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Review Purity Audio Caliente Headphone Amplifier - Page 3

post #31 of 51
5/29/09 at 6:14am
I'll join in a toast to the quality and value of Purity Audio products anytime!
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post #32 of 51
5/29/09 at 8:08am
I would love to give my imprressions, as a KICAS Caliente owner from Israel. Unfortunately I don't have any experience with headphone amplifiers apart from the KICAS, so I can't really be objective about it.


To my ears it sounds amazing though, well matured, lively and articulate. (:
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post #33 of 51
6/1/09 at 1:45pm
Firstly, this is an excellent review. Thanks tbonner1. My Caliente arrived a few weeks ago and I think your observations are spot on.

I'm enjoying the Caliente quite a bit. The HD600 combination sounds good. The CD3000 combination sounds terrific with the Caliente. Match made in heaven.
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post #34 of 51
6/1/09 at 6:29pm
That is interesting that you find all opamp-based amps "clinincal."
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post #35 of 51
6/1/09 at 7:15pm
My Caliente may just pass 80 hours mark after a week and I finally grasp its sound characteristics. In comparison with my LD MKIII with M8083 and Arietta, HD600 + Caliente makes richer and fuller sound and at the same time providies high quality clarity and smoothness. There is no hint of brightness or sharpness at all at high. It is very pleasing to listen for a long hours.

It makes me to appreciate HD600 a lot more. (I used to like DT800 combo better.)

Still, I am waiting the low of Caliente to tight up maybe after more burning in. At this stage, the low of LD MKIII sounds more solid to me. Caliente's low is still kind of "soft and boomy".

I would like to compare my amps later with DT880 and another DAC when I have more time.
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post #36 of 51
6/2/09 at 8:01pm

DT800

Today I has some hours on V-DAC -> (Arietta/Caliente/LD MKIII) -> DT880 combo. LD MKIII has M8083 tubs. I use SPL meter and pink noise to make sure equal sound level.

And I am very pleased with Caliente + DT880 with V-DAC. Usually I prefer to mate Audiosector NOS DAC with Arietta otherwise there will be egdges in DT880's high. But Caliente totally remove those edges. Among three amps, Caliente sounds smoothest, followed by LD with M8083, and Arietta will get fatigue with V-DAC. I did pick certain music that tends to sound edgy in this test.

On the other hand, Arietta + Audiosector NOS DAC do not sound fatigue at all.

My Caliente at this stage sounds like "wool", so tender to my ear and yet filled with rich details and good clarity and openness. I can raise the volume up to enjoy more of the music without being bothered.

Still the bass sound soft to me. The amount is great but the compactness is lacking compare to LD MKIII. I wonder if it will ever gets tightened up with my rig.
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post #37 of 51
6/2/09 at 8:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by boozcool View Post
I see. Considering the quality of the Caliente, I'm sure you are correct about the quality of the wall mart. It just seems a bit surprising to find an AC adapter which can only convert from 110V
The wall wart didn't only convert to 110V, it is a "brick" containing an actual transformer that converts the wall voltage of 100-120V down to 12V. The wall warts that so many abhor that are universal in their ability to accept AC voltage (i.e. 100-240VAC input) are switching power supplies. Their outputs are very often much noisier than the transformer types. In the end, our universal voltage PSU is a switching type, but doesn't harm the sound because our circuit is highly resistant to external noise - however that is another story and I don't want to upset the mods by posting too much in here.

bye all!
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post #38 of 51
6/2/09 at 9:51pm
It's surely ok to explain these kind of things in the main thread of your product!
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post #39 of 51
6/3/09 at 7:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1UP View Post
It's surely ok to explain these kind of things in the main thread of your product!
I second that (:... As an owner myself of the Caliente with the switching PSU, I'm pretty interested!
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post #40 of 51
6/3/09 at 10:17am
1UP and nadavnaz,

What the two of you are saying is very reasonable. Historically, I've seen the mods delete a post from omendelovitz when someone asked the question: How much power does the amp use? and the answer was given - which was just the numbers being requested. So, if it's not in a MOT Sponsored Forum, it's really frowned upon for the MOT's to post much of anything about their products - even numerical answers to direct questions. I've seen it happen. That's why omendelovitz is so careful about posting here, and strives to keep his replies as short as possible.

