Hey hey, wanna buy me a plane ticket?

Hi Nik,

That's cool, you're like me you want the top...no compromise. I've browsed throught that very nice forum and read that you were not happy with your Manley preamp. That really sad because for me it's simply the best; to make short you cannot beat a 300B tube gear moreover built by ManleyLabs. In fact i will keep mine all my life. Finally i achieve to get a perfect sound. I'm even not sure if i will go for sacd ( maybe in 10 years or so !!).

With all the respect i have for you i think that you're more happy to collect the most expensive gears than to listen to it.

But again great respect for you man, thanks to you there's an improvment in the Manley preamp. ( but honestly it was allready dead silent).

Mastergill, you may want to try the Grado HP-1000's, AKG K1000's and the Sony R10's with your amp. They are all leagues above the HD600.

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IYHO

You know Zanth i really love my HD600, I think with the Cardas upgrade they are among the best. Well i never tried the 'phones you're talking about but i really don't feel the need to look elsewhere. With the HD600 i got an amazingly neutral and colorless sound exactely like a very good monitor loudspeaker; i've got deep bass you won't believe and a very wide soundstage. On my system they are perfect but i agree that they need lot of power to shine, but they can go really really far.

mg.

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Dear Mastergill,

are you using a low impedence headphones? Like my R10? I think no... because the Manley 300B is very, very noisy with my source and my cans. I was convinced that this amp would be the best for my cans, but I cannot to tell this... sorry, very sorry, but you do not have listened the first Ansgtrom amp I had and now Jatinder has... the difference with the Manley was abyssal! Believe me. I know the Manley very well, I listened it, but nothing so special... I'm not looking for the most exepensive, I'm only looking for the absolute best for the R10, and now I'm in the right way: Angstrom Research two box. I'll tell you next week when the amp will be arrived to my door. I remember you that I had ten amps for my cans, I have a lot of experience in headphne amps for R10!
The heart of the amp are the output transformers, I can tell you that my custom tranformers are the best available in the world, better that TAMURA and TANGO. But for this quality you must pay a lot of money: each transformers costs 2000$!!!!! Two mounts for build a pair!!!!!! The same thing for the inductance that weight 6Kg each!!!! The pot Penny&Giles costs 1300$, but this is the absolute best pot in the earth... So the final price of the amp is very Hi, but you are finally paying for components extremely good you have inside. How much you pay for the inside components of the Manley? The "upgrade" costs 1$ (???????). I'm very sorry but after a lot of time and money spent in amplifiers I speak very seriously: do not exsist in the market a very ultimate headphone amp, the only way is to do a custom unit by a very hi quality designer. Thanks to God I found a incredible designer here in Italy! I Think that in many country you can find a very expert designer... The japenese man bought tha same amp I have (but he must wait few mounts to recieve it) for the incredible amount of 20K.

This is enaught?

A question: what your source?

Best!
Nicola

Wow!

If I win the lotto, I will know what to get . I hope this amp will finally end up being what you are looking for .

Nik,

You cannot say that the Manley is very noisy !!!. It's the quietest piece of gear I went through and like you I'm not a beginner.
I've tried the 300B preamp also with a very sensitive phones the Sennheiser HD25 ( 75 ohms, 120 dB ) and it was ok.

What I don't understand is that you didn't felt in love with the "300B sound", you're a musicien you must know how real sound is.

It 's exactly what I told you, you're talking about the price of parts like it's the most important things...I don't care of a $1300 pot; stepped attenuators are better.

For my experience in audio it's not because you buy the most expensive gear that you gonna have the better sound, it's not that simple.

To finish I've got a $4500 Studer D731 cd player and this machine has no problem to compete with the best and for this price it's a real good bargain.

Well I don't want to fight with you but it's nice to share opinion about hight end stuff and our passion.

Regards.

Dude, you use senn 600's heh.

Biggie.

Hi Mastergill,

Its a pleasure for me to discuss with you and with all the person so interested in this passion...

About the Manley, did you read what EveAnna said? She recognized the problem of this piece, and they tried to fix the defect...

About quality of parts my designer and I we had tested a lot, many components, tested with istruments and with our ears: the Penny&Giles sounds better than any stepped we have tested, for example (for headphone use). I'm looking for the best amp for my R10 and this research is very, very long, not easy for many aspects. The 300B tube is a very musical tube, but not so good for headphone use, the Sovtek 6C45 is much, much better, if used in a right project, and this Sovtek little triode is not so expensive. The Sovtek sounds even better than the WE437A that costs ten times the 6C45, just to say that not only the price of an object means quality. But if you need to build a custom hand made transformer (for ex.), you must to pay a lot for quality material used and for a lot of time of work.
This is my experience, I'm sure that if you have the possibility to listen a Angstrom amp, you will put the Manley in the bin...

Best!
Nicola

Hi Nik,

Well at the end the most important thing is to be fully pleased by the sound of our system. I own my Manley since 7 months and every time I listen to my system it's a pure audio bliss. Because of the simplicity and the shortest possible signal path I've get, I achieve better sound than you can find in many studios and mastering houses (with headphones). I have lots of professional musicians as friends, I've made some recording and I know what I'm talking about.

I just wish you to be very happy with your new amp and for the price you'll pay, yeah I hope it's gonna be better than the Manley !!.

I will be happy to read your report.

Regards.

I went to Audiogon and took a look at the beast's guts (several photographs). Very impressive, indeed!!

I am sure the CD-12 deserves nothing but the best...

Enjoy it, Nick! And may the Pope bless that combo!!!

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Hey SuperMario,

the amp you have seen in the Audiogon is "only" the little brother of my next two box... wait a week and you will see an incredible monster never seen in headphone history!

Best!
Nicola

Darn, I came home from Italy yesterday.... If I had known that the amp was almost ready I would have planned my trip a little later...

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I wait for you next time friend... and you will listen the best headphone system in the planet...

Best!
Nicola