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Balanced Solid State Headphone Amps - Page 3

post #31 of 40
10/21/08 at 3:48pm
Nate and I know a secret =D

Darned allusions those guys at headroom make =)

When Tyll feels the need to enlighten us all he will make a post im certain.

Dave
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post #32 of 40
10/21/08 at 4:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Audio-Omega View Post
Why is that ?
Well for one thing it provides them with a healthy dose of motivation to fill that spot in their lineup. Not that the old Max was a slouch, I rather loved what I heard both times I got to sample it. And of course my source of choice is a balanced Max DAC so I'm well and truly biased.
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post #33 of 40
10/21/08 at 5:13pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, an adaptor would solve one issue, yet the whole reason (and benefit) for recabling them balanced in the first place would be negated. I might as well stick with a balanced headphone amp so I get the whole value out of the recabling of my headphones. With that said, my favorite headphone that I own is single ended and I do not plan on recabling it.
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post #34 of 40
10/21/08 at 6:14pm
^^ i assume you mean an R10.

if i had an R10 - and i have often considered purchasing one - i'm not sure what i would do. i am a full convert of the balanced principle. same or comparable amps, balanced will always sound better than single ended. once you accept this, you realize that you can never listen to single ended again. for this reason, i just sent my PS1 to drew for recabling. the PS1 seems to be a fairly standard recabling procedure. the R10 at least from stories i have heard is not.

that's the problem. you have a very expensive headphone where spare drivers are no longer available and recabling seems to be more complicated than usual. this all points toward doing nothing and leaving it single ended.

i think for me, the ideal R10 purchase - like the L3000 i owned - would be a pair that is already balanced and includes the stock cable in pristine condition, which is important for resale purposes.
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post #35 of 40
10/21/08 at 7:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vcoheda View Post
^^ i assume you mean an R10.

if i had an R10 - and i have often considered purchasing one - i'm not sure what i would do. i am a full convert of the balanced principle. same or comparable amps, balanced will always sound better than single ended. once you accept this, you realize that you can never listen to single ended again. for this reason, i just sent my PS1 to drew for recabling. the PS1 seems to be a fairly standard recabling procedure. the R10 at least from stories i have heard is not.

that's the problem. you have a very expensive headphone where spare drivers are no longer available and recabling seems to be more complicated than usual. this all points toward doing nothing and leaving it single ended.

i think for me, the ideal R10 purchase - like the L3000 i owned - would be a pair that is already balanced and includes the stock cable in pristine condition, which is important for resale purposes.
There is always leaving the stock cable but re-terminating the SE plug for balanced.
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post #36 of 40
10/24/08 at 3:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict View Post
There is always leaving the stock cable but re-terminating the SE plug for balanced.
I assume that's a joke.

If you have both SE and balanced headphone amps you sometimes want to swap cans between them. You could buy duplicate sets of cans and recable one of each to balanced, of course. Or you could build an XLR-to-SE cable to run your balanced cans on your SE amp(s) with no loss of SQ. (Going the other way completely obviates the reason for buying a balanced amp in the first place (assuming you're not a "balanced skeptic").)

-Tim
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post #37 of 40
10/24/08 at 4:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by twestby View Post
I assume that's a joke.

If you have both SE and balanced headphone amps you sometimes want to swap cans between them. You could buy duplicate sets of cans and recable one of each to balanced, of course. Or you could build an XLR-to-SE cable to run your balanced cans on your SE amp(s) with no loss of SQ. (Going the other way completely obviates the reason for buying a balanced amp in the first place (assuming you're not a "balanced skeptic").)

-Tim
No - you totally misread my post. The idea of not recabling a R10 as balanced because of the difficulty working on it can be solved by re-terminating the stock cable, so nobody has to open the ear cups.

You must be joking recommending someone buy two pair of R10 just to have one single ended and one balanced - that's $10,000.
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post #38 of 40
10/25/08 at 12:13am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict View Post
You must be joking recommending someone buy two pair of R10 just to have one single ended and one balanced - that's $10,000.
At the minumum with the going rate of R10's. If I was to go any route with my R10's, it would likely be this one; namely reterminating the stock cable to balanced. Relatively inexpensive and has the least chance of mucking things up.

Oh, but to have two R10's!!!
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post #39 of 40
10/27/08 at 3:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict View Post
No - you totally misread my post. The idea of not recabling a R10 as balanced because of the difficulty working on it can be solved by re-terminating the stock cable, so nobody has to open the ear cups.

You must be joking recommending someone buy two pair of R10 just to have one single ended and one balanced - that's $10,000.
Sorry if I misread your post.

My points were that 1) re-cabling to balanced and using an XLR-to-SE adapter (from balanced-cabled cans to a single-ended source) is an economical option for folk with both balanced and SE amps; and 2) the reverse adapter is never going to provide balanced SQ from a balanced source to a set of single-ended R10s, no matter the cost. Nothing more.

I certainly didn't recommend that anyone buy two sets of anything. However, the prospect of doing so invariably occurs to many collectors of dynamic cans who convert to balanced amps, which is why Drew Baird makes the adapter to runs your balanced cans from your single-ended sources. (He likes buying two sets of cans as much as I do.) This is well known. Sorry for any confusion.

Personally, I would think hard about the potential improvements of running R10s balanced being worth the investment, but, in any case, others would know better than I whether they could be obtained via fiddling with the cable termination v. recabling to the earcups. The latter option isn't available w/ other dynamic cans.

-Tim
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post #40 of 40
10/27/08 at 4:47am
No one has mentioned the Dynamight yet? A few years back, that was the balanced solid state amp to have.

Problem is, I think the chips for it are out of production. I haven't gotten around to it (yet), but I have boards and chips put away for a future project. I will get to it, sooner or later.

Anyhow, you might want to look around to see if there's a used Dynamight or someone with the parts to build one. You might want to ask Kevin Gilmore (the designer) if he knows where you could find one.
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