[AppleheadMay]

I have never heard of Yamamoto.  Interesting amps.  
 
Yeah, I know there are plenty of recommended amps.  I am just frustrated.  I know what I want, it is just hard to find it.  When I listen for a long time, I like to turn the volume down.  I hate hearing the amps hum, the background noise, etc.  But, get something quiet and you cannot drive some headphones well.  I just want a tube amp that drives everything well, with no background noise.
 
Edit:  Judging from the specs, these headphones are pretty sensitive.  I will know for sure sometime this week.

 
The Yammy is certainly not too loud too quick, rather the opposite. I haven't got any hum with it as well. Standard tubes with Herbie's dampers. 
No hum on my Luxman amp or Luxman dac as well. A bit louder a bit quicker than with the Yammy though.
Sounds really good with the HA5000, same comments as the Luxman.
For the Zana, I haven't got it yet, waiting for craig to finish it, so better check MuppetFace's answer.
 
 
Quote:

 

The Zana Deux SE is one of the quietest tube amps I've ever used. The designer uses Audio-Technica headphones to check for background noise levels, so there's absolutely no hum with it.
 

 
This answer thus.
MuppetFace, good with the HP-P1 as well? Nice! I hope mine finally comes in this week.
 


Quote:

 

Heh, I'm 182cm and I weigh the exact same actually. = ) So must be my head. And trust me, inside's even worse! xD

Join the club!  

 
 
 

 

[pyramid6]

Quote:

 

The Zana Deux SE is one of the quietest tube amps I've ever used. The designer uses Audio-Technica headphones to check for background noise levels, so there's absolutely no hum with it.
 

Don't say that.  I always wanted a Zana Deux.  It was one of the first amps I saw on here.  
 
 
I have a new power condition, I Herbie tube dampers.  Two sets of "quiet" power tubes.  I still hear noise with the source unplugged and the volume off.  There is one more set of power tubes I may try before I give up.
 
I'm going to wait until get the W3000ANV before I do anything else.  
 
 

 

[purrin]

Quote:

Don't say that.  I always wanted a Zana Deux.  It was one of the first amps I saw on here.  
 
 
I have a new power condition, I Herbie tube dampers.  Two sets of "quiet" power tubes.  I still hear noise with the source unplugged and the volume off.  There is one more set of power tubes I may try before I give up.
 
I'm going to wait until get the W3000ANV before I do anything else.  

You should get one! But be sure you like the Eddie Current sound (tubes but solid state sounding and very resolving.) Those who like the pre-conceived "tubey" sound need not apply. A less expensive option in the future would be the Super 7 which will resume production later in the year at $1800.
 
All the EC stuff sounds the same with better levels of refinement and detail extraction as you move up the ladder. The current production tube amps can out-resolve the best of the ATs with a good source; and most importantly, as MF indicated, they are quiet and will work with highly sensitive headphones such the ATs. (There were some crazy folks at the recent SF meet trying IEMs out of my BA.) The other nice thing is that AT 'phones are very responsive to tube rolling.

 

[AppleheadMay]

Quote:

Don't say that.  I always wanted a Zana Deux.  It was one of the first amps I saw on here.  
 
 
I have a new power condition, I Herbie tube dampers.  Two sets of "quiet" power tubes.  I still hear noise with the source unplugged and the volume off.  There is one more set of power tubes I may try before I give up.
 
I'm going to wait until get the W3000ANV before I do anything else.  
 
 

What tube amp are you using?
I remember the SQ-N100 not being completely quiet as well and I'm rather sensitive to that as well.
Had it with the phones out of a Dac as well once.
 
One thing you might want to try is to use a resistor adapter. (like a 1/4 to 1/8 adapter but it attenuates a bit and decreases hiss and hum.)
Thay are available in 1/4 to 1/4, 1/4 to 1/8 and 1/8 to 1/8.
Most add 75 ohme resistance but some DIYers can make them with more or less resistance.
Anyway, might be a temproray solution untill the Zana you will order comes in.  
 
