HE-500, LCD2, D5000, DT770, SR80, on a speaker amp (Emotiva mini-X A-100) Project - Page 4

Heya,

Brian finished the cable and it's shipped, I'll have it in a few days.

Hifiman plugs -> 6 feet of midnight sheathed cable -> terminates to XLR male. Two adapters, one XLR female to speaker taps (banana plugs), one XLR female to 3.5mm (add 1/4th adapter where needed).

Very best,

Heya,

He does. It took him a while to get the Hifiman plugs as he had them shipped to him. But once he has the gear, it's a day and it's done.

Very best,

Heya,

Bought the Emovtiva. $219 shipped free. Ships FedEx Ground, so probably will be here next week some time I assume (will know once tracking is given, if given). Curious to see how this shipping method works out, as FedEx tends to just leave stuff on my door step and leave, which is not cool. They don't have to have a signature if it's under $300 worth. Will be interesting to see if I actually get it or if it gets lifted from my Condo assuming they leave it on my door step in some obvious packaging that displays what it is. Will update when it arrives and how it pairs with the cable and HE-500 and all, with pictures. I plan on using the Audio GD NFB 12 as my DAC primarily in this project but will test others.

Very best,

Heya,

Received my new cable today. Hooked her up. Absolutely love it. It's so much lighter than the stock hifiman cables and way more flexible (braid within a sheath). The adapters are just incredibly smart. I can swap to 3.5mm (with 1/4th adapter) for my normal headphone amp(s) and jump straight to speaker taps just by clicking the XLR connections and never have to unscrew the cable from the hifiman (which is one of my least favorite things to do, it's a pain to screw those on / off, I always feel like I'm going to eventually damage them doing it too often). So this is just a great simple and universal way to play around with all sources.

To test it out, I hooked up to my Pioneer and Onkyo receivers just to see if it would blow up or not and make sure everything worked, because the Emotiva Mini isn't here yet, it shipped today, so should be here soon. The Onkyo & Pioneer are rated in the 80wpc and 110wpc ranges respectively. Without getting into too much detail just yet, I have to say, I'm quite impressed with how good the Hifiman is with a simple receiver setup. Kind of makes the "all in one" really stick out as a really cost effective way to power these things. I noticed I didn't have an issue with volume, I had to turn it up to the higher level of listening volumes compared to speakers for the headphones, so definitely not worried about blowing up my headphones so far. I actually like this setup, I have the DAC and equalization and other fun options that AVR's can do with speakers all setup into a great headphone. As for the sound, it's much better than the headphone output of the same AVR. On the speaker taps, there is not a noise floor unless I put the volume up in the high-moderate level range and even then, it's the track, because when I hit pause, it's nearly inaudible. These are entry & mid-level AVR's, not even something "excellent." My Pioneer VSX1121 is a very nice match so far (110wpc). So if anyone wants a really neat way to power a Hifiman, a simple AVR with speaker taps is actually a pretty cool way to go. Sound is excellent. It's not "better" than a good headphone amp setup so far, but it's simple, and a lot more "universal."

I'll update with pictures of everything once the Emotiva amp shows up so I can compare a speaker amp and DAC (NFB12 as DAC) setup, compared to AVR's, and the HE-500's on speaker tap.

So far though, this is absolutely entertaining. The HE-500 definitely can take the energy from speaker oriented amps. It's not scared of them at all. Time to start testing more powerful equipment (as I'm sure the AVR's were outputting way less than their rated wpc).

Very best,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biscuitz 

I'm excited to hear about the Emotiva! I'll be trying the HE-500 soon with the NFB15.1, and if you notice a quality improvement between your NFB12 and the Emotiva, then I may do the same in the future!

Heya,

I already like the sound of the Pioneer VSX1121 with the HE-500 on speaker tap better than my NFB by quite a margin. Real time equalizer built in so I can change up the bass/treble on a dime to match my tastes without worrying about "dark" or "bright" synergy issues. Absolutely great "universal" type setup that sounds like speakers.

Very best,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biscuitz 

Is it because of the functionality of the EQ that you like it better than the NFB? Or because the sonic improvements? (Or both).

What kind of sonic improvements are heard between your Pioneer and NFB?

Heya,

Both really. The NFB12 is not the most lively of amps. It's got a nice DAC in it. But it's amp portion is not the greatest from Audio GD. The Lyr was warmer and meatier. The VSX1121 sounds warmer, sound stage is different, I like it a better, it's not significant, it's subtle. I definitely however like the function of an EQ added that isn't coming from foobar and doesn't require a pre-amp or wired in hardware EQ. The AVR is of course huge unfortunately compared to the NFB12 of course, so it's size is rather cumbersome. I will say though that so far, listening on the VSX1121 compared to the NFB12, the HE-500 does sound more like what I would expect from a good stereo speaker setup with the AVR on speaker tap than it did from the NFB12. But I need a few more days to really get into it and form a better opinion, this is all just preliminary and of course I need to let the idea of the honeymoon "love" wear off from simply liking a new toy that is more fun to use wear out so I can be more objective.

Very best,