[worldman]

I truly love my Ultrasone Proline750. It's a technological marvel that delivers absolutely wonderful music to my ears. But, there is a little issue that sometimes annoys me.

Perhaps it's because of its low impedance/high sensitivity nature, but it is really sensitive to headphone amps that give out noise/buzz/humm/whateveryoucallit. Some say that when they turn up the volume this becomes a non-issue. Maybe true, but for me it is still an issue especially when you listen to quiet passages of classical or new age music.

So, I would like to ask those head-fi gurus owning quality low-impedance headphones like Ultrasone, Denon, Grado (not the Senns and Beyers which mask the noise from amps) which amplifier is best in terms of "no noise" feature.

As an example, when I listen to my 750 through the headphone output of my Stello DP200, the background noise is absolutely DEADQUIET while music itself is delivered with great authority. I am never parting with my Stello DP200.

I am all ears to your wise comments. Thanks!

 

[mbd2884]

For only $258 USD, a promotional price, Audio-gd has the Compass, DAC/Amp combo. One of things I love is that it is dead black silence. The only time I hear anything is when it's maxed at 5:30. Amp starts at 6:30, and I never turn this past 10:00. And I don't hear any hiss until 5:30, that's a lot of amplification I dare not attempt, seriously be afraid to destroy my headphones.

I feel AD900 are pretty sensitive and would pick up the same amount of distortions as your cans, if not more.

Here is my impressions of the Audio-gd Compass with the AD900, using laptop Foobar/Monkey Media ASIO output. This was made for people new to Amp and DAC mostly, like myself, answers a lot of questions. If you want something more about comparison to other high quality equipment, I linked a review to Peete's in mine.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/5442981-post3016.html

Good luck!

 

[oqvist]

I have no problem with noise on my Heed Canamp. Unless with old poor recordings but it´s nothing you can blame the amp for

. May check your sources as well... For example I tend to get hisses with my Valab NOS Dac if I run optical/coaxial to my Heed Canamp. Less if I run USB it seems...

Now of course if I bump up the volume the amp has some self noise but not on normal to loud but not ear damaging volume levels. Don´t have the problem with my el cheapo pimeta amp either but that don´t do the Ultrasone justice. I used my 750 with my Canamp for two years and I was more then happy with it. If you like the 750 you may want to try out the 900 as well though even better after some very easy modding

However I have two new DACS and I do get hiss with the Valab using the Heed whereas I get no noise with my Pimeta amp... If I run the Keces or Elite PRO no noise unless I seriously turn up the volume of course.

I wouldn´t suggest a Pimeta amp because my Heed walks all over it really in term of throwing a huge soundstage and wonderful body to the music.

Maybe it´s the source you should look for giving a clean signal more then anything else? Keces is all discrete as well is the Elite PRO I suspect which gives them quite good Signal to noise ratios. It doesn´t matter when music is played but it´s of course annoying to have it there still.

 

[worldman]

The Audio-gd Compass sounds like a very fascinating amplifier at an unreasonably affordable price. If this amp is as good as you and several reviews claim on top of being dead quiet, then I am definitely willing to give it a try.

And, thanks for your comments on the Heed Canamp. It sounds like a fabulous amp. And I agree that noise can be introduced from your source into the amp. If we start going into the possibility of noise introduction through sources other than the amp itself, then I am afraid we will get nowhere, so I would like to strongly limit this subject to noise that originates only from the amp itself.

By the way, I really do like the accurateness of my Proline 750 and I have not yet had the urge to move on to the Pro 900 which I have seen getting lots of praises from others.

 

[tintin47]

I would build an amp like the CK2III or one of the Kevin Gilmore amps or maybe an m^3 and put the transfo in a separate enclosure.

 

[mbd2884]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oqvist /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have no problem with noise on my Heed Canamp. Unless with old poor recordings but it´s nothing you can blame the amp for . May check your sources as well... For example I tend to get hisses with my Valab NOS Dac if I run optical/coaxial to my Heed Canamp. Less if I run USB it seems... Now of course if I bump up the volume the amp has some self noise but not on normal to loud but not ear damaging volume levels. Don´t have the problem with my el cheapo pimeta amp either but that don´t do the Ultrasone justice. I used my 750 with my Canamp for two years and I was more then happy with it. If you like the 750 you may want to try out the 900 as well though even better after some very easy modding However I have two new DACS and I do get hiss with the Valab using the Heed whereas I get no noise with my Pimeta amp... If I run the Keces or Elite PRO no noise unless I seriously turn up the volume of course. I wouldn´t suggest a Pimeta amp because my Heed walks all over it really in term of throwing a huge soundstage and wonderful body to the music. Maybe it´s the source you should look for giving a clean signal more then anything else? Keces is all discrete as well is the Elite PRO I suspect which gives them quite good Signal to noise ratios. It doesn´t matter when music is played but it´s of course annoying to have it there still.

