REVIEW: Meier Audio Concerto headphone amp - Page 48

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacedonianHero 

And that is one of the truly amazing things about the Concerto...powerful enough to drive my HD800s, T1s, and LCD-2s, but sensitive enough with ZERO noise floor to power my SE535s to incredible heights! One very versatile amp that sounds amazing with many headphones (maybe not the greatest with Grado's, but everything else I've thrown at it).

About the Concerto and Grados... while I agree that it's not the best with RS-1s, I've found that I actually prefer the Concerto with HF-2s when compared to the WA6SE and MAD Ear+ HD. The Concerto does an excellent job of keeping the HF-2's potentially boomy bass under tight control.
 

Great to hear, Olias. I have wanted to get another pair of HF-2's for some time and this is very encouraging news. 

I am waiting for my Concerto + StageDAC + T1. Already been 10 days :-(

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olias of Sunhillow 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacedonianHero 

And that is one of the truly amazing things about the Concerto...powerful enough to drive my HD800s, T1s, and LCD-2s, but sensitive enough with ZERO noise floor to power my SE535s to incredible heights! One very versatile amp that sounds amazing with many headphones (maybe not the greatest with Grado's, but everything else I've thrown at it).

 

About the Concerto and Grados... while I agree that it's not the best with RS-1s, I've found that I actually prefer the Concerto with HF-2s when compared to the WA6SE and MAD Ear+ HD. The Concerto does an excellent job of keeping the HF-2's potentially boomy bass under tight control.
 

That makes complete sense...and their (the HF2's) more subdued treble would be helped out by the very neutral Concerto too.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacedonianHero 

Quote:

Originally Posted by pekingduck 

I haven't heard any buzz sound with my JH13 but I do hear some static noise when I adjust the volume. Here's what Jan told me

 

Quote:

Yes, this is normal behaviour. The volume is changed by switching electromechanical relais. During the switching within a few milliseconds the gain is first lowered and then set to the new gain again. This results is small "bleeps".

Enjoy!

 

 

Congrats on the Meier Combo..I'm loving them with my JH13's and HD800's

And that is one of the truly amazing things about the Concerto...powerful enough to drive my HD800s, T1s, and LCD-2s, but sensitive enough with ZERO noise floor to power my SE535s to incredible heights! One very versatile amp that sounds amazing with many headphones (maybe not the greatest with Grado's, but everything else I've thrown at it).

I read many reviews about concerto having ZERO noise floor even with iems..

but I'm not sure man, when I use my jh16 direct to the concerto with a 3.5mm to 6.3mm adaptor, I can hear some hiss when music is not playing and at normal listening volume.

Only when I plug in my JH16 into the concerto with an impedance adaptor(75ohms), then is the problem solved.

And even so, I still experience much bleep and "boom" noise which is so irritating and do not know how to solve.

I experience these bleep and boom noise when

1) When I plug the plug of the jh16 into the concerto

2) when the music is on go, without the change of the volume

Why can't the amp be totally slient when I plug in my earphone into it ?

Or is my concerto faulty ?

Any similar findings from JH16 users ? Cause in the end, the jh16 has impedance of 18ohms while the jh13 has 28ohms of impedance

But I am really satisfied with its sq man, luckily I took a step back away from balanced and decided to walk the full SE path..

EDIT: I checked my rca cables and its fine, so now its either my audio adaptor(3.5mm to 6.3mm) or the amp.. and i only got one adaptor =(.. time to go and buy one..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junliang 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacedonianHero 

Quote:

Originally Posted by pekingduck 

I haven't heard any buzz sound with my JH13 but I do hear some static noise when I adjust the volume. Here's what Jan told me

 

Quote:

Yes, this is normal behaviour. The volume is changed by switching electromechanical relais. During the switching within a few milliseconds the gain is first lowered and then set to the new gain again. This results is small "bleeps".

Enjoy!

 

 

Congrats on the Meier Combo..I'm loving them with my JH13's and HD800's

And that is one of the truly amazing things about the Concerto...powerful enough to drive my HD800s, T1s, and LCD-2s, but sensitive enough with ZERO noise floor to power my SE535s to incredible heights! One very versatile amp that sounds amazing with many headphones (maybe not the greatest with Grado's, but everything else I've thrown at it).

