Heya,
 
Tube DAC on the way. Went with a simple Maverick TubeMagic D2. Will update with impressions on how it changes sound once it arrives, with pictures of course.
 
Also considering getting a simple tube amp that acts as a pre-amp and headphone amp between the DAC and Emotiva, so that I can tap in with normal and/or high impedance headphones when not using my Hifimans, and also to see how a tube as a pre-amp might further affect control of volume and sound in general. Maybe a Little Dot MKIII or Dark Voice 336SE. Thoughts?
 
Very best,

Okay, so the posts got here today. Our techs soldered'em up, I plugged'em in, and...well, the APA150 doesn't work in stereo.  Nothing out the right channel.  At all.  Flip the switch to mono, and suddenly: boom!  Sound out both ears.  That means our wiring job is fine; the amp is jacked up.  So it's going back as soon as I can get down to the post office.  Which, honestly, is fine--what I heard out of the APA150 was extremely thin and annoying.
 
I'm gonna order this unbelievably inexpensive (think $30) Pyle amp from Amazon that delivers about 2wpc @ 32ohm to hold me over until I get back from my Christmas leave.  The I'm just going to go ahead and order the Emotiva.

Quote:

benzoylmethyl said:

Okay, so the posts got here today. Our techs soldered'em up, I plugged'em in, and...well, the APA150 doesn't work in stereo.  Nothing out the right channel.  At all.  Flip the switch to mono, and suddenly: boom!  Sound out both ears.  That means our wiring job is fine; the amp is jacked up.  So it's going back as soon as I can get down to the post office.  Which, honestly, is fine--what I heard out of the APA150 was extremely thin and annoying.
 
I'm gonna order this unbelievably inexpensive (think $30) Pyle amp from Amazon that delivers about 2wpc @ 32ohm to hold me over until I get back from my Christmas leave.  The I'm just going to go ahead and order the Emotiva.

Click to expand...

 
Sorry to hear that.
 
The Pyle will either arrive broken, or burn up within a few hours of using it. Be wary.
 
Very best,

Heya,
 
New stand came in today.
 

 
Very best,

malveaux said:

Heya,

Tube DAC on the way. Went with a simple Maverick TubeMagic D2. Will update with impressions on how it changes sound once it arrives, with pictures of course.

Also considering getting a simple tube amp that acts as a pre-amp and headphone amp between the DAC and Emotiva, so that I can tap in with normal and/or high impedance headphones when not using my Hifimans, and also to see how a tube as a pre-amp might further affect control of volume and sound in general. Maybe a Little Dot MKIII or Dark Voice 336SE. Thoughts?

Very best,

Click to expand...

Get a D1 instead? It's got a DAC, SS headamp, and tubed preouts. They should have a tube upgrade available for $20, recommended.

Quote:

grokit said:

Get a D1 instead? It's got a DAC, SS headamp, and tubed preouts. They should have a tube upgrade available for $20, recommended.

Click to expand...

 
Heya,
 
Too late, went D2. The DAC chipset was more attractive, less "non DAC" stuff involved so I don't have to have it there if I don't want it. Same good tube pre-amp out.
 
Very best,

Quote:

malveaux said:

 
Heya,
 
Too late, went D2. The DAC chipset was more attractive, less "non DAC" stuff involved so I don't have to have it there if I don't want it. Same good tube pre-amp out.
 
Very best,

Click to expand...

 
 
Very interested to see your finding.  I was looking at a few tube dacs.  One being the Stockholm - cost way more though..

Quote:

preproman said:

 
 
Very interested to see your finding.  I was looking at a few tube dacs.  One being the Stockholm - cost way more though..

Click to expand...

 
Heya,
 
I was looking at different options, but ultimately I don't want to spend $500~1000 for some of the equipment. I have too many other novelty hobbies that take up my time/money too. That and I constantly flip equipment to try new stuff because I just like trying different things. After looking into the D2, it had what I wanted basically and the price was really attractive. So we'll see how she does. If I don't hear much or any difference that pleases me with the setup, I'll sell it at significant discount on the forum here probably. I'm interested to see how it works though with the tube, and after that, if I keep it, I'm thinking of getting a Darkvoice 336SE to use as a pre-amp and headphone amp (not for the Hifiman, more for my Beyers or Denons when I need isolation). See how that interacts. How warm it can get. How tubey it all can get. And if it doesn't work out, it's another item that I can sell fairly easily. As it is, I 99.9% enjoy my current setup. I'm just playing around at this point just to see if there's something else that I enjoy more or if I pretty much have what I'm going to enjoy for the next few years.
 
Very best,

Okay, so the DA does work after all.  Seems like one of the speaker outs wasn't getting a good connection.  I jiggled and pressed and whatnot for about 15 minutes today and got it working in stereo.
 
Yeah.  You guys were right.  WAY too much power.  It opens up around 7 o'clock and I can't turn it up past around 9 or 10 o'clock without destroying my eardrums.  So still gonna return it.  Does sound pretty good, though.  I can't tell any negatives, though I don't have anything else to compare it to.  It seems like it might be a little thin, but I've been listening to 1964Ears Q's with a damn digiZoid Zo for the last two weeks while waiting on these, so I'm pretty biased towards the low end right now.  No turn-on pop and no noise at all.  I can't even tell any channel imbalance at the bottom end of the volume knob.
 
