StevieDvd
Headphoneus Supremus
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- Jun 14, 2004
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Rudistor NX-33 Balanced Headphone Amplifier - First impressions
Introduction
First off a short note on what made me go for a balanced headphone amp and particularly the NX-33.
Being based in the UK, and I guess this applies to other European countries to a greater or lesser extent, when deciding on a purchase we need to take into account taxes and customs duty. These can easily add another 20- 25% on to the purchase price, let alone the shipping costs if bought from the US. Given there are not that many balanced amps out there anyway, and the starting price of the ones that are available, the Rudistor one comes into the market at a great point for some of us.
Having read about balanced usage and experiencing some of it myself, albeit on more expensive setups, it was intriguing me that I had a great set of cans (HD650), a decent dac (Benchmark DAC1) and a good source (Creek CD50 mki) so I was almost in a position to go fully balanced. Yes I know the arguments about balanced but this is based on the balanced output & headphones usage and not long runs of wire I'm discussing. So as an initial trial I opted to get my Zu Mobius re-terminated to balanced xlr connectors and ran them straight out of the Benchmark Dac. Suffice to say I was hooked with the extra something, not that the single ended amp I was using was rubbish, it's a Corda HA2 mkii SE after all and no slouch.
I'd seen the thread about the new Rudistor amp before I went to the recent London meet and a seed had been planted in the head-fi part of my brain and was starting to grow. On hearing my own 650s out of Vic's balanced supra was the fertiliser the seed needed, I guess this is where I must confess the difference in my musical taste and ears seems to diverge from others, my focus was now on the HD650 balanced sound and some of the other headphones there (mine included) had diminished just a little in my view.
After exchanging a few emails with Rudi the deal was done and NX_33 serial no 12 and some xlr male to female adapter leads was paid for and added to the build queue. About 10 days later I was emailed with the news that it had been shipped (Thursday) and as it was tracked I was able to monitor it's progress and had a Monday delivery - on of the benefits of a European purchase.
Pictures I asked Rudi if pictures including inside shots were OK and he said Yes.
Front View
Rear View
Inside View
Front Inside
Back Inside
In stack sideways
Stack sideview
Cables
Planning ahead I bought a set of xlr cables from a fellow head-fi member and a set of what I can only call bling cables from Ebay. Amazingly they both arrived on the same day and well ahead of the amp. Cannot say how they compare just yet as I wanted to keep the system static whilst I burned everything in. I'll let the pictures of the bling cables speak for themselves, if anyone else has these I'd be interested in what they think. On a side note the Ebay seller made a mistake and sent me 3 cables, which of course I told him about and he said I could keep the 3rd for being honest. They are quite heavy and the extra weight put the shipping cost up to more than I was charged for so there are honest to goodness decent folk out there.
XLR Connectors
XLR cable
Headphones
My Senns are well run in, but in excellent condition and have mainly used the Zu Mobius cable after it replaced an earlier Oehlbach cable. I did do a brief mod on the original Senn cable whilst my Zu cable was off being modded. Though I did get hit by customs duty and FedEx admin charges the re-termination was done very quickly and for a reasonable fee. Plugged in to a decent balances system the Senns certainly produce the goods, a very outstanding wow difference and a very, very big grin on my face when listening. Trying the Grado HHF1s in singled ended mode did not have the same effect and I soon switched back to the Senns. I don't think this is a bad comment on the HHF1s but the difference between balanced ands single-ended.
I hope that we London head-fiers will be meeting up again soon so I can get to try both balanced & singled-ended 650s at the same time (you can have both headphone outs in use at the same time). But I'm also keen to try other balanced cans and especially any that I can easily re-terminate. Hmmm, balanced HHF1s I wonder...
Impressions
Oh that work was not so demanding on my time I'd have sat down and done a measured review of the sound based on some standard tracks and listed my comparison against other amps I own. I had planned on making a test CD up of certain well known tracks and noting down any key differences between the amps. But the ultimate test for me is that the main serious setup is now fairly well static and I'm not driven to switch back to an earlier setup.
So what was it that made me smile and is the balanced setup worth it.?
