GLF
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2002
- Posts
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These are my first impressions of the Bottlehead S.E.X. integrated amp that I finished two weeks ago. I say short because I am newer in the high-end headphone scene and do not have much to use for doing comparisons nor have I heard other setups, so bare with me for now. Look here for the building thread. Sorry for taking so long to get at this, but with work, and then me being stupid and going to EAA with no sunscreen and getting second degree burns on my face and ears, I haven't been able to listen to my headphones as much as would have liked recently.
This amp comes in a kit form so you have to put it together yourself. This is the 4th project I have worked on so I have a bit of soldering experience under my belt but by no means am I a pro. Previously I have built two foreplay pre-amps, one from a kit and the other from scratch and I have done a full rebuild/upgrade of a Dynaco ST-70. When I built the first foreplay it was my first go at point to point wiring and was the first real electronics project I had attempted. It worked fine with no problems. Next was the Dynaco which gave me one issue then worked fine. After that I did a foreplay that went about as far as you could go without changing the circuit, well, except for the four separate power supplies
As far as the S.E.X. kit goes, I think the kit was put together well, the instructions are a definite improvement over the ones that came with the original foreplay, but with the downside that they come in the form of a .PDF. This isn't a problem if you have access to a color printer or if your work bench is near a computer. In a perfect world, printed instructions would have been a nice touch, but then the cost of the kit would be higher to cover the additional cost and then for those of us who don't need printed instructions (thanks for the laptop work) would be complaining about paying for a set of instructions that we don't really need. As far as the parts quality goes, I think you get what you pay for from any kit. You will not find boutique parts in this kit, but you are not paying for them either. I have the Iron/Coupling caps/C4S upgrade on the way and I will post a bit about the improvement and a comparison of the stock parts to the upgrade ones when I get it installed, keep in mind, the upgrade costs as much as the stock kit does. The only disappointment I had with the parts was the power transformer bell cover (a separate piece from the actual transformer) had a pretty big scratch on it. I didn't mind too much because I was going to buff and finish it anyway. When I was checking on the delivery status of the upgrade kit, I brought up the scratched cover and Doc B. offered to send a replacement out if I wanted, which I declined because I still plan on finishing this one, which is a lot more than the seller of the Dynaco kit (not Triode electronics or Welborne labs, both of which rock IMO) offered to do when two resistors were not in that kit, he actually insisted that I must have misplaced them and he did not offer to send a replacement. Overall I was impressed with the kit part. Now on to the sound.
Gear used:
Amps:
Stock Bottlehead S.E.X. amp
Marantz 2215
Denon AVR-1905
Sources:
Sony SCD-C333ES
Pioneer DV-45A
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Altis DAP reference
Headphones:
Sennheiser HD650
Grado SR-225
A quick bit about how I like my sound, I am a tube person, my stereo consists of a tube preamp and amp. Both the amp and pre amp are on the "cleaner" side of the tube fence, but they still have that warmth, just try and touch a 6CA7 when it’s been on for 30 minutes! Sorry, bad joke. There is definitely plenty of detail, but it is never fatiguing, well, if you tried you could probably make it sound harsh if you put the wrong combination of tubes in. Added to that I have a pair of Magnepan MMGs. I find a lot of systems fatiguing, I guess either I have more sensitive ears than most or I am picky, or maybe a combination of both. I am not a fan of speakers from Paradigm, PSB, B&W, Infinity and the like, they just don't make me want to listen to them. I am a fan of speakers from Spendor, Meadowlark, Magnepan, and NHT. So from the impressions I have read here, it seems I would fall into the sennheiser/AKG camp.
I had the Senns for about a month before I got the S.E.X. kit. Up until then I was using the Marantz to drive the senns. The Marantz drove them better than I expected, but it still left a good deal to be desired. I also used the Marantz to drive the SR-225s, but the match didn't really sound right. The SR-225s sounded much better being driven by the Denon, actually, if I feel like listening to the SR-225s, I prefer the Denon to the S.E.X. or the Marantz. I was not too surprised to find this because the Senns and SR-225s sound quite different.
