palchiu
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2004
- Posts
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Will ALO have Pan Am successor?
Hi! Would just like to know if pan am is warm or just neutral? Would sound sig upon tube rolling (planning on getting siemen, mullard, and RTC) change? And if someone had tried driving it with HD650s? How was the sound quality. Thanks!
Will ALO have Pan Am successor?
Hi! Would just like to know if pan am is warm or just neutral? Would sound sig upon tube rolling (planning on getting siemen, mullard, and RTC) change? And if someone had tried driving it with HD650s? How was the sound quality. Thanks!
The Pan Am is a very clean and detailed amp for being a tube amp, I have used it as both a DAC/ Amp and as a dedicated amp to another higher quality DAC. Now with particular tubes it does get a warmer signature, but from the the Mullards I had and if I recall correctly it was neutral with slight warmth, a nice midrange, and detailed but musical. I think it is a great all in one unit if you can find one on sale or used it is definitely worth having, As far as HD650s, I am not a 100% how they sound with them but they sounded very good with my HD600, so it should drive it to adequate levels.
A few years late to the party but I just picked this stack up and I'm very impressed with it sound. I was looking for a bedroom setup and decided to go for this tube hybrid. Luckily for me a fellow Head-Fier was selling his and I was able to purchase it in excellent condition. To date, I've tried these tubes and I've listed them in order of my preference for best sound:
Cifte EF95 (5654) [Excellent dynamics and bass. Nice treble extension and clarity with detailed mids. My favorite set of tubes for my Z1R's]
Mullard M8100 (CV4010) [Similar to the Cifte's but with more midrange warmth and a little deeper bass. The treble is detailed and pairs the best with my Utopia's]
Shyguang 6J1-Q (Stock Russian tubes)
Mullard CV4010
RCA 12ax7
I have a set of Voskhod 6ZH19-EV's coming to try but so far the Cifte 5654's and Mullard M8100's are my favorites.
Nice, I like having this little tube amp. I can tailor the sound to work with just about any headphone. This thing has a little power as well.The voskhod ate very good in comparison to the Mullards giving a different sound that pairs well in contrast. Very nice low end extension and weight.
I just tried the Pan Am with HE-560 v2 and it did not sound good at all. It was very strange, my HE560 sounds better with the Monoprice DAC/Amp I have. Pan Am should have enough power to handle HE-560. I see a few others had similar experience.
I disagree. The Pan Am doesn't output the kind of power needed for magneplanars - it didn't drive my LCD2 (never tried it with my LCD3) well enough, sweet but lacking punch and dynamics. And the built-in DAC is only so so to the point that I always use an external DAC.
The LCD2 sensitivity is 101dB vs HE560 sensitivity of 90dB and this makes the HE560 even harder to drive. So if the Pan Am wasn't satisfactory for the LCD2, it would be much worse with the HE560.
When I do use my Pan Am, it's with my Sine or IEMs.