fkclo
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2004
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This is a multi-part post due to its length. It is about my own story of the first "all-out" custom amp project.
[size=medium]Intro[/size]
It all started 6 months ago, in June 2009. A casual check on Blue Circle Audio’s headphone amp offerings have turned out to be the first ever custom design project I commissioned. And it turned out to be an educational, fun filled and exciting experience.
[size=medium]Some Background [/size]
Blue Circle is not new to those who are at the high-end of the hi-fi hobby. They have been in the hi-fi business for over 20 years. The founder and chief designer Gilbert Yeung has been gaining a lot of attention by virtue of his unique design and universal praise of his products.
Ultra Audio Archives -- Searching for the Extreme: Gilbert Yeung of Blue Circle Audio -- Part One (7/2008)
Ultra Audio Archives -- Searching for the Extreme: Gilbert Yeung of Blue Circle Audio -- Part Two (8/2008)
For those who have not heard much about this company, you can have a quick glance at their website :
Blue Circle Audio
Browsing through the product offering of Blue Circle, one can easily notice that Blue Circle offers possibly the widest price range of audiophile products in the industry. If you want a US$20,000 power amp ? No problem. Want something even more exotic ? Gilbert will be happy to satisfy your wishes – as long as it is about the sonics, not extravagant case work, and as long as you have a deep enough pocket
. Budget constrained and want to get a no-frills audiophile component ? Blue Circle offers the “Shoe Box” series or even the “Thingee” series which present the some of the best values in hi-fi. It also creates its own line of interconnects, power cables, power conditioners and even surge protectors ! The very unconventional approach of its product line up gas made Blue Circle a class of its own in this industry.
But Blue Circle did not make its name out of its headphone amp offerings. It was not until an accomplished member of Head-Fi, Skylab, did a review of its only headphone amp product at that time – the SBH Headphone Amplifier (which is part of the Shoe Box series) that I started to take notice of what appeared to be a very capable headphone amp from Blue Circle.
For those interested in the review by Skylab, here is the link to the review.
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/rev...ne-amp-248158/
There are other reviews of Blue Circle headphone amp products in this forum and they are just some search away.
[size=medium]The Beginning[/size]
At that time I was already in possession of some of the better amps in this hobby, including the Rudistor RP010B MKII, the Phonitor, my all time favourite Woo Audio 5 ( one can check my profile for a listing of the amps I currently own here My Stuff but I kept wondering what Blue Circle is really capable of in headphone amp design if budget is a lesser constraint and Gilbert is given more free hand in his design. Will Gilbert be able to come up with some hallmark design also in the headphone amp arena ?
So in June 2009 I wrote to Gilbert to inquire about his products. It all started with the Hat Peed Thingee, which I thought is a pretty interesting idea. The Hat Peed Thingee made me think of the “wolf in lamp’s skin”. I always like understated, low key design which is exactly how Blue Circle presents its products. After some warming up and exploring the possibility of customisation the dialogue with Gilbert didn’t take too long to evolve around the possibility of building a custom headphone amp to my own specification. At that time, I was suggesting a “BC” series of headphone amp. Gilbert wrote back and told me he have made several cost-no-object solid state headphone amp that uses SuperCap and solar power for the absolute minimum noise level. But he added that a headphone amp like that will not make its way into the mass market due to insane cost involved. Therefore instead of introducing a flag ship line of headphone amp Gilbert seemed to be scouting for interesting custom projects. To inspire him I started describing my wishes about my dream solid state headphone amp. The same day Gilbert wrote back “It is an interesting project. Give me a few days and I will get back to you on specs. and pricing.” With this reply I just passed the point of no return.
To be continued.....
[size=medium]Intro[/size]
It all started 6 months ago, in June 2009. A casual check on Blue Circle Audio’s headphone amp offerings have turned out to be the first ever custom design project I commissioned. And it turned out to be an educational, fun filled and exciting experience.
[size=medium]Some Background [/size]
Blue Circle is not new to those who are at the high-end of the hi-fi hobby. They have been in the hi-fi business for over 20 years. The founder and chief designer Gilbert Yeung has been gaining a lot of attention by virtue of his unique design and universal praise of his products.
Ultra Audio Archives -- Searching for the Extreme: Gilbert Yeung of Blue Circle Audio -- Part One (7/2008)
Ultra Audio Archives -- Searching for the Extreme: Gilbert Yeung of Blue Circle Audio -- Part Two (8/2008)
For those who have not heard much about this company, you can have a quick glance at their website :
Blue Circle Audio
Browsing through the product offering of Blue Circle, one can easily notice that Blue Circle offers possibly the widest price range of audiophile products in the industry. If you want a US$20,000 power amp ? No problem. Want something even more exotic ? Gilbert will be happy to satisfy your wishes – as long as it is about the sonics, not extravagant case work, and as long as you have a deep enough pocket
But Blue Circle did not make its name out of its headphone amp offerings. It was not until an accomplished member of Head-Fi, Skylab, did a review of its only headphone amp product at that time – the SBH Headphone Amplifier (which is part of the Shoe Box series) that I started to take notice of what appeared to be a very capable headphone amp from Blue Circle.
For those interested in the review by Skylab, here is the link to the review.
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/rev...ne-amp-248158/
There are other reviews of Blue Circle headphone amp products in this forum and they are just some search away.
[size=medium]The Beginning[/size]
At that time I was already in possession of some of the better amps in this hobby, including the Rudistor RP010B MKII, the Phonitor, my all time favourite Woo Audio 5 ( one can check my profile for a listing of the amps I currently own here My Stuff but I kept wondering what Blue Circle is really capable of in headphone amp design if budget is a lesser constraint and Gilbert is given more free hand in his design. Will Gilbert be able to come up with some hallmark design also in the headphone amp arena ?
So in June 2009 I wrote to Gilbert to inquire about his products. It all started with the Hat Peed Thingee, which I thought is a pretty interesting idea. The Hat Peed Thingee made me think of the “wolf in lamp’s skin”. I always like understated, low key design which is exactly how Blue Circle presents its products. After some warming up and exploring the possibility of customisation the dialogue with Gilbert didn’t take too long to evolve around the possibility of building a custom headphone amp to my own specification. At that time, I was suggesting a “BC” series of headphone amp. Gilbert wrote back and told me he have made several cost-no-object solid state headphone amp that uses SuperCap and solar power for the absolute minimum noise level. But he added that a headphone amp like that will not make its way into the mass market due to insane cost involved. Therefore instead of introducing a flag ship line of headphone amp Gilbert seemed to be scouting for interesting custom projects. To inspire him I started describing my wishes about my dream solid state headphone amp. The same day Gilbert wrote back “It is an interesting project. Give me a few days and I will get back to you on specs. and pricing.” With this reply I just passed the point of no return.
To be continued.....