Heir Audio - The Appreciation Thread - Page 290

Quote:

Originally Posted by pspivak 

 Does the Magnus 1 not share a common ground between the left and right units?

 

Also, this will allow me to use the 4 pin XLR connector on the amp.

You could have a 50 pin connector on one side, but if it terminates in Positive/Negative at the other end, it's not balanced.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sorensiim 


Show me a balanced cable with more than 4 connections at the headphone end.

Hmm. New to me. But, Moon audio seems to agree with you:

Balanced headphones are just regular headphones that have been re-cabled in a special way. The normal three-conductor cable with the common ground connection is replaced with a cable that has four conductors: right positive and right negative conductors to the positive and negative connections of the right driver coil; and left positive and left negative conductors to the left driver coil. The cable is terminated in two XLR male connectors, one each for the left and right channel. A special headphone amplifier is used that has "balanced" outputs where each channel has a normal audio drive signal and a mirror image inverted drive signal. The trick here is that there is no "ground" to the headphones anymore, so there is no opportunity for the crosstalk distortion described above.

Whee! Just got my shipment confirmation from Sunny!

Now we play the waiting game...

Quote:

Originally Posted by GarySaville 

You could have a 50 pin connector on one side, but if it terminates in Positive/Negative at the other end, it's not balanced.

Headphones are usually wired with a common ground:

Left +

Right +

Left/Right ground

"Balanced" is the term used when headphones are wired to an amplifier in the way speakers are:

Left +

Left - (or ground)

Right - (or ground)

It has nothing to do with whether the amplifier is operating in phase balanced configuration. Channel grounding is irrelevant to the discussion.

You have to use a "balanced" headphone connection with certain amplifier configurations, even when the amplifier is not balanced: For example, T amps are not balanced, but most will short if the channels bridge, so you have to connect headphones to them in a "balanced" way. What confuses things further is that "active ground" amplifier configurations (like the PiMeta or the three-board b22) have what you could think of as a common - between the channels -- it's more like a balanced amp than many "balanced" amps, but you use a standard TRS connector.

So to wrap up: "Balanced" is a misnomer. It's also what people have generally come to call a headphone with a four-element connection rather than a three-element connection. I don't like it either, but we live with it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DigitalFreak 

 

Anyone know if the plugs on the 4A are standardized Westone plugs? I'm hoping they're not proprietary. That would mess things up in the cable upgrade dept.

 

 

---

 

     They are standardized, and the magnus one has two seperate ground leads. So you have a 4 strand mid section, the 2 strand (positve and negative) going up to each ear piece.

     This configuration will allow a person to use a use a 4 prong XLR if one wanted and yes we do have have the parts in stock to build the Magnus 1 in such a manner.

    Wizard

Quote:

Originally Posted by pOOB73 

No good news here. My impressions seem to be incomplete, so it's back to start for me after 6 weeks.

I feel your pain as I have sent in 3 sets of impressions since the week after Thanksgiving.  It has been a bit maddening.

On a side note, with all this amp talk, what is everyone using with the 4.A?  I remember the UHA-6 was popular and the Rendition 1 is starting to make its way out, but are there any other amps I might want to look into?

Quote:

Originally Posted by anoxy 


6 weeks to find out your impressions are inadequate? That's pretty ridiculous.

     I rather doubt that is the case considering build times are 3-5 weeks.

     Like most things, I am sure there is more to this than face value.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ocelot2500 

I feel your pain as I have sent in 3 sets of impressions since the week after Thanksgiving.  It has been a bit maddening.

 

On a side note, with all this amp talk, what is everyone using with the 4.A?  I remember the UHA-6 was popular and the Rendition 1 is starting to make its way out, but are there any other amps I might want to look into?

