[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ramtha604 I very much considered the EMP for a while until a heard it sounded slightly sirupy. It still isn't completely off my list, though as I know it's basically very well suited for the cans I intend to try/use. I've also read it sounds great with the HD-600 so I suppose the EMP will also like the various 250 Ohm Beyers.

Replacing the stock 6DJ8's with decent NOS tubes clears the sound up nicely. On a friend's EMP, we really liked Mullards.

 

[Kubernetes]

Quote:

I very much considered the EMP for a while until a heard it sounded slightly sirupy. It still isn't completely off my list, though as I know it's basically very well suited for the cans I intend to try/use. I've also read it sounds great with the HD-600 so I suppose the EMP will also like the various 250 Ohm Beyers.

I'm not sure about other phones, but I believe Tomcat has tried to EMP with Beyer 770pros. I believe he liked this combo, but I don't recall any other user reports on the other Beyers. I have tried the EMP with the Sennheiser HD580s, and the combo did sound great (best bass control out of the 580s I ever heard).

All in all it is an amazingly versatile amp. Playing around with NOS tubes will let you tweak the sound just the way you want. I'm not sure that you'll ever get it as neutral as a top solid-state amp, but you may find (as I did) that that kind of neutrality comes at a price.

 

[wallijonn]

I voted other, preferring class A amplification when I can afford it. So i say the RKV, Antness Gilmore, Melos or SAC. Besides impedance matching, damping is an important factor which should be taken into consideration. As a K1000 owner, I can not consider any amp that will not drive them. So that leaves out a lot of tube amps. I'll probably end up buying a SM70 to drive all my headphones directly from the speaker outputs. This way I will have class A, high damping, and automatic impedance matching. The source will have to include a volume output (like my denon 810 cd player). I hope the philips SA963 has a vartiable audio output (front panel volume control).

 

[Ramtha604]

Silly me... I just noticed I forgot to include the EMP in the poll. I'd be very grateful if a mod would be kind enough to add it. The poll is at ~40 votes right now so I think we can still get a semi representative result if we take that into consideration.

I'm really leaning towards the EMP right now with the gilmore, melos, HA-2 and microZOTL still in competition (the two last ones only being the last ones due to their price). From what I've read the EMP should sound great with just about any HPs I'm interested in, regardless of their impedance.

Thanks to anyone who has been participating, keep 'em coming folks!

 

[sacd lover]

The gilmore amp is the best amp I have ever heard with my grados. The gilmore is exactly what the grados need, especially the rs series. The overall sound is in one word powerful. This amp has slam and speed galore but still manages to have tonal richness. The treble is extended but never thin or whispy sounding. The gilmore tightens up the bass on my rs2s very noticeably compared to my maxed out home. These first impressions are from three weeks listening. I am very pleased with the gilmore. I will post more impressions soon. Also, wallijonn, the sm70 amps are wonderful sounding but you have to pay attention to grounding or they humm LOUDLY.

 

[nanahachi]

thanks for your post sacd,

ive been very much on the fence for which amp to pair with my RS-1s, and your impressions help a lot. keep posting them as they come to you!

 

[lini]

nanahachi: Well, I haven't tried the PM 17 myself, but generally Marantz have fairly good headphone outs on their integrated amps. So maybe it would be a good idea to find somebody in your neighbourhood (MacDEF perhaps?) with whom you could set up a comparision - in order to find out what class of headphone amp would be needed to surpass the Marantz. Could be interesting... Anyway, I think your player should be good enough to justify a good headphone amp.

Roland: Yup, the new source definitely changes the recommendation.

I can't comment on the EMP, though, because I haven't heard it, yet. Nevertheless, I'm still thinking about trying one, because with the Corda HA-1 I already have a fairly good solid-state headphone amp. On the other hand I'm also very pleased with the ruggedness, versatility and ease of use of the HA-1. So the decision between an EMP and a HA-2 is rather hard for me. But with that in mind, I guess, I'd recommend the HA-2 over the EMP as your first non-portable headphone amp.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[wallijonn]

i'm keeping an eye out for a Marantz PM-97, myself.

nana, i have not seen any pictures or specs on the PM17. Is it part Class A? found it: http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.p...ran&1043894466

 

[Ramtha604]

Quote:

So the decision between an EMP and a HA-2 is rather hard for me. But with that in mind, I guess, I'd recommend the HA-2 over the EMP as your first non-portable headphone amp.

What's the reason for you to recommend the HA-2 over the EMP as my first high end amp? Personally I'm tending more towards the EMP because it's a tube amp and I think that would introduce more general smoothness and liquidness into the system, even though I don't doubt that the HA-2 is probably technically (overall soundquality wise) superior to the EMP.

