[Jimmyblues1959]

serious question, don't you have enough amps already? haha.

Yep.. LoL. And I just added a BASX A100 at $199 - one of the better bargains out there. A few hours after I placed an order on the Emotiva website I noticed that when you try to order an A 100 now, the status has changed to temporarily unavailable. I did take a look at the Emotiva Lounge and a very recent poster did confirm that the A 100 has been discontinued.

So I guess the company is just selling off whatever A100s they have left. I have an invoice for one, however, I
wonder if they are oversold now and won't be able to deliver on some of the amps they have sold?

Got an updated Email from Emotiva saying that my A 100 shipped and should be delivered by Thursday!

What a great run this headphone amplifier has had over the last few years!

 

[Draygonn]

I hope my A-100 lasts forever. One of my favorite audio purchases.

 

[IBJamon]

I absolutely love my A-100. It's a fantastic desktop amplifier, and a great headphone amp - if you have inefficient headphones. I do wish it had an option for a voltage divider/reduced power out (with low impedance) instead of the goofy 220 Ohm resistor, however. I imagine it might be possible to mod that in for the jumpers.... I really should just do that sometime. (I instead made an external adapter)

 

[ckhirnigs113]

Ckhirnigs113, noticed you have a BASX A100 and a Shortest Way 51+. Would be very interested in hearing your impressions of both.

I used to use Mod House Argons as my main headphones and really liked the A100 with them. Now that I’ve made the jump to the Verite Closed, I don’t use the A100 much anymore with headphones.

I haven’t done a head to head comparison between the A100 and SW51+, but I can say I wasn’t a fan of how the A100 sounded with my ZMF’s with or without jumpers installed. I actually preferred my JDS Labs EL Amp II with the VC when I compared them before getting any tube amps.

In general, the SW51+ and my Quicksilver Headphone Amp, sound more 3D and nuanced vs my solid state amps, the EL and A100. I prefer the tube amps pretty handily with my VC. The Argon/A100 combo is still a great pairing. I always had the jumpers installed with that setup.

I know this isn’t terribly helpful, but I suppose what I’m saying is that it really depends on what headphones you’ll be pairing the amps with. In general, the A100 is a great deal at its price point and still gets my recommendation for those needing a solid headphone/speaker amp, especially those that have hard to drive planars.

 

[califmike33]

I have had this amp for 2 weeks now and its ok. I dont like the headphone amp part, its lacking detail and the bass is blotted. As far as for speakers go it rocks as a desktop amp for speakers, but i dont care for the headphone amp. I tried my Sennhiser Hd 560s and they sound ok, but not great. I bought it for the headphone and speaker part, now im down to just using it for just speaker amp. Im thinking of sending it back for a refund, as its a weird size very narrow but very deep. Anybody want to shoot me a offer im interested.

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

I used to use Mod House Argons as my main headphones and really liked the A100 with them. Now that I’ve made the jump to the Verite Closed, I don’t use the A100 much anymore with headphones.

I haven’t done a head to head comparison between the A100 and SW51+, but I can say I wasn’t a fan of how the A100 sounded with my ZMF’s with or without jumpers installed. I actually preferred my JDS Labs EL Amp II with the VC when I compared them before getting any tube amps.

In general, the SW51+ and my Quicksilver Headphone Amp, sound more 3D and nuanced vs my solid state amps, the EL and A100. I prefer the tube amps pretty handily with my VC. The Argon/A100 combo is still a great pairing. I always had the jumpers installed with that setup.

I know this isn’t terribly helpful, but I suppose what I’m saying is that it really depends on what headphones you’ll be pairing the amps with. In general, the A100 is a great deal at its price point and still gets my recommendation for those needing a solid headphone/speaker amp, especially those that have hard to drive planars.

Thanks for the helpful reply! I just purchased an A 100 to drive my planar magnetics. Should be getting the A100 on Thursday,
and will leave some impressions after listening for a bit. I have both tube headphone amps and solid state. Also hybrids. They all
have their purpose and I have found proper impedance matching between headphones and headphone amps to be of paramount
importance in getting the best performance out of them.

Did not realize you had a Quicksilver headphone amp. That's a neat piece of gear and based on my experience with the company
(once owned a pair of 8417 mono blocks and continue to own a pair of Mini Mite Monos purchased new in 2006) probably sounds terrific (especially with higher impedance headphones). Mike Sanders builds excellent components at a very reasonable price and he's great to deal with.

Thanks again for your input on the A 100!

