[FiJAAS]

Stretch a little and go open, grab the hd600 or 650's. Stretch a little more and stay closed and take advantage of the mr speakers sale on the alpha dogs or alpha primes.

Or the EL8s

Thanks, I was interested in the 1350 for the portability and would purchase a full sized can for home use. I'll look into the 600, 650 and the EL-8.

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

Thanks, I was interested in the 1350 for the portability and would purchase a full sized can for home use. I'll look into the 600, 650 and the EL-8.

I ran 1350's from my Duet single ended.  Nice sound but found a good quality IEM i.e. Westone 4R with balanced cable sounds far better.   Regarding larger headphones try and go balanced to get the best out of the Duet.   HD650's & LCD2's V2 nice although a bit dark.  The HD800's sound great through the Duet.  

 

[FiJAAS]

I ran 1350's from my Duet single ended.  Nice sound but found a good quality IEM i.e. Westone 4R with balanced cable sounds far better.   Regarding larger headphones try and go balanced to get the best out of the Duet.   HD650's & LCD2's V2 nice although a bit dark.  The HD800's sound great through the Duet.  

I'm not really a fan of iems, I prefer on or over the ear. I'm thinking the HD650 will complete my needs, the HD800 are a little pricey for me.

How is the bass on the HD650? I listen to a lot of music that requires a good thumping.

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

I'm not really a fan of iems, I prefer on or over the ear. I'm thinking the HD650 will complete my needs, the HD800 are a little pricey for me.

How is the bass on the HD650? I listen to a lot of music that requires a good thumping.

Bass is good on the HD650's if the recording has it of course.  The HD650's are far superior to the 1350's in all accounts (music and comfort) and you may find yourself trying to find opportunities to use them instead of the 1350's.  
 
One issue I had with the 1350's was comfort as they sit on the ears not over them or in them.  The other is to have them modified for a balanced cable.  I think there are better headphones out there for the Duet.  I prefer my WR4's to the 1350's for comfort, lightness, portability and sound. 
 
Make sure any headphone you connect to the Duet is balanced as some headphones with high impedances are far superior balanced than single ended across all the sound frequencies.  

 

[Skyfall]

I was wondering if there's anyone own both Intruder and Duets and how they compare. A brief impression mentioned at Headfonia : " even compare to Intruder Duets feels like a breath of fresh air "

 

[racer11]

the chips look outdated and i doubt they can rival newer models from competitors. 

 

[AnakChan]

Actually choice of chips play a little part of the whole story. Design behind the chips play s big part.

 

[Skyfall]

I've been enjoying Intruder and I think it is such a fantastic portable amp when using balance with AK120II.
I also own Rx3+ and I want to know if if Duets will be an upgrade or just a different flavor.

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

I've been enjoying Intruder and I think it is such a fantastic portable amp when using balance with AK120II.
I also own Rx3+ and I want to know if if Duets will be an upgrade or just a different flavor.

I have the Rx3 and Duet and for high impedance headphones (110ohm + )  Duet is a better amp.   For low to medium impedance headphones there isn't a lot of difference except the Rx3 can give a bit more bass with the additional bass gain knob.

 

[refault]

 
I have the Rx3 and Duet and for high impedance headphones (110ohm + )  Duet is a better amp.   For low to medium impedance headphones there isn't a lot of difference except the Rx3 can give a bit more bass with the additional bass gain knob.

I agree with this... when combined with the Sennheiser HD650s (balanced), I find the ALO Rx Mk3-B+ to sound a little distant, with mediocre soundstaging and imaging, being overall a generally boring sound-signature (with or without the bass-gain knob turned on.) However, when listening to the HD650s out of my Duet, the soundstage and imaging become quite impressive and expansive, making the overall sound-signature of the HD650+Duet pair quite fun to listen to.
 
With lower impedance IEMs like the Sennheiser IE800, the Rx Mk3-B+ does have a noticable background hiss, but I found the sound-signature to be a little more enjoyable than the Duet, although the Duet beats the Rx Mk3-B+ in terms of detail retrieval and imaging to a slight extent, probably stemming from the Rx Mk3-B+'s high noise-floor with lower impedance, high-sensitivity IEMs. Generally, however, I've been using my Duet a lot more than the Rx Mk3-B+ these days, both with my IEMs (the lack of background hiss/raised noise-floor is nice) and higher impedance headphones (e.g., Sennheiser HD650.)

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

 
I agree with this... when combined with the Sennheiser HD650s (balanced), I find the ALO Rx Mk3-B+ to sound a little distant, with mediocre soundstaging and imaging, being overall a generally boring sound-signature (with or without the bass-gain knob turned on.) However, when listening to the HD650s out of my Duet, the soundstage and imaging become quite impressive and expansive, making the overall sound-signature of the HD650+Duet pair quite fun to listen to.
 
With lower impedance IEMs like the Sennheiser IE800, the Rx Mk3-B+ does have a noticable background hiss, but I found the sound-signature to be a little more enjoyable than the Duet, although the Duet beats the Rx Mk3-B+ in terms of detail retrieval and imaging to a slight extent, probably stemming from the Rx Mk3-B+'s high noise-floor with lower impedance, high-sensitivity IEMs. Generally, however, I've been using my Duet a lot more than the Rx Mk3-B+ these days, both with my IEMs (the lack of background hiss/raised noise-floor is nice) and higher impedance headphones (e.g., Sennheiser HD650.)

++A 

 

[Skyfall]

Thanks guys.
The way you describe it sounds like Intruder should be on par with Duet with it's black background and super low noise floor.
However, Rx3+ has a bit wider sound stage than Intruder though.
Trio might be fun to have.

 

[Superpong]

Hi

I just got Duet and wonder how it detects balanced and unbalanced input signal.
I use AK100II and have unbalanced (3.5mm) and balanced (ALO/RSA) headphone.

I will buy 2.5mm balanced to RSA/ALO cable for Duet but I'm curious how or will Duet work efficiently in following scenarios?

Unbalanced input -> Unbalanced headphone
Unbalanced input -> Balanced headphone
Balanced input -> Unbalanced headphone

Does Duet utilize all channels (R+,R-,L+,L-) in its circuit?

 

[PCWar]

Just an up for this wonderful amp. It had kept me company longer than all my other amps for a reason.

 

[cscales]

Hi All. I was looking for a possibly more appropriate thread to post this, but decided it was best to ask CL fans. I have an HD800 coming and have settled on CL for amping. I see Picollo, Duet and Theorem as the top 3 choices. Any thoughts? Due to compatibility issues with my Samsung Tab S, the dac in the Theorem may be irrelevent for my purposes, and I would use it purely as an amp. Anyone care to chime in with a vote? They all appear to have enough juice to drive the 800s, correct? Thanks in advance!