Please Don't Kill Me. Need Amp for HiFiMAN HE-6 Prototype. - Page 2

to my ears, i find a late 70s Sansui AU517|717 has the most organic rounded `tube` sound that balance the hifiman orthos sonic characteristics best (ie re-enforces its strengths & smooths out its weaknesses) & provided the best sound from my HE5LE of all the vintage Marantzs, Pioneers, Technics, Sansuis, Harman Kardons i`ve either owned or heard. highly recommend u give it try if u can access one locally. i bliv a minty 517 can be easily had for under $200 - mine stands me $50 so deals are out there to be had. afterall no harm no foul.

Would 20wpc-max Class A speaker amps do well for orthos (and Stax)? If he's gonna look for vintage units, the first version Musical Fidelity A1 might work well. Except for under $500 he might end up with one that's far from near-mint aesthetically.

      Quote:

Originally Posted by sridhar3 

I was going to suggest this, until they stated needing something along the lines of 50W or more.  I think the Lyr is 6W into 32ohms.

 

... unless I'm missing something here.

They were referring to an integrated amp, so they meant 50wpc at 8ohms. Quick estimate and that drops to 25wpc at 16ohm and 6.25wpc at 64ohm. Not too far off the Lyr; I think the whole point was to avoid low-power T-Amps.

The biggest difference were the finished product has more focus and is easier to drive  and IMO is much better than the prototype. Imaging is better and I was impressed enough to purchase the review sample Fang sent me. I would not have purchased the proto in its original version for my system. My Taboo could not drive it while the Taboo easily powers the HE6 production product. A different headphone. Fang listened to the comments in the loaner program and designed a easier to drive headphone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo 

If you wish to spend a bit less money get a vintage receiver form the 70's like a Marantz 2230 or similar, this can be bought for under $100 in very good condition. Another option would be a HLLY T-Amp 20, with 20 wpc for about $120 it represents a good value. Good luck.

I've been intrigued by vintage units for some time. I really like the size of the Virtue amp, and would rather go "all in" for a mid level amp to start with. Also, the size of those vintage units would clobber my space. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo 

If you wish to spend a bit less money get a vintage receiver form the 70's like a Marantz 2230 or similar, this can be bought for under $100 in very good condition. Another option would be a HLLY T-Amp 20, with 20 wpc for about $120 it represents a good value. Good luck.

I've been happy driving the production version of the HE-6 through a Tripath 2020-based amp, but another member on this board reported that his T-amp was not capable of driving the prototype version of the HE-6 well.

Edit: grokit had reviewed the HE-6 prototype as driven by the speaker taps on the Cityspot 2020: post #1208.

I followed up with him to compare my experiences with the HE-6 production version and the Cityspot 2020: post #3243.

The upshot is that they may have similar sound characteristics but the HE-6 prototype and production models are very different with regards to amplifier demand. I have a Topping TP21 handy, which is a slightly more powerful T-amp than the Cityspot and HLLY, but is still unlikely to provide sufficient drive to the HE-6 prototype if the Cityspot wasn't up to the job.