Okay I'm sold on Emotiva (with Quickie) with the HD800 as well. It's better than Crack. There I said it. Koiloco will agree with me that it pairs well with the Emotiva. It's something with our batch. We both bought from Amazon during the special $890 sale and the serial numbers are 25XXX to 26XXX. It's not sibilant at all. Koiloco and I have listened to the same HD800 that belonged to a mutual friend of ours, and we both thought it had sibilance and treble problems, but when we received ours today, those problems were nonexistent. We did some measurements to confirm this. My set peaks at 5.5KHz and then tapers off. Worn for hours now, no fatigue at all. In fact, I get more fatigue from HE-500 and its bass impact. Koiloco said he tried our mutual friend's HD800 with the Emotiva and it sounded horrible, which is a stark contrast to our HD800s we received today paired with the Emotiva.
Seriously wondering if Sennheiser did a recent revision.
One drawback is it seems to have a higher noise floor than HE-500 when paired with Emotiva.
Sonido, these new HD800s we have don't seem to have that obvious treble spike like in our common friend's unit. However, IMO, the Emotiva/HD800 combo is still pretty far from good synergy in comparison to amps such as WA22 and even your crack. Maybe with your chain, use the crack to control the output on the Emotiva to even things out a bit. Emotiva is great for HE500 but I still don't think it will be a good fit for HP such as the HD800.
I do agree with you about the fatigue improvement. My HD800 still sounds "steely" and "lifeless" as I remember from 2 weeks with Jing's but seems to be more tamed across the FR.
Sonido, these new HD800s we have don't seem to have that obvious treble spike like in our common friend's unit. However, IMO, the Emotiva/HD800 combo is still pretty far from good synergy in comparison to amps such as WA22 and even your crack. Maybe with your chain, use the crack to control the output on the Emotiva to even things out a bit. Emotiva is great for HE500 but I still don't think it will be a good fit for HP such as the HD800.
I do agree with you about the fatigue improvement. My HD800 still sounds "steely" and "lifeless" as I remember from 2 weeks with Jing's but seems to be more tamed across the FR.
Sonido, these new HD800s we have don't seem to have that obvious treble spike like in our common friend's unit. However, IMO, the Emotiva/HD800 combo is still pretty far from good synergy in comparison to amps such as WA22 and even your crack. Maybe with your chain, use the crack to control the output on the Emotiva to even things out a bit. Emotiva is great for HE500 but I still don't think it will be a good fit for HP such as the HD800.
I do agree with you about the fatigue improvement. My HD800 still sounds "steely" and "lifeless" as I remember from 2 weeks with Jing's but seems to be more tamed across the FR.
Yeah I didn't spend much time with just Emotiva alone with the HD800. I'll have to do more detailed comparison, but I think through Emotiva and Quickie it sounds better than Crack.
Sonido, these new HD800s we have don't seem to have that obvious treble spike like in our common friend's unit. However, IMO, the Emotiva/HD800 combo is still pretty far from good synergy in comparison to amps such as WA22 and even your crack. Maybe with your chain, use the crack to control the output on the Emotiva to even things out a bit. Emotiva is great for HE500 but I still don't think it will be a good fit for HP such as the HD800.
I do agree with you about the fatigue improvement. My HD800 still sounds "steely" and "lifeless" as I remember from 2 weeks with Jing's but seems to be more tamed across the FR.
When you say lifeless, can you explain? Is it still this way even through the WA22? I felt the HD800 was polite sounding through just my D3 or Crack. By that I mean, you definitely could hear the the technical superiorities like details, but the overall sound wasn't very engaging, especially with rock/pop genres. Vocals were not intimate, and the sounds were almost a bit too clean cut. A visual metaphor I could make would be like a fine arts gallery, where paintings are spread out and the environment is very posh and people there stand from afar to observe, not too close, and it's not crowded. Idk, but that's the vibe it gives off.
Graphically, a metaphor could be a very high res, but no anti-aliased image.
