[sridhar3]

Quote:

I have lost count of the number of times a HeadFier has tried to lump the HiFiMan cans with the other orthos: WHY ??????  I was able to drive the T50RP to reasonable levels with my iBasso D4 portable, but I would never even mention those cans in a thread about the HiFiMan orthos - the only thing they share is a common design principle. Skylab was able to drive the LCD2 from a couple of portable amps he tested, but I doubt that he would even bother with the HE series : whatever came out the other end wouldnt be an accurate reflection of their capabilities. As others have pointed out, you cant just look at an impedance rating and make assumptions, but we seem to do it with monotonous regularity - witness various posts from nitwits claiming that Grados dont benefit from amping.
 
Can we please move on from this ? If the crew at 6Moons can work it out, surely we can.

You win this thread.
 
And to keep things on topic, I just ordered a Virtue TWO.2 to drive the HE-6.  A few people mentioned a T-amp can drive these phones without any difficulty.  I understand that when cabling for these, the wiring has to be balanced to four speaker taps with ground leads isolated.  Anything else I should know about cabling so I don't have magic smoke coming out of my amp?  Also, from my understanding, this amp shouldn't need an impedance box, as it's putting out less than 70wpc.
 
Please let me know if anything I've said is wrong.  I'm new to the world of Class D, and I don't want to destroy anything.

 

[Happy Camper]

Quote:

Power has a little bit more impact than just volume in general.  Power is required for those difficult complex passages or very dynamic passages, which can tax an underpowered, heavily loaded amplifier, sure it will be a reasonable volume, but during those transient or not so transient passages, an amplifier that has less power can start to do strange things, enter the world of non-linear transfer functions.  Not all amplifiers deal with operating non-linearly the same way.  So on average I could agree with your statement, that reasonable listening levels can be achieved with less than a watt, but remember the sensitivity of a phone is measured with a single pure tone, and an amplifiers output capability is for total power, so what do you do when the music gets more complex and the collective powers start to add up?
 
I've never heard the Burson, but with the kind of power it offers you really don't have a whole lot of dynamic headroom, take into the account that a stressed active part can do a number of different things to whats going into it.  I'm not saying that power is everything, but believe it or not, there is some measurable science to at least some of audio, and certain things do need to make sense, as we aren't listening to pure tones.  If you look at music through a RT spectrum analyzer you will see many tones simultaneously.  So what it means is that with am amp like the Burson you will be limited to listening to less complex music, in some cases also less dynamic music.  In high frequency world we call this spur free dynamic range, and you will find that in order to maintain a high spur free dynamic range, you need to have lots of reserve power, well over what is required of the single largest signal in the "environment" in our case the music.  Or you will listen at a lower volume, and once you aren't listening to the phones at the same level you are not really comparing apples to apples, so this goes back to kwkarth's statement, profficiently?
 

I like how you think stranger.
 
I've been saying that higher wattage quality amps will scale well with these as they are speakers with earcups. Once powered with plenty of current reserves, hang on. More power strengthens the hold on the diaphragm, making sensitivity a non issue. My biggest surprises are how much bass energy and soft instruments perform with equal attention and fixed in a pretty good soundstage. They do not get congested or collapse when demanding material is thrown at them.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

Quote:

You win this thread.
 
And to keep things on topic, I just ordered a Virtue TWO.2 to drive the HE-6.  A few people mentioned a T-amp can drive these phones without any difficulty.  I understand that when cabling for these, the wiring has to be balanced to four speaker taps with ground leads isolated.  Anything else I should know about cabling so I don't have magic smoke coming out of my amp?  Also, from my understanding, this amp shouldn't need an impedance box, as it's putting out less than 70wpc.
 
Please let me know if anything I've said is wrong.  I'm new to the world of Class D, and I don't want to destroy anything.

I tried the prototype HE-6 with the CitySpot 2020 T-Amp and it was a complete fail. The production model may work slightly better but still would be far from ideal.

 

[Carlsan]

Quote:

Even the Lyr is source-level dependent with the HE-6, a 5-volt or better input level would be ideal according to the chart on this review page:
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/schiit/11.html
 

Not sure about input levels, but my EE Minimax does an excellent job with the Lyr running the HE-6.
My setup is the Lyr running off of the Eastern Electric Minimax Tube Dac with a Musical Fidelity V-Link for the USB connection.
Both the LCD-2 and the HE-6 sound great in this setup. T-1's sound nice as well.
 
