[Lohb]

Any word on sonic improvements of V2 over V1 ?

 

[grig]

well it's the same design in the end just few differences here and there, like rca at the back a thing that i noticed is the power supply now is 30VDC rather than 26VDC which just perhaps may give you a bit more tubey sound ?! just a touch more... that's what i expect from the new watson at best. i'm still testing the mullard didn't had too much time in the past two months...so here we go .... we keep in touch

 

[Lohb]

Anyone got an ES9038 DAC hooked into this amp ?
Good synergy ?

 

[alphanumerix1]

How bad is the channel imbalance on low volumes? Too what × oclock on the pot is there channel imbalance.

 

[ostewart]

How bad is the channel imbalance on low volumes? Too what × oclock on the pot is there channel imbalance.

Probably about 9 o'clock.

 

[grig]

How bad is the channel imbalance on low volumes? Too what × oclock on the pot is there channel imbalance.

not on mine at 8 o'clock mine is in balance

 

[chaotic_angel]

The issue is that the Watson increases volume logarithmically instead of linearly, so on something like the X there's a very narrow band of "listenable volume."

And hey @CarlosUnchained, looks like the tube bias screws aren't aligned. Have the arrow pointed at 6 on both and that should fix the imbalance.

Read this and applied, my right channel imba is now fixed, thanks @SomeGuyDude

When I tried to play with the left bias screw it does not have any difference found in HD650...

 

[chaotic_angel]

the new gen of HD650 is somehow brighter that the old one. any recommendation of tube to make MID thicker?

 

[grig]

Try out the Mullard "RTC" 5654 should improve the overall experience

 

[chaotic_angel]

Try out the Mullard "RTC" 5654 sould improve the overall experience

noted with thanks @grig

 

[Lohb]

Any tube rollers found anything that would tame upper mids/treble in a headphone while expanding the sound-stage over the stock tubes ?

 

[grig]

Any tube rollers found anything that would tame upper mids/treble in a headphone while expanding the sound-stage over the stock tubes ?

Try out the Mullard "RTC" 5654 and you're set to go

btw let me know you're thoughts about this combo : ES9038PRO DAC → Elemental Watson 2

 

[Lohb]

Thanks, I also tried out the Sherlock amp single unit not dual-mono set-up in Singapore Jaben (was near closing time). Could not get much info out the guy who works there..."Who is the designer?" "How is the design different to Watson interally barring the dual mono function?" Very lackadaisical in his feedback generally, also holding back various combo deal prices till I'd whet my appetite on a set.

I could hear by running Audeze LCD2CB out the Sherlock amp single unit that it was slightly more refined (but less watts output),and going from that last 75% to 100% on the volume pot it was mainly treble raising not mids/low-end...of course that will be where you need a 2nd Sherlock to get the full meaty goodness out the dual-mono set-up with 2 watts of headroom per channel or thereabouts.

I think their demo model Watson 2 was cooked/thrashed in some way as I was getting a serious amount of distortion over 75% volume that I never got so much with my boxfresh model Watson 2.

When they say Watson 2 is hybrid, I guess that it is hybrid push-pull not hybrid OTL (if that is even a design) because they were selling combo deals with that newer Acoustic Research AR-H1 planar. Tried the Acoustic Research AR-H1 against the meatier LCD2CB (closed-back) .....unimpressed right-off-the-bat, just felt light across the board with a bit of a spike in the treble.

I did not want to go near the Phatlab company's 3 levels of triode amps they also had...especially the GT, as it would have been wallet-breaking for a portable amp at that point in time.

 

[grig]

Thanks, I also tried out the Sherlock amp single unit not dual-mono set-up in Singapore Jaben (was near closing time). Could not get much info out the guy who works there..."Who is the designer?" "How is the design different to Watson interally barring the dual mono function?" Very lackadaisical in his feedback generally, also holding back various combo deal prices till I'd whet my appetite on a set.

I could hear by running Audeze LCD2CB out the Sherlock amp single unit that it was slightly more refined (but less watts output),and going from that last 75% to 100% on the volume pot it was mainly treble raising not mids/low-end...of course that will be where you need a 2nd Sherlock to get the full meaty goodness out the dual-mono set-up with 2 watts of headroom per channel or thereabouts.

I think their demo model Watson 2 was cooked/thrashed in some way as I was getting a serious amount of distortion over 75% volume that I never got so much with my boxfresh model Watson 2.

When they say Watson 2 is hybrid, I guess that it is hybrid push-pull not hybrid OTL (if that is even a design) because they were selling combo deals with that newer Acoustic Research AR-H1 planar. Tried the Acoustic Research AR-H1 against the meatier LCD2CB (closed-back) .....unimpressed right-off-the-bat, just felt light across the board with a bit of a spike in the treble.

I did not want to go near the Phatlab company's 3 levels of triode amps they also had...especially the GT, as it would have been wallet-breaking for a portable amp at that point in time.

well i was curios mostly what dac you're using nd how well pairs with the watson.... ?

 

[Lohb]

Yep, it was just generally just a comment to the thread about Watson/Sherlock.

Re: ES9038PRO, I will have my hands on that in the next few weeks....the ES9038 Pro is a 'note to self' in my sig. in my audio chain....I'm still running ES9018 right now away from home base.
I'd go for something very linear and transparent Dac-wise vs something multibit which I'd imagine would be just too Phat across-the-board.