[Maxx134]

Maxx,

You surely realised that you will have to put those "my precious" tall resistors just below your huge Mundorf caps ... didn't you ...

Good luck with that ! :veryevil:  


And you chose the "naked" version, on top of that ... that would have been too easy otherwise ! 

Looks like opposite happened...
they seem very small!

"My precious"

 

[SonicTrance]

  I loved my MKIVSE too, and the person I sold it to was blown away as well. That was when I had my ATH-AD2000's which I believe the W1000X is a great upgrade for! I'll be interested to know what you think of the Mullards.

 
 

  Congratulations!!! That's awesome that you are blown away.

 
Those Psvane UK-6SN7 are truly a bargain for the SQ that you are getting.
 
I am also eagerly waiting for your impression on Mullard 6080.

Thanks!
I'm really enjoying this new amp the more I listen to it

 I'll re-terminate my HE-400i tonight. Very curious to hear them balanced as well.  

 

[SonicTrance]

  I now got my mkvi+ up and running! I'd like to give you my first impressions.
 
First a few negatives:
I get noise from the SE output (like almost everyone else it seems)
The stock fans was VERY loud, replaced them asap with some Noctuas, dead quiet now.
 
Other than that it's an amazing upgrade from the mkivse (I'm keeping that too though). I re-terminated my W1000X today and OMG what a difference it made. They sound amazing balanced! I'm using the LD Dac_1 as source btw. Soundstage is much bigger and separation much clearer. I thought these cans sounded good before, but now I'm blown away!
I'm currently running 6H5C's as powers and Psvane uk-6SN7 as drivers. Got some Mullard 6080's and Psvane Treasures on the way though.
 
Running the mkvi+ in SE mode and try to ignore the noise, it's on par with my modded mkivse in sound quality. I'm never using that SE output again though

Little update:
Just tried my HE-400i using the SE port (haven't re-terminated them yet) and they are dead quiet! The more sensitive W1000X had horrible noise from the SE output. Now I can do a more real comparison with these, balanced vs SE, since there's no noise.

 

[Poladise]

If you can run your fans from an external supply, the single ended hum goes away.

 

[levinhatz]

Has anyone here tried the Audeze LCD-X with the Little Dot MKVI+?
 
I have to imagine they work nicely together, since the LD is so great for the LCD-2, but the X does have its differences.

 

[coinmaster]

I just switched from SE to balanced and holy balls it sounds great. For the first time ever I have an involuntary smile on my face while wearing the HD800s!. I was expecting a change but not like this. It sounds like I have entirely different headphones on! There's actually...SOUL!!! HUMANITY!! in my HD800s!! Yaaaaaaaaay for once I can be happy with my headphones!!!!!!
It sounds less believably realistic, and it has some issues with the bass and some other things I have yet to put my finger on, but it doesn't even matter because it's oozing euphony. My ears are in some kind of heaven.
 
There's a small buzzing in the left channel meaning I messed up on the soldering somewhere, that's going to be a p.i.t.a. to troubleshoot.
 
I realized that the solder is the last part in the connection to the headphones meaning it's the limiting factor. Solder is made of materials that are not as conductive as the wire. Kind of puts into question my faith in the possibility that cables can make a difference so I might just stick with these canare cables.
 
I started to give up on everything, wasn't planning on doing the capacitor upgrade or any others. I couldn't tell the difference between my unbalanced $100 dac and my balanced $800 dac and the amp, while clearly better than the o2 I have did not sound THAT much better and it did not give my HD800s a soul.
After using balanced connections it sounds like night and day.
My faith has been restored in my investment and the power of quality equipment.
Seems like that capacitor upgrade will be worth my time after all

 
Edit: If you're still using this amp through the SE output, stop now. After comparing the two more closely it's obvious that the SE is trash compared to the balanced output.
Edit#2: Holy balls it sounds good.
Edit#3: Dumping my girlfriend, don't need her anymore.

 

[SonicTrance]

I just switched from SE to balanced and holy balls it sounds great. For the first time ever I have an involuntary smile on my face while wearing the HD800s!. I was expecting a change but not like this. It sounds like I have entirely different headphones on! There's actually...SOUL!!! HUMANITY!! in my HD800s!! Yaaaaaaaaay for once I can be happy with my headphones!!!!!!
It sounds less believably realistic, and it has some issues with the bass and some other things I have yet to put my finger on, but it doesn't even matter because it's oozing euphony. My ears are in some kind of heaven.

