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Grado SR60 with Darkvoice 336SE follow up (my grados blew up!)

post #1 of 7
7/30/10 at 10:07am
Thread Starter 

This is my first post, but I have tried to research a lot on here.

 

Background:

 

I have a fubar DAC and audioengine A2s at my desk at work.   I also have a pair of Grado SR60s.  

 

I just bought a darkvoice 336se.  

 

My longer term goal is to get a darkvoice 336+Senn HD600.  However, I needed a headphone amp to be able to listen to *anything* with headphones in my office (since the current dac doesn't have headphone out) and due to limited funds, I bought the headphone amp first - with the longer term goal of upgrading the headphones.

 

My question:

 

I've poured through the forum,  and I'm wondering what people think the Grado SR60 / Darkvoice 336SE combo will be like (while I eagerly wait)

 

Thanks!

 

FA

 

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Gear mentioned in this thread:

Grado SR60 Headphones
post #2 of 7
7/30/10 at 4:18pm

Listening to my SR60's through my 332 right now and I have one thing to say.

 

You won't be disappointed.

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post #3 of 7
7/30/10 at 4:23pm


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by francoamerican View Post

This is my first post, but I have tried to research a lot on here.

 

Background:

 

I have a fubar DAC and audioengine A2s at my desk at work.   I also have a pair of Grado SR60s.  

 

I just bought a darkvoice 336se.  

 

My longer term goal is to get a darkvoice 336+Senn HD600.  However, I needed a headphone amp to be able to listen to *anything* with headphones in my office (since the current dac doesn't have headphone out) and due to limited funds, I bought the headphone amp first - with the longer term goal of upgrading the headphones.

 

My question:

 

I've poured through the forum,  and I'm wondering what people think the Grado SR60 / Darkvoice 336SE combo will be like (while I eagerly wait)

 

Thanks!

 

FA

 


I'll say it before Valiente does....it should be epic!

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post #4 of 7
8/13/10 at 8:36am
Thread Starter 

So I got my Darkvoice, put in some NOS tubes, was absolutely loving it.    Anyway this morning when I powered on the amp, there was a POP and now the left driver on my grado headphones is dead.

 

Not certain what to attribute this to?

 

I plugged the headphones is right after I turned it on, but before it had warmed up.

 

 (The headphones were about 7 years old, so maybe that's it?)

 

FA

 

 

PS: the audioengine a2 sound very nice to my ears being driven by the darkvoice.  Also, BH photo has dt 770 / 600 for a great price so I bought some of those - I hope those don't get broken.

 


Edited by francoamerican - 8/13/10 at 9:41am
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post #5 of 7
8/14/10 at 9:11am

Could be it pushed too much power to them on initial power up. Grado's are usually pretty tough cans and can handle stuff like that. When a driver usually starts to die you will hear it become muddy of muffled and the sound may sound slow and distorted. I'm guessing the tubes made the pop noise. The pop noise happens on my X-CanV8P when it warms up right after I turn it on. So it's was most likely from a surge of power from the tubes.

 

Your DT770/600Ohm will fare much better with this amp. I believe that amp is fully OTL so it should fare better with those DT770/600's by quite a bit.

 

Also I'm not the most tech savy here when it comes to tube power and powering up stuff. Maybe I'm wrong, but I had my WA3+ kill a KTXPRO1 upon power up...


Edited by Zombie_X - 8/14/10 at 9:12am
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post #6 of 7
8/15/10 at 10:48am
Thread Starter 

Thanks so much for the reply!  I have been getting more worried. 

 

I guess the question i'm trying to resolve, is, when is a safe time to have headphones plugged in?  Should I wait until after warm up do you think?  Should I not leave them plugged in all the time?


Edited by francoamerican - 8/15/10 at 10:50am
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post #7 of 7
8/15/10 at 11:09am

When you plug in or unplug headphones into a tube amp, always make sure the volume pot is at zero. That is the safest way to ensure your headphone's life. Usually, I do wait a bit for the tubes to warm up before plugging in headphones; not sure if it matters. Some amps have soft-start circuitry that eliminates the popping usually associated with turning it on (though this could be with only solid-state, not sure).


Edited by KnightK - 8/15/10 at 11:14am
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Gear mentioned in this thread:

Grado SR60 Headphones
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