Matrix M-Stage amp review: simple, cheap, and excellent. - Page 230

 

Thanks. Yes, I love jazz and I love classical music as well. That's where I found AKG were sounding great. I will certainly download that file :-)

Another question about the Matrix amp. What is the difference between the different gain settings? Which one to use with HD650 and K701? I guess that with higher gain settings there is more electronic circuitry involved which can give ibferior sound. Maybe my guess is wrong?

The only difference i found on thedifferentgain was that on highest gain the sound gets a bit muddy...the other gain setting dont effeft the sound quality to my ears..but to be honest..even with my my he500 i never needed more the gain 10 db..and that phone ismuch harder to drive then the hd650 or the akg..so no need to worry about sound quality decrease

I think +10 gain is the consensus best. The M-Stage pairs very well with the AKG K701, so I'm sure you'll be happy with whatever setting you choose. Volume control might be more difficult at higher gain though, so be careful with your eardrums!

 

Burn-in is very controversial, I have a pair of Q701s, I tried burning them in for a week, but I listened to them every day while I was burning them in, I heard no difference.

 

OTOH, I liked the Q701 first time I heard them.

I would call myself a Jazz lover and yes, they are just the thing for Jazz.

 

There is no additional circuitry when High Gain is used

The difference is:

high gain: less feedback, so you may hear a bit more distortion, and less bandwidth

low gain: more feedback, so you may hear a bit less distortion, but I doubt it, and a bit more bandwidth.

 

As others have pointed out, most people set gain to 10 dB and forget it.

 

I've read on the forums that someone was told by AKG that the Q701's are burned in from the factory.

I'd like to chip in really quickly saying that the M-Stage drives my Sennheiser HD-650 really well.

 

It is really reassuring to know that. By the way, I think that HE-500 are really marvellous headphones. Are you happy with them?

 

 

Then 10 dB it will be. I will test 0 and 18 too just to see if I can hear any difference.

 

 

OK, I heard a pair of K701 that were well burnt-in I beleive. They were at least 5 months old then. It was a pair with a newer 5-digit serial number starting on 80 if I remember correctly.

 

 

OK. Than it's safer to use lower gain, distortion-wise.

 

That is interesting. It would be very interesting to know if they do the same with K701.

 

 

Great, I use Musical Fidelity X-Can v3 right now but I'm not sure my HD650 really is comfortable with a hybrid amp. What do you think? There is lots of power in X-can but I think that it maybe is "too much warmth" delivered from a tube amp. My plan is to sell the X-Can and buy a Matrix amp and use it with both k701 and HD650. But my question is, wouldn't MF be a good companion to K701

So last week I switched the opamp of my M-Stage to a LME49860 (more or less the same as LM4562 and LME49720) and contrary to what most people say, it DID make a significant difference!

This thing is actually a thick sounding amp now and believe it or not but my Q701's are sounding real bassy! Even the clarity and the soundstage SEEMS (!) to be improved. But boy am I happy I did this mod, I'm close to perfecting my rig now :)

Nice!

Considering Class A biasing it?

I tried a couple of phones..also somemore expensive ones..for me..and for the price..i didnt find a better phone..it isnt perfect in anything..but more important..its not bad in anything also..most phones are good in some things and bad in others..the he500 is very balanced..until now and with the amp i have it plays ALL kinds of music brillantly..from metal to classic, from adele to queen, from mozart to marley from regueaton to r&b, from jazz to 80ties disco,from blues to hiphop, and from dj tiesto to the shadows. The only music i dont use it with is country and western as i dont like that very much for the rest..sit down..put any music on and just embrace the music coming from ur phone BUT with the right amp.and .it doesnt need to be expensive so that u have to sell ur kidney or something..lolz..as u can see on my profile

It seems that OP mods are very usual with this amp. Will something like this do for a starter?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2xMono-to-Dual-OPAMP-2x-OPA627-NE5532-OPA2604-x2-set-/281020844478?pt=US_Amplifier_Parts_Components&hash=item416e25c9be
 

Sure man, as much as I like the sound now, I'm always looking to improve it, what are the changes class-A biasing brings? I recall a it's either a warmer or brighter sound... lol which one was it?

Your setup is a lot like mine (better said: identical, just with my dream headphone :P, and save my $15 RCA cables) ever tried opamp rolling with the TiHD? LM49720 didn't work for **** in mine and still gotta solder some other ones but stil got to get myself some adapters and borrow/use a decent soldering iron somewhere.

 

If you want to try opamp rolling for a starter, I'd just order a free LM4652NA or equivalent from national semiconductor, many people (myself included) are loving it with the amp.

Edited by kazaakas - 1/5/13 at 7:00am

I have one of these on the way from the massdrop group buy.  Can anyone tell me if the opamps from the iBasso topkit work with this amp as well?  Im pretty green to these ss amps.