[Videoshielded]

Any Head-Fi'ers out there using the Bottlehead S.E.X. amp for their headphone amp?

I've made some of their other stuff and really liked it. I haven't done the S.E.X. amp because I already have a tube headphone amp. The Bottlehead community and pro reviewers are posting favorable feedback, but I'm curious what the headphone junkies here might have to say.

 

[Todd R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Videoshielded Any Head-Fi'ers out there using the Bottlehead S.E.X. amp for their headphone amp? I've made some of their other stuff and really liked it. I haven't done the S.E.X. amp because I already have a tube headphone amp. The Bottlehead community and pro reviewers are posting favorable feedback, but I'm curious what the headphone junkies here might have to say.

Yep, I am!

I'm really liking it. Some who heard it at the Chicago show thought it was a bit too tubey sounding, and dead stock it might be, but on the other hand that sound really complimented the Grado headphones IMO.

Since then I have replaced the signal wires & jacks with Cardas and that opened it up and added clarity.

I replaced the signal path resistors with Dale / Vishay resistors and that made it a bit cleaner & quieter. It was very quiet before, but this was one of those cases where you didn't realize you had noise until it was gone. Less than $5, it's worth doing.

I replaced the coupling caps and the output caps with Auricaps. This made the biggest difference. The amp has a gained speed & snap.

It's a very good amp and remember you can also use it to drive an effecient pair of speakers too!

 

[Randy Taylor]

Wow ! I just started looking thur this forum myself recently and was surprized not to be reading more about the SEX amp myself like you do on other forums about using this amp as a headphone amp, in fact I asked about the same question this morning on another thread on this forum "Looking for tube amp" and then I see this thread this afternoon, cool. I have not built the S.E.X. amp kit myself yet, but I have read about others on other forums with ears that I trust and they seem to like it big time. I have built the foreplay(preamp) and the seduction(phono stage) and they sound great and to me offer big bang for the buck and I'am sure the SEX amp does too

 

[Randy Taylor]

Todd R.,
That's what is nice about all the bottlehead amps is that they are a reasonably priced kit that has good parts that come with them and being that you are building them and they are point to point wiring they are easy to upgrade with better caps, resistors and wire to a even higher end amp that takes you to a sonic higher level.
Randy

 

[Todd R]

Randy,
Supposedly Doc is going to have an upgrade to the SEX amp with the CS4, better caps and some new transformers. Hope it's not too expensive.

Yeah, they are pretty easy to upgrade. the resistors and caps took probably 20-30 min. The wiring took longer, but wasn't bad.

I built the Seduction and CS4 upgrade too.....that was fun & sounds great.
I'm tempted build my whole stereo from Bottlehead if they only had morepowerful amps.

 

[DoubtingThomas]

wondering, did doc put you up to posting this thread?

-------------------------------------------------
Posted by Doc B. (M) on March 09, 2005 at 17:36:08

I've been watching with frustration over at the amp forum on Headfi.org. I see a lot of "what tube amp to buy?" discussions, followed by a lot of "well this might not work with your phones because it uses 6DJ8s (insert 6SN7, 12AU7s, etc. here) and the output impedance is too high" or "well this one puts out a lot of power - it uses a 5687";^)>, but never is there any mention of the S.E.X. amp.

Obviously I can't go over there and toot my own horn. Could someone who participates over there suggest simply that folks might consider a S.E.X. amp along with their other tube headphone amp options? It would be much appreciated.

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/bo...ges/93859.html

 

[timoteus]

Ha, I think the bigger question is who are you and what's your agenda that you would register today and make this your first post?

 

[philodox]

Exactly what I was thinking... what a goof.

 

[DoubtingThomas]

< Ha, I think the bigger question is who are you and what's your agenda that you would register today and make this your first post?

well my agenda isn't to pimp products. but a post like this makes me feel good that there are people out there who will give advice without having heard the product only to get the gratitude of their little internet hero. and like he said he cant very well come over here and advertize for himself.

< Exactly what I was thinking... what a goof.

nothing wrong with asking a question here is there?

 

[philodox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoubtingThomas nothing wrong with asking a question here is there?

No, but I think you took the wrong approach to it. I certaintly would not go out of my way to soil the name of a manufacturer simply because he would like to see people become aware of his products. I also think that having such a negative attitude in your first post here was a bad call.

As an aside, I heard Todd's Bottlehead SEX amp at the Chicago meet and it was very nice. A little tubey for my taste, but at that price it is an amazing deal.

 

[maxxfell]

I've briefly heard Todd's S.E.X. amp since he upgraded the resistors, wire, and caps. To me it sounded very good indeed. Fast and tightly focussed, if anything somewhat forward sounding. So if the opposite of that is tubey, then Todd's amp didn't sound tubey to my ears. It does have really nice soundstaging and a smooth, liquid sounding midrange. I listened on my DT880's and Todd's 650's.

[joke]It even managed to make Sennheisers sound good![/joke]

 

[Capt. Z]

Has anyone compared the SEX amp against the WooAudio 3 or Singlepower MPX 3 amp?

 

[Todd R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxxfell I've briefly heard Todd's S.E.X. amp since he upgraded the resistors, wire, and caps.

Actually you heard it before I did the resistor change

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxxfell It even managed to make Sennheisers sound good!

Of course the Senn's sounded good, why were you surprised?

 

[gsferrari]

I am a few dollars away from my SEX kit. I should be able to afford one next week. Quite excited

I have silver wire, solder, cardas RCA and a DACT attenuator waiting for this kit to show up

YAY!

 

[Videoshielded]

Hey, I didn't suggest to anybody that they should consider it. I asked if any of the regulars (whose depth of experience with the sound of various tube headphone amps I trust more) had any experience that would convince ME to consider it.

Since you don't appear to be one of the regulars, let me welcome you to the group, to the extent you think you might get anything out of hanging around and sharing experiences about headphone audio. Otherwise, I'm sure there's a separate forum for well-intended moderator-wannabes somewhere else.