Edcor 2020
Oct 5, 2002 at 12:25 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 9

Sovkiller

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Does anybody had tried the Edcor 2020 headphone amplifier, I have the chance of have one in the past and the sound was not bad at all, of course I had no chance to A/B it at that time or now, against any other, and I would like to know other opinions about it, one thing is sure, is an unexpensive option, very solid construction, all the chips were mounted on sockets and is pretty loud....I would like to know any different opinions....the link is
http://www.edcorusa.com/sound/gadget.../2020_spec.htm

take a look at it.......
 
Oct 5, 2002 at 5:05 AM Post #2 of 9
I was looking at that quite a while back (before I found Head-fi) for use at work. Never pursued it though.

"Excellent for headphones from 4 ohms to 50k ohms." Can that be true ?

What cans did you use with it ?
 
Oct 5, 2002 at 12:15 PM Post #3 of 9
Sony MDR7509 the sound was excellent and very loud and very detail and rich, even and I know that someone is going to crucify me here, I prefer it to the Creek OBH11 that at that time was around, I even return it to the store I originally purchase it to keep this one, I would like to try A?B against my MGHead now with the HD600 to see what's going on....
 
Oct 5, 2002 at 4:51 PM Post #4 of 9
LOL ! Yeah, flamebait for sure... You preferred it to the Creek ? While the Creek has it's detractors, I find it to be a capable amp especially when purchased used for a good price. (I have only used it with the Grado 60's, perhaps it's underwelming with other cans) But the Edcor is less than half of a used Creek. And the specs look awesome but you can't judge it on specs alone. I'd be very interested in hearing you A/B it against the MGHead with the 600's. Can't help but wonder why they went with an 1/8" output jack inlieu of 1/4" if it's a serious headphone amp...
 
Oct 5, 2002 at 6:24 PM Post #5 of 9
At the time I contacted them for this same answer, I even asked them why that difference in price, why it was so cheap whith this owesome sound, and what they told me was, that they cut one of the four amplifiers of their professional line and put it in this ridiculous plastic box, as a request of many customers for an amplifier to use with portables CD players at home, as most of the headphones of these devices uses 1/8" that's why use that one, but that the specs are the same of their professional line, and as I told you before I like that sound at that time with a pair of Sonys 7509, not bad at all, the main benefit was that it was extremelly loud, a little beast, but maybe now, with different better cans and after trying another options, I can't asure you that I will give you the same opinion, but eh...you never know the best way of believing is trying, I will contact the friend I gave that one, to see if he still have it and I could get it back to A/B it, and later I will tell you but for know I keep a nice memory of it....the main problem I had with the Creek at that time was the output, as I use to drive it from a pre out the power was not enough to drive the headphones at a decent level, with the external audio on, I had 4 ohms monitors also pretty loud, so if I'd crancked the pre up I'd blow the rest of the people....
 
Dec 27, 2007 at 11:44 AM Post #6 of 9
Doesn't your Edcor 2020 have significant baseline hiss? Even at zero volume I get a light low-level hiss with the ER4S...those IEMs need some juice, though. With anything more sensitive and low impedence like the 7509 it would be unuseable. I have two 2020s. They both do this, though, they both shorted out the wall warts when I first got them. I was their first 2020 customer and the power supply's pins on the bottom contact the metal plate on the amp. They sent me a second and it did the same thing. Then the engineer figured out what it was and sent me two wallwarts for my troubles. The solution was just some electrical tape or some other insulation between the supply and the plate.

It is VERY high gain. I mean, even with an old Panasonic 10mW portable I still have like 60% gain left. An insensitive Beyerdynamic might be a good match. Right now I have it connected to a modded Denon DCM-370 listening to some HDCD Nirvana. The pot is at the lowest point I can get with the L/R balance being the same, which is still slightly louder than I'd like but less pain than moving it down slightly and wobbling it to get proper balance. Any way to bring the gain down but keep the current/impedence up would be nice. Zero sibilance. Organic, tan-toned...highly revealing of recording or source equipment grit. Physical. Length of cable makes a big deal going into it. Another good DAC for it are the Cirrus Logic Twin Core DACs in a number of receivers out there. In fact, the Cirrus Logic's may match better than the Denon's Burr Browns. I know they're smoother and more refined than the CL's in my Emu 1212m.

Back to the hiss. So did the short out possibly screw something up in there that caused the hiss or is it just from so much gain? Possibly damage some resistors or the opamp that might be causing the hiss? Anyone?

Also, do amps' nominal input levels mean you shouldn't go over them? Is it o.k. to send the Denon's full 2V signal into it or should I look up what the Edcor's nominal level is supposed to be and turn the Denon down to that?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sovkiller /img/forum/go_quote.gif
At the time I contacted them for this same answer, I even asked them why that difference in price, why it was so cheap whith this owesome sound, and what they told me was, that they cut one of the four amplifiers of their professional line and put it in this ridiculous plastic box, as a request of many customers for an amplifier to use with portables CD players at home, as most of the headphones of these devices uses 1/8" that's why use that one, but that the specs are the same of their professional line, and as I told you before I like that sound at that time with a pair of Sonys 7509, not bad at all, the main benefit was that it was extremelly loud, a little beast, but maybe now, with different better cans and after trying another options, I can't asure you that I will give you the same opinion, but eh...you never know the best way of believing is trying, I will contact the friend I gave that one, to see if he still have it and I could get it back to A/B it, and later I will tell you but for know I keep a nice memory of it....the main problem I had with the Creek at that time was the output, as I use to drive it from a pre out the power was not enough to drive the headphones at a decent level, with the external audio on, I had 4 ohms monitors also pretty loud, so if I'd crancked the pre up I'd blow the rest of the people....


 
Dec 27, 2007 at 12:08 PM Post #7 of 9
man this thread isl ike 5 years old, I odn't evne know now how it sounded!!!!...LOL...I modded it, raplcing the buffers, the OP they use is notvery good and that is the main problem, the PSU could be improved vastly, and at the end I give it away to a friend, honestly there are better options out there, unfortunatelly not for that price of course...
 
Dec 27, 2007 at 12:45 PM Post #8 of 9
Found the manual on Edcor USA. It says it will accept up to 4 Volts on the inputs. I'm listening to Radiohead in HDCD on the Denon right now. Amazing body and physical sense to the music with the Etymotics. Again, zero sibilance. Doesn't seem quite as open or separated as it could be. It's an improvement over the Redsound Micro Amp and the one in the HK AVR7200 receiver overall. HK's in particular has a sort of glassy, almost out-of-phase, hollow midrange. Snaps into focus on the Edcor. Not sure about the one in the Denon, since it has to be disconnected to get rid of the distortion-causing thing in there. I have no doubt there are better amps out there. I got two-for-one, though. What was wrong with the power transformer? EDCOR is pretty well regarded amongst the pro audio community for their transformers...sort of a specialty. Maybe that's now, not then?

Also, if it had hissed, I would think you'd have noticed it with the 7509. Any idea what opamps worked in it?
 

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