I also own the Burson Audio HA-160 but I haven't had a chance to try it with the HE-6. Thought it did a good job with the LCD-2 and T-1's. Both still sound better going out of the Lyr.
 

 

[sridhar3]

Quote:

I tried the prototype HE-6 with the CitySpot 2020 T-Amp and it was a complete fail. The production model may work slightly better but still would be far from ideal.

With all due respect, as I know you're a highly knowledgable member of Head-Fi: The HE-6 thread in the High-End Forum had at least three members who stated amping the HE-6 with a Virtue Audio amplifier.  One of the three, HiFlight, is using the same specific one I purchased, the TWO.2.  That's actually why I ordered it.
 
My post was more directed to what I should be making sure to keep in mind as far as cabling goes.  Isolating ground leads is key, as I'm told, but I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything else that I should be taking into consideration.

 

[grokit]

Knock yourself out, I am just sharing my experience with you.
 
I have never tried the Virtue TWO.2 but for a $150 amp I will put this up against the Cityspot I tried for sure:
 

 
Comes fully balanced (dual mono), bridgeable.
 

 

[Wedge]

Why have class D if you can have class A for the same price?  

 

 

[grokit]

I agree. It's about current reserves as well with this headphone, not just wattage. I really don't know, isn't class D for digital basically op-amps, and isn't the T-amp similar to that as well? There's no substitute for wire-wound transformers when it comes down to delivering the current reserves that the HE-6 thrives on. The Alesis is officially a "class AB studio reference amplifier". Two full rack spaces full of transformers, capacitors, and heat sinks :•)

 

[Wedge]

Just to make myself more clear I was actually referring to sidhar3 buying a Class D amp when he or she has a Lyr, cause I remember seeing him or her post in the Lyr tube rolling thread.  
 
Quote:

I agree. It's about current reserves as well with this headphone, not just wattage. The Alesis is class AB though.

 

 

[grokit]

Right. The Lyr is definitely class AB as well when it gets itself into HE-6 territory.

 

[sridhar3]

Ugh, double post.

 

[sridhar3]

Quote:

Just to make myself more clear I was actually referring to sidhar3 buying a Class D amp when he or she has a Lyr, cause I remember seeing him or her post in the Lyr tube rolling thread.  

I do have the Lyr, but I don't think it's pure Class A.  But you're not wrong in the point you're trying to make, as it's pretty well-documented that the Lyr can drive the HE-6 with authority.
 
My reason for going for a T-amp was twofold: simple curiosity and future-proofing.  First off, I want to hear what it sounds like, and I don't currently own a solid state amp.  Can't really know what's out there until you try it for yourself.  Secondly, I'm planning to eventually invest in a 2.0 setup with some Magnepans, which the people at Virtue state this amp can drive.
 
At the end of the day, all this stuff about Class A and Class D is science.  And the truth is, I don't know a damn thing about audio and electrical engineering.  All I know is what sounds good to me, and that's all my goal is in trying new gear.
 
Edit: Yeah, Grokit beat me to it.  The Lyr is AB when driving the HE-6.  Anyway, I thought that pure Class A gear in that price range can't drive the HE-6? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Wedge]

It might not be, but the first couple of watts are definitely if it quiescently consumes 30W of power.
 
Quote:

Quote:

I do have the Lyr, but I don't think it's pure Class A.  But you're not wrong in the point you're trying to make, as it's pretty well-documented that the Lyr can drive the HD-6 with authority.
 
My reason for going for a T-amp was twofold: simple curiosity and future-proofing.  First off, I want to hear what it sounds like, and I don't currently own a solid state amp.  Can't really know what's out there until you try it for yourself.  Secondly, I'm planning to eventually invest in a 2.0 setup with some Magnepans, which the people at Virtue state this amp can drive.

 

 

[grokit]

That Virtue TWO.2 does look much better than the Citispot, they have crammed a lot into that enclosure. And for current reserves they have some nice optional power supplies like that 30 volt 10 amp Dodd (for $250).
But for my money, well you know where I stand 

 

[Wedge]

Class A or Class AB still better IMO to drive anything than Class D, Class D has to really be done properly in order for it to sound good, and usually it still falls short and winds up costing ALOT of money as well.  
 
Quote:

Quote:
 
Edit: Yeah, Grokit beat me to it.  The Lyr is AB when driving the HE-6.  Anyway, I thought that pure Class A gear in that price range can't drive the HE-6? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.