So here's the question.  Should I go ahead and cough up for the Emotiva (and deal with not knowing when it'll get here) or do you think this (from the speaker taps) would be enough to power my 500s?  Reviews everywhere that I've looked have been very good, if not downright glowing.  Still should generate about 3wpc @ 32ohm; so...probably 1.5 or so real-world.

The PSU in the miniX looks bigger than that entire amp.  If it was me.  I would feel much better with the miniX.  That's just me.

Quote:

benzoylmethyl said:

Okay, so the DA does work after all.  Seems like one of the speaker outs wasn't getting a good connection.  I jiggled and pressed and whatnot for about 15 minutes today and got it working in stereo.
 
Yeah.  You guys were right.  WAY too much power.  It opens up around 7 o'clock and I can't turn it up past around 9 or 10 o'clock without destroying my eardrums.  So still gonna return it.  Does sound pretty good, though.  I can't tell any negatives, though I don't have anything else to compare it to.  It seems like it might be a little thin, but I've been listening to 1964Ears Q's with a damn digiZoid Zo for the last two weeks while waiting on these, so I'm pretty biased towards the low end right now.  No turn-on pop and no noise at all.  I can't even tell any channel imbalance at the bottom end of the volume knob.
 
So here's the question.  Should I go ahead and cough up for the Emotiva (and deal with not knowing when it'll get here) or do you think this (from the speaker taps) would be enough to power my 500s?  Reviews everywhere that I've looked have been very good, if not downright glowing.  Still should generate about 3wpc @ 32ohm; so...probably 1.5 or so real-world.

Click to expand...

 
Heya,
 
I think you're going to end up spending more money on cheap stuff rather than getting something that is quality and will last. Amps in general have one component that stands out over the rest that will literally determine how good it's going to be and for how long it's going to be good, and that's the power supply. A poor power supply will fail, be noisy, not give the rated power, hum, hiss, etc. It's the hallmark of cheap amps. A good amp has big, heavy, high quality power supplies and they take up a lot of room and weigh a brick. I wouldn't keep throwing $80~150 here and there trying to find something that simply works.
 
At $180 right now for the Emotiva, it's too good for that cost. Even with a shipping cost to where you're located, you're still talking about an amplifier that is way cheaper than something like the Lyr, yet more powerful, and sounds fantastic with Orthos.
 
Other than that, instead of seeking a cheap speaker amp, look at AVR's. A cheap $200 AVR that does 50~75wpc (real world is probably half that) gives you a DAC and speaker tap AMP all in one with a remote. I used my HE-500 on several of my Receivers and it was great. Thing is you can use one as old as you want too.
 
Very best,

Quote:

malveaux said:

Heya,
 
New stand came in today.
 

 
Very best,

Click to expand...

 
Very nice stand Mal. I have always liked the looks of them and have considered them in the past. Do you feel it might jeopardize pad life with it always having a little clamp on the stand? 
Probably just one of the many things that worry me, that is irrelevant.......lol

Quote:

asmoday said:

 
Very nice stand Mal. I have always liked the looks of them and have considered them in the past. Do you feel it might jeopardize pad life with it always having a little clamp on the stand? 
Probably just one of the many things that worry me, that is irrelevant.......lol

Click to expand...

 
Heya,
 
I found this one for $60 shipped. Great quality, I was surprised, figured it would be trashy, but it's superb.
 
Anyhow I was actually worried about two things, height wise, the terminals on the Hifiman are long so if the cups are fully extended, they are too close for comfort to the base of the stand and I fear them getting bent or something. So I have to keep the cups retracted a bit for sitting there. Clamp wise, it's actually barely clamping, so I don't mind it sitting there. If they were super sensitive expensive pads (Stax) or something, I would worry. But some cheap replaceable hifiman pads? Nah. Hehe.
 
Very best,

Quote:

malveaux said:

 
Heya,
 
I found this one for $60 shipped. Great quality, I was surprised, figured it would be trashy, but it's superb.
 
Anyhow I was actually worried about two things, height wise, the terminals on the Hifiman are long so if the cups are fully extended, they are too close for comfort to the base of the stand and I fear them getting bent or something. So I have to keep the cups retracted a bit for sitting there. Clamp wise, it's actually barely clamping, so I don't mind it sitting there. If they were super sensitive expensive pads (Stax) or something, I would worry. But some cheap replaceable hifiman pads? Nah. Hehe.
 
Very best,

Click to expand...

 
Thanks,
 
I didn't even take notice to how close the terminals were to the bottom. That's probably a definite deal breaker for me unfortunately. I am going with a Q Cable that will have the "earring" adapter so it would probably make it even more of a issue than what your having there. 

Finally pulled the trigger on the a-100. That price was too good to pass up .
 
Since I'm moving away from an all in one solution (nfb 10.2) and plan on buying the HE-6 (hopefully by december), the a-100 will serve my needs.