MaloS
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2004
- Posts
- 4,670
- Likes
- 13
So, here is part of an experiment that got started by my friend, antonyfirst (some of you may know him from fairly large amount of information he puts out about IEMs).
The idea is simple - word's out on the streets that going balanced with Senns is the way to go, but exactly to what extent? It seems that all the balanced amps/sources cost a pretty penny, and balancing is expensive in general.
Well, somewhat. I personally have a balanced source I paid $300 for (and its pretty widely available, assuming you are using PC as a source). A balanced amp can be DIYed for very little money (think pairing even simple CMoy circuits), and a balanced cable for an HD600 is matter of getting the plugs and reterminating the cable.
Well, Tony made some interesting choices with the experiment here. First of all, the balanced amplifier is a dual-mini^3 with a power supply instead of batteries, constructed for this purpose by SK138. The cable was also made by SK138, and the HD600 was purchased by Tony elsewhere. Somehow the entire rig ended up in my hands before Tony's (much appreciated, as the experiment is very interesting to me).
The source is E-MU 1616 (mine, but the whole line-up was designed with E-MU 1616 in mind). Other experimental gear is AKG K340, and Consonance A120 Linear amplifier (balanced, speaker amplifier, but it seems to be able to operate at low enough output not to fry the HD600 or my hearing).
Ok, so now we know what they toys are, so we can talk about the game.
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First of all, out of the box I was not impressed, more so kind of depressed. Dark, not involving, not impactful... well it turned out it was too quiet, Senns like to play loud. So loud we played, and Senns rocked out with sense of style and dedication.
There are two grudges I have with single-ended HD600 (even when I drove it with RSA Raptor, which in SE mode may be THE amp for HD600). HD600 has a sense of a midbass hump (which I am told is a resonance of the slow driver), and HD600 is very laid back. Every musician takes a step back, like it is a coctail bar.
- And here comes the balanced drive - I do not hear either one of this issues that bothered me all the time I listened to the Senn. Electric guitars are right up in my face, bass is now controlled, textured, and nicely punchy.
Well, experiments did not end then. Obviously I threw various music at it, and interestingly enough in this setup brought the music out at least in a way that definitely was enjoyable. I could not point out any problems, and I could always tell the exact texture of instruments, location, layering...not bad honestly, for a can that I am used to diffusing everything into a cloud. And not bad for 2 amps designed for portable use...swinging maybe about 12V of headroom at me.
In the end - this rig is cute, it uses portable amps, not the most popular headphone, and nothing special in the cabling. Hell, even the source is pretty cheap. But - there is not anything to explicitly complain about, so it seems to me - the benefits of balancing even with a budget in mind are there, more so, they can be more worth it than running SE setup.
Oh, and I tried this out of my Consonace amp - for all the fun of it - I did not burn the headphone, but the silly speaker amp did a pretty good job of beating the Mini^3 balanced amp at general smoothness and musicality. I wish I had more amps to play with at hand, but I think the generally more stable high-current amp was able to provide differences in terms of refinement, not really brute force improvement.
The idea is simple - word's out on the streets that going balanced with Senns is the way to go, but exactly to what extent? It seems that all the balanced amps/sources cost a pretty penny, and balancing is expensive in general.
Well, somewhat. I personally have a balanced source I paid $300 for (and its pretty widely available, assuming you are using PC as a source). A balanced amp can be DIYed for very little money (think pairing even simple CMoy circuits), and a balanced cable for an HD600 is matter of getting the plugs and reterminating the cable.
Well, Tony made some interesting choices with the experiment here. First of all, the balanced amplifier is a dual-mini^3 with a power supply instead of batteries, constructed for this purpose by SK138. The cable was also made by SK138, and the HD600 was purchased by Tony elsewhere. Somehow the entire rig ended up in my hands before Tony's (much appreciated, as the experiment is very interesting to me).
The source is E-MU 1616 (mine, but the whole line-up was designed with E-MU 1616 in mind). Other experimental gear is AKG K340, and Consonance A120 Linear amplifier (balanced, speaker amplifier, but it seems to be able to operate at low enough output not to fry the HD600 or my hearing).
Ok, so now we know what they toys are, so we can talk about the game.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
First of all, out of the box I was not impressed, more so kind of depressed. Dark, not involving, not impactful... well it turned out it was too quiet, Senns like to play loud. So loud we played, and Senns rocked out with sense of style and dedication.
There are two grudges I have with single-ended HD600 (even when I drove it with RSA Raptor, which in SE mode may be THE amp for HD600). HD600 has a sense of a midbass hump (which I am told is a resonance of the slow driver), and HD600 is very laid back. Every musician takes a step back, like it is a coctail bar.
- And here comes the balanced drive - I do not hear either one of this issues that bothered me all the time I listened to the Senn. Electric guitars are right up in my face, bass is now controlled, textured, and nicely punchy.
Well, experiments did not end then. Obviously I threw various music at it, and interestingly enough in this setup brought the music out at least in a way that definitely was enjoyable. I could not point out any problems, and I could always tell the exact texture of instruments, location, layering...not bad honestly, for a can that I am used to diffusing everything into a cloud. And not bad for 2 amps designed for portable use...swinging maybe about 12V of headroom at me.
In the end - this rig is cute, it uses portable amps, not the most popular headphone, and nothing special in the cabling. Hell, even the source is pretty cheap. But - there is not anything to explicitly complain about, so it seems to me - the benefits of balancing even with a budget in mind are there, more so, they can be more worth it than running SE setup.
Oh, and I tried this out of my Consonace amp - for all the fun of it - I did not burn the headphone, but the silly speaker amp did a pretty good job of beating the Mini^3 balanced amp at general smoothness and musicality. I wish I had more amps to play with at hand, but I think the generally more stable high-current amp was able to provide differences in terms of refinement, not really brute force improvement.
