[twizzleraddict]

Quote:

I've been spending a lot of time listening to my music gear (especially the Darkstar and Decware CSP-2/Taboo amps) lately, so I've been kind of away from the forums.  Now, here's the deal:  The Fostex th900 sounds kind of odd - and with some background hiss - out of the Darkstar.  Definitely not a match made in heaven.  The music feels kind of disjointed and claustrophobic...It feels like a gecko (the th-900) trying to wrestle with Godzilla.  This is one in which too much raw power leads to nowhere.  Conversely, as I've remarked before, the Hifiman EF-6 amp - a rather powerful amp as well, but not as powerful as the Darkstar - with the th-900s is (to my ears) a match made in heaven, although I have it connected to my Headroom Ultra (non-balanced) headphone amp, which is serving as its pre-amp, in order to have better control of the volume since the volume knob of the EF-6 is a monstrous stepped-attenuator type that offers very little control over the volume (note: by the way, the th-900 driven by the Headroom amp sounds amazing as well).  It must be noted that there is still a very slight residual hiss with the EF-6 (not surprising given the high sensitivity of the Fostex headphones), but once the music starts playing...behold, the promised land. 

 
Thanks for the extremely detailed impressions about the TH900 pairing. I also was interested in the HE-6 pairing with the Darkstar since I have the HE-6s too and have been contemplating between a power amp to drive them directly or a dedicated headphone amp. It seems to be worth posting in the Amps for HE-6 thread as well (if you already haven't done so yet).
 
The EF-6 would make a decent amp for both the TH900 and the HE-6s, in my case, so that I can reduce the number of amps needed to drive both down to ONE! Will hope to find someone with an EF-6 I can get a chance to listen to locally. 
 
Many folks have also commented on the TH900 + DNA Stratus pairing, but not sure about HE-6 with Stratus since they need MOAR POWER!

 

[Brain Hack 70]

The EF-6 amp is waaay to expensive for me personally, so I've been looking at the Woo Audio WA-7, am wondering if this would be a good pairing with the TH900? 

 

[jronan2]

I went with the V200, love this combo, keeping my current TH900 set up for a long time as is. 

 

[Audio Jester]

I will put a vote in for the DP1. I assume there are better amps out there as the DP1 is a DAC first and foremost, but I have found that the more forward presentation of the DP1 works well with the recessed mids of the TH900. If you are needing a DAC and can't stretch to the Zana straight up I feel that the DP1 will bring you sonic happiness until you can make that leap.

 

[Mediahound]

Quote:

 
I used the Soloist/TH900 on a demo setup, that combination sounds great. It was being fed by a Chord QuteHD

 
Similarly, I'm using the TH900s with the Burson Conductor and it sounds sublime. Very rich and impactful. 
 
My only slight complaint is that the stepped volume control is a little too sensitive with the 25 Ohm TH900s, sometimes I want a volume level in between 2 notches. Not a huge big deal though I would not want to run any head/ear phones that are any more sensitive on the Conductor. 

 

[treebug]

Quote:

I picked up a copy of HiFi+ yesterday, and they did a review on the Trilogy 933. I jumped on Head-Fi when I got home to see what others has said about it on this forum. After a few searches, I came up empty. I am reluctant to start a new thread, so I wanted to see if others in this thread have used, heard this amp. 
 
http://www.trilogyaudio.com/933%20Amplifier%20for%20Headphones.html
 
http://www.analogueseduction.net/content/933%20Review_HIFIPlus_94_%20LR-1.pdf
 
This same mag had a review of the Eximus DP-1, which they compared it to the 933 - in the opinion of the writer, the 933 bested it in just about every way. Made me curious.....

Did you get to try the Trilogy 933? I'm curious about this amp myself.

 

[kopyland03]

Burson Audio Soloist  and NAD M51 DAC combo

 

[zardon]

I have tried around 30 amps with the fostex headphones now over many months and the best in my opinion is the trilogy 933. They really allow the headphones to sing with such purity, dynamic range and detail. Yet the bass is fantastically detailed, not overblown and tightly focused.

Its £2,000 well spent to get the most out of the th900s. Ive used several sources such as the raysonic cd228 and some high def audio files.....

Trilogy 933 gets my vote with some van del hul interconnects and a mains filter.

 

[Audio Jester]

I have tried around 30 amps with the fostex headphones now over many months and the best in my opinion is the trilogy 933. They really allow the headphones to sing with such purity, dynamic range and detail. Yet the bass is fantastically detailed, not overblown and tightly focused.

Its £2,000 well spent to get the most out of the th900s. Ive used several sources such as the raysonic cd228 and some high def audio files.....

Trilogy 933 gets my vote with some van del hul interconnects and a mains filter.

Have you tried the ECP L-2? I would be curious to see how it compares with the Trilogy.

