[hemipowered007]

im sure its been discussed in here, and i apologize for not having the time to rummage through this like i usually would. But i have a few questions. So, I have a vintage re-capped pioneer sx-727 that i want to try speaker taps on with my he-400. I dont want to hack my stock cable up, but i also dont want to pay 150 for a custom cable, as i dont really care what it looks like, it can be ten pieces put together for all i care. So, i keep seeing balanced vs unbalanced on this, wondered why itd have to go balanced. Do i need to go balanced to do this? Either way, whats the cheapest way to do this by putting parts together? And will that screw with the SQ? Can i just go 1/4 inch to xlr, then get xlr to dual rcas and hack the ends off and solder spades on? Sorry, Im not to good with all this stuff, Im trying, but its still fairly new to me. Thanks in advance to the community.

 

[fluidz]

Anybody using a power conditioner with their Emotiva Mini and notice a difference to the dynamics? 

 

[elwappo99]

  im sure its been discussed in here, and i apologize for not having the time to rummage through this like i usually would. But i have a few questions. So, I have a vintage re-capped pioneer sx-727 that i want to try speaker taps on with my he-400. I dont want to hack my stock cable up, but i also dont want to pay 150 for a custom cable, as i dont really care what it looks like, it can be ten pieces put together for all i care. So, i keep seeing balanced vs unbalanced on this, wondered why itd have to go balanced. Do i need to go balanced to do this? Either way, whats the cheapest way to do this by putting parts together? And will that screw with the SQ? Can i just go 1/4 inch to xlr, then get xlr to dual rcas and hack the ends off and solder spades on? Sorry, Im not to good with all this stuff, Im trying, but its still fairly new to me. Thanks in advance to the community.

 
 
Hey there you fellow vintage power user! 
 
The best deal for you is to use the headphone out on the receiver. The headphone out is speaker taps with a resistor in line with them. 

 

[hemipowered007]

Hey there you fellow vintage power user! 

The best deal for you is to use the headphone out on the receiver. The headphone out is speaker taps with a resistor in line with them. 

I've been using the headphone out, I just have heard that speaker taps are a better route. Would I not see much improvment from taps?

 

[fluidz]

Not sure what's going on with my Emotiva mini - touching the volume pot with my hand produces a static sound, which can be heard through the HE-500's or speakers via the rear taps. If I touch the volume pot only with my fingernail, it makes a sharp crackly popping sound.

If I put my one hand on the volume pot to produce the static, and put my other hand underneath the amp, so both hands are connected to the amp, the static stops.

I've tried placing the amp on different surfaces (wood, ceramic), disconnected all sources, changed the wall plug and connected it to different outlets in my house - to no avail.

Suggestions please?

 

[Nimzerz]

im sure its been discussed in here, and i apologize for not having the time to rummage through this like i usually would. But i have a few questions. So, I have a vintage re-capped pioneer sx-727 that i want to try speaker taps on with my he-400. I dont want to hack my stock cable up, but i also dont want to pay 150 for a custom cable, as i dont really care what it looks like, it can be ten pieces put together for all i care. So, i keep seeing balanced vs unbalanced on this, wondered why itd have to go balanced. Do i need to go balanced to do this? Either way, whats the cheapest way to do this by putting parts together? And will that screw with the SQ? Can i just go 1/4 inch to xlr, then get xlr to dual rcas and hack the ends off and solder spades on? Sorry, Im not to good with all this stuff, Im trying, but its still fairly new to me. Thanks in advance to the community.

You must first check for a common ground. If the amp has a common ground, then it's safe to go from 1/4" to banana plugs using an adapter. To do this, check for continuity between the two negatives on the amp. If there is, then congrats haha.

 

[khaine1711]

I've been using the headphone out, I just have heard that speaker taps are a better route. Would I not see much improvment from taps?

 
If you're using orthodynamics - probably little to no improvement at all.

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,
 
How about a nearly 1 year update...
 
Just an update on further modifications to my HE500 that I've had done. And a few better images of the other headphones that I've had permanently recabled as well. Everything now has detachable locking mini-XLR terminations, or ear-rings, and terminates to normal 4 pin XLR for use with speaker taps or with any adapter I choose. Completely universal. All being driven with the Emotiva at this point (the Denon D5000 uses the 500ohm resistor adapter of course). No more hifiman terminals (hate those things, they screw on, and are too easy to bust/mess up if you change the cable often).
 
Brian at BTG Audio did all my work, including converting the Hifiman to mini-XLR instead of the Hifiman terminals.
 

