[milosz]

Quote:

It seems something is funky with the links to B22 vs. Crack and Crack vs. MKIII. Now the Crack vs. MKIII link works but the B22 vs. Crack does not.

OK, yeah, looks like the HTML for the Crack vs. MKIII was actually missing from the site.  Thanks for letting me know.  I have to get in the habit of testing the whole site after I fiddle with one part of it.
 
Should be OK now.

 

[justpete]

Here it is
 

Funny.

 

[upstateguy]

 

[milosz]

Yes, an interocitor can be used as a headphone A/B switch.  After all, what can't you do with an interocitor?
 
Click HERE to order yours today!
 
Easy-to-build kit available. All parts included!

 
Comprehensive manual....

 
...and complete technical documentation!

 

[upstateguy]

Quote:

Yes, an interocitor can be used as a headphone A/B switch.  After all, what can't you do with an interocitor?
 
Click HERE to order yours today!
 
Easy-to-build kit available. All parts included!

 
Comprehensive manual....

 
...and complete technical documentation!

 
 
Great pics, btw...
 
USG
 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Hahaha, too great.

 

[Yoga Flame]

Here's my A / B switchbox inspired by milosz. Can't really compare to an interocitor, but it gets the job done
 



More internal shots in my head-fi album.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

That looks GREAT. Wish I had one, but the difference between the Lyr and E9 is pretty easy to spot, so it isn't necessary for me. I can pick out which is which no problem. I'll assume its because of the SS vs Tube difference more than anything.

 

[renlute]

Quote:

I just read 24 pages of this thread to see if he posted a picture of the device he used to a/b the amps... did he ever?

I made a similar inquiry a month ago, post #273 on page 19, but nobody responded. Everbuddy jist walked right past it. Response #450 to justpete looks like something I would expect to see on the grounds of a power transmission facility of Pacific Gas & Electric. A jest, clearly. Is there a trade secret behind this gadget? 
 
Yoga Flame's gizmo at post #457 is most helpful -- thanks for that. But how does a body make that sucker? I'd like to be able to borrow (for a few days) or maybe rig up something like that.
 
 

 

[milosz]

I don't see the usefulness of posting a photo of a box with a switch on it.  But, when I have time, I will take some photos of it and post them here.

 

[milosz]

Quote:

Here's my A / B switchbox inspired by milosz. Can't really compare to an interocitor, but it gets the job done
 



More internal shots in my head-fi album.

Mine looks similar
 
Except: 

1. All the connections in mine are soldered - no push on type terminal things, I'm too lazy to use them.
2. My inputs are not jacks but headphone cables coming right out of the box
3. I used a smaller A/B switch
4. I only have one headphone output jack.  I see you have both sizes.
5. The box I used is cheaper.

 
 

 

[milosz]

Something I was thinking about-
 
There's a lot of thought and a lot of trial-and-error given to finding the right headphone-amp "match."
 
There's some value to this idea, no doubt.  Certainly, some headphones need a fair amount of power, while others don't. And the sound of some amps - especially some of the  harmonically 'sweeter' tube amps - do seem to be wonderful in combination with  certain headphones.
 
But, just as most good headphone amps don't sound THAT different from one another on a given headphone, they also don't interact all that much differently with different headphones.
 
I think we're all used to the idea of finding synergistic "system matches" when building a speaker-oriented HiFi setup. I know myself I've paired certain speakers with certain amps- especially certain tube amps- and the results were really pretty amazing. One on amp, the sound was OK- but try another amp and the results are "WOW!"  These are NOT subtle sound differences! 
 
Speakers - especially multi-way speakers with their crossovers etc- have pretty complicated impedance vs. frequency curves and this causes certain amplifiers to interact in various ways.  If the curves really dip low, you're going to need something with a lot of current. And if the amp employs much negative feedback you may see some unexpected transient interaction with the speaker; and tube amps, with their output transformers, often show rather large differences of power delivery over the range of audio frequencies.  Sometimes these interactions serendipitously produce wonderful sound.  Speaker-amp matching can be quite an art.  
 
I think we bring the expectations of system-matching that we developed in the speaker world to the headphone world; I think there's an expectation that with just the right amp, a given headphone will show truly superior performance.
 
However, headphones don't have the complicated impedance curves of speakers; in general, there's no crossover and no bass reflex or transmission line diaphragm loading to cause hard-to-drive phase angles, etc.  Some headphones - the planar types- look like plain resistors to the driving amp, they have almost no reactance at all at audio frequencies. So really headphone amps aren't faced with loads that will bring out the kind of differences in them that speakers can bring out from speaker amps. 
 
I think there are certain colorations that some amps impart that can sound good on certain headphones, but the palette of interactions between the electrical properties of the headphones and the amplifiers is much lower in magnitude than it is with speakers, and matching of amp to 'phone is a much simpler job than trying to find fortuitous pairings between speakers and the amplifiers driving them.
 
(Electrostatic headphones are another matter. They ARE weird loads and I would expect they'd sound quite different on different amps when driven through matching transformers or driven directly by high-voltage direct drive amps.)

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

...
 
Speakers - especially multi-way speakers with their crossovers etc- have pretty complicated impedance vs. frequency curves and this causes certain amplifiers to interact in various ways.  If the curves really dip low, you're going to need something with a lot of current. And if the amp employs much negative feedback you may see some unexpected transient interaction with the speaker; and tube amps, with their output transformers, often show rather large differences of power delivery over the range of audio frequencies.  Sometimes these interactions serendipitously produce wonderful sound.  Speaker-amp matching can be quite an art.  
 
I think we bring the expectations of system-matching that we developed in the speaker world to the headphone world; I think there's an expectation that with just the right amp, a given headphone will show truly superior performance.
 
However, headphones don't have the complicated impedance curves of speakers; in general, there's no crossover and no bass reflex or transmission line diaphragm loading to cause hard-to-drive phase angles, etc.  Some headphones - the planar types- look like plain resistors to the driving amp, they have almost no reactance at all at audio frequencies. So really headphone amps aren't faced with loads that will bring out the kind of differences in them that speakers can bring out from speaker amps. ...
 

Look at the impedance plot of the higher end of Sennheiser cans.  The variance is surprising! 

 

[Armaegis]

Most headphones do not exhibit such a curveture though, and are indeed quite flat. The high end Senns are atypical in this regard.

 

[pp312]

 
Quote:

Look at the impedance plot of the higher end of Sennheiser cans.  The variance is surprising! 

Wow, the 650 is so much flatter than the other two! I wonder what it all means....