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burson new soloist headphone amp - Page 23

post #331 of 931
9/11/12 at 3:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by songmic View Post

Quote:

 

The idea of driving HE-6 using speaker amps has never even occurred to me, but if what you say is true, then I suppose I haven't heard the real deal out of the HE-6 yet. However, I can't possibly imagine having a pair of huge monoblock power amps in my desktop headphone system - not because of the price, but because of their sizes. If I had enough room for those, I may as well listen to actual loudspeakers.

 

Please excuse my ignorance, but how do you use speaker amps to drive headphones? My first assumption is that you must have used a dual 3-pin XLR balanced cable (for each monoblock), but how did you plug it to the speaker outputs of the UPA-1?. Other than some DYI work which I'm not capable of, is there, say, a "speaker outputs-to-3-pin XLR" adaptor to make this possible? Or any balanced aftermarket cables for the Hifiman that can directly plug into the speaker outs from both monoblocks?


You have a fishtail made to attach to the 4 pin HE6 cable and you can use a 50W intergrasted amp like an NAD which wont kill you space wise. Speaker amps IMO are the only way to go. The Pioneer sx980  was 80W per channel and it put out 15W into 50 ohm HE6 and it was the best I heard it when I owned it. Still sorry I let it go.

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post #332 of 931
9/11/12 at 3:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank I View Post


You have a fishtail made to attach to the 4 pin HE6 cable and you can use a 50W intergrasted amp like an NAD which wont kill you space wise. Speaker amps IMO are the only way to go. The Pioneer sx980  was 80W per channel and it put out 15W into 50 ohm HE6 and it was the best I heard it when I owned it. Still sorry I let it go.

 

Okay, so where can I get this so-called fishtail, without going through all that DYI job? Where can I purchase an bona-fide, audiophile-grade adaptor for plugging balanced headphone cables to speaker outputs?

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post #333 of 931
9/11/12 at 7:06am

Contact member Hiflight. Ron does a nice job and will make one for you at a very reasonable price and its quality cable also.

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post #334 of 931
9/11/12 at 4:15pm

Here's the one I use.

 

 

 

 

Here's my HE-6 rig.

 

 

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post #335 of 931
9/11/12 at 4:48pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by preproman View Post

Here's the one I use.

 

 

 

 

Here's my HE-6 rig.

 

 

 

Is that the adapter cable built by HiFlight? Or did you build it by yourself, or another third party?

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post #336 of 931
9/11/12 at 5:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by songmic View Post

Quote:

 

Is that the adapter cable built by HiFlight? Or did you build it by yourself, or another third party?

 

 

This was done by:

 

http://www.zynsonix.com/

 

This guy is good as well:

 

http://btg-audio.webs.com/

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post #337 of 931
9/12/12 at 6:14am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by songmic View Post

Hello guys, I recently purchased a Burson Soloist to drive my new Fostex TH900, and it sounds amazing right out of the box! I don't think I've ever heard such a dynamic sounding solid-state headphone amplifier. I'm breaking it in right now, and I'd like to ask you some questions who are more familiar with the amp.

 

1. Did the Soloist's sound change noticeably with burn-in? Approximately how long was burn-in time (that is, until you no longer heard changes in sound)?

 

2. I understand higher gain setting means higher volume, but is there all there is to it? I can't say I have the best ears, but I wonder if different gain settings change anything else. If it was only about the volume, I could simply use the volume knob instead. Does gain setting affect other aspects of sound, such as treble, mid, bass, imaging, soundstage, et cetera?

 

3. Has anyone used an audiophile-grade power cable with the Soloist? If so, did it make a lot of improvement in sonic quality compared to a stock cable?

I have used upgraded power cords on my burson ha-160 and it did improve the sound of the amplifier.I have used several cords and at present am using a nordost cable with the burson.But the nordost is pretty steep in price so I can not recommend it as a bang for the buck power cord.If you want a cord that offers a lot of performance for a reasonable price may I suggest going to the emotiva.com website and under interconnects check out their iec power cord.I bought several cords and they worked well in my setup.But I have upgraded since then.I have to say though I have heard the emotiva cord in several of my friends systems and they did perform well in all of the systems I have heard them in.Actually two of my friends have bought emotiva cords and are using them in their systems. You can get a two meter power cord for $69.99 which at that price I would say it is a no brainer considering the performance of the cable.You can not go wrong on this cable.The website for emotiva is emotiva.com.


Edited by buson160man - 9/12/12 at 6:17am
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post #338 of 931
9/12/12 at 10:02am

Quail hospital grade otherwise known as Iron Lung, $6... done.

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post #339 of 931
9/13/12 at 10:36am

Do you guys think the Dacport LX would go good with the Soloist? I'm also wondering how this pair would stack up against the HA-160D or HA-160DS. If it would sound better if I just got the HA-160D then I will go that route instead.

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post #340 of 931
9/13/12 at 6:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slickman View Post

Do you guys think the Dacport LX would go good with the Soloist? I'm also wondering how this pair would stack up against the HA-160D or HA-160DS. If it would sound better if I just got the HA-160D then I will go that route instead.

 

I dont own the LX version, only the Dacport normal version. 

 

It also depends on your headphones. Both the 160D and Ds are very practical solutions, but note that the soloist also have 4w pc (it works nice with ortho headphones, more power) thats the one im using with the HRT streamer II+ as a dac. 

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post #341 of 931
9/13/12 at 7:13pm
Headphones I will use with the set up for now is a pair of Terminator V4's. In the future I will possibly listen with D5000/7000, and JVC DX1000.
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post #342 of 931
9/13/12 at 7:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slickman View Post

Headphones I will use with the set up for now is a pair of Terminator V4's. In the future I will possibly listen with D5000/7000, and JVC DX1000.

 

The V4. is that a Darth beyer right? 

 

I had previously the Ds and it worked good with Denon line, the benefit of getting separates is that you are able to combine components. One aspect that i like of the soloist is the gain switch, which lets people to select between levels of power needed. You can use different gain settings and volume combinations with each headphone. 

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post #343 of 931
9/13/12 at 7:43pm

 So what would be better, the HA-160D or something like the Dacport LX + Soloist or HRT Music Streamer II Plus + Soloist? I heard the DS's bass doesn't hit as hard that's why I kind of eliminated that from the running.

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post #344 of 931
9/13/12 at 9:01pm

Sound and design wise, i'd consider the Soloist + some dac. 

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post #345 of 931
9/15/12 at 5:20am

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