 

[IBJamon]

I have had this amp for 2 weeks now and its ok. I dont like the headphone amp part, its lacking detail and the bass is blotted. As far as for speakers go it rocks as a desktop amp for speakers, but i dont care for the headphone amp. I tried my Sennhiser Hd 560s and they sound ok, but not great. I bought it for the headphone and speaker part, now im down to just using it for just speaker amp. Im thinking of sending it back for a refund, as its a weird size very narrow but very deep. Anybody want to shoot me a offer im interested.

Try listening to it in bypass mode before sending it back. Your opinion of the sound is consistent with an impedance mismatch - if your headphones have a lower impedance than the amp's output impedance (in this case the headphone out is 220 Ohm by default!). They designed this amp's default sound profile to 'mirror the classic receivers of the 70s' according to the creators, which was not the best decision IMO. Bypass mode instead gives you incredible grunt - though there may be noise if your headphone is too efficient.

What I did was to create a voltage divider adapter, that I use for more efficient headphones, which I then bypass for my planars. I talked about this many pages back, here:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/emotiva-a-100.825970/post-14057326

Best of luck!

 

[califmike33]

Okay because I'm using the Sennheiser 560s which is only 120 ohm, so I'm guessing if I put the Jumpers in it's going to barbecue my headphones they don't need that much power. So I don't think this amp is going to benefit me by putting the Jumpers in with my sennheisers I need like a 300 ohm or higher headphone. I mean they don't sound terrible they just don't have any resolution I don't know it just don't like the sound of them in this amp. I might try what you said hooking up to cut the power down and see what it does I read a review on this from Josh valer I think did a review on this he didn't like the sound of his headphone amp either he said the speaker part of it's fantastic which I have to agree he didn't care for the headphone part.

When you say they made this to mimic a 70s vintage amp is that just a headphone part or is that the overall sound signature of the entire amp including speakers?

 

[Draygonn]

When you say they made this to mimic a 70s vintage amp is that just a headphone part or is that the overall sound signature of the entire amp including speakers?

That's just the headphone part without the jumpers. It doesn't affect the speakers, or the jumpers-connected full power headphone output.


Keith (Emotiva Supremus) explains how it works on an Emotiva forum thread:

Vintage equipment, up through the 1960's or 1970's, virtually always derived the headphone outputs from the main outputs - through dropping resistors in the 100 - 250 Ohm range.
This offers very little damping to the headphones, and can also result in a significant variation in frequency response due to the interaction between that output impedance and the impedance of the headphones.
Because of this interaction the actual frequency response, and the variation from flat, will depend on the impedance curve of the particular headphones you connect.

As such, it delivers a sort of characteristic sound, which is quite popular with some fans of vintage equipment, and some people actually purchase vintage receivers so they can get the vintage headphone outputs on them.
If you look, for example, on Head-Fi, there are whole discussions dedicated to "using vintage gear to drive headphones".
(At the time, it was generally done that way to cut costs, because high quality low cost small IC amplifiers weren't yet available.)
With the resistors in-line, the A-100 will mimic this performance, with most of its pros and cons (although the main amps on the A-100 are a lot quieter).

If you install the jumpers and bypass the resistors the A-100 will sound like a modern high quality headphone amplifier.
However, as a consequence of its power capabilities, it will be "dangerously powerful" for low impedance headphones.

Note that this is NOT a concern with high impedance headphones, including 300 Ohm and 600 Ohm models, which are more properly matched to the higher output voltage.
With 300 Ohm or 600 Ohm headphones, the output level with the resistors bypassed will only be a few dB higher, and you will receive the benefit of better damping.

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

Thanks for the helpful reply! I just purchased an A 100 to drive my planar magnetics. Should be getting the A100 on Thursday,
and will leave some impressions after listening for a bit. I have both tube headphone amps and solid state. Also hybrids. They all
have their purpose and I have found proper impedance matching between headphones and headphone amps to be of paramount
importance in getting the best performance out of them.

Did not realize you had a Quicksilver headphone amp. That's a neat piece of gear and based on my experience with the company
(once owned a pair of 8417 mono blocks and continue to own a pair of Mini Mite Monos purchased new in 2006) probably sounds terrific (especially with higher impedance headphones). Mike Sanders builds excellent components at a very reasonable price and he's great to deal with.

Thanks again for your input on the A 100!

Thanks for the helpful reply! I just purchased an A 100 to drive my planar magnetics. Should be getting the A100 on Thursday,
and will leave some impressions after listening for a bit. I have both tube headphone amps and solid state. Also hybrids. They all
have their purpose and I have found proper impedance matching between headphones and headphone amps to be of paramount
importance in getting the best performance out of them.

