[arjuna93]

Based on my admiration of Airbow electrostatic system, I decided to get their upgraded version of CEC HD53N (which is a great amp on its own) – Airbow HD53N Special.

I can say I am totally happy. Looks like this will be the only headphone amp I gonna be listening regularly to.

While I have not tried original HD53N, I got CEC HD53R v. 8.0, which is an admirable amp, very clear, airy, with superb resolution and totally quiet background. Airbow HD53N retains all those features, but adds more juice to the mids and improves the bass.

It is currently connected to Esoteric D-30 over XLR. I use Canal Works L-71 IEMs. Bliss.

P. S. Speaker output seems to be rather weak though. Consider it headphone-only amp, not an integrated one.

 

[Promenadeplatz]

Do you use its 120-Ohm Output, the right one?? Really??

 

[arjuna93]

Do you use its 120-Ohm Output, the right one?? Really??

Honestly I haven’t checked that part in the manual, thanks for pointing. But it works well as it is. I will try the left one

I replaced HD53R with Airbow, and with HD53R I had two or three IEMs plugged at once. I basically thought that only high/low gain setting matters.

 

[Promenadeplatz]

HD53N's left output is 10 ohm (high enough), right one (labeled high) is whooping 120 ohm, according to the industries standards in the 90's last century.

 

[arjuna93]

HD53N's left output is 10 ohm (high enough), right one (labeled high) is whooping 120 ohm, according to the industries standards in the 90's last century.

The left one is high (you are right, 120 Ohm) and right one is low. So I’m using it correctly then.

 

[Promenadeplatz]

Ok I don't remember the labelling but where it says "Low" it is indeed high with 10 Ohm output R where today close to 0 and all above 1-2 Ohm is considered useless due to low impedance IEM around 16-32 Ohm and higher sensitivity.

 

[arjuna93]

Ok I don't remember the labelling but where it says "Low" it is indeed high with 10 Ohm output R where today close to 0 and all above 1-2 Ohm is considered useless due to low impedance IEM around 16-32 Ohm and higher sensitivity.

In any case 10 Ohm is the lower of the two, and I don’t have any issues like background noise. I only got IEMs here (and electrostats), so can’t check with headphones.