Eddie Current Balancing Act - Page 77

Quote:

Originally Posted by SHAHZADA123 

Thanks.

But am going to miss the ECBA.

I have a question for you :-)   : you sell the EDBA for an Apex Pinnacle. Have you heard booth ? And... can you confirm that the Pinnacle is enough betten than the BA to justify the price difference ?  

I am indeed hesitating now between the 2 amps: Apax or EDBA and I have hard time to convince me that the Apex is worth 2 tilmes the price of the EDBA.

- What Headphone & DAC will you be using ? 

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmichels 

 

 

 

I have a question for you :-)   : you sell the EDBA for an Apex Pinnacle. Have you heard booth ? And... can you confirm that the Pinnacle is enough betten than the BA to justify the price difference ?  

 

I am indeed hesitating now between the 2 amps: Apax or EDBA and I have hard time to convince me that the Apex is worth 2 tilmes the price of the EDBA.

 

- What Headphone & DAC will you be using ? 

The Pinnacle should arrive in about two weeks' time.

Auditioning the Pinnacle, prior to buying it, was just not possible because I live in the Middle East.  

But then 99.9999% of my inventory of headphones/amps/dacs was bought without auditioning. And am fully satisfied with 99.9999% of it

As far as value for money is concerned, I will only be able to tell you once I have the Pinnacle.

You can check my profile for my inventory.

Already missing the ECBA though

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmichels 

I have a question for you :-)   : you sell the EDBA for an Apex Pinnacle. Have you heard booth ? And... can you confirm that the Pinnacle is enough betten than the BA to justify the price difference ?  

 

I am indeed hesitating now between the 2 amps: Apax or EDBA and I have hard time to convince me that the Apex is worth 2 tilmes the price of the EDBA.

 

- What Headphone & DAC will you be using ? 

I've owned ECBA (only sold b/c I mainly run 'stats and I plan on getting a custom amp from EC in the future.) Under good meet conditions I was able to hear the EC 2A3 (with BA heater) running KenRad 45s situated right next to the Pinnacle running the Sophia PX4s. I don't remember the sources, but I think Craig was running his Hypermoth DAC, and something decent like a high-end Oppo was on the Pinnacle. A modified HD800 was used. I also had my BA (minor mods to run vintage PX25 tubes) at the meet, but in a different room.

In my opinion, the EC 2A3 (and my own BA at the meet) were better than the Pinnacle for a head-amp application. The most significant and obvious difference was the openness and spaciousness offered by the HF heater of the EC stuff. Other stuff like micro-dynamic rendering, speed were too close to call under meet conditions. I have a higher level of confidence that the BA edges out Pinnacle in micro-detail extraction, but again that's too close to call. The Pinnacle was probably a little cleaner sounding with more of a defined leading edge than the EC amps.

I too had the Pinnacle under consideration, but it seemed more of a sidestep, at least to me.

As an aside, the amp which most reminded me of the Pinnacle's presentation was the Manley NeoClassic 300B (I don't remember what settings were on that amp since its got all these tweaking options.)

The Sofia are not the best PX4's maybe the Pinnacle would sound better with KR or AVVT mesh PX4.

Agreed. The Sophia PX4 are merely decent. So that should be noted.

The Manley NeoClassic 300B has to be one of the most underrated amps on head-fi. You rarely see people talking about it these days.

For anyone who didn't get a chance to read this, its quite interesting.  Who would have thought an audio company pioneer would be such a maverick?  I imagine them all as being more like this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by purrin 

 

I've owned ECBA (only sold b/c I mainly run 'stats and I plan on getting a custom amp from EC in the future.) Under good meet conditions I was able to hear the EC 2A3 (with BA heater) running KenRad 45s situated right next to the Pinnacle running the Sophia PX4s. I don't remember the sources, but I think Craig was running his Hypermoth DAC, and something decent like a high-end Oppo was on the Pinnacle. A modified HD800 was used. I also had my BA (minor mods to run vintage PX25 tubes) at the meet, but in a different room.

 

In my opinion, the EC 2A3 (and my own BA at the meet) were better than the Pinnacle for a head-amp application. The most significant and obvious difference was the openness and spaciousness offered by the HF heater of the EC stuff. Other stuff like micro-dynamic rendering, speed were too close to call under meet conditions. I have a higher level of confidence that the BA edges out Pinnacle in micro-detail extraction, but again that's too close to call. The Pinnacle was probably a little cleaner sounding with more of a defined leading edge than the EC amps.

 

I too had the Pinnacle under consideration, but it seemed more of a sidestep, at least to me.

 

As an aside, the amp which most reminded me of the Pinnacle's presentation was the Manley NeoClassic 300B (I don't remember what settings were on that amp since its got all these tweaking options.)

I heard both the BA and Pinnacle back-to-back at this same meet as well. The usual "meet conditions" caveats apply, but I did my listening first thing in the morning before it got crowded. 

I liked the Pinnacle more than Purrin did -- but agree with his comparisons spot-on. Apex gear has a reputation of being a bit aggressive with articulating edges, but I didn't find that to be a big issue with the Pinnacle, even when paired with the HD800 which can be a bitch to tame. Strangely, although the edges were harder on the Pinnacle, I felt the BA had the edge in speed because it seemed to handle dynamic shifts more effortlessly. 

I agree the big immediate difference between the two is the BA's rendering of spaciousness with more micro-detail like spatial cues and ambiance. This is one area that Pinnacle was no match at all.

I really liked the Pinnacle, but I'd take the BA even without consideration of price. It's hard to believe the BA is only half the price. 

Could somone explain the K1K output?  Those were 120 ohm headphones so if one were to use it for HE6 tat would gve 50/120= 41% primary impedance.  So it would seem to be too low a load on the tube and high output impedance.  The BA was the only SET people claim can power the HE6 headphones but now that there is an AudioNote EL34 SET specifically designed for the HE6 I think it s fair to ask if the HE6 working with the BA is a blind accident before investing this sort of money ?  I generally prefer a 300B to an EL34 for if the output transformer is designed for a 50 ohm load the AudioNote amplifier may do better.

 imagine the HE-500's are efficient enough?  Sometimes I think the HE-6 isn't worth it if it means giving up tubes!

I just purchased a BA from a local head-fi member.  I plugged in my LCD2's/ PSA Perfectwave MKII/ Bryston BDP-1 and was gobsmacked.  This amp is heartbreakingly beautiful.  I haven't even rolled tubes yet (EH 300b / Raytheon).  I have been involved in this hobby since I bought a Kenwood receiver and AR speakers in 1972 and have to say this is one fine piece of kit.