[Tyson]

OK, I have a singlepower supra, and I like it quite a bit. But, I think maybe it's just a weeeee bit under powered for the super low impedance that the Lawton audio (Denon) D5000's represent. So, I'm thinking I should sell the SP Supra and get something either transformer coupled (such as the Woo Audio 4), or a hybrid (such as the Millet Max).

In your opinion, what is the best amp with a bit of tube flavor, that can drive a super low imdedance?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Have you considered Donald North's Sonett? I didn't try it with Denons, but was very impressed with the HD-800 and several Grados. The 6H30 is a terrific tube - one you won't find in many (if any) other headphone amps. Tubes are reasonable and available, too. Construction is all point-to-point and is well laid out. Donald is a good guy, too. He'd be happy to talk with you about the amp.

 

[atothex]

I won't pretend like I'm super experienced, but I love everything about Eddie Current. Haven't heard the ZDT, but I have heard the Nautilus... The Balancing Act is a monster, and is pretty much at/near the top of my list of dream amps. The Millet 307A is up there, too. I have no idea which is better. One day, I hope to hear a top tier balanced hybrid.

 

[takezo]

i'd love to try the millet 307a... the ZDT sounds attractive too.

 

[KingStyles]

Price range? I see you commenting on a lot of classical questions.I figured you would have wanted a more neutral tube amp. Do you want one with the typical rolled off treble or one that has a lot of high end sparkle. You said you wanted a little tube flavor, does that mean a little warm with a little roll off?

 

[Tyson]

Little warm, not a little rolled off. Price? About $1500.

 

[moonboy403]

See if you can audition the DNA Sonett. It has a output impedance or either 27 or 120 ohms.

On the other hand, I was under the impression that all SP amps have an impedance of around 20 ohms.

 

[KingStyles]

How about a fully loaded wa6se. Comparable to the zana deux for less cost. Easy tube rolling to get your warmth. Its rated as low as 8 ohms with high and low impedance jacks and approx 1 watt worth of power output. Should do the trick. Plenty of good opinions by respected members. Ill be trying one out on sunday with d7000s. At that price range it seems to be the leader.

 

[mrarroyo]

Tyson, I have the D2000 and D5000 and my Singlepower MPX3 Slam SE drives them beautifully. This w/ a 5670 as a driver and a pair of 6BL7 as output tubes. Can your Supra use that tube combo? Best of luck.

 

[IPodPJ]

I heard my modded D5000 with the DNA Sonett. While I don't really care for the D5000 anymore (since getting the HD800) they do sound nice with this amp, as do most headphones. For the price I think you will be hard pressed to find one that beats it. The amp costs $1200 I believe. You would have to jump up to $2300 (Eddie Current Zana Deux) to really get to the next level. The Sonett comes in both single ended output and balanced output versions for the same price.

 

[Tyson]

Update, I was close to selling my Supra and getting a ZDT, and I took it to a tech (Wayne at Bolder Cables, here in Colorado) to give it a tune up, because I was hearing a slight, intermittent noise in the right channel. Bad news was that the internals of the amp was a mess, and the engineering was piss poor (ie, there was a good chance that it might have actually exploded, yes exploded like a hand grenade).

Obviously, the cost to fix it is quite high, and I have no choice but to go that route, as there is no way I would sell this unit as it was to anyone else.

But, the good news is that not only is he going to be able to fix it, but he will also be able to optimize the circuit to sound it's best using 6bl7's and custom transformers to drive my low impedance LA-2000 headphones. You gotta love that

 

[moonboy403]

How much is he gonna charge you?

 

[Tyson]

The short answer is, right now I don't know.

The long answer is that the repairs are extensive. The power transformer is putting out WAY TOO MUCH voltage for this circuit. And the (cheap) parts in there are not rated to handle anywhere near this level of voltage. And because of the way voltage, current, and low impedance loads work, that means it's putting out 2.5mW of power to the Denon's (and only 1.2mW in Class A). That's pathetic. And there's 500v in the case just waiting to escape and kill your @ss. Grrrr. When I think about the fact that my 2 year old daughter likes to listen to my headphones it enrages me.

Back on topic - the changes needed are 3 fold - 1) Get a new input Power Transformer that's better quality and is half the voltage of the current one. 2) Replace the cheap, incorrectly spec'd parts in the power supply with better, appropriately spec'd ones (ie, get some HEXFRED diodes, and some Solen Film caps to replace the cheap electrolytics). 3) Optimize the output to be transformer coupled and use much better quality caps in the output circuit (ie, Obbligato film in oil caps and Sowter & Lundhal transformers).

The cost in parts alone adds up very, very quickly.

Once the work is done I'll start a new thread, thoroughly detailing everything involved during this whole process.

In the meantime, I suggest ANYONE that owns a single power amp to contact Wayne at Bolder Cables to see about getting it checked up. He was able to identify several major problems on mine just from an understanding of the circuit, combined with hi-rez pics I sent of the internals, and telling him the values of various parts on the board.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyson /img/forum/go_quote.gif OK, I have a singlepower supra, and I like it quite a bit. But, I think maybe it's just a weeeee bit under powered for the super low impedance that the Lawton audio (Denon) D5000's represent. So, I'm thinking I should sell the SP Supra and get something either transformer coupled (such as the Woo Audio 4), or a hybrid (such as the Millet Max). In your opinion, what is the best amp with a bit of tube flavor, that can drive a super low imdedance?

The loaner LA7000 I have here and my almost LA2000 (APS V2 4-pin XLR cable instead of Jenna) both sound best off my Eddie Current Zana Deux Transformer amp, while in direct comparison the Woo WA22 prototype didn't seem to sound nearly as good with Denons (or my K1000). This is despite the fact that the WA22 is very close to the ZDT with other phones like the Grado RS-1, HF-2 and Senn HD800. Strangely, even my maxed WA6 seemed to drive the LA7000 and LA2000 better than the WA22 (but not the K1000), and it does a very good job except for a smaller soundstage and less power than the WA22 or ZDT. I don't know if the final version of WA22 will do better with the Denons or not.

The Denon also do well with inexpensive tube hybrids like EF1, EF2, CTH and Millett SSH, for those with a smaller budget - while a similarly priced Darkvoice 336i did not do very well. So I suspect the Millett Max would be a good choice as well, for a lot less dough than my favorite ZDT.

EDIT - Tyson, I see you are here in Colorado. We could try sometime to get together for you to try your Denon on the ZDT and my maxed WA6 with PDPS mod (and possibly sell to you now that I have the ZDT, but I'm not 100% sure I want to sell). You could also try them on my cheap EF2 and Millett SSH to get an idea of how a tube hybrid sounds with them.

 

[KingStyles]

Hows the power output on the wa6 with the mods compared to the wa6 se. Dosent the wa6se produce more power? The se didnt seem to have any problem driving them when I tried it out with the d7000.