 

[zardon]

Have you tried the ECP L-2? I would be curious to see how it compares with the Trilogy.

One i havent tried unfortunately. I quite liked the Fostex HP-A8C with them, but the trilogy 933 is another step up, even though fostex may have designed the a8c specifically for the th900s. Cant get over the bass response when using the trilogy 933 with the th900s. Its very powerful, yet pure and not overpowering at all. I can use this combo at quite low volume without losing anything...

I havent used my r10s for some time now. The th900 really are such an iconic product and they sound similar in many regards to the r10s.... But are great with rock, as well as classicial, acoustic etc....

 

[Audio Jester]

One i havent tried unfortunately. I quite liked the Fostex HP-A8C with them, but the trilogy 933 is another step up, even though fostex may have designed the a8c specifically for the th900s. Cant get over the bass response when using the trilogy 933 with the th900s. Its very powerful, yet pure and not overpowering at all. I can use this combo at quite low volume without losing anything...

I havent used my r10s for some time now. The th900 really are such an iconic product and they sound similar in many regards to the r10s.... But are great with rock, as well as classicial, acoustic etc....

By any chance have you tried the HD800 with the trilogy? (sorry for OT)

 

[treebug]

By any chance have you tried the HD800 with the trilogy? (sorry for OT)

I have, and it drives them very well indeed. I compared the amp to the Pathos Aurium though which costs £850 and couldn't hear a huge difference. Soundstage was even wider with the Pathos too.

 

[AnakChan]

One i havent tried unfortunately. I quite liked the Fostex HP-A8C with them, but the trilogy 933 is another step up, even though fostex may have designed the a8c specifically for the th900s. Cant get over the bass response when using the trilogy 933 with the th900s. Its very powerful, yet pure and not overpowering at all. I can use this combo at quite low volume without losing anything...

I havent used my r10s for some time now. The th900 really are such an iconic product and they sound similar in many regards to the r10s.... But are great with rock, as well as classicial, acoustic etc....

 
That's kinda funny. A few months back, the Tokyo Head-Fi members had a meet...I brought along my TH-900s and my friend brought his bass-light MDR-R10's (now owned by someone else). The MDR-R10s made my TH-900 sounded like a toy off the Zana Deux. Since then I had been looking at moving from the TH-900s to the MDR-R10's.
 
Mind you, I still do like my TH-900s but the MDR-R10s just feel like another level for me. Or maybe it was just the impeccable amp pairing.

 

[zardon]

   
That's kinda funny. A few months back, the Tokyo Head-Fi members had a meet...I brought along my TH-900s and my friend brought his bass-light MDR-R10's (now owned by someone else). The MDR-R10s made my TH-900 sounded like a toy off the Zana Deux. Since then I had been looking at moving from the TH-900s to the MDR-R10's.
 
Mind you, I still do like my TH-900s but the MDR-R10s just feel like another level for me. Or maybe it was just the impeccable amp pairing.

Not sure to be honest, everyone will have a very different view on this I suppose, thats the joys of music and audio equipment. I think the TH900's have some similar sound characteristics when compared directly with the Sony R10's. I think I have owned almost every headphone known to man and then some and the R10's have always been my favourite - I actually prefer them in many ways to the STAX 009 (but not always).
 
All subjective and its important to mention that people have different hearing too. My friend needs very detailed headphones which I find slightly piercing and uncomfortable - because he actually has some hearing loss and high frequencies can get a little muted in the mix. Therefore what I would consider annoying, is compensated against his hearing.
 
R10's are legendary headphones, but I would have concerns recommending them anymore - They are quite old and parts are impossible to get and failures have already happened with many of them. I see them selling for over £5,000 and I can't help but feel its a poor investment in today's market. The TH-900's are a fraction of the price with many similar sound characteristics and have a much stronger lower range to suit a wider range of music tastes. They do need good amplification to get the most from them however, many people don't realise that because the high sensitivity rating ensures they sound pretty good with a lot of amplifiers.

 

[fonna]

I have tried around 30 amps with the fostex headphones now over many months and the best in my opinion is the trilogy 933. They really allow the headphones to sing with such purity, dynamic range and detail. Yet the bass is fantastically detailed, not overblown and tightly focused.

Its £2,000 well spent to get the most out of the th900s. Ive used several sources such as the raysonic cd228 and some high def audio files.....

Trilogy 933 gets my vote with some van del hul interconnects and a mains filter.

 
hey man im looking into getting the trilogy 933 for my th-900's aswell. this is kind of a newbie question, but do i need an expensive dac with the amp? I have a portable DAP (iBasso DX100) and I know I can use it as a DAC too. Would an expensive DAC be alot better paired with this amp tho? or is that not the way works? thanks in advance for replying