[Jibz]

 
Quote:

Just a shout out to David of Acoustic-Fun, the maker of the Sheer Audio HA-006+. He was very quick to respond to my questions and did so in detail. It looks like he supports his products 100%.
 
I obviously have yet to take delivery of my new amp but if you are considering a Dynalo the HA-006+ seems to be a solid choice. 

Yeah, I'd like to know how it performs with this amp. Essentially a wire with gain from what I've read. The Audinst HUD-MX1 DAC is good, but the Amp portion seems a little bright on an already bright headphone!
 
Please follow up with impressions

 

[MCC]

 
Quote:

Yeah, I'd like to know how it performs with this amp. Essentially a wire with gain from what I've read. The Audinst HUD-MX1 DAC is good, but the Amp portion seems a little bright on an already bright headphone!
 
Please follow up with impressions

 
I'm having it shipped it to my school address so I won't be able to listen to it until after break, somewhere around the 10th if it arrives by then. It's shipping from Canada to the US so I didn't want to risk sending it home only to have it arrive after I went back to school.

 

[MCC]

I just received the HA-006+ Plus Edition this morning. The first thing I noticed was that the default gain of 11 is far too much for me, I've already modified it for unity gain. Even with unity gain I rarely go past 8:30 on the volume dial. I am a low volume listener but I don't see why anyone would need anything higher than unity gain for ATH-AD2000s.
 
I won't get into too much depth here since I haven't had enough time with it yet, nor have I done much in the way of direct comparisons with my other amps. I'll post a review in Head Gear once I feel I'm ready to do so. This may be a while since I need to ensure that my review isn't tainted by new gear syndrome.
 
My first impressions:
 
This amp is warmer than any of my others! It's enough to tame brighter recordings but it's just a bit too much with warm ones. The bass of the AD2000s is really brought out with this amp. Yet I'm given the impression that the bass is a little slow and maybe even a tinge muddy. It may be that my ears haven't yet adjusted to the lush, full bass of the HA-006+.
 
The overall sound is very non-fatiguing and enjoyable. While the bass is more present than what I'm accustomed to it does not cover the detail. Female vocals are smooth and articulate but just the right amount of graininess shines through when it should be there. This is a balance my other amps don't get quite right with the ATH-AD2000.
 
Overall I'm impressed by this amplifier. It's definitely a keeper. I have a stepped attenuator on the way and hopefully it will offer some improvements over the cheap stock carbon pot.
 
Although I bought it used and damaged from a fall, my power rails measure within a few hundredths of a volt of the target of 15v and the DC offset was negligible at powerup. The power rails are connected to the PSU via a pair of small wire jumpers so adding an external PSU should be trivial for those who wish to do so.
 
I've studied the dynalo schematic, some images of the Gilmore Lite/GS-1, and the HA-006++ special edition. I've already planned some mods that will hopefully do something about the slightly "slow" nature of the sound I'm hearing. I'm thinking of adding 2x 470uf, 4x 220uf and 4x 0.33uf capacitors (Nichicon KZ?/Wima) to the power rails.
 
Currently my stock amplifier has:
2x 0.1uf (voltage rails)
2x 0.33uf (DC servo)
2x 4.7uf Wima MKS4 (voltage rails)
2x 1000uf 35v Elna Silmic II (voltage rails, marked 2200uf on PCB)
2x 4700uf 35v United Chemi-con KMG (early PSU stage)

 

[Jibz]

Sounds very promising. I recently went to a headphone meet and feel like my amp at home isn't as warm as some of the amps I listened through. Not necessarily not as "warm" but more that my amp is too bright!
 
It sounds like a good amp but as always, looking at the specs of the higher end version make me wonder if I'll be missing out on anything by getting the standard version, seeing as I'm not savvy when it comes to electronics!
 
Thanks for your impressions, I'd be interested to see the final post you make so do remember to link us there when you are ready!
 
 Cheers!