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HE-500, LCD2, D5000, DT770, SR80, on a speaker amp (Emotiva mini-X A-100) Project
Sep 5, 2015 at 4:27 PM Post #3,721 of 3,819
Can someone recommend a company where they make headphone cables into speaker cables for usage with speaker amps and HE-500. No adapters please, prefer just straight cable connection. Also, I was looking to buy the miniwatt n3 tube amp, are there any better tube amp $400.00 new or used going this route? thanks.
 
Sep 5, 2015 at 8:32 PM Post #3,722 of 3,819
searchofsub said:
Can someone recommend a company where they make headphone cables into speaker cables for usage with speaker amps and HE-500. No adapters please, prefer just straight cable connection. Also, I was looking to buy the miniwatt n3 tube amp, are there any better tube amp $400.00 new or used going this route? thanks.
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Heya,
 
Brian over at BTG Audio can make you a custom cable that is directly from the headphone to speaker taps termination without an adapter. I think he's running a new discount right now too. Google him up. He does excellent work. I had him mod my HE500's to XLR posts and made all my custom cables. Top stuff.
 
Very best,
 
Sep 5, 2015 at 9:41 PM Post #3,723 of 3,819
searchofsub said:
Can someone recommend a company where they make headphone cables into speaker cables for usage with speaker amps and HE-500. No adapters please, prefer just straight cable connection. Also, I was looking to buy the miniwatt n3 tube amp, are there any better tube amp $400.00 new or used going this route? thanks.
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If you are at all DIY-inclined and can use a $5 DMM (Digital Multimeter), and are willing to sacrifice your stock cable, all you'd need are four banana plugs.  If your amp doesn't accept banana plugs, you'll end up having to connect bare wires to the amp anyway, so you'd just need a way to figure out positive from negative, and mark the ends of the bare wires.
 
I mention sacrificing the stock cable, as no solder is involved, just using a DMM to determine POS and NEG.
 
Sep 6, 2015 at 8:52 PM Post #3,725 of 3,819
Anyone interested in a mint Mini-X please send me a pm. I am selling mine because i just upgraded to the Auralic Taurus MKII, so i no longer need my Emotiva. I used it exclusively with my HE500, with the original cable reterminated to banana plugs and i got no noise with volume on the emotiva at 100%!!!! I am willing to let this go at a very good price. send me pm if you are interested. thanks!
 
Sep 24, 2015 at 9:01 PM Post #3,726 of 3,819
Recently acquired a pair of HE-400S, running them off my Modi/Magni. They sound awesome but I know they want more juice. My old mad dogs for sure strained the magni. My question, is the 22 ohm impedance too low? Or will the planar nature offset this efficiency somewhat? 
 
If I do encounter hiss (which I absolutely want to avoid) what XXX ohm resistors do you recommend given the impedance?
 
and drgameboy is your mini-x still available?
 
Sep 24, 2015 at 9:06 PM Post #3,727 of 3,819
Even with my Q701 the hiss is very minimal. I still hear the cooling fan inside my laptop over it. 
 
Sep 24, 2015 at 9:49 PM Post #3,728 of 3,819
@thurston , 
 
Any impressions of the flex vs lyr vs magni? Most interested in FF vs Magni...?
 
EDIT: DOH! I mistook your sys for a magni in the photo. Still interested in your thoughts, and if you have used the 560 with lesser amps than the Lyr/FF, any comparo b/w the two..
 
Sep 24, 2015 at 10:34 PM Post #3,729 of 3,819
peepr said:
  @thurston , 
 
Any impressions of the flex vs lyr vs magni? Most interested in FF vs Magni...?
 
EDIT: DOH! I mistook your sys for a magni in the photo. Still interested in your thoughts, and if you have used the 560 with lesser amps than the Lyr/FF, any comparo b/w the two..
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Nice catch
wink.gif
  For cans only, between Lyr and FF, I'd take the Lyr straight up any day.  Lyr as preamp to Fusion Flex (R.I.P.; maybe they have something else in the pipeline...) is pretty sweet.  I haven't owned the FF long enough to compare using the Lyr as headphone amp with my best tubes, to Lyr with said tubes as a preamp.  For the past week I've been digging my Lyr straight with newly acquired (stolen at the price I paid!) 1957 pinched waist Heerlen E88CCs too much to have plugged my cans into the FF.  I'll get back to it eventually, as the convenience of the FF's remote is hard to resist 
wink.gif
  So, ask me again in a week or so (PM is fine).
 
I've tried the HE-560s with the JDS Labs C5 (not nearly enough oomph; go figure; still a great li'l portable amp) and with the headphone jacks on my two A/V-Rs (blah).  HE-560s like the juice.  The FF is a fine driver of them, preamp or no.  Being content, I doubt I'll be trying other amps.  If you've got, or are contemplating getting, the HE-560s, go for current.  I'd love to try the Lyr 2, but some of my tubes won't work with it.  If I didn't already own a Lyr, I'd have a Lyr 2 being delivered shortly.
 
Given I have speakers being driven by the FF, and had the Lyr first, I'm happy to have both.
 
