The PA2V2 Appreciation Thread - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmhaynes 

Does it come with Alkaline or NiMH rechargables?

No.

But you do want to only use rechargables. Normal batteries screw with the sound.

I still have my amp that I bought at the end of 2007. It has the separate adjustable gain for the Left and Right.

I use to use it at work with my DT770's but now I use it when I want to listen to my ipod and DT770's in bed.

Wow, gary has sold 7400 amps so far.

http://www.electric-avenues.com/audio6.html

7406 on it`s way to me!

Great correspondence with Gary, first class.

And it has landed! 5 days to the UK.

The first thing that I will say is finally for the first time in portable mode I can use the gain to bring my right ear upto speed!

That alone is worth the $60.

Love it after 30 mins, built well and feel it was personal rather than something off the shelf by a mass producer.

Nice touch with his "Enjoy the amp Stuart" on the bag.

Looking forward to listening later with a smoke and my IE8`s.

Quite a good day, my Shure SRH750`s landed also, gadget heaven, poor wife.

This is my first solid dedicated amp. Gary had perfect service after I won the Ebay bidding.

I was really excited, and I couldn't wait for it to arrive.

Gary was nice enough to ship it to me with batteries pre-installed, and pre-charged.

He wanted me to be able to use it right out of the box. Talk about service!

This is probably only possible since I live a city away from him, so delivery time would'nt be so long.

I was really impressed with it. It made all my music sound smoother, and reduced treble harshness, even on some songs recorded with higher sibilance.  Believe it or not, it makes my desktop speakers sound better too. It tightens up the bass, and gives it an extra punch, without sounding artificial. The gain settings were a bonus too, as you can adjust the gain individually for the left and right channels.

I use it for just about everything audio related now. I think of it as a poor student's makeshift audio amp that sounds great for portables, but makes a decent improvement for my home system as well (lol.. "home system" made of old 2.1 desktop speakers).

Got to echo all the comments re the amp - and especially Gary's excellent service. I lost one of the little washer/screw things holding the in/out sockets tight. Gary mailed me several by return at no cost (to UK!)  He is a true gentleman!! 

A word of warning though - if this is your first amp......................it wont be your last!!!!!!  Beware wallets and purses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS a few have mentioned adjusting the gain. Could someone give a quick guide please??  I would quite like to turn mine down a little if poss. I'm good with full size cans - but with iems i'm at max vol far too quickly.Thanks.

With the lid off looking from the front, there are 2 blue screws near the batteries. The left one is the right gain and the right is the the left gain.

Just turn them anticlockwise. Remember this is looking from the front.

Stu

The PA2V2 was my first amp a couple of years ago... It's gone now - I lost it in my last move - but I still have a soft spot for it. Gary's a great guy to deal with.

Did any of you give him photos of the amp for his website archives?

Being a bit of a photographer, I took it in as a little side assignment, but I haven't made one to send him yet.

I took a pic of my first PA2V2 but not of the second. Will have to do so soon.

Yeah, I sent him a pic. Gary's a great guy to deal with, and AFAIC, makes a great amp.

Okay, so having had a chance to review the Monster Copper Pro Turbines, this was a REAL test for Gary's amp.

All I can say is WOW.

With the Turbines and using my Kenwood portable cd player at home, I had to remind myself as to what I was listening to.

Several times, I thought I was hearing a pair of electrostatic speakers on a good tube amp.

With the Turbines, Gary's amp is so tonally neutral and dynamic sounding very much like a good Class A or A/B amp.

It's incredibly transparent even on the road when I'm using my Sandisk Clip v1.

Gary has done an incredible job with a product to be proud of. AND even better, it's locally made.

This aftternoon, I ran a couple of goodies through it. The '90's album 'Moodswings' by 'Moodfood'. OMG while I was waiting to get my beard trimmed, I thought I was going to take off, so TOTALLY transparent and dynamic on 'State of Independance' with Crissy Hinds. This was using the Sandisk with a transfer of WMP at 160kb.

I decided to listen to my first generation copy of Hall and Oat's Big, Bam Boom recording from 1984. AGAIN, OMG. DYNAMIC bass with slam, and amazingly transparent and liquid sounding for a rock studio album

As this is a first generation cd, there is NO remastering. This is a true time capsule of what a studio could sound like in 1984. NO digital nasties.. For '80's pop, I ONLY look for first generation cd's..

So, there you have it. As far as I'm concerned, the PAV2 represents, by far, the BEST bang for the buck. IF I could ever justify the money, the only other thing that MAY replace is the TTVJ vacuum tube mini, BUT it would take alot of convincing

Definitely hard to beat for $60.

I purchased one 3 or so years ago, but never used it much. I would try it, compare it to headphone out, didn't see much change, so I would put it away. I did this every few months, usually in response to something I read in this forum.

A couple of weeks ago, I pulled it out again and decided to use it all the time to see if I would develop a better appreciation. Lo and behold, when I changed back to headphone out, it was not nearly as nice as with the amp. Suddenly, I was converted.

I had heard that an amp would boost the base, and I have not seen this. However, it cleans up the entire frequency range and provides a much nicer listening experience.

Call me a believer!

Brad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrbrad 

I purchased one 3 or so years ago, but never used it much. I would try it, compare it to headphone out, didn't see much change, so I would put it away. I did this every few months, usually in response to something I read in this forum.

 

A couple of weeks ago, I pulled it out again and decided to use it all the time to see if I would develop a better appreciation. Lo and behold, when I changed back to headphone out, it was not nearly as nice as with the amp. Suddenly, I was converted.

 

I had heard that an amp would boost the base, and I have not seen this. However, it cleans up the entire frequency range and provides a much nicer listening experience.

 

Call me a believer!

 

Brad.

Your story is very believable. Doing a quick switch back and forth(amp & ampless) usually won't tell much. It's when the listener has an extended time with "amped" and then switches back that the true improvement is felt. This has worked for me.  I don't even like to use IEMs straight from any DAP. It's hard to go back.
 

I got one in the mail today. It's a nice little unit and I am content with it. I wasn't expecting it would make a difference with my iTouch and RE0/MS-1000 but it actually does and in a very good way (the Beyers don't benefit at all though). Spare change well spent imo.

The potmeter is pretty lame though. I have to have it above 25% otherwise I am getting scratchy sound + imbalance. Do more people have this?