[buson160man]

Quote:

What pre-amp did you go with? There is a new peachtree grand pre x-1 that looks promising.
When I took my 6s to a local hifi shop I auditioned them w/ the nova pre and was impressed but ended up getting the nuforce dac-100 because I needed it for my hd800s as well.

 I went with a used audio research Ls2 mkII.This preamp is easily the best preamp I have owned.I had a early krell unit and a precision fidelity preamp but this almost twenty year old preamp smokes both of them soundwise.The gain on the Ls2 mkII is 18 in sigle ended operation.In balanced output the gain is 24.I have not yet tried this this preamp in balanced fashion yet but it is tempting considering the balanced  connection on the emotiva speakers.The Ls2 has a hot rod feature which constitutes of a dedicated direct input that bypasses the function selector and is wired directly to the volume pot.I have made some comparisons and found it to definitely improved the sound as compared to the sound of my cd set-up running thru the function selector.It is not that the sound is bad through the function selector it just sounds more open and better when connected to the direct input.
  This is a line unit only and has no phono preamp capability.It was at the time audio research's attempt to get the best possible sound from a line stage at a somewhat more affordable cost.The unit originally sold for 2650 dollars at the time.Which eighteen years was pretty expensive.But it did cost half of what audio research's most expensive full featured preamp cost at the time.From reviews that I have read it was actually a better sounding line stage than the best full featured unit that audio research produced at the time.The fact that this unit sounds so stellar even compared to more modern units is a testament to audio research's design teams.The units stellar performance after almost twenty years of use is also a testamanet to its long term reliability.I guess they got it right when they designed this line stage.Kudos to audio research for a job done very splendidly.
   I am ecstatic about the preamps performance with the 6s and last night I pulled a long listening session and what a difference it makes when you use a high quality preamp on the airmotiv 6s.
I am also amazed at the capability of this almost twenty year old design(the preamp of course).
   I appreciate your suggestion but the audio research only set me back about a thousand dollars and the new peachtree unit goes for three times that much.
The nova preamp section is basically identical to the preamp section in the decco 2.The reason I went with another preamp was that the decco 2s preamp section did not have nearly the required gain to get the airmotiv 6s to sing .Really the audio research unit is in another universe compared to the decco 2s preamp section.You really have not heard what your airmotiv 6s can do until you have tried them with a really excellent preamp the likes of a audio research or something like it.
  Try your sixes with a true high end preamp and if you think you love your airmotiv 6s you will find them to be a truely heavenly experience when used with a proper preamp that can tap their potential.

 

[kazsud]

Yeah I am interested in the high end nuforce dac-9 and still might upgrade to it but only after I hear my hd800s on it.
There is a place that has a lending program about a hour from me that I've been eager to audition some gear from ala the dac-9, burson 160 and he-500.

 

[buson160man]

Quote:

Yeah I am interested in the high end nuforce dac-9 and still might upgrade to it but only after I hear my hd800s on it.
There is a place that has a lending program about a hour from me that I've been eager to audition some gear from ala the dac-9, burson 160 and he-500.

  I have a burson ha-160 amp.Which burson do you want to hear the amp or one of the amp dacs.I have been statisfied with my ha-160 it works reasonably well with both my akg 701s and my audeze lcd2 v2s.I have upgraded the fuse on the burson as well with a hifi tuning surpreme fuse which did make  a noticeable difference in its sound quality.The akgs have a similar sound character to the 800s.The akgs are not easy to drive either and need healthy drive capablity from the amp to get te best out of them.But my favorite amp now for listening to the akgs is my ray samuels raptor otl(also with a high-fi tuning supreme fuse and a harmonic tech ac-11 power cord upgrade).The raptor is much more palpable sounding than the burson but it is tubes on the input and output side.The tubes are just so much more dimensional than solid state.The sense of space is really aluring and somewhat replicates what you get with loudspeakers.The sound seems to come from outside of your head to the front and sides.With my burson the sound seems to be within your cranial.

 

[kazsud]

The amp but the soloist as well. Just from all the good stuff i've heard on the pairing of the burson and the hd800s

 

[john57]

 I may try the Airmotiv 6 someday.

 

[revlimit]

Is the Airmotiv 6 too overwhelming for desktop speakers?  Especially if I sit 6-10 inches away from it?  Would the Airmotiv 5 be a better choice?

 

[john57]

I wanted to know that I received my Airmotiv 6's and I like them very much. Hearing the mid-range and the treble from a folded AMT tweeter is a different experience from soft domes. If you are setting only 6" to 10" You are not going to get to the sweet spot distance for the Airmotiv 6 which is about 3 feet minimum. Since you are sitting so close even the Airmotiv 4's  can be a good choice and the Airmotiv4 has a bump in the midbass to give it strong bass from the smaller woofer. Do not forget to add 1" 1/4 to the depth of the Airmotiv6 to the measurement because of the heat sink on the back.

 

[revlimit]

Thanks John57.  Would a Adam a5x or a4x be a better choice due to the port being in the front.  Also, how do these fair against the focal cms50?

 

[john57]

If you have six inches free in the back I think rear ports can work depending on the room. The Adam is more of a direct competitor for the Airmotiv and some models have front controls. I have not heard the Focal line with the inverted domes but supposedly they have good details in the highs as well. Normally I do not like metal domes but have not heard the Adams. I have 5 year transferable warranty with my Airmotiv6 and has far greater clarity than the previous Tannoy or the Equator D5 monitors that I have been using.