Did not realize you had a Quicksilver headphone amp. That's a neat piece of gear and based on my experience with the company
(once owned a pair of 8417 mono blocks and continue to own a pair of Mini Mite Monos purchased new in 2006) probably sounds terrific (especially with higher impedance headphones). Mike Sanders builds excellent components at a very reasonable price and he's great to deal with.

Thanks again for your input on the A 100!

Received my Emotiva BASX A100 yesterday. Impressive piece of gear. Especially for the price. Emotiva
does a really nice job with the packaging. A nice extra was the cloth bag to store this amp in, emblazoned with the
Emotiva logo.

After a brief listen in standard non jumper mode, I really like the sound of the A100. Very clean. And it's very quiet with
my IEM's! Still breaking it in. I will comment further after I have heard it with my high impedance dynamic and planar magnetic
headphones; in both jumper and non jumper mode.

I can understand why the A100 is so popular. It offers tremendous value for your audio dollar.

 

[Baten]

Quiet with IEMs? What sorcery is that mine had fairly high/audible noise floor!

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

Quiet with IEMs? What sorcery is that mine had fairly high/audible noise floor!

I was pleasantly surprised. The setup I am using for the summer months is an Amazon Fire HD 10 v. 7 to a Schiit Modius feeding a JDS Labs Atom or Emotiva BASX A100, to a BASN B Master Triple or Linsoul KZ ZST X.

Also noticed how cool the BASX A100 runs. Very pleased with the A 100 thus far. Looking forward to trying it with the jumpers and
my higher impedance and planar magnetic headphones in the fall...

Update: Spoke with Emotiva today and the A100 is definitely discontinued. They don't have a replacement yet, but the A100 is going to be a tough act to follow. I do remember a member of Emotiva (who is also a member of Head-Fi) mentioning a new Emotiva balanced headphone amplifier that was in the pipeline.

However, this was a few years ago and nothing further was ever mentioned about it.

 

[KCXT]

I have had this amp for 2 weeks now and its ok. I dont like the headphone amp part, its lacking detail and the bass is blotted. As far as for speakers go it rocks as a desktop amp for speakers, but i dont care for the headphone amp. I tried my Sennhiser Hd 560s and they sound ok, but not great. I bought it for the headphone and speaker part, now im down to just using it for just speaker amp. Im thinking of sending it back for a refund, as its a weird size very narrow but very deep. Anybody want to shoot me a offer im interested.

This is about where I've ended up with mine as well. I loved it with my DT-1990s (no longer own them), which are 250 ohm and benefitted from a 'rounding' of the sound IMO, but I haven't really liked it with anything else. It pushes my HE6se V2s a touch better than the THX 789 in the bass frequencies but loses some of that precise magic elsewhere in the spectrum. Not generally a worthy trade-off for me.

For speakers though yeah, it makes my desktop Revels sing and I'm happy to own it. Just not in the headphone rotation anymore.

 

[garbulky]

Okay because I'm using the Sennheiser 560s which is only 120 ohm, so I'm guessing if I put the Jumpers in it's going to barbecue my headphones they don't need that much power. So I don't think this amp is going to benefit me by putting the Jumpers in with my sennheisers I need like a 300 ohm or higher headphone. I mean they don't sound terrible they just don't have any resolution I don't know it just don't like the sound of them in this amp. I might try what you said hooking up to cut the power down and see what it does I read a review on this from Josh valer I think did a review on this he didn't like the sound of his headphone amp either he said the speaker part of it's fantastic which I have to agree he didn't care for the headphone part.

When you say they made this to mimic a 70s vintage amp is that just a headphone part or is that the overall sound signature of the entire amp including speakers?

Hi no you won't barbecue your headphones. I use it with my HD700's which are 150 ohm impedance with the jumpers. I've also used it with headphones that have less impedance. However, you know make sure you have it at minimum volume and increase from there (common sense). Without the jumpers the output impedance for the amp is 220 ohms (which are higher than your HD560's 120 ohms) which can cause frequency variations. So you should try it in direct drive to see what you think of it. The worse you'll find is that there might be a noticeable hiss or you may find you have too little play on the volume knob before it's too loud.

 

[KCXT]

Got a pair of Dan Clark Audio Aeon Flow Closed RTs (that's a lot of typing...) today and even with its very low impedance I'm surprised at how well it pairs with the A-100. The DT-1990s are the only other headphones I've owned that sounded good, let alone better, with the A-100 but I'll be damned if these AFC RTs don't love it. They were fine, if unremarkable, with the THX 789 but really woke up with the A-100. Have more evaluation to do overall but this is a great pairing.