[sachu]

Wualta, you know anything about the GAS Amzilla series of amplifier? The Grandson of Ampzilla and the Son of Ampzilla specifically..what do you think of the feasibility of using them to drive orthos?

 

[perrew]

Here is the designer:

 

[dBel84]

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Sachu, did the Cyrus One and Two amps make it over here to NA? I've been trying to find out.

yes

 
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I believe Don had one at some point but no longer. 
 
AFAIk, i don't know of anyone that i know in NA with a Cyrus amp.. Kabeer is busy buying them all up.

 
and WHAT??!!!!  shows the man pays no attention - it sits in place and is used daily. AND yes it rocks orthos too but I don't use it for orthos as it is a real PIA to disconnect from the speakers to hook up. 
 
You can find them on fleabay , not as often as in the UK and they usually run around $150 ( an absolute steal for what they are ) 
 
..dB
 

 

[swt61]

The little half rack sized Parasound (Zamp) amps really did a nice job of driving my old Chocolate Donuts too, and they're available and cost effective as well.

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Wualta, you know anything about the GAS Amzilla series of amplifier? The Grandson of Ampzilla and the Son of Ampzilla specifically..what do you think of the feasibility of using them to drive orthos?

Not that much, but perrew is correct: that well-turned-out dude in the salmon pink suit is the notorious James Bongiorno, aka Bongo Jim, who is alternately blamed/praised for his design work on the Dyna 400, which I used to own. Iirc, the original Ampzilla was pretty much a slightly updated Dyna 400; I don't know anything about the later ones. The circuitry of the original Dyna and Ampzilla would be considered at least outdated and at worst awful-sounding today. I'd be leery of possible residual noise from the output stage unless you used a resistor network to pad it down. 
 
These dinosaurs can be fun to play with (hook 'em up to your little sister's My Little Pony pink speakers and twirl that knob!), so if you can get one cheap.. but otherwise for orthos I'd suggest something newer, preferably much newer. The basic Dyna 400 circuit dates back to the early '70s. Not a good era for ss sound. Great woofer amp, though.

 

[JadeEast]

 
I can confirm that Cyrus gear was being brought in to Canada as I saw a few set ups at the now defunct
A&B sound chain in both Vancouver and Victoria. 
 
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Nah, I tried to entice him into buying a Cyrus Two and the temperature of his feet dropped. He's in the midst of a Big Sell-Off. But the consensus is that the Cyrus One is a 25w/ch overachiever, which makes it a prime candidate for driving current-hungry orthos-- apparently, though, not if you live outside the UK. Still, there's some hope that helpful Canada, home of Dare maple-cream cookies, might have been quietly importing Mission and Cyrus gear back in the day. 
 
UPDATE: Aha, the owner's manual shows multi-voltage capability. They must have reached the NA continent. Now the trick will be to find one for reasonable coin..

 

[wualta]

Yup, the Cyri were here. Now all I have to do is find one.
Back to Bongiorno's Dyna 400 for just a moment. It wasn't the cleanest amp you ever heard, but it was a ton of fun. I used mine to drive stacked KLH Sixes, two per channel. Made the opening of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" come to life.
Okay, back to 2010.

 

[lecky]

There were Cyrus' in the US, they seem to go for a fair bit more than they do in the UK though - I've seen a Cyrus1 for $250ish. In the UK the Cyrus 1s are really cheap and there's a fairly constant stream of them on eBay, they seem to go for as little as £60 up to about £100, Cyrus 2s go for a bit more, the sought after ones are the Cyrus 2s with external PSUs which go for upwards (sometimes way upwards) of about £120, PSUs on their own can go for over £100, and apparently can be made to fit cyrus 1s as well. Some of them have headphone outs and some don't - the speaker posts are great for orthos, but the headphone outs are pretty good for the rest.

 

[AudioCats]

Since this is the official LCD2 review thread, I thought I should post some impressions here too...
 
 
got to audition the LCD2 at the Seattle/Woodinville meet last Saturday, here are some thoughts:
 
-- the clamping pressure is a bit too much for me, will be ok for 30 minutes sessions, maybe 1 hr. No I don't have a big head. Surprisingly it didn't feel overly heavy, kind of similar to the feel of wearing Koss ESP7 (and I thought the ESP7 weights quite a bit less). The cable connector protrusion didn't bother me.
 
-- detectable graininess in voice. Iritating, to me. Granted my reference phone is HeAudio Jade which is known for its smoothness, but I didn't expect the LCD2 to come across as grainy.... amps were Phonitor (Sony ES player as source, don't remember the model) and Luxman P1U (source was Meridian G08), the grains are a little more visible when with the Phonitor. Tracks were Sarah Mclahland's Freedom Session CD and Bijork's  The pleasure is all mine. Meet condition is not ideal but I thought the room noise should only make me miss micro details, it shouldn't create artifacts.
 
-- didn't give me enough "live" feel for live concerts. either missing micro detail or the sound stage is too narrow (definitely narrower than my Jade), or not enough "air" (whatever it is). Somehow I want to use the word "analytical"

: resolution is great, all sounds are there and I can count them one by one, yet there is something off with the full picture, not real enough...Not for live recording.
 
-- great bass and very nice textures, but it gave me a slight "boomy" feel from time to time. This showed up more often with the Phonitor than with the P1U. Keep in mind my dynamic phones are the Beyer 990/600, I don't suppose I am overly allergic to heavy bass ( btw I like bass of all kinds, small mouth, large mouth, wiper, sea bass.... don't care about trout and salmons though ). The slight boominess, when it happened, was similar to the kind from my 990/600, but to a much less degree.
 
Over all, these are great phones but not quite what I have expected from reading all the rave reviews. Very promising though, I suspect most of above issues came from the stock cable. I feel it will definitely benefit from solid core silver (no SPC please), but definitely not with twisted-pair geometry, and definitely not HGA silver (which somehow gives a narrow stage, that will not help LCD2's already narrow stage).
 
Just my 2 cents, YMMV

 ( why don't we have a "smart-arss" smily in the library? oh well, a normal smily will do for now).  

 

[n3rdling]

Thanks for the level headed review , AC

 

[kwkarth]

something fishy about it though... 

 

[sachu]

Quote:

 amps were Phonitor (Sony ES player as source, don't remember the model) and Luxman P1U (source was Meridian G08), the grains are a little more visible when with the Phonitor.  

In my view, there in lies the problem. Neither of these amps would I use for this headphone.

 

[AudioCats]

Bass, me like!

 
Quote:

something fishy about it though... 

 

[AudioCats]

I suspect the cable. Shouldn't be that amp dependent I suppose. Might have a chance to figure this out at the up coming Denver meet ( if there will be a LCD2 there and if I can find the place).
 
 
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In my view, there in lies the problem. Neither of these amps would I use for this headphone.

 

[sachu]

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I suspect the cable. Shouldn't be that amp dependent I suppose. Might have a chance to figure this out at the up coming Denver meet.
 

 
Every headphone is amp dependent, but the LCD-2 is easily the most revealing headphone I have heard. So it should be fairly evident t pick out idiosyncrasies between amps. Did you try listening to it with the Stacker 2 at the meet?