For those of you who've expressed an interest to know more about the PSU, you can:
a) post the question in the Purity Audio MOT Sponsored Thread - in which Purity Audio has more freedom to reply.
b) send your question to omendelovitz via PM or via email using the Purity Audio web site, and, when you get the reply, post it to this thread, stating that you found the info to be sufficiently useful that you wanted to share it with others who'd likely find it useful as well.
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post #41 of 51
6/3/09 at 10:29am

Or...

Quote:
Originally Posted by sbulack View Post
1UP and nadavnaz,

What the two of you are saying is very reasonable. Historically, I've seen the mods delete a post from omendelovitz when someone asked the question: How much power does the amp use? and the answer was given - which was just the numbers being requested. So, if it's not in a MOT Sponsored Forum, it's really frowned upon for the MOT's to post much of anything about their products - even numerical answers to direct questions. I've seen it happen. That's why omendelovitz is so careful about posting here, and strives to keep his replies as short as possible.

For those of you who've expressed an interest to know more about the PSU, you can:
a) post the question in the Purity Audio MOT Sponsored Thread - in which Purity Audio has more freedom to reply.
b) send your question to omendelovitz via PM or via email using the Purity Audio web site, and, when you get the reply, post it to this thread, stating that you found the info to be sufficiently useful that you wanted to share it with others who'd likely find it useful as well.
Or... perhaps... "omendelovitz" could post a link to his answer in the MOT forum.
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post #42 of 51
6/3/09 at 4:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sbulack View Post
1UP and nadavnaz,

What the two of you are saying is very reasonable. Historically, I've seen the mods delete a post from omendelovitz when someone asked the question: How much power does the amp use? and the answer was given - which was just the numbers being requested. So, if it's not in a MOT Sponsored Forum, it's really frowned upon for the MOT's to post much of anything about their products - even numerical answers to direct questions. I've seen it happen. That's why omendelovitz is so careful about posting here, and strives to keep his replies as short as possible.

For those of you who've expressed an interest to know more about the PSU, you can:
a) post the question in the Purity Audio MOT Sponsored Thread - in which Purity Audio has more freedom to reply.
b) send your question to omendelovitz via PM or via email using the Purity Audio web site, and, when you get the reply, post it to this thread, stating that you found the info to be sufficiently useful that you wanted to share it with others who'd likely find it useful as well.
Ah, I see...

Nah, I've bugged Oriel so much about the Caliente when buying it I wouldn't dare bug him once more.

All I know is, its sounds damn great and as my first entry (together with the k701) to headfirst, I'm glad to have come across it.
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post #43 of 51
6/3/09 at 9:25pm
Thanks sbulack, I wasn't aware they had their own forum/post/whatnot, and on that basis yeah it would make sense for participation to occur there.
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post #44 of 51
6/17/09 at 3:53pm
Kicas owners that use the k701... Don't you think the Kicas lacks a bit gain for it? With some vinyl rips I find myself turning the volume all the way to max... And with weak recordings, classical especially as well, often to 3pm often further


I think the Kicas lacks a bit gain overall for the k701, when using it listening to weak recordings.

I do find that the Kicas (I use caliente) doesn't sound distorted sibilant or unpleasent at these high volumes, nevertheless it's never find to see you're out of gain.
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post #45 of 51
6/17/09 at 5:25pm
Point is, with many recordings, some jazz vinyl rips and classical stuff I can easily listen to m k701 on max volume with the kicas and feel like I could have gone with some more.It kind of sucks not having that extra juice.
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