fillemon
Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 9, 2007
- Posts
- 73
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- 0
hello people;
i have it running a month now i think or a bit less. i have build it in a quite straight forward way. i didn't work the first minute cause a wire to the phone socket was broken.
load: i use the akg 500 and 400 on it.
source: a dac: a non oversampling dac 1545 with I/V stage
the sound of this is quite phenominal.
what do i use in the ck2III
a lot of the parts described on the amb.org site.
parts that i changed are the small caps, i used polyprop where possible or styreen caps.
i used also 2sa968 - 2sc2238.
i took the 1µf-3Mohm-1µf design.
well how does it sound.
1)with the akg k500:
bass: well i don't need much bass so the 500 does a good job, untill i connected it to this amp: bass is there, not powdering but with impact, a lot of detail, this is quite amazing. a lot of low bass lines are getting clear. the amp really does a fabulous job here;
2)mids: mids are very clear fast and exact. voices do sound right; although the 500 does a good job without the amp: the seperation is 10.000 better then on an headphone out (like on my nad amp). speed, clarity, transparancy are words that come to mind. (i have a hard time describing what i hear).
3)highs: well here it gets a bit more difficult. the first week: i thought: good god : this is pretty impressive. and it is: everything is there: hihat, symbals, harmonics on voices, everyhting comes out very very good. but with this akg 500 i might have a bit to much of the highs. listining fatigue can set in. maybe i listen to loud, but since it is an open headphone a lot of noises are slipping in and since the amps shows somemuch detail and insight in the music, i wanna hear it.
it could be the 2sa968-2sc2238 combination. but i think it is the headphone.
if i connect the akg 400 on it: it becomes a very good headphone, i never used to listen to it, because it was very very mudded, now it is not mudded anymore, but there is a veil on it. not only because the highs are recessed but also the mids are not as nice. the akg k500 still does a much better job, but the highs can become painfull.
overall: lots of separation, everything is spaced out, no blurring, fast, transparant, impact, speed; well what can i say more, for that kind of money and easyness of building, a shame that i didn't had this the last 10 years.
so i'm thinking of a better headphone, i can understand that a senn can benefit a lot from this amp. getting clearer could make it a killing combination. but i like akg a lot. so maybe a 701. i donno.
i had ordered 3 pcb in the groupbuy, and losted them in moving, now they are found, i'm gonna make a balanced ck2III, i know a few on people on this forum have done before, and told me that it didn't sound as good: no prob; gonna try it anyway, and i can always split them and they make nice presents for friends.
what can i say more: class a design really is the better stuff, but right now i'm working on a tube amp for my speakers, don't know, but maybe i will build a small tube headphone too, might be in for a surprise
anyway, some pics.
i have it running a month now i think or a bit less. i have build it in a quite straight forward way. i didn't work the first minute cause a wire to the phone socket was broken.
load: i use the akg 500 and 400 on it.
source: a dac: a non oversampling dac 1545 with I/V stage
the sound of this is quite phenominal.
what do i use in the ck2III
a lot of the parts described on the amb.org site.
parts that i changed are the small caps, i used polyprop where possible or styreen caps.
i used also 2sa968 - 2sc2238.
i took the 1µf-3Mohm-1µf design.
well how does it sound.
1)with the akg k500:
bass: well i don't need much bass so the 500 does a good job, untill i connected it to this amp: bass is there, not powdering but with impact, a lot of detail, this is quite amazing. a lot of low bass lines are getting clear. the amp really does a fabulous job here;
2)mids: mids are very clear fast and exact. voices do sound right; although the 500 does a good job without the amp: the seperation is 10.000 better then on an headphone out (like on my nad amp). speed, clarity, transparancy are words that come to mind. (i have a hard time describing what i hear).
3)highs: well here it gets a bit more difficult. the first week: i thought: good god : this is pretty impressive. and it is: everything is there: hihat, symbals, harmonics on voices, everyhting comes out very very good. but with this akg 500 i might have a bit to much of the highs. listining fatigue can set in. maybe i listen to loud, but since it is an open headphone a lot of noises are slipping in and since the amps shows somemuch detail and insight in the music, i wanna hear it.
it could be the 2sa968-2sc2238 combination. but i think it is the headphone.
if i connect the akg 400 on it: it becomes a very good headphone, i never used to listen to it, because it was very very mudded, now it is not mudded anymore, but there is a veil on it. not only because the highs are recessed but also the mids are not as nice. the akg k500 still does a much better job, but the highs can become painfull.
overall: lots of separation, everything is spaced out, no blurring, fast, transparant, impact, speed; well what can i say more, for that kind of money and easyness of building, a shame that i didn't had this the last 10 years.
so i'm thinking of a better headphone, i can understand that a senn can benefit a lot from this amp. getting clearer could make it a killing combination. but i like akg a lot. so maybe a 701. i donno.
i had ordered 3 pcb in the groupbuy, and losted them in moving, now they are found, i'm gonna make a balanced ck2III, i know a few on people on this forum have done before, and told me that it didn't sound as good: no prob; gonna try it anyway, and i can always split them and they make nice presents for friends.
what can i say more: class a design really is the better stuff, but right now i'm working on a tube amp for my speakers, don't know, but maybe i will build a small tube headphone too, might be in for a surprise
anyway, some pics.