Well with me it's going to be the UHA-6S MK II with op amp 209 the UHA-4 with op amp 8610 and the ALO RX MKII. Now that the MKIII B has been stricken off the list as non IEM friendly my attention has wondered over to the Continental Ver 2 as well as the Ray Samuels offerings. I'm not sure if I would want to go the tube route though. In my book the Continental isn't so much a mobile amp as it is a transportable amp due to heat issues. I dunno, the Continental paired with the new CLAS -db might make for a nice small form factor solution for my home laptop. I'm planning on looking more into headphones this year so maybe it might be a good option. Currently my main amp is the UHA-6S MKII. I so wish Nick Leckerton would one day make a no holds barred amp/DAC that was both PC and idevice compliant. I can't help but wonder what Nick could do if he went after the Portaphile and Triad Audio crowd.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DigitalFreak 

Well with me it's going to be the UHA-6S MK II with op amp 209 the UHA-4 with op amp 8610 and the ALO RX MKII. Now that the MKIII B has been stricken off the list as non IEM friendly my attention has wondered over to the Continental Ver 2 as well as the Ray Samuels offerings. I'm not sure if I would want to go the tube route though. In my book the Continental isn't so much a mobile amp as it is a transportable amp due to heat issues. I dunno, the Continental paired with the new CLAS -db might make for a nice small form factor solution for my home laptop. I'm planning on looking more into headphones this year so maybe it might be a good option. Currently my main amp is the UHA-6S MKII. I so wish Nick Leckerton would one day make a no holds barred amp/DAC that was both PC and idevice compliant. I can't help but wonder what Nick could do if he went after the Portaphile and Triad Audio crowd.

The MKIII B is fairly popular with the JH-Audio users, and the impedance of the 16s is similar to the 8.As. Perhaps Sorenslim tried out a bad unit. I've never heard the MKIII, so I can't speak to it directly. I have the ALO Pan Am tube amp which I assume would be similar, perhaps better than the Continental, but with stock tubes/Telefunken 6AK5 the unit lacks bass depth and punch with all of my IEMs. I've ordered Mullard CV4010s for it which according to one review give much more bass depth and punch. I'll post more when they arrive.

I'll also review how the CEntrance M-8 pairs with the 8.A IEMs as soon as they both arrive. The M-8 appears to be close to completion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GarySaville 

The MKIII B is fairly popular with the JH-Audio users, and the impedance of the 16s is similar to the 8.As. Perhaps Sorenslim tried out a bad unit. I've never heard the MKIII, so I can't speak to it directly. I have the ALO Pan Am tube amp which I assume would be similar, perhaps better than the Continental, but with stock tubes/Telefunken 6AK5 the unit lacks bass depth and punch with all of my IEMs. I've ordered Mullard CV4010s for it which according to one review give much more bass depth and punch. I'll post more when they arrive.

I'll also review how the CEntrance M-8 pairs with the 8.A IEMs as soon as they both arrive. The M-8 appears to be close to completion.

The sound from the MkIIIb I tried was good, but the hiss was distracting during quite passages - which weren't so quiet as the output level was so damn high (even on low gain) that to get past the volume impalance I was actually slightly over my normal listening levels. I really like the sound of the Rendition 1, but my DX100 does very, very well on its own. Gotta try out the SR71B one day... Should be fun with the 8.A and Tzar 350!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sorensiim 

The sound from the MkIIIb I tried was good, but the hiss was distracting during quite passages - which weren't so quiet as the output level was so damn high (even on low gain) that to get past the volume impalance I was actually slightly over my normal listening levels. I really like the sound of the Rendition 1, but my DX100 does very, very well on its own. Gotta try out the SR71B one day... Should be fun with the 8.A and Tzar 350!

The MKIIIB was connected to the DX100 line out? The ALO Pan has imbalance issues from 1-4% volume with my Westone IEMs. Comfortable listening levels are between 1-10% on low gain, so it too is not ideal for IEMs; however the 8.A are slightly higher impedance so they may work better.  The background is extremely black on the Pan Am, and I get no hiss at all. The ALO MKIII and the Pan Am are very different amps though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GarySaville 

The MKIII B is fairly popular with the JH-Audio users, and the impedance of the 16s is similar to the 8.As. Perhaps Sorenslim tried out a bad unit. I've never heard the MKIII, so I can't speak to it directly. I have the ALO Pan Am tube amp which I assume would be similar, perhaps better than the Continental, but with stock tubes/Telefunken 6AK5 the unit lacks bass depth and punch with all of my IEMs. I've ordered Mullard CV4010s for it which according to one review give much more bass depth and punch. I'll post more when they arrive.

I'll also review how the CEntrance M-8 pairs with the 8.A IEMs as soon as they both arrive. The M-8 appears to be close to completion.

If you don't have the Passport you might want to get yourself one. According to Mike of Headphonia the Pan Am sounds it's best when powered by the Passport.