Fostex TH900 Impressions & Discussion Thread - Page 119

Quote:

Originally Posted by erikfreedom 

i have an antelope zodiac silver. all the antelope zodiacs be it the silver the + or the gold have the exact same amp and it is less than adequate. the zodiacs are great dacs but they really need a real amp in combo with them to shine. my zodiac silver is unable to drive my denon ahd 7000 to satisfactory levels. very weak amp.

 

antelope zodiac dacs are great, but it is the dac part that is great, not the amps. 

 

 

my pair of fostex th-900 are on their way. i bought them at headphone shop in toronto. 

its a small shop, but the guy there is a fanatic and sell only mid to very high end stuff.

 

http://www.headfoneshop.com/

 

Thanks for the info. But the Zodiac Gold can switch its Headphone output impedance between 0 ohm and 120 ohm. But the silver and + only has a 120ohm Headphone output. From many people's reviews, the 0 ohm output are much better than the 120ohm. Any people have any opinions?? :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magick Man 


No, they do not. The Zodiac and Zodiac + have an "impedance matching" amplifier, which actually measures at 5Ω, while the Gold can be set to 0Ω (in reality it's 0.004Ω). This gives the Gold amazing damping factor with low impedance headphones like the TH900, while supplying up to 1500mW into a 50Ω load. This means that it will drive anything short of the most demanding headphones, such as the HE-6, and from my experience does it very well.
I'm not sure where you get your info, especially since you do not own a Zodiac Gold, but not only do I find it incorrect, but it also flies in the face of every review I've seen published.

Oh you have the same opinion as me. Just noticed your post after my previous post...haha

Quote:

Originally Posted by archeryc 


In your experience, is the Gold durable? I heard some people complain the Gold's fuse has quality problem, and broke the fuse sometimes.

While I had it mine totally dropped out once, and Antelope's ticket service was really slow.  Fortunately, Marcel from Antelope is a member here and answers PM's within a day or two.  They shipped me a new replacement unit before I even sent mine back, which was really cool.  I have his cell number available via PM if anyone runs into issues with their Antelope products.

As for the headamp, I'm not surprised that it worked decently with the Fostex as it was adequate for my Denons, but for pretty much any ortho (T50RP, HE500, LCD2/3) it was pretty horrible.  It also didn't do justice to the HD800, though it wasn't quite as bad.  

For clarification - it can drive most of these headphones to decent levels but it glosses over way too much when compared with other amps (Headroom Max, B22) and is not nearly as enveloping and musical as the good tube amps (Balancing Act.)

It all comes down to managing expectations of what a one-box can do.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radio_head 

While I had it mine totally dropped out once, and Antelope's ticket service was really slow.  Fortunately, Marcel from Antelope is a member here and answers PM's within a day or two.  They shipped me a new replacement unit before I even sent mine back, which was really cool.  I have his cell number available via PM if anyone runs into issues with their Antelope products.

 

As for the headamp, I'm not surprised that it worked decently with the Fostex as it was adequate for my Denons, but for pretty much any ortho (T50RP, HE500, LCD2/3) it was pretty horrible.  It also didn't do justice to the HD800, though it wasn't quite as bad.  

 

For clarification - it can drive most of these headphones to decent levels but it glosses over way too much when compared with other amps (Headroom Max, B22) and is not nearly as enveloping and musical as the good tube amps (Balancing Act.)

 

It all comes down to managing expectations of what a one-box can do.

Is the replacement unit are the fuse? or they sent you a new machine instead? If it's the fuse then is the fuse from Antelope or it's a fuse from other hifi brand? Could you please let me know any contact details of them?? :)

New machine entirely.

Woohoo!, finally!

One of the first in Sweden with the new Burson Soloist(if not the first, that was what the seller told me anyway) 

And it just married my TH-900 ^^ , the burn-in continues!..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Audiowood 

I know u guys are looking for all in one solution, but just wanna share that Th900 with zana duex sound really really good, i am using w4s dac 2 to zana. As I am not good at audio terms and describing sound, I will use alo rx3 as comparison (not a fair comparison) but just as a reference point. The zana completely destroy the alo rx3 in any way. The bass level is much more define, tighter and goes deep, the high more smoother and surprisingly has more detail and clarity. It tames down some simbilance that th900 might other wise have. The mid helps alot here as it makes the u shape even less pronounce with ss amp. The Rx3 bass sound more boomier and tones not as clearly define but still as powerful as zana. Dont get me wrong the rx3 is really on par with Mf m1 amp and schitt lyr (m1 amp and schitt lyr sound the same with some tubes) but throw in zana and it dwarf all these amps. Of course this is not a fair comparison, In short zana combo with th900 sound very natural, sound stage was larger too..

Have you compared the RX3 and ZD using the TH900 in balanced?  I assume you used it SE.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Audiowood 

I know u guys are looking for all in one solution, but just wanna share that Th900 with zana duex sound really really good, i am using w4s dac 2 to zana.

I concur that this is a great setup. At H3, I sat down at dallan's rig and listened to his HD800 from his ZD. I immediately realized that the TH900 would be something out of it. I made a beeline to the HeadRoom table to steal the TH900 and a beeline straight back to the ZD. I wouldn't recommend the ZD for a small room though. Those tubes get hot and you can lose some skin if you accidentally touch them.

I believe dallan loved the TH900 from the ZD too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobbeL 

Woohoo!, finally!

One of the first in Sweden with the new Burson Soloist(if not the first, that was what the seller told me anyway) 

And it just married my TH-900 ^^ , the burn-in continues!..

 Sounds like a win / win situation ..... enjoy !!

This thread is going to ruin me!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kjeldsen 

This thread is going to ruin me!

 LOL ....Welcome to Head -Fi