Audio-gd Master-5/6/8/9 balanced head amp/ preamp

[SoupRKnowva]

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Nice, Soup. Kingwa says it's a better pre than the M8, which is getting high marks from those here using is with speakers. Should be a great time ahead for you. Those speakers burning in nicely for you?
 
-Daniel

 
Thats the reason i went with it. I was thinking someday i might have to get back into headphones, so i could spend the extra 200 bucks for the 8 instead of the 1, but i didnt want to take any hit on the pre amp sound quality at all. And ill have a ACSS rig end to end at least for the digital side, running a NFB 1.32 as a dac. I still think kingwa should make an ACSS balanced phono stage but i guess it isnt meant to be.
 
I think most of the major changes have occured already to their sound, they sound really really nice. Though i havent been able to listen at all for the last week or so, since i sold my D2 to fund the turntable/Master 1 purchase. getting antsy waiting for the master 1 to arrive so i can start listening again. Since before i was running the D2 straight into the Master 3, i didnt need a pre, but with the turntable now, i needed one, which just made getting the table that much more money haha
 
Edit: yeah people have been saying that his headphone amps make better preamps for quite a while now, even back in the pheonix days people said it wasnt a bad headphone amp, but that it was a state of the art pre amp, im pretty excited about it.

 

[BournePerfect]

Nice. If you get back into headphones, there are numerous people here who are getting great quality from speaker outs of various amps. I'd suggest an ortho or 300Ohm+ cans with what you have before deciding if you need a seperate headphone amp imo.
 
Quick question: Would there be any forseeable problems using the M8 as a pre to my Leviathan (6-8 watts @ 8ohm) down the line? It will be an integrated, but would love to try the combo sometime I'm sure. It's just that you always hear of tube preamps to ss amps, but not the other way around-just wondering if there's any issues?
 
-Daniel

 

[SoupRKnowva]

Quote:

Nice. If you get back into headphones, there are numerous people here who are getting great quality from speaker outs of various amps. I'd suggest an ortho or 300Ohm+ cans with what you have before deciding if you need a seperate headphone amp imo.

 
If i get back into headphones, itll be a pair of HD800s, and if thats the case, i think i would just make adaptors and run them off the XLR outputs on the back of the Master 1, sure it wouldnt be quite as good as the headphone out of the master 8, but as i said before, id rather than State of the Art pre with slighter lesser(for high impedance cans) headphone performance, than the other way around.

 

[LarsHP]

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If i get back into headphones, itll be a pair of HD800s, and if thats the case, i think i would just make adaptors and run them off the XLR outputs on the back of the Master 1, sure it wouldnt be quite as good as the headphone out of the master 8, but as i said before, id rather than State of the Art pre with slighter lesser(for high impedance cans) headphone performance, than the other way around.

Using XLR pre out to feed a HD800?
As I have understood it, a high impedance headphone should have a lot of voltage swing (20-30 Volts) and the pre out won't have that - or am I wrong?

 

[SoupRKnowva]

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Quote:

If i get back into headphones, itll be a pair of HD800s, and if thats the case, i think i would just make adaptors and run them off the XLR outputs on the back of the Master 1, sure it wouldnt be quite as good as the headphone out of the master 8, but as i said before, id rather than State of the Art pre with slighter lesser(for high impedance cans) headphone performance, than the other way around.

Using XLR pre out to feed a HD800?
As I have understood it, a high impedance headphone should have a lot of voltage swing (20-30 Volts) and the pre out won't have that - or am I wrong?

 
Eh, the Master 1 can swing 19 volts out of its XLR pre outs, and its output impedance is only 10 ohms, it may not be quite as good as a master 8 would be, but im sure it would work just fine, specially considering the power supplies that kingwa always puts in his gear. Not to mention this is a pretty hypothetical situation, i dont anticipate actually doing it

 

[BournePerfect]

Well it outputs 19V off  the XLRs. But I was refering to conecting the HD800 off of the speaker taps of the Master 3. Either or I guess.
 
-Daniel

 

[SoupRKnowva]

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Well it outputs 19V off  the XLRs. But I was refering to conecting the HD800 off of the speaker taps of the Master 3. Either or I guess.
 
-Daniel

i actually ran a set of HD800s off the Master 3 at a meet a couple weeks ago. Worked pretty well, but i bet that running them off the xlr outs of the pre would sound better. but again i doubt i will ever actually do either, im gonna be trying my darndest to not move in anywhere that i cant use my speakers.

 

[SoupRKnowva]

So my master 1 arrived today, and while i have no sources to plug into it currently, the thing is a work of beauty, and as a preamp it weighs more than most power amps do these days, what a monster!

 

[tim3320070]

Selling my Master-5 if anyone is interested- see link in my signature

 

[bbbonthemoon]

Anyone could give impressions on master 8? Looks very impressive on paper, but no users reviews available, and there are quite a few for sale after 2-3 months use only. Makes it hard to decide.

 

[nigeljames]

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Anyone could give impressions on master 8? Looks very impressive on paper, but no users reviews available, and there are quite a few for sale after 2-3 months use only. Makes it hard to decide.

 
Have not got the Master-8 but have its predessesor the Master-6. All I can say is I love it 

I would expect the Master-8 to sound the same.
 
Plenty of power, even for the HE-6's, sound excellent with all my phones. Stunning bass, detail and dynamics.
IMO you won't get a better more versatile amp for the money.
 
I don't know anybody who has had the Master-5/6/8 who has been disappointed.
Very revealing of source to make sure your source is up to scratch.

 

[LarsHP]

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Anyone could give impressions on master 8? Looks very impressive on paper, but no users reviews available, and there are quite a few for sale after 2-3 months use only. Makes it hard to decide.

The Master 8 is a Master 5 and 6 in one box. There is a button on the back where you select the output power which changes from the 5's output to the 6's output. This means that the M8 is comparable to either M5 or M6 according to the setting.
 
I also have the M6, and I am hugely impressed by its SQ. Truely high end / reference level. Build like a tank. Heavy like a tank too

I would have liked to have the functionality of the M8 though:
When using it as pre amp or with phones other than my HE-6 I would have prefered the lower gain and power ~ M5.

 

[bbbonthemoon]

Thanks for the impressions guys! I'm shopping for powerhouse amplifier, and my other options are Ron Samuels Dark Star and Cavalli Liquid Glass/Liquid Gold, both are more than twice the price(LAu x4 the price), thats why Master 8 looks so interesting. Any of you had a chance to compare Master 8 to any of these amps? Wondering if they worth the extra $.

 

[nigeljames]

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Thanks for the impressions guys! I'm shopping for powerhouse amplifier, and my other options are Ron Samuels Dark Star and Cavalli Liquid Glass/Liquid Gold, both are more than twice the price(LAu x4 the price), thats why Master 8 looks so interesting. Any of you had a chance to compare Master 8 to any of these amps? Wondering if they worth the extra $.

 
I would not bother with the Dark Star given that it's a $1750 amp in a $1750 case.
 
The Cavalli's could be nice but at their price they would need to be a hell of a lot better than the Master-8. Personally I doubt they are that much better if at all because in that price range there is only preferred not better a such.

 

[elwappo99]

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I would not bother with the Dark Star given that it's a $1750 amp in a $1750 case.
 
The Cavalli's could be nice but at their price they would need to be a hell of a lot better than the Master-8. Personally I doubt they are that much better if at all because in that price range there is only preferred not better a such.

 
Agreed on both points. The price points of those amplifiers is really starting to become excessive. I think they know their market and think they can pump out an amp like that and just run the prices up.
 
 
Has anyone compared these amps to the Mjolnir?