[allhifi]

The Hifi man headphones are unusual because they are designed to use HUGE amounts of power when producing sound. We are talking 6 watts (6000 miliwatts!) @ 35 ohms from the specs of your headphones. So, this is the amp to easily deliver this power. Very few amps come anywhere close to its power output. Do some googling and you'll see what I mean by the kind of power your headphones need.

Luckily this Basx amp is one of the very few that can and pretty much the only one near the price it sells at.

It can put out 12 watts (12000 miliwatts) at 35 ohms. However make sure to bypass the resistors when you get it. If you don't, it is purposely limited to 0.2 watts or 200 milliwatts at 35 ohms by the resistors (not enough). So for your Hifiman, bypass the resistors. Don't worry, you are supposed to and this is a feature of the amp. The instructions on how to do it are in the manual and requires no special tools.

Thanks Grim: With that said, I'm confident the A-100's SQ is commensurate with its prodigious power output (into can's) ?

pj

 

[canthearyou]

(RE: Emotiva A-100 basX) It's the power reserve (low output impedance/high slew rate -and circuit bandwidth) above the 1,000 mW (to reach max spl) responsible for such 'dynamic' performance.

In my previous post I quoted the person stating the 400i needs 6 watts of power. That is very, very wrong. The drivers would probably burst into flames with 6W of power feed to them. And you don't need an additional 5 watts of power for dynamic headroom.

The only HiFiMan headphone to require such absurd amount of power at the HE6.

pj

 

[allhifi]

That may be true, but low output impedance and 'fast' circuits combine (with endless power reserves) to help define a can's true potential.

pj

 

[kernel8888]

So Im wanting to use this for a lcd-2, hd800, and he1000 v1, with a xda 2 dac on the front end

As far as I can tell, the power handling of the lcd-2 and he1000 would be fine for the basx bypassing resistors, and the high 600 ohm impedence of the hd800 should keep it safe as well?

any REAL LIFE danger of damaging these if I keep the basx volume at 50% or lower and control the volume with the xda 2?

Incredible pairing for headphones, and can be had for 400 +/- used all in.

 

[garbulky]

Actually the 400i needs about 1 watt to reach 110dB.

On paper my sennheiser hd 600 needs only a few mwats to get Super loud. I have driven it with about 13 miliwAtts. But this Amp is really all about control. It’s pretty much stomped on every other Amp I’ve tried

 

[garbulky]

6 Watts

I got the six watt figure from Amazon’s product page of this headphones

 

[garbulky]

So Im wanting to use this for a lcd-2, hd800, and he1000 v1, with a xda 2 dac on the front end

As far as I can tell, the power handling of the lcd-2 and he1000 would be fine for the basx bypassing resistors, and the high 600 ohm impedence of the hd800 should keep it safe as well?

any REAL LIFE danger of damaging these if I keep the basx volume at 50% or lower and control the volume with the xda 2?

Incredible pairing for headphones, and can be had for 400 +/- used all in.

Yes this is right. I know nothing about audeze but the hd800 would do it. You want to keep the a100 below 40% or less. By the way I found the xda2 to be outdone by Emotiva’s dc1in terms of treble, resolution and dynamics

 

[ra990]

So glad I came across this amp while browsing. I just ordered it and plan on using it with the HE1000 V2s. Any DAC/preamp recommendations for it? Anybody else use this to drive their HE1000s? Do you use the normal mode or the direct drive with jumpers on?

 

[iamjaymo]

Just ordered one. Figured hell, for $229, if it's not my flavor then just return it. But if it works out - this would be one hell of a deal on a speaker/headphone amp.

Plan to use it for HD-6XX and AKG K7XXs. Plus when everyone is gone at work will run my vintage JBLs with it. Might be the perfect office amp. We’ll see...

 

[garbulky]

So glad I came across this amp while browsing. I just ordered it and plan on using it with the HE1000 V2s. Any DAC/preamp recommendations for it? Anybody else use this to drive their HE1000s? Do you use the normal mode or the direct drive with jumpers on?

how did it go?

 

[allhifi]

Just ordered one. Figured hell, for $229, if it's not my flavor then just return it. But if it works out - this would be one hell of a deal on a speaker/headphone amp.

Plan to use it for HD-6XX and AKG K7XXs. Plus when everyone is gone at work will run my vintage JBLs with it. Might be the perfect office amp. We’ll see...

Good call. I'll bet you'll love it. (Using volume control caution, remove the "padding" resistors for the full 50 W/C (8-ohm), 12 W/C 32-ohm, 6 W/C (64-ohm). 3 W/C (128-ohm) etc., etc. from the headphone socket)

pj
P.S. And who couldn't use a great little back-up amp (if it doesn't suit you -I have great doubt it won't) ?

 

[ra990]

how did it go?

Couldn't tell you. I couldn't settle on a DAC w/preamp to go with it and the dimensions of the amp were a bit too large for my desk. Might consider it in the future. Watching this thread.

 

[iamjaymo]

Received the A-100 and got it setup and it’s been running for about 2 hrs. now from speakers only. To say I am impressed would be a definite understatement. Right from the get go it sounded pretty damn good.

I am coming from a $3100 British integrated amp at 110 wpc and, no, it’s not nearly as good as that, but this little Emotiva at $229 has no right to sound this good. Haven’t even tried headphones yet. More to come.

 

[garbulky]

Received the A-100 and got it setup and it’s been running for about 2 hrs. now from speakers only. To say I am impressed would be a definite understatement. Right from the get go it sounded pretty damn good.

I am coming from a $3100 British integrated amp at 110 wpc and, no, it’s not nearly as good as that, but this little Emotiva at $229 has no right to sound this good. Haven’t even tried headphones yet. More to come.

Oh ho ho ! Headphones is what it's for! You'll love it. With the Sennnheisers I reccomend bypassing the resistors. But you'll have to control the volume "upstream" of the amp to get the volume knob on the amp in to a reasonable position where channel imbalance doesn't happen. The difference is unfettered dynamics of any kind. Without bypassing the resistors they'll still sound great though. Try both! The AKG may do better without. But the Fostex may also benefit because it'll absorb 1800 mwatts of power. But you may have some noise with the fostex.

 

[iamjaymo]

Just hooked up the AKGs...NICE! Big difference, in a positive way, compared to running them thru the Audio-GD. The AKGs really came to life through the A-100. Really impressive.

Taking my time and carefully listening. I can say I am mighty impressed so far.