[jamato8]

First impressions of the AMP9 (with DX220 and IT01 for now):

1) it looks lovely (am I shallow?)

2) I would echo what others have said; a more warm, intimate and organic signature.
Soundstage seems more closed in than with AMP1 Mk II; however, this is part of the whole 'intimate feel' thing, and also we'll see how this changes with burn-in and different IEMs.

3) I was just listening to "Down to the river to pray" from the 'O Brother, Where Art Thou' soundtrack (24-96 HDTracks FLAC version).
Really impressed by the rich and textured timbre of the vocals, both male and female. That definitely stood out to me.

I think you need more hours on hour AMP9. With time it opens up. On live recordings it is very expansive and not in hour face. On some closed in studio recordings, to me, it is even a little better as not so close, as I don't like closed in sound at all or too intimate.

 

[Jester0fTortuga]

What you are hearing is dynamics. I had mine on all three gain settings for a couple of days each and eventually settled on high. I also asked Paul about it to confirm my findings. The higher the gain setting, the more dynamic the music will be.

Helpful and clear! Thank you. So this is unrelated to the discussion above about amplification and power?

 

[Sonic Defender]

Hum? Here is some information about gain settings from Texas Instruments:

"Gain Setting for the Audio Power Amplifier It is also imperative to understand that the output signal from the CODEC or DAC driving the audio power amplifier should be as large as possible, to have a high SNR. Conversely, the gain of the audio power amplifier is set as low as possible. If the audio power amplifier’s gain is set too high, then it amplifies the noise floor, along with the actual wanted signal of the CODEC or DAC. This decreases the dynamic range of the signal and reduces the quality of the sound."

Source: http://www.ti.com/lit/an/sloa105a/sloa105a.pdf

Not sure what to think. Perhaps it means that even though you are using high gain with the amplifier module here, the gain has been carefully constructed to take this limitation into account?

 

[panasonicst60]

Helpful and clear! Thank you. So this is unrelated to the discussion above about amplification and power?

To be quite honest I don't know all the technical terms to it. But I do know what I hear and Paul agrees it increases dynamics on high. I believe power reserved is important for dynamics as it can required a lot of power during peaks.

I have parasound a31 home theater amp. When I lower the gain to minimum it did lower the floor noise which was great. But the music sounded a bit lifeless and flat. After raising the gain to about half it really open up the sound quite a bit.

I have touched a lot of gain knobs and they are definitely not all the same. Some really doesn't affect dynamics and some does. Some are good lower and some are good higher. It just depends on the equipment.

What do I know....Just what I'm hearing.

 

[Whitigir]

Hum? Here is some information about gain settings from Texas Instruments:

"Gain Setting for the Audio Power Amplifier It is also imperative to understand that the output signal from the CODEC or DAC driving the audio power amplifier should be as large as possible, to have a high SNR. Conversely, the gain of the audio power amplifier is set as low as possible. If the audio power amplifier’s gain is set too high, then it amplifies the noise floor, along with the actual wanted signal of the CODEC or DAC. This decreases the dynamic range of the signal and reduces the quality of the sound."

Source: http://www.ti.com/lit/an/sloa105a/sloa105a.pdf

Not sure what to think. Perhaps it means that even though you are using high gain with the amplifier module here, the gain has been carefully constructed to take this limitation into account?

Both are getting too confusing on gain and amplifications.

Amplifications have 2 things now: Analog amplification and digital to analog and to amplifications

Digital signals need to have as much as TI stated above, that is because Digital reconstruction is different from analog. Digital signals have to be converted with as large signals as possible, and that is why digital attenuation would always degrade the sound. The proper way to attenuate from digital signal will have to be Analog attenuation

Analog amplifications is different as it is already sinuous waves to begin with, which carries all the Analog physical acoustic noises such as LP surface scratching, pops, crackles....or tape hisses....etc....not to mention the amplifications process would introduce errors of it all. Therefore, to proper amplify something from analog chain, the lower the signals to begin with - the clearer the signals going to be amplified

On player such as DX200or 220, the attenuation is direct digital attenuation from Sabre’s itself. This means that the lower the gain and volume, the less dynamic you are going to hear as it degrade the digital reconstruction and conversion into analog signals


I am still learning, but those are what I have collected so far....and it could be wrong....

