recstar24
Can Jam '10 Organizer
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2005
- Posts
- 3,450
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- 126
I have had the pleasure of having the EC/SS grace my system for the past three weeks. Craig knew from our conversations in the past that I was looking for a budget priced solid state to compliment my tubed hd-25. I realized in my listening habits that sometimes I just don't have the time anymore for those long listening sessions as much as I did before. I could warm up the tubes, and listen for hours on end. But nowadays I am lucky to get even half an hour for a session, and my listening day may be composed of multiple sessions of a couple of minutes, so a solid state comes in handy as i dont want kill my NOS tubes in my hd-25 from repetitive on-off cycles. Craig sent me an EC/SS to check out, and if I liked it, I could purchase it and keep it here, and if not, I could just send it back. Well, the short of the story is its staying here
The amp is nothing short of killer. In regards to its sound, it is clean, transparent, dynamic, with immense drive. The EC/SS rocked my HP-2's like no other home based solid state I have owned or reviewed. This includes the HR-2, GS-1, and Headroom maxxed desktop. Anyone who says the HP-2 has dull/rolled off highs or is boring needs to hear how they sound when driven properly. This combo, paired with my Meridian G08, does everything I want from a headphone system, especially with rock music. It grooves with a great sense of pace, the music flows and chugs along without any impedance to the musical message. Extension up top is great - instruments like cymbals that have a very complex harmonic structure with tons of high overtones should have a feathery, shimmery quality up top, without getting tizzy. The EC/SS captures this perfectly. Other examples are hard hits on a snare drum and loud/fast transient attacks in general. Bass extension down low is utterly impressive. Deep, tight, impactful, always controlled, melodic and tuneful, can't ask for anything more from my standpoint. Mids are nicely balanced - not too forward, not too laid back. The midrange is the easiest section to hear how transparent an amp truly is. You should be able to hear and "see" through the midrange, it should have an open quality that allows the listener to hear everything else in the soundscape that surrounds it, which was clearly evident with the EC/SS. There was a nice sense of warmth and body in the midrange but was never overdone, I was always able to see through the midrange and hear all the wonderful subtleties and details that my music collection of rock, jazz, and classical offers. I threw all my Steve Hoffman recordings at the EC/SS and it never disappointed. I love Hoffman's recordings because his masterings are executed so well, he simply gets the midrange with voices and the guitars perfect, injecting his "breath of life" into every recording he touches. Music through the EC/SS was consistently fresh, exciting, and full of life and dynamics.
Imaging is pinpoint perfect, with lazor sharp precision of instruments locations in the soundstage. I was startled to hear how well the EC/SS was able to capture all the spatial information that my recordings and my G08 could offer. Great sense of depth and texture, ambient details, and spatial cues were heard and felt easily, which all lead to the illusion of a convincing soundstage on headphones. This speaks well about the EC/SS's ability to capture all these details, which in turn speaks volumes of its apparent linearity and neutrality. The EC/SS proved to me to be very faithful to source and recording, as I heard it take on different characteristics depending on the recording, yet always offered an enjoyable musical experience.
Compared to my hd-25, all I can say is that in the past three weeks I have listened to my hd-25 once. Even on the weekends where I have time to warm up the tubes and give them a nice long listening session, I opted for the EC/SS. The one time I did listen to my hd-25 was merely to compare. The biggest thing I noticed was that my hd-25 sounds rolled off in the highs in comparison. Yes it is smooth but the ec/ss was just as smooth and seemed to offer more top octave air and extension while sounding more exciting in dynamic. I don't mind if any readers attribute this to the whole SS vs. tube thing, but that is what i heard in this context. Everything else was pretty similar honestly. The bass was a bit more impactful on the EC/SS but the hd--25 bass performance was just as tight and tuneful, which made me appreciate the hd-25 bass even more, considering it could easily match the bass performance of a high current output solid state. The EC/SS has a cleaner sound, and rocks just a tad more in your face, with more of that boogie factor, whereas the hd-25 is a bit more spacious sounding, refined, laid back and sweeter in the midrange. Again, I don't mind if you attribute what i hear to the whole SS vs tube debate but the amps are more similar to me than different, which is fine by me because they both sound great.
I didn't do too much op-amp rolling. Just the Ad797 and opa627 BP. Very subtle, but the ad797 appears more aggressive and raw, the opa627 a bit smoother, refined, and has a slightly thicker sound. I prefer the opa627 and its what i have in right now and what I plan on keeping in there.
