ETHER 2: Impressions and Discussion
Jul 30, 2022 at 12:04 AM Post #3,016 of 3,201
Ether 2 is so... Natural, almost traded these because, I have them in my bedroom system, and I was convinced I either needed a colder headphone for my warm Kinki Studio Thr-1 amp or a cooler amp for my Ether 2, until I swapped to the 6.3mm output wow what great synergy!

This is my back up amp for Susvara but wow it sounds so good with E2. I hope I can restrain myself from ever again considering selling these. I've heard a lot of cans, but there is something special about these. They continue to surprise me with their mid range clarity and their ghostly imaging, very impressive especially considering their smaller drivers. I notice also if I "Iow ride" them ( where they settle basically) they sound the best imo.
 
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Jul 30, 2022 at 6:30 PM Post #3,018 of 3,201
Can iDSD Diablo offer enough power for ETHER 2
I believe it can easily. The Diablo has a ton of clean, dynamic power which should fair well with the Ether 2’s.
 
Aug 3, 2022 at 5:17 PM Post #3,019 of 3,201
Is it possible/wise/profitable to use an amp like chord etude to drive the ether 2?

C7D782A9-BAA6-4864-B0C2-1B0B627CFCAC.jpeg



Maybe using rca to big headphone plug connectors …
 
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Aug 3, 2022 at 5:47 PM Post #3,020 of 3,201
Is it possible/wise/profitable to use an amp like chord etude to drive the ether 2?

C7D782A9-BAA6-4864-B0C2-1B0B627CFCAC.jpeg


Maybe using rca to big headphone plug connectors …
Sure, you could connect it. But ...

No volume control on the amp, so you could potentially make a mistake and send 150W/ch to the headphones if you fed the amp too much input voltage. By comparison, the amps I drive my Ether 2 with deliver around 1 -2 watts max.

Output impedance is very low, so impedance matching won't be an issue.

But overall, seems risky.
 
Aug 3, 2022 at 6:19 PM Post #3,022 of 3,201
Sure, you could connect it. But ...

No volume control on the amp, so you could potentially make a mistake and send 150W/ch to the headphones if you fed the amp too much input voltage. By comparison, the amps I drive my Ether 2 with deliver around 1 -2 watts max.

Output impedance is very low, so impedance matching won't be an issue.

But overall, seems risky.
What amps are those?
 
Aug 4, 2022 at 9:42 AM Post #3,023 of 3,201
Is it possible/wise/profitable to use an amp like chord etude to drive the ether 2?

C7D782A9-BAA6-4864-B0C2-1B0B627CFCAC.jpeg


Maybe using rca to big headphone plug connectors …
For the price of something like this, you can get some pretty nice headphone amplifiers! I'm currently listening to Qobuz with my E2's being driven by an SPL Phonitor x. A Schiit Jotunheim 2 / Bifrost 2 combo is wonderful as well for a lot less money.
 
Aug 4, 2022 at 11:35 AM Post #3,024 of 3,201
For the price of something like this, you can get some pretty nice headphone amplifiers! I'm currently listening to Qobuz with my E2's being driven by an SPL Phonitor x. A Schiit Jotunheim 2 / Bifrost 2 combo is wonderful as well for a lot less money.
I’m lucky (stupid) enough to own an etude, currently using it with my speakers tho.
My speakers are 94db efficient, had me wondering, how does that equate to a set of headphones in terms of voltage.
I respect that turning the volume up incorrectly would destroy the headphones - so seems unnecessarily risky for any potential benefit.
 
Aug 4, 2022 at 11:56 AM Post #3,025 of 3,201
What amps are those?
Hugo 2 & FiiO M15 DAP -- both around 1 watt into 16 Ohms, DSHA-3F, TT2 single-ended output, Liquid Platinum -- 5 or 6 watts, Audio-gd Master 11 -- 5 or 6W single-ended output.

Point is, all headphone amps, not speaker amps, and all of them have volume control on the amp or dac/amp combo. This way I can set gain to an appropriate level and then make small adjustments on my preamp (for separate DAC and amp use) or on the device itself for DAC/amp combo units. Even if I use the balanced outputs, I don't have to worry about over-powering them as long as I set the volume properly on the amp and then attenuate on my pre-amp.

Only way I could over-power my Ether 2 would be to connect to my Liquid Platinum or Master 11 balanced outs and max the volume and then push my preamp up to -0dB, or plug into the balanced output of my TT2 and max that.

Same story with my Hedds, which are about as demanding as my E2s.
... My speakers are 94db efficient, had me wondering, how does that equate to a set of headphones in terms of voltage ...
Speaker sensitivity is dB/watt, measured on-axis @ 1 meter. Headphone sensitivity is db/milliwatt. So comparing sensitivities is apples and kumquats.
 
Aug 4, 2022 at 12:52 PM Post #3,026 of 3,201
I’m lucky (stupid) enough to own an etude, currently using it with my speakers tho.
My speakers are 94db efficient, had me wondering, how does that equate to a set of headphones in terms of voltage.
I respect that turning the volume up incorrectly would destroy the headphones - so seems unnecessarily risky for any potential benefit.
Congrats on having that beast for your speakers! Sorry can't answer your next question. I really have no idea how headphone jacks inside regular integrated amps work. Are they simply in parallel with the speaker outs, or is there some sort of resistor network involved?
 
Aug 4, 2022 at 5:45 PM Post #3,027 of 3,201
Congrats on having that beast for your speakers! Sorry can't answer your next question. I really have no idea how headphone jacks inside regular integrated amps work. Are they simply in parallel with the speaker outs, or is there some sort of resistor network involved?
I got it half price, it does add a lot of fun to my setup. The amp does not have a headphone jack, but would require rca to headphone cable connectors.

Maybe if I work out mathematically, with the Dave on minimum volume to the amp to the headphone…. Would that be safe …

Reason I’m going down this road is that due to a home move, I may need to put the speakers into storage for a while, but I’d still like to get the value out of the amp if it made sense.
 
Aug 5, 2022 at 7:59 PM Post #3,028 of 3,201
Would you drive a bicycle with a 250cc Honda motorcycle engine?
When I was 15 I would have, somehow i survived that phase. You are correct.
 
Aug 5, 2022 at 8:04 PM Post #3,029 of 3,201
Ether 2 is so... Natural, almost traded these because, I have them in my bedroom system, and I was convinced I either needed a colder headphone for my warm Kinki Studio Thr-1 amp or a cooler amp for my Ether 2, until I swapped to the 6.3mm output wow what great synergy!

This is my back up amp for Susvara but wow it sounds so good with E2. I hope I can restrain myself from ever again considering selling these. I've heard a lot of cans, but there is something special about these. They continue to surprise me with their mid range clarity and their ghostly imaging, very impressive especially considering their smaller drivers. I notice also if I "Iow ride" them ( where they settle basically) they sound the best imo.
E2 very under rated. Treble is a little recessive but can be adjusted via several methods.
 
Aug 5, 2022 at 9:39 PM Post #3,030 of 3,201
E2 very under rated. Treble is a little recessive but can be adjusted via several methods.

Fortunately I don't even have the need to do that, they are just about perfect for me, and make my bedside system a nice switch up from my Sus.

Recently bought a new source 5390 Latitude tablet as a streaming source, other was a iPad air via cck, this deletes the need for that so that's a plus to, and it finally completed my two system set up. I highly recommend these dells, great efficient low noise machine for 150-180, these are a bargain considering a few years back they were 2k lol just make sure you get the 5390 not the 5385, 90 can run win 11 since it has a 8th gen processor, but sure glad I didn't buy a new one..talk about depreciation! 😆
 
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