When you say lifeless, can you explain? Is it still this way even through the WA22? I felt the HD800 was polite sounding through just my D3 or Crack. By that I mean, you definitely could hear the the technical superiorities like details, but the overall sound wasn't very engaging, especially with rock/pop genres. Vocals were not intimate, and the sounds were almost a bit too clean cut. A visual metaphor I could make would be like a fine arts gallery, where paintings are spread out and the environment is very posh and people there stand from afar to observe, not too close, and it's not crowded. Idk, but that's the vibe it gives off.
Graphically, a metaphor could be a very high res, but no anti-aliased image.
Yup, you got it 100%. I don't even have to try but still hear every details. The WA22 does warm the HD800 up a bit but the HD800's sound signature is still very injected. I am trying some "softer" driver/power tubes tonite. TS 5998 and ken rad VT231 do wonder for HE500 but seem too mid-focus and pushing out more high/sparkling for HD800. RCA grey class might tame the HD800 a bit more in the high. One thing I would say is that HD800 complement HE500 well.
Also, I start seeing why some people say WA2 could be the better choice for HD800. You don't need a lot of pwr for HD800. Indeed, too much pwr(even 1.5w on the WA22 being a mid centric amp) could push the HD800 out of balance and make its mid a little too forward.
I have had a Trends Audio TA-10.1 on loan for 1-2 weeks. It's built on the Tripath TA2024 and is rated at 10W into 8 ohms (10% THD+N) and 6W into 8 ohms (0.1% THD+N). Even though it is lowpowered I can hear a slight hiss, when no music is playing. It seems that amplifier design says more than mere power, when it comes to 'background noise'.
I have had a Trends Audio TA-10.1 on loan for 1-2 weeks. It's built on the Tripath TA2024 and is rated at 10W into 8 ohms (10% THD+N) and 6W into 8 ohms (0.1% THD+N). Even though it is lowpowered I can hear a slight hiss, when no music is playing. It seems that amplifier design says more than mere power, when it comes to 'background noise'.
Too many details missing to make such a statement. S/N ratio, distortion to power ratio, volume pot control & level, implementation, capacitor choice, and so much more will all play a part.
Gain also has a major impact on the noise floor. If you don't know the default gain of that amp, that is part of the problem. If it is adjustable, you can reduce the noise floor by quite a bit.
I have had a Trends Audio TA-10.1 on loan for 1-2 weeks. It's built on the Tripath TA2024 and is rated at 10W into 8 ohms (10% THD+N) and 6W into 8 ohms (0.1% THD+N). Even though it is lowpowered I can hear a slight hiss, when no music is playing. It seems that amplifier design says more than mere power, when it comes to 'background noise'.
Unplug the source from the TA2024 amp and see if the hiss is still there. I have several TA chip amps and they're all completely silent at full volume with HE500 cans.
I have had a Trends Audio TA-10.1 on loan for 1-2 weeks. It's built on the Tripath TA2024 and is rated at 10W into 8 ohms (10% THD+N) and 6W into 8 ohms (0.1% THD+N). Even though it is lowpowered I can hear a slight hiss, when no music is playing. It seems that amplifier design says more than mere power, when it comes to 'background noise'.
Try it on battery power. It should be dead quiet. I used this amp for quite some time to power desktop speakers, but when you get to its power limits the distortion figures quickly start to look rather ugly. If I had mine still had it around I would have loved to try it with my HE-500s.
Unplug the source from the TA2024 amp and see if the hiss is still there. I have several TA chip amps and they're all completely silent at full volume with HE500 cans.
Too many details missing to make such a statement. S/N ratio, distortion to power ratio, volume pot control & level, implementation, capacitor choice, and so much more will all play a part.
Gain also has a major impact on the noise floor. If you don't know the default gain of that amp, that is part of the problem. If it is adjustable, you can reduce the noise floor by quite a bit.
I was just stating that you can get hiss from a relatively lowpowered speaker amp. Not that the TA2024 itself is noisy. Don't think the TA-10.1 has a gain switch.
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