The majority of my listening was with the HP-2's, and as you can probably deduce from above was a great combo together. The GS-1000's sounded great too, I actually prefer the GS-1000's out of the EC/SS than my hd-25. I don't want to talk too much because I have my GS-1000 review for 6moons is due, so I'll talk more about it then. The senns, which normally sound dead and anemic to me because I am a gradohead, were full of life and dynamics and had an exciting drive when run by the EC/SS.
Aside from all my impressions, I will reiterate that the biggest compliment I could have given to Craig and the EC/SS is my purchasing of it. I guess I'm putting my money where my mouth is, and at the intro price of $350 (my EC/SS was one of the 1st 5), it was a no-brainer for me. My previous solid state reference was the HR-2 and even though I dont have it anymore for direct comparison, in terms of musical enjoyment and pleasure the EC/SS is at mininum equal, the same goes for the GS-1 and Headroom maxxed in my listening experience. People here also know how long and hard I searched for my hd-25, and when I finally got it man was I so happy. The EC/SS could have easily staved that hd-25 hunt if I had the EC/SS in my rig before. I am happy that I have both a killer sounding solid state and tube amp in my system, without breaking the bank on either end, which appears to be the MO of Craig Uthus and Eddie Current in general.
Some comments from Craig himself about the development of the EC/SS:
"On the surface it is simple minded. A buffered opamp. However this did not come about as a whim. I have tried every conceivable discrete solid-state circuit I could think of. This amp came about for cost, performance and obsolescence. First the new generation opamps are very good. All the silicon is on the same substrate so all the transistors match. If the amplifier design is good it theoretically will be as good as it gets. In real life the good sounding opamps don't have enough drive to use stand alone and the power supplies will make them sound even worse if they are not done right. I started with a mid price opamp the AD797. I like the way it sounded on lead/acid batteries driving my Senn 600's. It sucked on the Grado RS1's. It sucked even more with a three terminal regulator power supply. I have done high-end solid-state in the past and pulled all my known tricks out of the bag. The EC/SS uses four low noise, buffered shunt regulators fed by a wall wart. This provides the basic clean dual mono power for the opamp, and the transistor buffers. I integrated the output buffers into the opamp feed back loop by using four gallium arsenide current sources. The opamp drives into the current source so the hole circuit is DC coupled. The bandwidth is literally 0 Hz to light, but I roll it off at 200kHz. Now it is magic on the Grado RS1's because the opamp drives a steady state load, not a reative load. The obvious advantage is amp rolling. If you want to put an OPA627, or OP44, or a 5534 or whatever in there, that opamp will sound it's best. If later the great IC designers come out with a new flavor of the month, plug that bitch in and off you go. The 16 transistors needed to get it all to work stay put. I am selling the first five for $350.00, later production $400.00."
Pictures of the insides
Highly recommended!
The amp is nothing short of killer. In regards to its sound, it is clean, transparent, dynamic, with immense drive. The EC/SS rocked my HP-2's like no other home based solid state I have owned or reviewed. This includes the HR-2, GS-1, and Headroom maxxed desktop. Anyone who says the HP-2 has dull/rolled off highs or is boring needs to hear how they sound when driven properly. This combo, paired with my Meridian G08, does everything I want from a headphone system, especially with rock music. It grooves with a great sense of pace, the music flows and chugs along without any impedance to the musical message. Extension up top is great - instruments like cymbals that have a very complex harmonic structure with tons of high overtones should have a feathery, shimmery quality up top, without getting tizzy. The EC/SS captures this perfectly. Other examples are hard hits on a snare drum and loud/fast transient attacks in general. Bass extension down low is utterly impressive. Deep, tight, impactful, always controlled, melodic and tuneful, can't ask for anything more from my standpoint. Mids are nicely balanced - not too forward, not too laid back. The midrange is the easiest section to hear how transparent an amp truly is. You should be able to hear and "see" through the midrange, it should have an open quality that allows the listener to hear everything else in the soundscape that surrounds it, which was clearly evident with the EC/SS. There was a nice sense of warmth and body in the midrange but was never overdone, I was always able to see through the midrange and hear all the wonderful subtleties and details that my music collection of rock, jazz, and classical offers. I threw all my Steve Hoffman recordings at the EC/SS and it never disappointed. I love Hoffman's recordings because his masterings are executed so well, he simply gets the midrange with voices and the guitars perfect, injecting his "breath of life" into every recording he touches. Music through the EC/SS was consistently fresh, exciting, and full of life and dynamics.