I read many reviews about concerto having ZERO noise floor even with iems..

but I'm not sure man, when I use my jh16 direct to the concerto with a 3.5mm to 6.3mm adaptor, I can hear some hiss when music is not playing and at normal listening volume.

Only when I plug in my JH16 into the concerto with an impedance adaptor(75ohms), then is the problem solved.

 

And even so, I still experience much bleep and "boom" noise which is so irritating and do not know how to solve.

I experience these bleep and boom noise when

1) When I plug the plug of the jh16 into the concerto

2) when the music is on go, without the change of the volume

 

Why can't the amp be totally slient when I plug in my earphone into it ?

Or is my concerto faulty ?

 

Any similar findings from JH16 users ? Cause in the end, the jh16 has impedance of 18ohms while the jh13 has 28ohms of impedance

 

But I am really satisfied with its sq man, luckily I took a step back away from balanced and decided to walk the full SE path..

 

 

EDIT: I checked my rca cables and its fine, so now its either my audio adaptor(3.5mm to 6.3mm) or the amp.. and i only got one adaptor =(.. time to go and buy one..

I actually hear no hiss with my SE535s which are quite sensitive with the Concerto...but I do hear a slight hiss with them and my iPod Classic...go figure. What is your low gain setting set to -6 or -12dB? That may be the difference.
 

what do you mean ?

My gain switch on the concerto is pointing down, which shows low gain setting, but how do you set it to be -6dB or -12dB ?

And you se535 has an impedance of 36ohms, even higher than jh13..

I guess its the low impedance of the jh16 of a mere 18ohms to be the problem here..

What are examples of really well mastered CDs or HD Tracks that I can listen to on a Concerto + StageDAC + T1 combination?

Thanks,

akart

Quote:

Originally Posted by akart 

What are examples of really well mastered CDs or HD Tracks that I can listen to on a Concerto + StageDAC + T1 combination?

 

Thanks,

akart

the "open your ears" head-fi test CD is a good sampler for what a system can do... all tracks are well recorded.

Thank you very much. I will check this out.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by sokolov91 

Quote:

Originally Posted by akart 

What are examples of really well mastered CDs or HD Tracks that I can listen to on a Concerto + StageDAC + T1 combination?

 

Thanks,

akart

the "open your ears" head-fi test CD is a good sampler for what a system can do... all tracks are well recorded.

Quote:

Originally Posted by akart 

Thank you very much. I will check this out.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by sokolov91 

Quote:

Originally Posted by akart 

What are examples of really well mastered CDs or HD Tracks that I can listen to on a Concerto + StageDAC + T1 combination?

 

Thanks,

akart

the "open your ears" head-fi test CD is a good sampler for what a system can do... all tracks are well recorded.

 

its at HD tracks BTW i forgot to mention.

Bare in mind that 24/192 isn't really all they make it out to be. REAL 24 bit would deafen you quickly.  the quality of the recording/mastering is what matters most considering 16 bit gives you 96 dB (max volume) which will already cause hearing problems long term.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junliang 

what do you mean ?

My gain switch on the concerto is pointing down, which shows low gain setting, but how do you set it to be -6dB or -12dB ?

 

And you se535 has an impedance of 36ohms, even higher than jh13..

 

I guess its the low impedance of the jh16 of a mere 18ohms to be the problem here..

The explanation and instructions are in the manual.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by wht 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junliang 

what do you mean ?

My gain switch on the concerto is pointing down, which shows low gain setting, but how do you set it to be -6dB or -12dB ?

 

And you se535 has an impedance of 36ohms, even higher than jh13..

 

I guess its the low impedance of the jh16 of a mere 18ohms to be the problem here..

 

The explanation and instructions are in the manual.
 

Beat me to it...that's correct, you may want to read your user manual.

Okay, I just try it.

So whats the main purpose of this ?

To increase the main gain ?

But in the case of iem usage, isn't it best to keep the gain at the lowest possible ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junliang 

Okay, I just try it.

 

So whats the main purpose of this ?

To increase the main gain ?

 

But in the case of iem usage, isn't it best to keep the gain at the lowest possible ?

It will lower the gain on the Low Gain from -6dB to -12dB....so you should be able to listen to IEMs on low gain. The High Gain is unaffected.