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Apheared was kind enough to let me test out his new creation: The Apheared CMoy Variant #42. If you haven't already seen his thread about it, click here (you'll also find pictures there). Here's a brief review:
Apheared designed this amp with the Sennheiser HD-600's in mind. Now here's something you have to know about Apheared in case you didn't know already -- he is extremely fond of Grado headphones and the signature Grado sound. HD-600's aren't really his cup of tea. So why did he make this amp?
Quote:
As most folks here know, the HD-600's have a well-earned reputation for being a bit laid back. The Grados have a reputation for being anything but laid back. Keep this in mind because....
....my HD-600's freaked me out when I plugged them into this amp! Why? Because they were instantly Grado-ized! Don't get me wrong -- this wasn't a bad thing. Especially not for Grado lovers, or folks who love the ability of the Senns to reproduce micro-details but find the overall tonal balance of the Senns too polite. Variant #42 takes the kid from a fancy boarding school and slaps a few tattoos on him.
Over the last six months, I have gone from being a Gradophile to more of a Sennheiserphile, but I still adore the Grado character at times. Through Variant #42, my Sennheisers at times actually sounded like Grado SR-325's that went to etiquette class -- more overall slam than I think even Sennheiser engineers ever knew their HD-600's could produce, yet still providing more bass tautness and treble refinement than I ever heard from the Grado SR-325's. It was a pretty wild experience to hear the HD-600's like that, and it took a true Grado lover with mad amp-building skills to design and voice an amp to do that.
So did I prefer the Grado-ized HD-600's or the more standard, laid-back HD-600's? Well, my tastes have gone to the more laid-back side, so for the HD-600's I'll probably stick with my HeadRoom Max for a while (and I thought my Max brought a forwardness to my HD-600's!).
Where the Variant #42 totally stunned me was (surprisingly) with my Sony MDR-7506/V6's. With Grado SR-80's the Variant #42 was a bit too aggressive to my ears, but it still sounded good. Since the 7506/V6's are also lower impedance (compared to the HD-600's), I figured #42 would have also been too agressive for the 7506/V6's. Not so! In fact, they were magic with them. I thought it might make them overly bright, and that wasn't the case at all. In fact, compared to my Max with the 7506/V6's, the #42 did very well, with the Max edging out the #42 in terms of treble refinement and a bit more reach down low. But the #42 had one very key advantage over every other amp (including the Max) with the 7506/V6's -- soundstage. The normally closed-sounding 7506/V6's opened up significantly with this new amp by Apheared -- impressively enough that I may actually consider paying someone (if not Apheared himself) to build one for me exclusively for use with my 7506/V6's. Simply put, I was floored by the #42's overall performance with the 7506/V6's.
The parts for #42 aren't cheap. Apheared wasn't messin' around with this one, putting a fancy Noble pot on it, among other things. But if you're looking for more attitude from your HD-600's without foregoing the Sennheiser capabilities for catching even the finest details, then this may be the one for you to build next (if you can get your hands on the parts). If you do build it, and you don't already have a pair of 7506/V6's, make sure to pick some up, as you will almost certainly be impressed by this pairing too.
Thanks for two weeks of fun and experimentation, Apheared!
Apheared designed this amp with the Sennheiser HD-600's in mind. Now here's something you have to know about Apheared in case you didn't know already -- he is extremely fond of Grado headphones and the signature Grado sound. HD-600's aren't really his cup of tea. So why did he make this amp?
Quote:
"I decided to make an HD600 portable amp. Not that I really like HD600s or plan on walking around with them, but hey it's a project." |
As most folks here know, the HD-600's have a well-earned reputation for being a bit laid back. The Grados have a reputation for being anything but laid back. Keep this in mind because....
....my HD-600's freaked me out when I plugged them into this amp! Why? Because they were instantly Grado-ized! Don't get me wrong -- this wasn't a bad thing. Especially not for Grado lovers, or folks who love the ability of the Senns to reproduce micro-details but find the overall tonal balance of the Senns too polite. Variant #42 takes the kid from a fancy boarding school and slaps a few tattoos on him.
Over the last six months, I have gone from being a Gradophile to more of a Sennheiserphile, but I still adore the Grado character at times. Through Variant #42, my Sennheisers at times actually sounded like Grado SR-325's that went to etiquette class -- more overall slam than I think even Sennheiser engineers ever knew their HD-600's could produce, yet still providing more bass tautness and treble refinement than I ever heard from the Grado SR-325's. It was a pretty wild experience to hear the HD-600's like that, and it took a true Grado lover with mad amp-building skills to design and voice an amp to do that.
So did I prefer the Grado-ized HD-600's or the more standard, laid-back HD-600's? Well, my tastes have gone to the more laid-back side, so for the HD-600's I'll probably stick with my HeadRoom Max for a while (and I thought my Max brought a forwardness to my HD-600's!).
Where the Variant #42 totally stunned me was (surprisingly) with my Sony MDR-7506/V6's. With Grado SR-80's the Variant #42 was a bit too aggressive to my ears, but it still sounded good. Since the 7506/V6's are also lower impedance (compared to the HD-600's), I figured #42 would have also been too agressive for the 7506/V6's. Not so! In fact, they were magic with them. I thought it might make them overly bright, and that wasn't the case at all. In fact, compared to my Max with the 7506/V6's, the #42 did very well, with the Max edging out the #42 in terms of treble refinement and a bit more reach down low. But the #42 had one very key advantage over every other amp (including the Max) with the 7506/V6's -- soundstage. The normally closed-sounding 7506/V6's opened up significantly with this new amp by Apheared -- impressively enough that I may actually consider paying someone (if not Apheared himself) to build one for me exclusively for use with my 7506/V6's. Simply put, I was floored by the #42's overall performance with the 7506/V6's.
The parts for #42 aren't cheap. Apheared wasn't messin' around with this one, putting a fancy Noble pot on it, among other things. But if you're looking for more attitude from your HD-600's without foregoing the Sennheiser capabilities for catching even the finest details, then this may be the one for you to build next (if you can get your hands on the parts). If you do build it, and you don't already have a pair of 7506/V6's, make sure to pick some up, as you will almost certainly be impressed by this pairing too.
Thanks for two weeks of fun and experimentation, Apheared!