the improvements over the Pimeta are very big), when normally it's best to have the least possible crap in the signal path?

Convince me that the PPA is a very large improvement over the Pimeta... I'd like to know why.
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post #8 of 26
2/9/06 at 7:01am
not VERY BIG..decent sized

The difference is there and noticable if you listen carefully or are famaliar with both amps. I don't know if anything in the $300+ is very noticable or very big as you put it. You know its diminished return from there on out
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post #9 of 26
2/9/06 at 7:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fewtch
Technically speaking, how would you explain this? I'll buy the wider soundstage (better channel separation) and lower noise floor purely according to the tested/measured specs, but otherwise the Pimeta is like a simplified version of the PPA.

Why is the more complex design the better (you say "not true" to my claim, which means the improvements over the Pimeta are very big), when normally it's best to have the least possible crap in the signal path?

Convince me that the PPA is a very large improvement over the Pimeta... I'd like to know why.
design is not complex, there are essentally the samething in signal path, you have a opamp stage and a output stage connected directly to one another. Its the peripheral components that are used to deliver more stable, clean power that's makes up the difference. and ofcourse having the ability do use discrete output buffer really helps the sound
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post #10 of 26
2/9/06 at 7:17am
I still don't see what's making a *large* difference, but I suppose this is purely subjective re: big or small differences.

The Pimeta is far up enough the scale for me re: opamp based designs, I don't see much point in a yet-more-complex amp that's still using the same basic amplification module(s), i.e. opamps. I really got the point on the recent discrete vs. opamp thread, there's only so much you can do with opamp based designs given you can't hack into the opamps themselves and make any changes... they are what they are.

To my ears, even the differences between my Pimeta and Go-Vibe (both using the same opamps) are fairly subtle and mostly involve a more solid bass and better driving capability for low impedance headphones. If transparency were the main goal (changing the sound as little as possible), IMO this limits opamp-based designs even more.
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post #11 of 26
2/9/06 at 8:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fewtch
To my ears, even the differences between my Pimeta and Go-Vibe (both using the same opamps) are fairly subtle and mostly involve a more solid bass and better driving capability for low impedance headphones. If transparency were the main goal (changing the sound as little as possible), IMO this limits opamp-based designs even more.
Don't generalize that much! It's the BUF634's to not be so very transparent, not all op-amps or buffers.



Secondly, IMHO the Gilmore Lite won't really be more transparent than a PPA.
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post #12 of 26
2/9/06 at 10:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fewtch
The Pimeta is far up enough the scale for me re: opamp based designs, I don't see much point in a yet-more-complex amp that's still using the same basic amplification module(s), i.e. opamps. I really got the point on the recent discrete vs. opamp thread, there's only so much you can do with opamp based designs given you can't hack into the opamps themselves and make any changes... they are what they are.
And in that last statement lies the biggest bennefit to the PPA V2 compared to the PIMETA - it uses discrete output buffers instead of a chip based design link the HA3-5002 used in V1 or the BUF634 used in the PIMETA. And while I'd agree that more complex does not necessarily mean better I'd like to hear you argue the same thing for discrete designs, i.e. that the Dynahi is not better than the Dynalo.

In the end I completely agree to let your ears be the judge and not weigh any single thing purely on the basis of its technology or specifications but don't dismiss designs based on assumptions either.

My 2ยข,

Nate

P.s. Oh, and on topic the PIMETA is a wonderful bang-for-your-buck amp. I'm listening to one right now .
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post #13 of 26
2/9/06 at 3:11pm
I have compared gilmore lite and M3 to pimeta. The difference is mindblowing, pimeta is vastly inferior in every way... still great bang for the buck though at half the price.
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post #14 of 26
2/9/06 at 3:20pm
Good amp for the money. That's what I started with but now that I've worked my way up to a MPX3 I'm putting my Pimeta up for sale.
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post #15 of 26
2/9/06 at 3:29pm
Thread Starter 

gilmore lite

i want it quite badly.

so purrty..so expensive.
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