Hi ! i am playing with some cheap tube preamps I am liking what i hear but as i use low Zin power amp the sound is a little lacking in punch in the bass I understand that this could be the effect of the too high Zout of the preamp, usually around 5kohm I have a weird idea to use a cheap...

Hi ! first of all a clarification ... i am only interested in a plain amp able to work on batteries .. no dac attached i am currently using this amp here...

good evening I would like to get some opinion on how much of an impact a volume potentiometer can have on the sound quality of an amplifier / preamp. To be more clear i see top quality amps using the standard Alps Blue Velvet ... is it good enough for top quality sound ? i have some doubts. I...

Hi ! maybe i am wrong but usually headphone amps have a voltage gain going from 4-5 times to 10 and more. I wonder if there is a way to take the voltage gain of an headphone amp down to 2 or 3 times without degrading its sound quality. Because sometimes it happened to me to listen to an amp...

Hi ! trying to check the quality of my mains i bought this cheap chinese device https://www.ebay.com/itm/OLED-Digital-AC-Noise-Meter-EMI-Tester-Wideband-AC-Power-Ripple-Analyzer-/292907454245 I understand that a decent scope would be the right instrument. Anyway ... i wonder if this EMI...

Hi ! sorry if i am asking in the wrong section. Please redirect me in a more appropriate one. I am trying to get a very ggod isolation i can achieve with a headphone. I am doing some recording tests and i need an excellent isolation from the environmental noises. I want to assess the...

Hi everyone. if these following doubts have already been dealt with in other threads, please address me to these. My main doubt is why 44.1kHz for the cd and 48kHz for the dat? if I understand well when the dat format was defined the cd format was already available since some years. Why this...

Hi ! sorry for the weird question. But i see on the market many nice Android TV boxes some of them remotely controllable via app like Cetus Play and similar. I wonder if to use one of these boxes (which one ?) as an audio network player is sane. Some usb dacs can be used with android i...

Hi ! i wonder if anyone has ever had the opportunity to compare the original version with the mkII version. Which are the differences ? and how big they are ? I would like to understand if the original is still a valid unit. Thanks a lot.

Hi ! sorry for the weird question. But i see many cheap amps that seem to have a great potential not fully expressed. This is perfectly understandable. They are made at a budget. Therefore they use cheap pots, wimpy mains transformers, weak connections, wiring etc. I wonder if anyone has...

Hi ! playing with some earpads leather and velour i have noticed some differences in the sound. Speaking of HPs with earpads sorrounding the ear: i wonder how much is important the sealing effect of the earpads. If this is important i have the impression that leather pads, even if they make...

Hello to All !   i have a curiosity. I am looking at the response to impulse of the wonderful Stax sr-007 here below (the best HP i have ever heard for realism)   http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/Stax_007_graphs_all.jpg   I am not an expert but it looks connected with phase inverted...

Hi ! i am listening through an Auralic Taurus first version that i quite like.  Very clean, detailed and powerful.  However, as quite usual with solid state, i feel a certain kind of hardness and flatness in the sound.  I would like to get advice and opinion from people who have direct...

Hi !   I would like to introduce this little amp here         I am powering it with a medical grade smps  12V/3A that I guess it is much better than the stock one. I am listening to an old pair of akg k501.   It sounds better after a short while it is left on.   Yesterday I was...

Hi ! I apologize for the weird question But I would like to buy a pair of earphones cheap but with a very high sensitivity for a quick check of noise out of my headphone amps.  I wonder if a very high sensitivity is exclusive of very high price earphones. Thanks a lot, gino   

Hi Guys ! sorry for a maybe weird question.   I am playing with a usb soundcard that has a DC power input for an external 12VDC power supply. I am checking its noise floor with Arta software using different power supplies. I see some differences actually, especially in the lower Hz.  ...

Hi !   I would love to hear advice and hints from anyone who has modified a commercial headphone amp.  The idea is to take a commercial unit basically sane and try to elevate its performance from good to very good (i.e. decrease its noise+thd) Leaving untouched the actual amp circuit I...

Hi ! I am presently playing with some usb soundcards. In particular i have now 3 models using all 12VDC power supplies.  I understand that these soundcards use on board dc to dc converters to provide the different chips with all the needed voltages. As they were all delivered with cheap wall...

Hi All !   only lately i have found that short usb cables sound better than long ones. I was listening to some usb to spdif converters and almost all were sounding from very decent to quite good. With longer cables i like the sound less. Do you agree on this ? Moreover, do you have any...

Hi Guys !   i have a nice sounding usb headphone amp that needs 12VDC/2A. The stock power supply is a humble (cheap looking) smps wall adapter.    I have some questions: 1)   do you think that a better ps could give some improvements (like i believe) ? (for better i mean lower noise...

Hi ! i am using the Teradak cable depicted here   http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/sjAAAMXQVhFR~9OQ/s-l1600.jpg I have some problem at the type B end. The contact is not perfect with some devices. I think the problem is the too short length of the contact exposed. Which could be a valid low...

Hi and sorry in advance for the weird question.  I am looking for a pair of earphones with very high sensitivity but possibly cheap.  I am going to use them to check for noise out of headphone amps very quickly (i.e. plug them in and raise the volume to max).  Are you aware of anything of...

Hi ! i have bought these ones here below     i have just started to use them but they sound quite clean and natural. Actually very natural.   Low distortion maybe ?   However, i would like to ask something to people who own/have owned them In particular: 1)   how are they rated in...

Hi !   like i guess many of us i have the problem of connecting a pc source to a usb powered usb dac cutting the power from the pc and injecting clean 5VDC from an external source. I am not very comfortable to pay one cable more than the value of the pc and the usb dac combined. It makes...

Hi ! i would like to exchange some opinions about the possible benefits coming from using usb extenders to connect pc and usb dacs or usb to spdif converters.   I really do not understand their working principle, but i understand that a first device called SENDER converts the usb signal in...