 

[markl]

I remain unconvinced the EMP can successfully drive low-z phones, and may only be optimum with the HD600 (with which it sounds fine indeed). You mentioned you wanted an amp that can drive a lot of different phones with different impedences, and I think that *may* rule out the EMP. Others here use the EMP with low-impedence phones and claim success. All I know is that they wouldn't even drive the 100 ohm ety ER4S without clipping (at least at a volume that is satisfying to me). How will it react to 40 ohm Sonys, Grados and ATs?

That leaves you with the Melos or the ZOTL if you want tubes.

Mark

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by markl I remain unconvinced the EMP can successfully drive low-z phones, and may only be optimum with the HD600 (with which it sounds fine indeed). You mentioned you wanted an amp that can drive a lot of different phones with different impedences, and I think that *may* rule out the EMP. Others here use the EMP with low-impedence phones and claim success. All I know is that they wouldn't even drive the 100 ohm ety ER4S without clipping (at least at a volume that is satisfying to me). How will it react to 40 ohm Sonys, Grados and ATs? That leaves you with the Melos or the ZOTL if you want tubes. Mark

The EMP is absolutely fine with low impedance cans, including the AT's and the R10, which I've heard on the EMP several times now(note the headphone amp that Audio Advancements sells).

 

[Ramtha604]

Quote:

Originally posted by markl I remain unconvinced the EMP can successfully drive low-z phones, and may only be optimum with the HD600 (with which it sounds fine indeed). You mentioned you wanted an amp that can drive a lot of different phones with different impedences, and I think that *may* rule out the EMP. Others here use the EMP with low-impedence phones and claim success. All I know is that they wouldn't even drive the 100 ohm ety ER4S without clipping (at least at a volume that is satisfying to me). How will it react to 40 ohm Sonys, Grados and ATs? That leaves you with the Melos or the ZOTL if you want tubes. Mark

I think I've read somewhere that the Earmax was only made for high impedance HP's while the later version's improvement, that of the Earmax Pro was that it was suited for both low and high impedance HP's. Maybe you mixed them up or something? Or is the previous just an untrue claim?

Roland

 

[markl]

I originally purchased the standard Earmax for my HD600s. The standard version could not even drive them to a satisfying volume level without clipping, and that amp was supposedly designed specifically for the Senns. IMO, that amp is useless.

I then upgraded to the Earmax Pro which drove my HD600s fabulously. When I experimented with the 100 ohm Etys, I again had the same clipping problem on the pro that I had with the Senns on the standard Earmax.

Either way, I feel that with its tiny wall-wart power supply, neither the Earmax or the Pro are particularly muscular amps. Given my experience (which is far from exhaustive), I speculate that the EMP *might* have trouble driving lower-impedence cans to the kind of volume levels I like. This is just idle speculation on my part and as I stated earlier others here seem to have had a different experience.

Mark

 

[Kubernetes]

Markl, I must say that I'm surprised by your experience. I have tried the Ety ER4p with the fixup 4s adapter with my EMP perhaps once or twice. I did not experience any clipping. I also use my EMP almost exclusively with low impedance phones like the Grado RS-1, AT W100, and the Sony MDR-F1 (the latter being a 12 ohm load). There are many on this board who also use these same phones with the EMP and they have good results also. I believe Joelongwood uses his with a pair of Sony CD3k's, which are also very low impedance.

I don't know... maybe you had a defective amp or something?

Maybe at your next headphone meet an EMP owner can bring his unit along and we'll settle this matter once and for all.

(either that or you drive your Etys to thunderous levels

)

 

[JaZZ]

After all I've voted for the EMP.

With the exception of the Sony F1 all mentioned headphones are known as rather bright. So a Corda Blue with its slightly dark timbre would be the best choice IMO. Even the EMP is a bit bright to my ears, although it has an impressively strong and deep bass, especially with low-impedance cans, and works really fine with the SR-325 and -225, and even with the 12-ohm Sony, BTW.

I would have equally liked to vote for the Corda HA-2, to me a very interesting amp. But without knowing it this really wasn't a wise suggestion, and my guess is that, according to kelly, it's clearly «faster» and consequently brighter than the Blue and thus could exhibit the highs a bit too much with these cans – as a typical ultra-fast solid state amp in the sense of the Sugden Headmaster. But of course I may be wrong, and the HA-2 is an ideal match. Which I doubt in the case of the CD 3000: there are several comments which state its need for a tube amp.

Mark...
...your so-so experience with the EMP are a bit of a mystery to me. Mine can drive all my Grados to ear-piercing levels without distortion. But I remember a case in which I had the same problem. It turned out that the Bugle Boy output tubes were exhausted...

JaZZ