 
 
DT770 premium 600ohm.
 

 
 
Denon D5000
 

 
 
 
 
As for an update on the Emotiva itself. It's still holding up very strong, no thermal issues, it has gone through a move to another house, survived every bump so far and all the abuse I put on it.
 
We are getting close to the one year mark on this thread by the way. So my update is based on literally a year of use of the Emotiva as a speaker amp for all these headphones. My basic update at this point, is that I've tried using some of my other amplifiers, including my tube amps for some of these, and at the end of the day, I'm always back on the Emotiva. It literally sounds cleaner, crisper, blacker, and has more meat and the sound stage is just better to my ears. One year later, still no hiss or hum on any of my headphones (caveat, my Denon uses a 500ohm resistor adapter). The knob is still nice and tight, it has not loosened up. A year later, the Emotiva sounds pretty much the same as my poor faulty memory remembers from pretty much the first day of having it. I have not noticed any significant changes in any of the frequency spectrum from the Emotiva. Also the use of the 500ohm resistor has not caused any weird anomalies or damage that I can tell so far, a year later to the amplifier.
 
Also, I have run some bookshelf speakers with the Emotiva, and it really pumps out the juice. It finally gets hot when pushing speakers at high volume. I've never even felt it get warm hardly with headphones. Speakers sound superb on this amplifier. So double-duty is golden. I was mainly testing some entry speakers for fun, like Polk Monitor 40's, 50's and even tried the 70's that I have, did well even on the 70's, but 50 watts is a limiting factor when you get that many large woofers in one cabinet. Regardless, this amp is still pushing strong.
 
Very best,

 

[koiloco]

Heya,

How about a nearly 1 year update...

Just an update on further modifications to my HE500 that I've had done. And a few better images of the other headphones that I've had permanently recabled as well. Everything now has detachable locking mini-XLR terminations, or ear-rings, and terminates to normal 4 pin XLR for use with speaker taps or with any adapter I choose. Completely universal. All being driven with the Emotiva at this point (the Denon D5000 uses the 500ohm resistor adapter of course). No more hifiman terminals (hate those things, they screw on, and are too easy to bust/mess up if you change the cable often).

Brian at BTG Audio did all my work, including converting the Hifiman to mini-XLR instead of the Hifiman terminals.








DT770 premium 600ohm.







Denon D5000









As for an update on the Emotiva itself. It's still holding up very strong, no thermal issues, it has gone through a move to another house, survived every bump so far and all the abuse I put on it.

We are getting close to the one year mark on this thread by the way. So my update is based on literally a year of use of the Emotiva as a speaker amp for all these headphones. My basic update at this point, is that I've tried using some of my other amplifiers, including my tube amps for some of these, and at the end of the day, I'm always back on the Emotiva. It literally sounds cleaner, crisper, blacker, and has more meat and the sound stage is just better to my ears. One year later, still no hiss or hum on any of my headphones (caveat, my Denon uses a 500ohm resistor adapter). The knob is still nice and tight, it has not loosened up. A year later, the Emotiva sounds pretty much the same as my poor faulty memory remembers from pretty much the first day of having it. I have not noticed any significant changes in any of the frequency spectrum from the Emotiva. Also the use of the 500ohm resistor has not caused any weird anomalies or damage that I can tell so far, a year later to the amplifier.

Also, I have run some bookshelf speakers with the Emotiva, and it really pumps out the juice. It finally gets hot when pushing speakers at high volume. I've never even felt it get warm hardly with headphones. Speakers sound superb on this amplifier. So double-duty is golden. I was mainly testing some entry speakers for fun, like Polk Monitor 40's, 50's and even tried the 70's that I have, did well even on the 70's, but 50 watts is a limiting factor when you get that many large woofers in one cabinet. Regardless, this amp is still pushing strong.

Very best,

Though, I haven't owned the emotiva as long as you but I share 100% of your experience. Even after my recent purchase of the taboo mkIII, the emotiva still holds up nicely as far as SQ. Btw, nice cable/connector work there.

 

[daerron]

Thanks for the update and very nice work on those connectors! I'm also going to go the adapter route with my inbound toxic cable, though I'll stick with the standard headphone connectors.
 
I'm still enjoying my Emotiva quite a bit, but it does take a rather large chunk of real estate on my desk, so thinking about replacing it with something more compact, but worried that it will be a downgrade! The Mini-X is a great buy at the price. Only thing I could find that made that Emotiva amp sweat so far was a pair of Magnepan MG12s! 

