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burson new soloist headphone amp - Page 35

post #511 of 938
1/4/13 at 12:30pm

So my Soloist has the problem of the very loud popping noises when I adjust the volume. I have twice now sprayed the attenuator with electronic cleaner, it does help; the popping is greatly reduced. However, it is not eliminated completely and after awhile it seems to come back. This is quite frustrating for a $1000 headphone amplifier to have such a flaw. 

 

Does anyone here have more specific advice on how to achieve the best results with cleaning the attenuator?

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post #512 of 938
1/4/13 at 12:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gneiss View Post

So my Soloist has the problem of the very loud popping noises when I adjust the volume. I have twice now sprayed the attenuator with electronic cleaner, it does help; the popping is greatly reduced. However, it is not eliminated completely and after awhile it seems to come back. This is quite frustrating for a $1000 headphone amplifier to have such a flaw. 

 

Does anyone here have more specific advice on how to achieve the best results with cleaning the attenuator?

 

I tried a lot of different solutions too but in the end decided to live with it. I couldn't get rid of the popping noise completely. However, this is not a problem with the Soloist only; nearly all headphone amps that use a stepped attenuator seem to have this issue.

 

What I do is, I momentarily pause the music whenever I want to change the volume. No popping noise if no music is being played. Or, I turn the volume knob slowly. Turning the knob slowly results in no noise at all, or sometimes a small popping noise that isn't loud at all.

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post #513 of 938
1/4/13 at 1:07pm

agreed songmic from Gangnam

 
The pops haven't been an issue for me, and are common in any stepped attenuator
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post #514 of 938
1/4/13 at 1:27pm

Nods, if the clicks bug you... wait for the inevitable DS model.

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post #515 of 938
1/4/13 at 3:41pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greeni View Post

Reading the review of the Soloist over headfonia, I am not so sure I get a picture if it is a 100% upgrade over the HA-160.

 

Apparantly the reviewer found the HA-160D (which has the same headphone amp section as with the HA-160) were more linear, having a more forward sound and a better PRaT. The HA-160D had a wider soundstage and a clearer articulation, while the Soloist had a better depth in the soundstage.

 

Would you say, if one is not pairing it with hungry planar phones, the Soloist would present marginal improvement over the HA-160 at best ? What other amps in the $1K range should I consider ?

 

Thanks for help.

 If you can stretch your budget the bryston balanced headphone amp is the best amp that I have heard with my audeze lcd2 v2s.Even though it was only for a brief audtioning session for two and a half hours.I did use my own cds so I was familar with the source material used in demoing.I have to say that the bryston amp was the only amp that I have listened to on my lcd2s that had a marked effect on the warmish sound balance of the lcd2 v2s on every other amp that I had heard them on.But with the bryston the balance was much more neutral sounding.But that balance was not forgiving of recordings that were less than perfect.The bass on the lcds2 v2s with the bryston was by far the best that I have ever heard and that difference was not a little but huge.The bass was just astoundingly powerful and tight the best I have ever heard with a headphone.I have not heard the solooist but i do have a ha-160 and I have to say the difference between my 160 and the bryston is the size of the grand canyon.It is just a shame that the bryston is only a headphone amp.It would be nice if it at least had a preamp function.I imagine for the money it is competative with far more expensive dedicated headphone amps but I need a preamp for my powered speakers in my setup so for me it is a bit too expensive and limiting in its fuctionality for my situation.But if you are looking for just a headphone amp i do not think you will find anything better in the 1400-1500 dollar range.But the schiit mjolner looks pretty attractive if you  have balanced headphones.


Edited by buson160man - 1/4/13 at 3:55pm
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post #516 of 938
1/4/13 at 7:53pm
What I do with the soloist is crank the volume all the way up to 2 or 3 o'clock and I use digital attenuation from the computer to control the volume
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post #517 of 938
1/4/13 at 8:01pm
I am seriously contemplating picking up a conductor ... but it seems like you are likely paying a lot of money for this :



to have to put with popping or jumping through hoops just to adjust your volume. That would bug me no end.
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post #518 of 938
1/4/13 at 8:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by elwappo99 View Post

What I do with the soloist is crank the volume all the way up to 2 or 3 o'clock and I use digital attenuation from the computer to control the volume

I think you are reducing the bit depth whenever you use software to reduce the volume. This reduces the dynamics, essentially compressing the dB range. That's why a lot of DAC instruction manuals tell you to turn the software volume all the way up.

Mike
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post #519 of 938
1/4/13 at 8:21pm
Here's a question I could answer by testing, but it's easier to ask...