There's a small buzzing in the left channel meaning I messed up on the soldering somewhere, that's going to be a p.i.t.a. to troubleshoot.

I realized that the solder is the last part in the connection to the headphones meaning it's the limiting factor. Solder is made of materials that are not as conductive as the wire. Kind of puts into question my faith in the possibility that cables can make a difference so I might just stick with these canare cables.

I started to give up on everything, wasn't planning on doing the capacitor upgrade or any others. I couldn't tell the difference between my unbalanced $100 dac and my balanced $800 dac and the amp, while clearly better than the o2 I have did not sound THAT much better and it did not give my HD800s a soul.
After using balanced connections it sounds like night and day.
My faith has been restored in my investment and the power of quality equipment.
Seems like that capacitor upgrade will be worth my time after all :bigsmile_face:

Edit: If you're still using this amp through the SE output, stop now. After comparing the two more closely it's obvious that the SE is trash compared to the balanced output.
Edit#2: Holy balls it sounds good.
Edit#3: Dumping my girlfriend, don't need her anymore.

Yep, it's true night and day difference between SE and balanced. I'm just as happy with mine as you are with yours

 

[SoundEngineer]

  I just switched from SE to balanced and holy balls it sounds great. For the first time ever I have an involuntary smile on my face while wearing the HD800s!. I was expecting a change but not like this. It sounds like I have entirely different headphones on! There's actually...SOUL!!! HUMANITY!! in my HD800s!! Yaaaaaaaaay for once I can be happy with my headphones!!!!!!
It sounds less believably realistic, and it has some issues with the bass and some other things I have yet to put my finger on, but it doesn't even matter because it's oozing euphony. My ears are in some kind of heaven.
 
There's a small buzzing in the left channel meaning I messed up on the soldering somewhere, that's going to be a p.i.t.a. to troubleshoot.
 
I realized that the solder is the last part in the connection to the headphones meaning it's the limiting factor. Solder is made of materials that are not as conductive as the wire. Kind of puts into question my faith in the possibility that cables can make a difference so I might just stick with these canare cables.
 
I started to give up on everything, wasn't planning on doing the capacitor upgrade or any others. I couldn't tell the difference between my unbalanced $100 dac and my balanced $800 dac and the amp, while clearly better than the o2 I have did not sound THAT much better and it did not give my HD800s a soul.
After using balanced connections it sounds like night and day.
My faith has been restored in my investment and the power of quality equipment.
Seems like that capacitor upgrade will be worth my time after all

 
Edit: If you're still using this amp through the SE output, stop now. After comparing the two more closely it's obvious that the SE is trash compared to the balanced output.
Edit#2: Holy balls it sounds good.
Edit#3: Dumping my girlfriend, don't need her anymore.

Congratulations!!  Sounds like your ears healed already.  I would still go easy with the volume for awhile.

 
I disconnected my SE internally because I don't use SE at all.
 
If you are happy with Canare star quads...you gotta try Mogami 2534!  This cable is specifically designed for extended high frequency.  Studios and live sound engineers use this cable when running long cable distance and don't want to lose any HF.  I changed out all my headphone cables from Canare starquads to Mogami 2534 (use double cabling 2L+2L- x 2R+2R-).  The difference is very very drastic.  I am planning to change all my internal cables of LDMKVI+ to Mogami.
 
The small buzzing noise could be from the tube.  Try trouble shooting by moving x2 power tubes x1 driver tube from the left channel to the right channel and see if the buzzing noise goes away from left but is on the right.  It might not be the cable.  Try trouble shooting with easy stuff first.  IMO, 9 out of 10 small buzzing noise typically comes from the power tube.