EDIT: did you try it with another source? The source can pass on the hum to the amp as well.
 

 

[tehmom]

Hey there everyone.  I've been lurking and learning which has led to my pairing and enjoying W3000ANV with Yamamoto.  Thank you all for sharing your experiences.
 
I was thinking about getting Zana Deux, but saw the Equilibrato in the for sale section.  It's more versatile and supposed to sound close to BA.  Is this a good buy?

 

[purrin]

 
Quote:

Hey there everyone.  I've been lurking and learning which has led to my pairing and enjoying W3000ANV with Yamamoto.  Thank you all for sharing your experiences.
 
I was thinking about getting Zana Deux, but saw the Equilibrato in the for sale section.  It's more versatile and supposed to sound close to BA.  Is this a good buy?

Yes. As the owner stated, there's room for improvement. The only downside is the 300B tubes which can be expensive and sound very different from each other, e.g. the Chinese TJ's that come with the amp sound totally different from EML's. Also most 300Bs are kind of "meh." The ZD makes things really simple because there aren't that many options with the output tubes, i.e. you basically don't have to worry about it.
 

 

[AppleheadMay]

Is it just me or do the L3000s indeed have quite a nice nice soundsatge?
Damn these phones are good with any kind of rock.
 
I know, I should start listening to my W3000s more.
Not that easy with the L3000s around and having a sudden urge to hear your teenie years music again.
Bought me about 12 old hardrock CD's from Amazon last week.  

 

[pyramid6]

Quote:

What tube amp are you using?
I remember the SQ-N100 not being completely quiet as well and I'm rather sensitive to that as well.
Had it with the phones out of a Dac as well once.
 
One thing you might want to try is to use a resistor adapter. (like a 1/4 to 1/8 adapter but it attenuates a bit and decreases hiss and hum.)
Thay are available in 1/4 to 1/4, 1/4 to 1/8 and 1/8 to 1/8.
Most add 75 ohme resistance but some DIYers can make them with more or less resistance.
Anyway, might be a temproray solution untill the Zana you will order comes in.  
 
EDIT: did you try it with another source? The source can pass on the hum to the amp as well.
 

 
I've used WA6, Corvina, and WA22.  All had some noise or transformer hum on all of them.  Even my Corda Concerto started to hum and the CSP-2 is too loud.  I've really tried to cut the noise down on the WA22.  It's a nice amp and I love Woo's build quality.
 
I've unplugged the source and can still hear sound.  The power tubes on the WA22 are notorious for having microphonics.  I know it is really a "it's not you, it's me" thing.  I'm picky about extra noise.
 
I've built water cooled computers, and replaced fans with passive heat sinks because I could still hear noise on my computer.  The irony is my power conditioner hums too.
 
Edit:  I thought about the adapters, but that seems like cheating and I'm afraid it will affect sound quality.
 
 
 

 

[daigo]

Quote:

Is it just me or do the L3000s indeed have quite a nice nice soundsatge?
Damn these phones are good with any kind of rock.
 
I know, I should start listening to my W3000s more.
Not that easy with the L3000s around and having a sudden urge to hear your teenie years music again.
Bought me about 12 old hardrock CD's from Amazon last week.  

I can't blame you for wanting to spend more time with the L3000's.  There was a pair of them at this past weekend northern California Head-fi meet and I kept gravitating back to listening to them, or back to purrin's W3000ANV out of his set up.  With a decent amp, the L3000's had a very impressive soundstage for a closed headphone with exceptional control to the bass.  They're also one of the more comfortable AT headphones for my head.  It's too bad they're obscenely rare
 
While I really enjoyed the W3000ANV, and I'm very close to buying a pair, I do think I enjoy the L3000's more based on what limited time I had in a less than ideal auditioning environment. 

 

[TheOtus]

While this really has nothing to do with the on-going conversation, I noticed that all Musical Fidelity amps I've owned had a noticeable hiss with both my Audio-Technica's. While My JADE-1 LTD is absolutely silent. Something I couldn't live without anymore. = ) The hiss or hum is annoying, no matter how small.
 
