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Skylab do you maybe know why a3 is now so low in price? Is it really on par with darkvoice 336.

Also now that i'll have a nice am what are some good cables to plug my mp3 player to this. I need mono to stereo right?

I didn't say that the A3 was on par with the DV 336 - the 336 is better overall - but not significantly better, and the A3 will be better with very low impedance cans like Grados.

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I actually think the A-3 is a little underpowered with some low impedance phones like A900 and D2000 in terms of max volume before clipping, but the sound was fairly good with them below clipping. It did have a little more power with Ultrasone and RS-1 than the Denon and A900. I thought it was a nice match with my HD600 and my Westone 3 and IE8 IEM, and even better with a Stax transformer on the speaker outputs.

I never got to compare the A-3 to the 336i, but I did compare the A-3 to my EF1, which was previously compared to my 336i. The EF1 was even better with low impedance phones than the A-3 or 336i, but the A-3 would probably still be better with Grados than my old 336i. However, the 336i was very good with HD600 and maybe even just a little bit better than EF1 with HD600. I think the A-3 did quite well with the HD600 but I just can't say if the A-3 is better than 336i, but I also agree that it would be close.

What I need to to is compare the power levels and sound of the new EF2 with the A-3 someday, with a variety of headphones.

So i cant go wrong with Qinpu A 3 Right

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Based on what criteria?

Sound quality

I didn't ever think it sounded bad, just underpowered in those circumstances that I mentioned in the review.

Thanks for the review on this, I wonder how it compares to the quinpu-6000 mkii and the musical paradise mp-301


Qinpu A6000MKII 6N3 Tube Integrated Headphone Amplifier - eBay (item 260483965723 end time Oct-03-09 23:02:23 PDT)

No idea on the A6000...but the MP-301 is a lusher sounding amp, with the Qinpu being more neutral sounding.

Interesting

If anyone is still interested there is a nice price going for qinpu amp right now

I'm still using the Qinpu A-3 with my Stax SRD-7 Pro transformer via the 8 watt speaker out. It is a nice budget amp.

I'm also willing to pay a little bit more do you think i can get something better than Qinpu A 3?

Thanks!!!

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Do you need the speaker output? I can help more once I know that.

Last night I compared the A-3 and my EF2, both driven by my Pico DAC-only and using my HD600, and the A-3 was very nice - but the EF2 with Raytheon 6AK5 tubes was slightly more open sounding with a deeper soundstage (the A-3 is slightly more forward sounding).

I could be happy with either as a budget amp, and if you need the built-in speaker amp more than the built-in USB DAC, the A-3 is a good choice. The speaker out of the A-3 driving Stax SRD-7 Pro and HE60 is a little more open sounding than the 1/8" output with HD600, so it is an excellent speaker amp.

The EF2 is nice having the built-in USB DAC, but I compared the EF2 with built-in USB as source vs the EF2 and A-3 with Pico DAC-only, and the Pico DAC is so good that I would take the A-3 with Pico over the EF2 with built-in DAC. Where the EF2 excels is with low impedance full size phones like Grado, Denon and Ultrasone where it has more power and punch. The A-3 is better with full size higher impedance phones, but both are good with IEM (even low impedance like Westone 3 and IE8).

In my case, I would not get rid of either one (unless EF5 kills the EF2).

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Thanks for this HPA - it all goes into the 'database' I am putting together to help with future choices. The Pico DAC is on my list, but we all know how that goes - always something new and sexy on the horizon.

The EF2 is one of the few tube amps that is readily available for me here in Oz, and modestly priced to boot, but it wasnt very well received locally, at least with the stock tubes. I think I'll stick with SS amps.