 

[coinmaster]

My ear isn't healed yet. I just suffered through it because it sounded so good

. I think I might be in the green within a few weeks though,
As for the cable, if you really believe cables can make a difference that much why don't you try out http://www.ebay.com/itm/24AWG-7N-PURE-CRYO-TREATED-UPOCC-COPPER-TYPE-6-LITZ-CUSTOM-WIRE-PER-FEET-pS-/271825235348? and let us know how it sounds

. That's about the best quality copper wire you can buy anywhere.
Technically speaking this mogami/canare stuff is junk in comparison..
Besides.....soldering and putting together hd800 connectors is a nightmare, not something I look forward to ever doing again.

 

[SoundEngineer]

  My ear isn't healed yet. I just suffered through it because it sounded so good

. I think I might be in the green within a few weeks though,
As for the cable, if you really believe cables can make a difference that much why don't you try out http://www.ebay.com/itm/24AWG-7N-PURE-CRYO-TREATED-UPOCC-COPPER-TYPE-6-LITZ-CUSTOM-WIRE-PER-FEET-pS-/271825235348? and let us know how it sounds

. That's about the best quality copper wire you can buy anywhere.
Technically speaking this mogami/canare stuff is junk in comparison..
Besides.....soldering and putting together hd800 connectors is a nightmare, not something I look forward to ever doing again.

I was thinking about those cryo treated occ cables but they are way out of my price range for cable upgrade.  I wouldn't call Mogami a junk unless you have tried them yourself.  I have not tried the cryo treated copper yet so I can't compare them to mogami.  I would still not call mogami junk even if there is a drastic difference between cryo occ and mogami.  I don't think you can get any cables better than Mogamis at the price range.  For a budget cable...you can't beat it.  If price wasn't an object...Yes, I would give those cryo occ a try.
 
Anyways...good to hear that you are able enjoy your amp now with the balanced connection.  Have you trouble shoot the buzzing noise by changing position of the tubes?

 

[coinmaster]

Both canare and mogami are low purity ofc copper. The one I listed is 7n occ copper.
Cryo aside, 7n is the best purity possible unless you are NASA. and occ is greatly superior to ofc. Plus type 6 litz is the best litz configuration there is for negating skin effect among other things. So technically speaking, canara and mogami are junk in comparison.
 
As for the buzzing. I think it was some sort of ground loop, it's gone now. I rearranged my room and redid all the cables so I must have had something plugged in to another outlet before that I shouldn't have.
My ear is not happy today, It's killing me to say it but I have to wait about a week before I even attempt using my headphones again

.
I'm still waiting on my driver tubes to arrive anyway, still using stock. The post office has spent the last week and a half ping ponging it to every state surrounding connecticut except connecticut where I am, Sometimes I wonder.....

 

[Maxx134]

This is good info on wires and after 3X failure of my connectors I decided to wire st8 into hd800 and it is not hard if you check the hd800 mod threads there is a link to Purrin site which shows how..
The HD800 is a perfect match for these LDMK6&8 amps...

They are also great to mod and upgrade as me & "SoundEngineer" are doing.
I would also like to thank all those who PMed me with modding tips and suggestions as I plan to do as a project

 

[coinmaster]

3 failures. Ouch. You musta been doing something wrong

. If you tin the connections first it's easy peasy to solder as long as you have a clamp and a solder remover if u mess up.
My main problem was putting the connectors together after they were soldered. Plus it just took ages to do everything cuz I had cheap equipment and a ghetto continuity tester.

 

[Maxx134]

It was the tension on the wire that the heatshrik tube did not support fully,
plus the stupid tiny micro pins are rediculous to solder any decent guage wire to..

I had to strip down to 2 strands it was just incredibly rediculous to even make such a stupid ars connector!

I will have my tube goodness now flowing straight into the driver terminals..
soon..

 

[coinmaster]

Yeah, I just made a big gob of solder on the wire and the pin and then heated them together. You can't really use a thin tin.
Just got my driver tubes today, so my set up is complete other than circuitry upgrades. The new driver tubes aren't burned in yet but what I can say is that they seem to sacrifice a bit of euphony for speed/clarity/imaging/soundstage/punchiness/holographic sound.
My ears are still in gaga land but I don't feel that high like I'm having an eargasm like before, at least not to them same extent. However the increase in overall sound quality and sound capability is...stunning to say the least. This is the kind of sound I have been looking for all these years. Hopefully with some burn in it will sound even better. The money was so worth it now

.