KECES is very very very far from being discrete. They use multiple IC for their output, DAC and Amp. I'm not saying that's bad, but that information is very wrong. You can check my review, I post PCB pictures of KECES, Gilmore Lite, KICAS and Compass, which definitively shows KECES is not even close to being discrete. The others, KICAS, Gilmore and Compass are Discrete, and as far as I know, only the Compass and KICAS are true Class A. KECES is not Class A or Discrete, its a different design entirely. But they claim to have dead black silence so good option if that's what the OP is looking for.

National Semiconductor LME49710 op amps, used in their DAC and Amps, everywhere. And they use some IC buffer, and amp circuit not of their design, customized for the 152 combo and 171 Amp. Surprising you bought their product without knowing what you bought, oh well.

Despite all this, OP, the KECES get great reviews, you should check them out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by worldman /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Audio-gd Compass sounds like a very fascinating amplifier at an unreasonably affordable price. If this amp is as good as you and several reviews claim on top of being dead quiet, then I am definitely willing to give it a try. And, thanks for your comments on the Heed Canamp. It sounds like a fabulous amp. And I agree that noise can be introduced from your source into the amp. If we start going into the possibility of noise introduction through sources other than the amp itself, then I am afraid we will get nowhere, so I would like to strongly limit this subject to noise that originates only from the amp itself. By the way, I really do like the accurateness of my Proline 750 and I have not yet had the urge to move on to the Pro 900 which I have seen getting lots of praises from others.

Actually the big selling point for me, was Audio-gd's customer service. It's as good as Moon-Audio, Whiplash Audio and other notable audio enthusiasts I've contacted in the past. Very nice.

 

[compuryan]

I like tintin47's idea. Find an amp, build an amp, or make someone build you an amp with the transformer in a seperate enclosure. Or you could just have a completely shielded transformer, but those get pricey. The M^3 would be good. Or, if you have the money you could get a 2 board beta22, or a 3 board active ground.

 

[moogoob]

Headroom's products are certainly very nice unless you're using ultra-sensitive IEMs. My Micro Stack (stock power supply) is certainly pitch-black through my Grados.

 

[worldman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tintin47 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would build an amp like the CK2III or one of the Kevin Gilmore amps or maybe an m^3 and put the transfo in a separate enclosure.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm afraid I don't have the skills to build an amp. If I could, then I certainly would have gone that path, and after many trials, perhaps end up having my own headphone amp company...

 

[worldman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbd2884 /img/forum/go_quote.gif KECES is very very very far from being discrete. They use multiple IC for their output, DAC and Amp. I'm not saying that's bad, but that information is very wrong. You can check my review, I post PCB pictures of KECES, Gilmore Lite, KICAS and Compass, which definitively shows KECES is not even close to being discrete. The others, KICAS, Gilmore and Compass are Discrete, and as far as I know, only the Compass and KICAS are true Class A. KECES is not Class A or Discrete, its a different design entirely. But they claim to have dead black silence so good option if that's what the OP is looking for. National Semiconductor LME49710 op amps, used in their DAC and Amps, everywhere. And they use some IC buffer, and amp circuit not of their design, customized for the 152 combo and 171 Amp. Surprising you bought their product without knowing what you bought, oh well. Despite all this, OP, the KECES get great reviews, you should check them out. Actually the big selling point for me, was Audio-gd's customer service. It's as good as Moon-Audio, Whiplash Audio and other notable audio enthusiasts I've contacted in the past. Very nice.

mbd2884, your comments are really informative. Thank you for your replies. And yes, I will definitely try out the Compass by Audio-gd.

 

[worldman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by compuryan /img/forum/go_quote.gif I like tintin47's idea. Find an amp, build an amp, or make someone build you an amp with the transformer in a seperate enclosure. Or you could just have a completely shielded transformer, but those get pricey. The M^3 would be good. Or, if you have the money you could get a 2 board beta22, or a 3 board active ground.

Again, I'm technologically impaired, so making myself and amp is out of the question. Having an amp built for me would be a great idea, or perhaps purchasing a custom built amp like the highly recommended M^3 or even the beta22 sounds ideal, but I just want to make sure of the opinions of other experts here regarding their "dead-quietness".

 

[worldman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moogoob /img/forum/go_quote.gif Headroom's products are certainly very nice unless you're using ultra-sensitive IEMs. My Micro Stack (stock power supply) is certainly pitch-black through my Grados.

Headroom is also on my list of potential candidates for my search of "dead quiet amps". Thanks for the heads up!