 Easily get volume out of the amp, but the bass is quite subdued. They are great with my B&W CM1 speakers though!

 

[ninjapirate9901]

  Heya,
 
How about a nearly 1 year update...
 
Just an update on further modifications to my HE500 that I've had done. And a few better images of the other headphones that I've had permanently recabled as well. Everything now has detachable locking mini-XLR terminations, or ear-rings, and terminates to normal 4 pin XLR for use with speaker taps or with any adapter I choose. Completely universal. All being driven with the Emotiva at this point (the Denon D5000 uses the 500ohm resistor adapter of course). No more hifiman terminals (hate those things, they screw on, and are too easy to bust/mess up if you change the cable often).
 
Brian at BTG Audio did all my work, including converting the Hifiman to mini-XLR instead of the Hifiman terminals.
 
 
 
 
DT770 premium 600ohm.
 
 
 
 
Denon D5000
 
 
 
 
 
 
As for an update on the Emotiva itself. It's still holding up very strong, no thermal issues, it has gone through a move to another house, survived every bump so far and all the abuse I put on it.
 
We are getting close to the one year mark on this thread by the way. So my update is based on literally a year of use of the Emotiva as a speaker amp for all these headphones. My basic update at this point, is that I've tried using some of my other amplifiers, including my tube amps for some of these, and at the end of the day, I'm always back on the Emotiva. It literally sounds cleaner, crisper, blacker, and has more meat and the sound stage is just better to my ears. One year later, still no hiss or hum on any of my headphones (caveat, my Denon uses a 500ohm resistor adapter). The knob is still nice and tight, it has not loosened up. A year later, the Emotiva sounds pretty much the same as my poor faulty memory remembers from pretty much the first day of having it. I have not noticed any significant changes in any of the frequency spectrum from the Emotiva. Also the use of the 500ohm resistor has not caused any weird anomalies or damage that I can tell so far, a year later to the amplifier.
 
Also, I have run some bookshelf speakers with the Emotiva, and it really pumps out the juice. It finally gets hot when pushing speakers at high volume. I've never even felt it get warm hardly with headphones. Speakers sound superb on this amplifier. So double-duty is golden. I was mainly testing some entry speakers for fun, like Polk Monitor 40's, 50's and even tried the 70's that I have, did well even on the 70's, but 50 watts is a limiting factor when you get that many large woofers in one cabinet. Regardless, this amp is still pushing strong.
 
Very best,

 
Oooh, that mini XLR re-termination would be pretty handy. The stock HiFiMan connectors are just plain garbage.

 

[M-13]

Heya
 
Thanks for the update, and thanks for starting this thread. With out it I might have never discovered the magic of the Emotiva. I'm loving mine. 4+ months of ownership with hundreds of hours. Still drives both my planars to insane greatness without hiss or any kind of problem. No attenuators, hooked directly up to the taps. I get plenty of volume pot play because my Concero does 1.2V. I listen anywhere between 9~11 a clock and sometimes even 12 for classical recordings. This is as much play I had with the Lyr and also the E09K. The build quality is top notch and I'm even finding the aesthetics more pleasing as my eyes have gotten used to it.
 
Thanks for the update and the great photos. I should have Brian redo my connectors as well. He's done both my cables for the HE-500/LCD-2, and the banana plugs to XLR for the Emotiva. Only the RCAs/USB cable is not his.
 
The very best
 
-M-13.

 

[Nimzerz]

Oooh, that mini XLR re-termination would be pretty handy. The stock HiFiMan connectors are just plain garbage.

Everyone says these connectors are garbage, but I don't really see what's so wrong with them. Is it that they will break easily? Or that they aren't as universal with cables as LCD-2 etc because they don't end in a mini-xlr?

 

[Zoom25]

Everyone says these connectors are garbage, but I don't really see what's so wrong with them. Is it that they will break easily? Or that they aren't as universal with cables as LCD-2 etc because they don't end in a mini-xlr?

 
For one, the cable gets loose overtime. Especially hated this with the stock cable connection. The Audeze connectors actually click and lock in place. More secure connection and no annoyance due to cable getting loosed. 

 

[koiloco]

For one, the cable gets loose overtime. Especially hated this with the stock cable connection. The Audeze connectors actually click and lock in place. More secure connection and no annoyance due to cable getting loosed. 

Get loose overtime??? My stock connectors don't even move since I had them in. After sleeving it and converting the plug to 4 pin Xlr, I don't see anything wrong with it. And yes, I m not one who believes in cable magic as long as they are functional and meets my realistic expectation of comfort.