Is the Soloist's volume control still in the signal path when you don't have a headphone plugged into the TRS jack at the front?

In other words, can I control the volume with the Soloist when connecting a different amp to its pre-amp outputs?

The DACmini CX volume control is bypassed whenever headphones are not connected, but I haven't tried this with the Soloist yet.

Thanks!

Mike
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post #520 of 938
1/4/13 at 9:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by buson160man View Post

 If you can stretch your budget the bryston balanced headphone amp is the best amp that I have heard with my audeze lcd2 v2s.Even though it was only for a brief audtioning session for two and a half hours.I did use my own cds so I was familar with the source material used in demoing.I have to say that the bryston amp was the only amp that I have listened to on my lcd2s that had a marked effect on the warmish sound balance of the lcd2 v2s on every other amp that I had heard them on.But with the bryston the balance was much more neutral sounding.But that balance was not forgiving of recordings that were less than perfect.The bass on the lcds2 v2s with the bryston was by far the best that I have ever heard and that difference was not a little but huge.The bass was just astoundingly powerful and tight the best I have ever heard with a headphone.I have not heard the solooist but i do have a ha-160 and I have to say the difference between my 160 and the bryston is the size of the grand canyon.It is just a shame that the bryston is only a headphone amp.It would be nice if it at least had a preamp function.I imagine for the money it is competative with far more expensive dedicated headphone amps but I need a preamp for my powered speakers in my setup so for me it is a bit too expensive and limiting in its fuctionality for my situation.But if you are looking for just a headphone amp i do not think you will find anything better in the 1400-1500 dollar range.But the schiit mjolner looks pretty attractive if you  have balanced headphones.

 

The second or third version of the BHA-1 *DOES* have a pre-amp out.  There is a balanced XLR out on the back that functions as a pre-amp out.

 

 

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQj93uIkxAXccSkFzlX2HWLA7V-mxM_cxlUWweA8JGm-74bfu2n256sAngS

 

The female XLR and RCA are the inputs; The male XLR are the pre-amp outs.

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post #521 of 938
1/5/13 at 4:53am

Hey,

 

Yes, I think you can, I didn't test especially for the Soloist but it is what happen with the HA-160D when you connect to the pre-amp output. So I don't see why it would be any different with the Soloist.

 

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by zilch0md View Post

Here's a question I could answer by testing, but it's easier to ask...
Is the Soloist's volume control still in the signal path when you don't have a headphone plugged into the TRS jack at the front?
In other words, can I control the volume with the Soloist when connecting a different amp to its pre-amp outputs?
The DACmini CX volume control is bypassed whenever headphones are not connected, but I haven't tried this with the Soloist yet.
Thanks!
Mike
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post #522 of 938
1/5/13 at 5:05am

Soloist is a pre-amp.  Pull the TRS, pre-out on, insert, TRS on.  I used it for the LCD-3 and my Dynaudio.

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post #523 of 938
1/5/13 at 10:04am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Senn-Fi View Post

 

The second or third version of the BHA-1 *DOES* have a pre-amp out.  There is a balanced XLR out on the back that functions as a pre-amp out.

 

 

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQj93uIkxAXccSkFzlX2HWLA7V-mxM_cxlUWweA8JGm-74bfu2n256sAngS

 

The female XLR and RCA are the inputs; The male XLR are the pre-amp outs.

 Thank you for the blog.If that is the case I can use the bryston as apreamp for my emotiva pro airmotiv 5s active monitors that I bought over the summer. O nly problem now is I just do not have the funds at this time to consider it.

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post #524 of 938
1/5/13 at 10:05am

Just received my Soloist in the mail this morning.  It's not even burned in and I love it!  It really gets the music right - the tone, instrument separation, dynamics, articulation (prat), and transparency to die for.  I am just so happy right now!  BTW, using it with modded hd580's with v-dac with pangea psu with Decibel.  

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post #525 of 938
1/5/13 at 10:26am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Senn-Fi View Post

 

The second or third version of the BHA-1 *DOES* have a pre-amp out.  There is a balanced XLR out on the back that functions as a pre-amp out.

 

 

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQj93uIkxAXccSkFzlX2HWLA7V-mxM_cxlUWweA8JGm-74bfu2n256sAngS

 

The female XLR and RCA are the inputs; The male XLR are the pre-amp outs.

 I went on the bryston website and they make no mention of preamp capability on the bha-1 headphone amp.But just the same I emailed bryston to ask if you can use the bha-1 as a preamp.

I hope to get an answer if so I will try to remeber to pass the information on.

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