As far as the sound of the Denon, I think it sounds good, it has a nice balanced sound that does not stand out in one area or another. I think it sounds very good through the SR-225s and surprisingly I think it does pretty good on the Senns too. The Denon clearly has better control over the SR-225s then the Senns, but the HD650s are known to take a bit more oomph to get going.
Now for the S.E.X.
I gave this one the most listening time as it is the only true headphone amp I have. Right off the bat I liked the sound. I spent a while deciding which source I prefer and I would have to say that I like the Sony, but that is mainly because the analog outs on the Pioneer have a low level hum, whether going into the Denon or S.E.X., other than that, I think I would lean towards the Pioneer. I took a while to decide if I liked the Altis or the Sony more and I came to the conclusion that the overall sound of the Sony was more balanced and the Altis lost detail during more dynamic passages, where the Sony remained constant. The Altis was better in some areas, which helped identify the short comings of the Sony.
One thing that worried me about the S.E.X. was whether or not it would have a low level hum. When you put your ear up to the tweeter of one of my Maggies you can hear a buzz, whether it is the pre amp, the amp, the power in the apartment or one of the tubes, I do not know, but it is not noticeable from the listening position so I am not too worried about it. I am happy to report that the S.E.X. is dead quiet. You can turn the volume all the way up and it remains quiet, regardless if you have the Senns or Grados plugged in.
The sound is very detailed and the little nuances of the instruments come through very well. When listening to Patricia Barber's Verse, on "Lost in this love", you hear every bass note but you also hear the subtle sound of the bass player's fingers moving up and down the frets as he switches notes.
On to more interested recordings. One of my favorite test CDs is Nine Inch Nails' - The Fragile, I really like "Into the Void" and "Where is Everybody?" because it seems if a speaker is going to fall short on dynamics, it will be during one of those two songs, also throw in the crazy amount of small detail and texture of those NIN songs and you can get a handle of whether the speaker can not only handle the dynamics, but also the fine detail that might otherwise get missed. The S.E.X. had no trouble driving the 650s through either song while maintaining the fine detail. I am used to listening to NIN through my stereo and I have gotten used to losing a bit of impact or slam in return for the wall effect that the Maggies give the NIN where everything sounds huge at reasonable volumes, where most box speakers need to be played much louder before they sound that big. If you like NIN, and haven’t heard it on Maggies, you are missing out, just make sure the amp has some power, I find 32 good clean tube watts floats my boat
Next up is a little Tool. One thing that worried me about the Senns was that I read about a lot of people not liking them for rock and especially Tool. When I got the Senns I listened to some Tool and I didn't like the way it sounded, I didn't know if it was the Senns or the Marantz that was at fault, but sometimes it is obvious that it more than one thing adding to the crap you are hearing when it sounds that bad. So I went and got the Grados. Using the Denon and the Grados I fixed the Tool situation. Now that I have a real amp for the Senns I went back and threw in Tool's Salival and I can say that it is much improved. I think that the Grados have a slight edge over the Senns on this recording. I say slight because they are such different headphones that a lot of the time it is hard to decide if one is necessarily better, or if they are just different, in this case I like aspects of both headphones, but when it comes down to it, if I were only going to listen to Tool, I would take the Grados. But it should be noted that with the addition of the S.E.X.; the Senns handled Tool much better than before.
Overall I really like this amp. I find the sound that I get from it to be along the lines of what I like. It has yet to be harsh or fatiguing. I definitely like the Senns more than the Grados except for on Tool but in that case I am also using a different amp. I am sure as I make my way through my CDs I will run into more stuff that ends up on the Grado list, but until then I must say I am pretty pleased on most everything I have listened to and I look forward to upgrading a few of the parts and seeing what changes.
Now hopefully we can get a Milwaukee meet going so I can listen to some other stuff.
Andrew
P.S. Below is a picture of my system as it is right now.
