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REVIEW: Travagan's home "Red" Headphone amp and "Green" and "White" Headphone Amp/USB DACs... - Page 6

post #76 of 82
8/9/08 at 11:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by padam View Post
Beyerdynamic DT 880 (250 or 600 ohm) is it suitable for these amps? Is it better to get a white or a red with a separate DAC (I am planning to use it with computer)
I'll chime in if that's okay - I have never tried the Beyer but I don't see why not, based on my experience with them and 300 ohm HD600 and power hungry 600 ohm AKG 240M (although the 600 ohm AKG can only maybe hit 105-108db vs a possible 118db with the HD600 or others).

Which way to go depends on your budget. I prefer the Red with a separate DAC so that I can have optical and coax as well as USB. But, for the extra $100 of the White over the price of the Red you do get a fairly nice integrated USB DAC built-in (but you give up the speaker amp of the Red).
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post #77 of 82
8/10/08 at 10:48pm
i don't know if its just me, but I'm not having such great results with the the white at low volumes. It does a great job when the juice is turned up, but when i have the volume low as i do the majority of the time, the sound seems slightly muted and the finer details cannot be distinguished.
does anyone else experience this? or is it just me?

any suggestions would be appreciated.
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post #78 of 82
8/11/08 at 12:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by URZS View Post
i don't know if its just me, but I'm not having such great results with the the white at low volumes. It does a great job when the juice is turned up, but when i have the volume low as i do the majority of the time, the sound seems slightly muted and the finer details cannot be distinguished.
does anyone else experience this? or is it just me?

any suggestions would be appreciated.
I would suspect it is more likely the headphones and not the amp. I've had several headphones that needed to be played louder to wake up and really perform, including Shure E4c, Denon D2000, Senn PX100, and others - while my RS-1 and Edition 9 seem to handle the fine details at low volumes as well as at high (and my HD600 are in-between those two groups). It could also be your ears themselves.
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post #79 of 82
8/11/08 at 10:02am
excellent point about the headphones, i didn't even think about that but you are absolute right that the point between clean and mush is different between my headphones.
i guess its back to the headphone forum to make use of that fabulous search button.
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post #80 of 82
8/26/08 at 11:52pm
To Skylab,

I have a Zero DAC connected to iMac through optical link. Line output of the DAC is connected to ESI nEar05 active monitor speaker.

If I would to integrate Travagans Red headphone amplifier into this audio setup, line output of the DAC is connected to line input of Red, speaker output of Red is connected to line input of the nEar05 active speaker and headphone output of Red is used to drive AKG K601 headphone. The objective is to enhance headphone output for the AKG K601 headphone while maintaining connections to the speaker at the same time.

My concern is since speaker output of Red is amplified through discrete transistors but not a typical line level output, will it has higher distortion/noise and poor transparency as compared with clean line output of the Zero DAC ? I wonder how did you integrate the Red headphone amplifier into your home theatre system with great result as mentioned in your posting ?
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post #81 of 82
8/27/08 at 10:19am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by littletree76 View Post
To Skylab,

I have a Zero DAC connected to iMac through optical link. Line output of the DAC is connected to ESI nEar05 active monitor speaker.

If I would to integrate Travagans Red headphone amplifier into this audio setup, line output of the DAC is connected to line input of Red, speaker output of Red is connected to line input of the nEar05 active speaker and headphone output of Red is used to drive AKG K601 headphone. The objective is to enhance headphone output for the AKG K601 headphone while maintaining connections to the speaker at the same time.

My concern is since speaker output of Red is amplified through discrete transistors but not a typical line level output, will it has higher distortion/noise and poor transparency as compared with clean line output of the Zero DAC ? I wonder how did you integrate the Red headphone amplifier into your home theatre system with great result as mentioned in your posting ?
I don't think what you are describing will work at all. I did not ever integrate the Red with my home theatre system at all except to use it JUST use it as a headphone amp - nothing more.
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post #82 of 82
8/28/08 at 1:18pm
Great job with the reviews!
I'm also looking for a dac/amp combo, which do you think will be best for my gear, (I currently have a Senn HD600 but I will also be getting a Grado RS-2 in the future) the Travagan White or the Corda Cantate?
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