 

[Paulo Abreu]

Going OT is the lifeblood of head-fi threads or they would get ever so dull. Your understanding mirrors mine.

Mine also.

A&K owners talk about cooper and dollars
FiiO owners talk about bugs
IBasso owners talk about music

 

[Gww1]

Mine also.

A&K owners talk about cooper and dollars
FiiO owners talk about bugs
IBasso owners talk about music

Talking of which, really looking forward to listening to the Raconteurs new album 'Help Us Stranger' which came out today on my DX220 with amp8 with Andromeda S tonight!

 

[Jester0fTortuga]

On player such as DX200or 220, the attenuation is direct digital attenuation from Sabre’s itself. This means that the lower the gain and volume, the less dynamic you are going to hear as it degrade the digital reconstruction and conversion into analog signals

This gets to the heart of the matter! So, to put another way for laymen, with a DX220/200 you basically want higher gain if your headphones don't have a hissing problem? Can we say that?

Loving the technical stuff everyone, learning a lot. But always good to distill it down to the practical point Keep it coming!

 

[CobraMan]

This gets to the heart of the matter! So, to put another way for laymen, with a DX220/200 you basically want higher gain if your headphones don't have a hissing problem? Can we say that?

Loving the technical stuff everyone, learning a lot. But always good to distill it down to the practical point Keep it coming!

Let your ears guide you to musical bliss!!!

If a different gain setting sounds better with certain files then sobeit - no need to artificially restrict what you use based on what others say.

Cheers,
Tim

 

[Jester0fTortuga]

Let your ears guide you to musical bliss!!!

If a different gain setting sounds better with certain files then sobeit - no need to artificially restrict what you use based on what others say.

Cheers,
Tim

No doubt!

 

[Sonic Defender]

...

On player such as DX200or 220, the attenuation is direct digital attenuation from Sabre’s itself. This means that the lower the gain and volume, the less dynamic you are going to hear as it degrade the digital reconstruction and conversion into analog signals


I am still learning, but those are what I have collected so far....and it could be wrong....

If that is the case, my misunderstanding, I thought the other posters were referring to amplifier gain. Yes, if it is what you are saying increasing the gain from the DAC stage to the amplification stage then yes higher gain is better. Nice to get that cleared up as I was really having trouble with the idea that increasing the amplification gain could increase dynamics. Cheers.

 

[Sonic Defender]

This gets to the heart of the matter! So, to put another way for laymen, with a DX220/200 you basically want higher gain if your headphones don't have a hissing problem? Can we say that?

Loving the technical stuff everyone, learning a lot. But always good to distill it down to the practical point Keep it coming!

Not exactly, what he is referring to is a gain coming from the DAC providing the signal for the amplifier to work with and as such it should not interact with the load as the amplifier is between them so the sensitivity of the load shouldn't matter. Again, assuming that I have correctly interpreted Whitigir's post.

 

[Jester0fTortuga]

Not exactly, what he is referring to is a gain coming from the DAC providing the signal for the amplifier to work with and as such it should not interact with the load as the amplifier is between them so the sensitivity of the load shouldn't matter. Again, assuming that I have correctly interpreted Whitigir's post.

Okay, so DX220 gain settings refer to DAC gain. And in this kind of configuration, as described by Whitigir, higher gain results in higher dynamics. Do I understand correctly?

Edit: making no value judgement on gain or dynamics.

I brought up the point about hiss (a problem neither my over ears or IEMs have) because I’ve read here the new low gain setting is for those with sensitive IEMs that hiss. Not a critical point.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Okay, so DX220 gain settings refer to DAC gain. And in this kind of configuration, as described by Whitigir, higher gain results in higher dynamics. Do I understand correctly?

Edit: making no value judgement on gain or dynamics.

I brought up the point about hiss (a problem neither my over ears or IEMs have) because I’ve read here the new low gain setting is for those with sensitive IEMs that hiss. Not a critical point.

Yes, that is what I believe Whitigir is saying about the DX220's architecture. Cheers.

 

[AndrewH13]

I'm also a believer in "some burnings", such as is the case of DX220

No, that's going too far. Never knew case had burn in