lojay
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2004
- Posts
- 1,091
- Likes
- 249
I spent half a day in Shum Shui Po, Hong Kong today, and what an experience! (Especially how my shirt got stuck to my back by goey sweat under the heat and humidity)
First destination was a famous Tube Amp showroom that sells Houston and Duntonic intergrated amplifiers. Not famous for the amps itself, but rather for the hit local movie "Infernal Affairs Part 1", where in a particular scene Andy Lau (a local celeb) auditioned their systems. (I've never seen the movie, but everybody talks about it; the word "Hi-Fi" seems to link with "Infernal Affairs" in HK these days)
Suprisingly, the Duntonic 3i, which is priced around the OTL32, gives quite a sweet and tubey sound on Diana Krall's Look of Love, while giving the cannons on some-CD-like-1812 (forgot!!!) quite a lot of authority. The tubes tend to make the resonances and trailing sound of the cannons longer and giving them extra detail - which appealed to me. Anyways, I didn't stay for long, as the owner didn't seem to like me
. So if you know anything about this intergrated amp, please let me know.
I had some spare time at Ap Liu Street afterwards, so I went up to ASL's showroom to have some 'phun'.
NOW HERES WHAT YOU WANT!
Joe Lau wasn't there that day, but a very nice representative, Mr. Poon, invited me to audition the OTL32 and the OTL MK III.
According to Mr. Poon, the MKIII should be better for my Grados as they are designed for a wider range of headphones, while the OTL32 was made to be a pre amp. He told me that neither amps actually does a good job at driving the k1000, actually.
I gave the OTL32 a shot, with the A900, 225 and 497, the OTL32 plugged into a Sony XA77ES.
I switched between the Sony and the amp repeatedly, but circumstances didn't allow me to make clear judgement. I can say the most noticable thing in common between the OTL32 / MKIII and the Sony is how the Sony sounded harsh and sterile (it's NOT, just in comparison, it is) and how smooth the amp sounded. We tended to listen primarily on the Sr225's, as they sound better than the rest on the amps.
I did go_vtec's blackness test on the OTL32, which people talked about its background hiss. But since the surroundings (the ground floor was playing techno with thumping bass) were indesireable for audition, I can't hear the noise floor on the Grados, though my friend who accompanied with me did (I have insensitive ears)
The OTL MK III wasn't such a different beast. We played Dave Brub'z Time Out back and forth and back and forth, only to find differences subtle, between ampless, OTL32 and OTL MK III. Subjectively, I'll call it subtle, but I agree that this dissapointment or small difference was only because I didn't have the chance to listen carefully. Sadly, we had only 30 minutes to an hour (didn't keep track) to audition, but I didn't want Mr. Poon to get home late that night as it was getting late. I was aware that the amp's tubes weren't even warm enough! (Not to mention if the MK III was burnt in yet) DAMN!!!! Luckly Mr. Poon was kind enough to invite me for a second listen, and I could stay much longer to do the comparisons.
So I conclude that today's trip certainly didn't do the amps any justice. But I DID believe once that amps were night and day differences with unamped source, but the "wow" factor was literally zero today, and that is what both my friend and I found too sad to be true.
Side stories:
1) http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=70235
According to that post, how is it said that the OTL MKII only a cosmetical upgrade to the not-so-decent OTL MKII?
2) The salesperson advised me to replace the center tube (12AXX something) with a better one. True?
3) The OTL MKII is 3/4 and less the price of the OTL32, which makes it great. And supposingly it drives low-Z headphones like CD3K and Grados much better. Definetly recommend some head-fi'er to do a review with these babies - shoot, they're real bang-for-thy-bucks !!
4) There are two outputs in 1/4. A switch allows to to choose between OTL mode and transformer mode, which Mr. Poon said that one of them (forgot which one) bypasses the power supply on the module with the tubes stuck in. (Note that there are two power supply's / transformers)
5) My version has no ugly metal cage on it, just pure tube beauty.
I've been told, "You'll be amazed how well the xxxx sounds when you plug it in an amp!" more than once. This xxx, is the Grado 225, Sennheiser 497 and ATH A900 in todays case. Too bad I didn't have that amazement as told. Can you guy stop exagerating please?
:BS warning!: But still, I'm probably buying the MK III for its looks. Unless you guys think that my source, the E-MU 1212m sucks too much to match the MK III aaiiight.