Imaging is pinpoint perfect, with lazor sharp precision of instruments locations in the soundstage. I was startled to hear how well the EC/SS was able to capture all the spatial information that my recordings and my G08 could offer. Great sense of depth and texture, ambient details, and spatial cues were heard and felt easily, which all lead to the illusion of a convincing soundstage on headphones. This speaks well about the EC/SS's ability to capture all these details, which in turn speaks volumes of its apparent linearity and neutrality. The EC/SS proved to me to be very faithful to source and recording, as I heard it take on different characteristics depending on the recording, yet always offered an enjoyable musical experience.
Compared to my hd-25, all I can say is that in the past three weeks I have listened to my hd-25 once. Even on the weekends where I have time to warm up the tubes and give them a nice long listening session, I opted for the EC/SS. The one time I did listen to my hd-25 was merely to compare. The biggest thing I noticed was that my hd-25 sounds rolled off in the highs in comparison. Yes it is smooth but the ec/ss was just as smooth and seemed to offer more top octave air and extension while sounding more exciting in dynamic. I don't mind if any readers attribute this to the whole SS vs. tube thing, but that is what i heard in this context. Everything else was pretty similar honestly. The bass was a bit more impactful on the EC/SS but the hd--25 bass performance was just as tight and tuneful, which made me appreciate the hd-25 bass even more, considering it could easily match the bass performance of a high current output solid state. The EC/SS has a cleaner sound, and rocks just a tad more in your face, with more of that boogie factor, whereas the hd-25 is a bit more spacious sounding, refined, laid back and sweeter in the midrange. Again, I don't mind if you attribute what i hear to the whole SS vs tube debate but the amps are more similar to me than different, which is fine by me because they both sound great.
I didn't do too much op-amp rolling. Just the Ad797 and opa627 BP. Very subtle, but the ad797 appears more aggressive and raw, the opa627 a bit smoother, refined, and has a slightly thicker sound. I prefer the opa627 and its what i have in right now and what I plan on keeping in there.
The majority of my listening was with the HP-2's, and as you can probably deduce from above was a great combo together. The GS-1000's sounded great too, I actually prefer the GS-1000's out of the EC/SS than my hd-25. I don't want to talk too much because I have my GS-1000 review for 6moons is due, so I'll talk more about it then. The senns, which normally sound dead and anemic to me because I am a gradohead, were full of life and dynamics and had an exciting drive when run by the EC/SS.
Aside from all my impressions, I will reiterate that the biggest compliment I could have given to Craig and the EC/SS is my purchasing of it. I guess I'm putting my money where my mouth is, and at the intro price of $350 (my EC/SS was one of the 1st 5), it was a no-brainer for me. My previous solid state reference was the HR-2 and even though I dont have it anymore for direct comparison, in terms of musical enjoyment and pleasure the EC/SS is at mininum equal, the same goes for the GS-1 and Headroom maxxed in my listening experience. People here also know how long and hard I searched for my hd-25, and when I finally got it man was I so happy. The EC/SS could have easily staved that hd-25 hunt if I had the EC/SS in my rig before. I am happy that I have both a killer sounding solid state and tube amp in my system, without breaking the bank on either end, which appears to be the MO of Craig Uthus and Eddie Current in general.
Some comments from Craig himself about the development of the EC/SS:
"On the surface it is simple minded. A buffered opamp. However this did not come about as a whim. I have tried every conceivable discrete solid-state circuit I could think of. This amp came about for cost, performance and obsolescence. First the new generation opamps are very good. All the silicon is on the same substrate so all the transistors match. If the amplifier design is good it theoretically will be as good as it gets. In real life the good sounding opamps don't have enough drive to use stand alone and the power supplies will make them sound even worse if they are not done right. I started with a mid price opamp the AD797. I like the way it sounded on lead/acid batteries driving my Senn 600's. It sucked on the Grado RS1's. It sucked even more with a three terminal regulator power supply. I have done high-end solid-state in the past and pulled all my known tricks out of the bag. The EC/SS uses four low noise, buffered shunt regulators fed by a wall wart. This provides the basic clean dual mono power for the opamp, and the transistor buffers. I integrated the output buffers into the opamp feed back loop by using four gallium arsenide current sources. The opamp drives into the current source so the hole circuit is DC coupled. The bandwidth is literally 0 Hz to light, but I roll it off at 200kHz. Now it is magic on the Grado RS1's because the opamp drives a steady state load, not a reative load. The obvious advantage is amp rolling. If you want to put an OPA627, or OP44, or a 5534 or whatever in there, that opamp will sound it's best. If later the great IC designers come out with a new flavor of the month, plug that bitch in and off you go. The 16 transistors needed to get it all to work stay put. I am selling the first five for $350.00, later production $400.00."
Pictures of the insides
Highly recommended!