OK plugging in the Senns and hitting the play button on the CD remote gets you:
- Detail
Wow the extra detail is really apparent, makes you wonder whether the sound engineer doing the mix actually expects Mr Joe Average to hear everything he lays down in the mix. Yes I know it's an oft used phrase but you really do hear extra things on better equipment and once your ears & brain know it's there the lesser equipment does too but you're not made aware of it until you absolutely know it's there.
- Soundstage
Well I like it large and outside of my head if possible, as near as a speaker setup but via headphones. And the NX-33 setup gives it to me a plenty. Whether this is what is increasing the detail or whether the detail invokes a better soundstage impression I can't say and will need the measured judgment of other ears like Doctor Juggles or Vic.
- Volume
Now I've normally been a low volume listener and perhaps that's one reason why my perception differs from others. I could never listen too loud as it becomes too tiring too quickly and I have to have a break. One of the odd things with the NX33 is that the extra detail coming forth was at a certain volume and if meant to be heard would make the volume requirement higher than I would tend to use so the volume control gets pushed a little higher but it's still not tiring and does not need a break as soon as before. Based on this I'd have to assume that there is good volume and bad volume, bad volume for me is out of controlled bass and distortion and volume for the sake of it; good volume is not tiring and is needed to appreciate the sound as recorded. A cmoy is sufficient for volume as we all know but for the good stuff well there's the rub as Shakespeare would have said if he'd been a Head-Fi member, verily.
Upgrading & Tweaking
Well Rudi has obviously catered for the tweakers & twiddlers out there as you'll see from the pictures. The opamps are socketed all six of them so a degree of flavouring will no doubt be made by some. I may take a back seat here and wait for the suggestions of others who are keen to tweak their NX-33 first as no doubt the opamps in the NX33 are OK but perhaps could be bettered albeit at some cost, though I think I have some OPA627s lying around ..
Conclusion
Yes I'm a much happier bunny now. Balanced to me is a no brainer. No doubt you can get good quality single-ended but if it's all about hitting the right matching components and including your ears in that as well I'm a lot closer to nirvana than before and I haven't broken the bank balance! I may try out a few other cans balanced but this should see my gear settled for a good while now.
Steve
Introduction
First off a short note on what made me go for a balanced headphone amp and particularly the NX-33.
Being based in the UK, and I guess this applies to other European countries to a greater or lesser extent, when deciding on a purchase we need to take into account taxes and customs duty. These can easily add another 20- 25% on to the purchase price, let alone the shipping costs if bought from the US. Given there are not that many balanced amps out there anyway, and the starting price of the ones that are available, the Rudistor one comes into the market at a great point for some of us.
Having read about balanced usage and experiencing some of it myself, albeit on more expensive setups, it was intriguing me that I had a great set of cans (HD650), a decent dac (Benchmark DAC1) and a good source (Creek CD50 mki) so I was almost in a position to go fully balanced. Yes I know the arguments about balanced but this is based on the balanced output & headphones usage and not long runs of wire I'm discussing. So as an initial trial I opted to get my Zu Mobius re-terminated to balanced xlr connectors and ran them straight out of the Benchmark Dac. Suffice to say I was hooked with the extra something, not that the single ended amp I was using was rubbish, it's a Corda HA2 mkii SE after all and no slouch.
I'd seen the thread about the new Rudistor amp before I went to the recent London meet and a seed had been planted in the head-fi part of my brain and was starting to grow. On hearing my own 650s out of Vic's balanced supra was the fertiliser the seed needed, I guess this is where I must confess the difference in my musical taste and ears seems to diverge from others, my focus was now on the HD650 balanced sound and some of the other headphones there (mine included) had diminished just a little in my view.
After exchanging a few emails with Rudi the deal was done and NX_33 serial no 12 and some xlr male to female adapter leads was paid for and added to the build queue. About 10 days later I was emailed with the news that it had been shipped (Thursday) and as it was tracked I was able to monitor it's progress and had a Monday delivery - on of the benefits of a European purchase.
Pictures I asked Rudi if pictures including inside shots were OK and he said Yes.