PS: The rep told me I was free to come at 2 PM next time (I came at nearly 7
), bringing my fav. CD's. So until then I'll give you some real impressions...Peace!
First destination was a famous Tube Amp showroom that sells Houston and Duntonic intergrated amplifiers. Not famous for the amps itself, but rather for the hit local movie "Infernal Affairs Part 1", where in a particular scene Andy Lau (a local celeb) auditioned their systems. (I've never seen the movie, but everybody talks about it; the word "Hi-Fi" seems to link with "Infernal Affairs" in HK these days)
Suprisingly, the Duntonic 3i, which is priced around the OTL32, gives quite a sweet and tubey sound on Diana Krall's Look of Love, while giving the cannons on some-CD-like-1812 (forgot!!!) quite a lot of authority. The tubes tend to make the resonances and trailing sound of the cannons longer and giving them extra detail - which appealed to me. Anyways, I didn't stay for long, as the owner didn't seem to like me
I had some spare time at Ap Liu Street afterwards, so I went up to ASL's showroom to have some 'phun'.
NOW HERES WHAT YOU WANT!
Joe Lau wasn't there that day, but a very nice representative, Mr. Poon, invited me to audition the OTL32 and the OTL MK III.
According to Mr. Poon, the MKIII should be better for my Grados as they are designed for a wider range of headphones, while the OTL32 was made to be a pre amp. He told me that neither amps actually does a good job at driving the k1000, actually.
I gave the OTL32 a shot, with the A900, 225 and 497, the OTL32 plugged into a Sony XA77ES.
I switched between the Sony and the amp repeatedly, but circumstances didn't allow me to make clear judgement. I can say the most noticable thing in common between the OTL32 / MKIII and the Sony is how the Sony sounded harsh and sterile (it's NOT, just in comparison, it is) and how smooth the amp sounded. We tended to listen primarily on the Sr225's, as they sound better than the rest on the amps.
I did go_vtec's blackness test on the OTL32, which people talked about its background hiss. But since the surroundings (the ground floor was playing techno with thumping bass) were indesireable for audition, I can't hear the noise floor on the Grados, though my friend who accompanied with me did (I have insensitive ears)
The OTL MK III wasn't such a different beast. We played Dave Brub'z Time Out back and forth and back and forth, only to find differences subtle, between ampless, OTL32 and OTL MK III. Subjectively, I'll call it subtle, but I agree that this dissapointment or small difference was only because I didn't have the chance to listen carefully. Sadly, we had only 30 minutes to an hour (didn't keep track) to audition, but I didn't want Mr. Poon to get home late that night as it was getting late. I was aware that the amp's tubes weren't even warm enough! (Not to mention if the MK III was burnt in yet) DAMN!!!! Luckly Mr. Poon was kind enough to invite me for a second listen, and I could stay much longer to do the comparisons.
So I conclude that today's trip certainly didn't do the amps any justice. But I DID believe once that amps were night and day differences with unamped source, but the "wow" factor was literally zero today, and that is what both my friend and I found too sad to be true.
Side stories:
1) http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=70235
According to that post, how is it said that the OTL MKII only a cosmetical upgrade to the not-so-decent OTL MKII?
2) The salesperson advised me to replace the center tube (12AXX something) with a better one. True?
3) The OTL MKII is 3/4 and less the price of the OTL32, which makes it great. And supposingly it drives low-Z headphones like CD3K and Grados much better. Definetly recommend some head-fi'er to do a review with these babies - shoot, they're real bang-for-thy-bucks !!
4) There are two outputs in 1/4. A switch allows to to choose between OTL mode and transformer mode, which Mr. Poon said that one of them (forgot which one) bypasses the power supply on the module with the tubes stuck in. (Note that there are two power supply's / transformers)
5) My version has no ugly metal cage on it, just pure tube beauty.
I've been told, "You'll be amazed how well the xxxx sounds when you plug it in an amp!" more than once. This xxx, is the Grado 225, Sennheiser 497 and ATH A900 in todays case. Too bad I didn't have that amazement as told. Can you guy stop exagerating please?
:BS warning!: But still, I'm probably buying the MK III for its looks. Unless you guys think that my source, the E-MU 1212m sucks too much to match the MK III aaiiight.
PS: The rep told me I was free to come at 2 PM next time (I came at nearly 7
