[KShaft]

Building your corda HA-1 with a regular 1/4 inch jack as opposed to the 1/8 inchers?

Reason being is that I am considering buying an exotic pair of headphones, and i wouldnt think of puting an adapter on them.

kind of insulting....

just wondering,

k.s.

 

[kelly]

I second this. It's hard to take an amp seriously that comes with a 1/8" jack. I understand that a large portion of the market may use stock Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic cables that terminate to 1/8", but those also include 1/4" adapters and they're less finicky about such things. (Those of us who are finicky consider the Sennheiser cable upgrades that terminate to 1/4" or we use other headphones that terminate to 1/4".)

I may end up using my HA-1 with Etymotics, eventually, in which case I have a good pairing anyway. But in general, serious amps should come with 1/4" jacks.

 

[grinch]

i would suggest e-mailing him about it and asking. you never know if he'll do this for you. besides, you could always go the diy route, get the kit, dremel out the holes in the front a bit and add your own 1/4" terminations.. couldn't you? (diy people help me out here)

i would think that publicly complaining about it isn't the right way to go.. just my opinion though..

 

[kelly]

Quote:

Originally posted by grinch i would think that publicly complaining about it isn't the right way to go.. just my opinion though..

I think the forum is the best place to express your views on products. I don't consider the HA-1 to have many faults and its received its fair share of compliments. That someone has a small suggestion is not what I'd consider insulting. I didn't read the original post as a complaint--if anything, my followup is more of a complaint.

 

[Persiflage]

I think that he has mentioned his some of his reasoning for the before. He said that with the smaller jack it would be less likely for a yank on the headphone cord to pull the amplifier off a shelf or table, but would instead just yank the plug out of the jack. With the larger 1/4" jack, it would be more likely that the amplifier itself would be yanked, and then possibly fall.

 

[slindeman]

See http://head-fi.com/forums/showthread...ighlight=1%2F4 for Jan's reasons.

Yes you can easily add (DIY) a panel mount 1/4" jack to the Corda. All you need is the jack, a drill, a soldering iron, and three pieces of insulated wire. Just hook it up in parallel with one of the other two jacks depending on if you want the 0 ohm impedance or the 120 ohm. A 15 minute job to make it work, more if you want it to look nice.

I've thought about doing it but don't think its worth the effort. If I was that worried about the headphone jack size or avoiding an adapter cable, I would probably be buying a very expensive amp with a stepped attenuator (and stepped attenuators are even looked down upon in the DIY forum at AudioAsylum) or be doing-it-all-myself (amp, interconnects, and headphone cable included) with premium parts, layouts, and configurations. In other words, if you're as finicky as you say you are then I don't think the Corda was really targeted to you.

Standard headphone cables and potentiometers are a much weaker link, imo, than a 1/8" jack will ever be. I would replace those long before I worried about the headphone jack size.

"But in general, serious amps should come with 1/4" jacks"

I just think serious amps should be worth what they cost. That's all. The Corda is.

Edit: I would prefer all headphone amps to have one jack of each size for convenience sake, but for sound quality I don't think it makes any difference at the Corda's price point.

 

[kelly]

There are a number of reasons why the Corda's price point is lower than other amps. That it is a less serious amp is not one of them. The Corda easily competes with more expensive amps--in my opinion, that it comes with 1/8" jacks along with its lower price point combine to give a lower perception of value than the amp deserves.

Thanks for the link, Slim.

 

[markjia]

I'm thinking that perhaps some people would not really be affected by the 1/8" jack since many popular headphones use a 1/8" plug. Take the HD 580/600, they both use a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter (assuming you are using the standard cable). So using a 1/8" jack may actually be better, since you would not have to use the sennheiser adapter.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Quote:

Originally posted by slindeman (and stepped attenuators are even looked down upon in the DIY forum at AudioAsylum)

So what exactly do they suggest at AudioAsylum? Fixed volume output???

I know, build 100 exact same amps with different output volumes. Ah, but then you can't solder your phones to the one amp. I know, buy 100 exact same headphones to solder onto the 100 amps

 

[slindeman]

Transformer based volume control. See http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/twe...ges/47077.html and http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/twe...ges/53898.html for some info. Kind of costly though.

 

[ponzio]

Quote:

Originally posted by Persiflage I think that he has mentioned his some of his reasoning for the before. He said that with the smaller jack it would be less likely for a yank on the headphone cord to pull the amplifier off a shelf or table, but would instead just yank the plug out of the jack. With the larger 1/4" jack, it would be more likely that the amplifier itself would be yanked, and then possibly fall.

I believe that is indeed what he said, and I can say, for one, that it has saved me from pulling the Corda to the floor on numerous occasions. I think the selection of 1/8" over 1/4" was a wise engineering decision on Jan's part, and one that positively affects the "perceived value" of the unit. I don't believe, as others may, that because more expensive amps have 1/8" jacks, those jacks contribute to a greater perceived value. I only wish that the HD600 aftermarket cable makers had the same insight as Jan.

Note: I cannot speak to any sonic differences between the two plug sizes.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Quote:

Note: I cannot speak to any sonic differences between the two plug sizes.

Big mistake, admitting that

 

[ponzio]

The truth is no mistake for me.

If anyone would like to provide a suitable demo of 1/8" v. 1/4" jack comparison, I would give my best objective opinion.

Having never heard a proper comparison, I will say that I don't think that size matters

but I have been wrong before and will be wrong again.

 

[kelly]

When she says size doesn't matter, she's really saying it's too small. "A good size" means "too small."

 

[ponzio]

So it's similar to how saying "You look fine" really means "Yes, you do look fat in that outfit" ?