Oct 7, 2015 at 2:50 AM Post #3,730 of 3,819
I haven't even had time to play with it yet but I started Product Page/Guide on Rolls PM57 Speaker Tap if anyone is interested.  ~$54 gets you attenuation switch, resistor network, mono/stereo and a Volume knob.  Parts alone would be $30 or more and it's in a nice bulletproof box 2" by 2"  Link
 
Oct 7, 2015 at 4:26 PM Post #3,731 of 3,819
Just pulled the trigger on the emotiva amp, will report Friday night with results via my HE-400S, Denon D2000 and HD598s. 
 
Hoping it doesn't blow up my HE-400S as they are quite sensitive @ 22ohms and 98dB but I may be trading them in anyway due to some comfort issues (I have big ears). I know this amp will scale with whatever my next headphone would be...possibly LCD2...
 
Oct 7, 2015 at 4:45 PM Post #3,732 of 3,819
peepr said:
  Just pulled the trigger on this, will report Friday night with results via my HE-400S, Denon D2000 and HD598s. 
 
Hoping it doesn't blow up my HE-400S as they are quite sensitive @ 22ohms and 98dB but I may be trading them in anyway due to some comfort issues (I have big ears). I know this amp will scale with whatever my next headphone would be...possibly LCD2...
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Didn't blow up my HE-500's
tongue.gif
  And I updated my review and tips.  Do make sure you read those 1st!!! 
 
Oct 7, 2015 at 4:49 PM Post #3,733 of 3,819
beatswork said:
   
Didn't blow up my HE-500's
tongue.gif
  And I updated my review and tips.  Do make sure you read those 1st!!! 
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Sorry my post was a bit ambiguous. I purchased the emotiva amp and relevant connectors. I did not get the Rolls device or any resistors. 
 
EDIT:
 
Would something like these work? http://www.microcenter.com/product/389992/1-2_Watt_270_OHM_Resistor_6-Pack 
 
Or do I need a higher wattage resistor? (3-5W?)
 
Oct 9, 2015 at 2:47 PM Post #3,734 of 3,819
Got the emotiva today but only had about 5 minutes to listen to it before I had to go to work. 
 
Right off the bat I notice a slight hiss with volume all the way down and it stays the same with volume turned up, so that's simply the noise floor. I put foobar at -20db and noticed channel imbalance up to around 8:30 on the dial so I had it comfortable at 9 or 9:30.
 
Just to give an indication how powerful this amp is and how sensitive the HE-400S are, I could hear music very faintly with the volume knob at 0 with foobar at 0.00db.
 
I have some resistors I will play around with tonight in an attempt to eliminate the noise floor, which is not noticeable on most music, only with some quiet jazz and classical, which unfortunately I do listen to, so I will be needing a solution here. I am using the HE-400S, very sensitive HP.
 
Sound: overall better than the magni though not by much. Most noticeable is the increase in bass dynamics. More slam and texture on low notes. So definitely an improvement. Like I said I only had 5 minutes to listen but what I heard impressed me. I will likely jump on the HE-560, which I heard at CanJam and really liked, or the HE-500 if I can find a deal, as these will scale much better than the 400S, which is almost maxed on SQ wise on the Magni. 
 
I am using the HOSA adapters linked earlier in the thread to connect to the amp. Will try to post more impressions tonight after using some resistors in series from the + on the amp to the + on the banana plug.
 
Oct 9, 2015 at 3:32 PM Post #3,735 of 3,819
peepr said:
  Got the emotiva today but only had about 5 minutes to listen to it before I had to go to work. 
 
Right off the bat I notice a slight hiss with volume all the way down and it stays the same with volume turned up, so that's simply the noise floor. I put foobar at -20db and noticed channel imbalance up to around 8:30 on the dial so I had it comfortable at 9 or 9:30.
 
Just to give an indication how powerful this amp is and how sensitive the HE-400S are, I could hear music very faintly with the volume knob at 0 with foobar at 0.00db.
 
I have some resistors I will play around with tonight in an attempt to eliminate the noise floor, which is not noticeable on most music, only with some quiet jazz and classical, which unfortunately I do listen to, so I will be needing a solution here. I am using the HE-400S, very sensitive HP.
 
Sound: overall better than the magni though not by much. Most noticeable is the increase in bass dynamics. More slam and texture on low notes. So definitely an improvement. Like I said I only had 5 minutes to listen but what I heard impressed me. I will likely jump on the HE-560, which I heard at CanJam and really liked, or the HE-500 if I can find a deal, as these will scale much better than the 400S, which is almost maxed on SQ wise on the Magni. 
 
I am using the HOSA adapters linked earlier in the thread to connect to the amp. Will try to post more impressions tonight after using some resistors in series from the + on the amp to the + on the banana plug.
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With the not very efficient HE-560s, I don't hear the noise floor.  It drives them very nicely, though I prefer using the Lyr as a preamp.  Still haven't tried the HE-500s straightup or preamped.  Really need to get on that this weekend.  It's tough to argue about the value of the HE-500s, esp. if you can find a nice used pair for $450 +/-   The sound signature is different from the HE-560s.
 
Good luck with your project.
 
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