Front View
Rear View
Inside View
Front Inside
Back Inside
In stack sideways
Stack sideview
Cables
Planning ahead I bought a set of xlr cables from a fellow head-fi member and a set of what I can only call bling cables from Ebay. Amazingly they both arrived on the same day and well ahead of the amp. Cannot say how they compare just yet as I wanted to keep the system static whilst I burned everything in. I'll let the pictures of the bling cables speak for themselves, if anyone else has these I'd be interested in what they think. On a side note the Ebay seller made a mistake and sent me 3 cables, which of course I told him about and he said I could keep the 3rd for being honest. They are quite heavy and the extra weight put the shipping cost up to more than I was charged for so there are honest to goodness decent folk out there.
XLR Connectors
XLR cable
Headphones
My Senns are well run in, but in excellent condition and have mainly used the Zu Mobius cable after it replaced an earlier Oehlbach cable. I did do a brief mod on the original Senn cable whilst my Zu cable was off being modded. Though I did get hit by customs duty and FedEx admin charges the re-termination was done very quickly and for a reasonable fee. Plugged in to a decent balances system the Senns certainly produce the goods, a very outstanding wow difference and a very, very big grin on my face when listening. Trying the Grado HHF1s in singled ended mode did not have the same effect and I soon switched back to the Senns. I don't think this is a bad comment on the HHF1s but the difference between balanced ands single-ended.
I hope that we London head-fiers will be meeting up again soon so I can get to try both balanced & singled-ended 650s at the same time (you can have both headphone outs in use at the same time). But I'm also keen to try other balanced cans and especially any that I can easily re-terminate. Hmmm, balanced HHF1s I wonder...
Impressions
Oh that work was not so demanding on my time I'd have sat down and done a measured review of the sound based on some standard tracks and listed my comparison against other amps I own. I had planned on making a test CD up of certain well known tracks and noting down any key differences between the amps. But the ultimate test for me is that the main serious setup is now fairly well static and I'm not driven to switch back to an earlier setup.
So what was it that made me smile and is the balanced setup worth it.?
OK plugging in the Senns and hitting the play button on the CD remote gets you:
- Detail
Wow the extra detail is really apparent, makes you wonder whether the sound engineer doing the mix actually expects Mr Joe Average to hear everything he lays down in the mix. Yes I know it's an oft used phrase but you really do hear extra things on better equipment and once your ears & brain know it's there the lesser equipment does too but you're not made aware of it until you absolutely know it's there.
- Soundstage
Well I like it large and outside of my head if possible, as near as a speaker setup but via headphones. And the NX-33 setup gives it to me a plenty. Whether this is what is increasing the detail or whether the detail invokes a better soundstage impression I can't say and will need the measured judgment of other ears like Doctor Juggles or Vic.
- Volume
Now I've normally been a low volume listener and perhaps that's one reason why my perception differs from others. I could never listen too loud as it becomes too tiring too quickly and I have to have a break. One of the odd things with the NX33 is that the extra detail coming forth was at a certain volume and if meant to be heard would make the volume requirement higher than I would tend to use so the volume control gets pushed a little higher but it's still not tiring and does not need a break as soon as before. Based on this I'd have to assume that there is good volume and bad volume, bad volume for me is out of controlled bass and distortion and volume for the sake of it; good volume is not tiring and is needed to appreciate the sound as recorded. A cmoy is sufficient for volume as we all know but for the good stuff well there's the rub as Shakespeare would have said if he'd been a Head-Fi member, verily.
Upgrading & Tweaking
Well Rudi has obviously catered for the tweakers & twiddlers out there as you'll see from the pictures. The opamps are socketed all six of them so a degree of flavouring will no doubt be made by some. I may take a back seat here and wait for the suggestions of others who are keen to tweak their NX-33 first as no doubt the opamps in the NX33 are OK but perhaps could be bettered albeit at some cost, though I think I have some OPA627s lying around ..
Conclusion
Yes I'm a much happier bunny now. Balanced to me is a no brainer. No doubt you can get good quality single-ended but if it's all about hitting the right matching components and including your ears in that as well I'm a lot closer to nirvana than before and I haven't broken the bank balance! I may try out a few other cans balanced but this should see my gear settled for a good while now.
Steve