And please don't talk about tubes, I want to save money. =D Yamamoto still has my interest, though it doesn't match the walnut casing of the ORB. xD

 

[Neogeo333]

The hum could be cause by a ground loop.  Something similar happened to me last year.  Apparently I was hearing hum from my speaker system after adding a amp and pre-amp.  Finally tracked down the culprit which was a faulty ground wire in the 15amp receptacle wall socket.  Took a 16 gauge cable and tightened the ground from receptacle to house ground and no more hum. 
 
Quote:

 
I've used WA6, Corvina, and WA22.  All had some noise or transformer hum on all of them.  Even my Corda Concerto started to hum and the CSP-2 is too loud.  I've really tried to cut the noise down on the WA22.  It's a nice amp and I love Woo's build quality.
 
I've unplugged the source and can still hear sound.  The power tubes on the WA22 are notorious for having microphonics.  I know it is really a "it's not you, it's me" thing.  I'm picky about extra noise.
 
I've built water cooled computers, and replaced fans with passive heat sinks because I could still hear noise on my computer.  The irony is my power conditioner hums too.
 
Edit:  I thought about the adapters, but that seems like cheating and I'm afraid it will affect sound quality.
 
 
 

 

 

[TheOtus]

Good if it's caused by something simple and it's not natural. Nothing took the background hiss away from my devices back then.

 

[pyramid6]

Quote:

The hum could be cause by a ground loop.  Something similar happened to me last year.  Apparently I was hearing hum from my speaker system after adding a amp and pre-amp.  Finally tracked down the culprit which was a faulty ground wire in the 15amp receptacle wall socket.  Took a 16 gauge cable and tightened the ground from receptacle to house ground and no more hum. 
 


 

The Corvina is battery powered.  Still had noise.  It didn't have noise with the T1's but it did with the D5000 and the AD700. I'm starting to suspect that anything that can drive loud, won't work with sensitive headphones.  I could be wrong and I haven't been at this as long as others, but it seems more and more amps are going for power.  I suspect it's being driven by the need to drive planar headphones(HE and LCD models).
 
I emailed Craig at Eddie Current and he said his 2a3 is the most quiet amp.  You only need one kidney right?
 
 

 

[musicman59]

Could it be impedance mismatch? I had that problem one time when trying to use a tube preamp with my Threshold monoblocks. The amps need an impedance lower than 100 ohms and the preamp output was higher. It manifested as hum or static noise. As soon as I put in a low impedance preamp (50 ohms) the noise went away.

 

[AppleheadMay]

Quote:

The Corvina is battery powered.  Still had noise.  It didn't have noise with the T1's but it did with the D5000 and the AD700. I'm starting to suspect that anything that can drive loud, won't work with sensitive headphones.  I could be wrong and I haven't been at this as long as others, but it seems more and more amps are going for power.  I suspect it's being driven by the need to drive planar headphones(HE and LCD models).
 
I emailed Craig at Eddie Current and he said his 2a3 is the most quiet amp.  You only need one kidney right?
 
 

When I read the latest posts I see most is ruled out so either you're very senstive to hum and hiss (and pretty much anything alse that disturbes music or silence) like me or you have something wireless interfering (If that is possible, I can be pretty crazy about that, I cut open most of the walls in our new house just to put Cat6 cable in them). I can tell you a story about a plastic battery powered clock with analog dials but that's for another time since I'm really beat and it's pretty late here already.
 
Ditto on the LCD thing. A lot of amps seem to be made for the latest power hungry orhos and since ATs have about the opposite specs and traits orthos have they're not gonna match well IMO. Think Liquid Fire for example.
 
Now about the interesting part, the kidneys.
If really necessary I can give you the address of a nice doctor in Cambodia. He's known to give a really good price for kidneys. I advise you to sell no more than one though, and make that really clear to him before he satrts cutting away, he's a rather motivated fella. Oh, and most people recommend the anaesthesia option for a few quid extra.
Your decision though and you heard none of this from me!
But if all goes well I will give you my PayPal.