knowhatimean
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2011
- Posts
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- 135
This thread has been pretty quiet so I thought I"d pass along some things that I have recently been enjoying about this amp with my modded HD800s & modded HE-6s.
First I have to say at some point in the last several months the Fosgate's pronounced "tubed headhone amp" sound characteristics of "let's place an additional "airy" sound envelope around players that seperates them from the rest of the entire acoustic of the recording" to presenting evertything (regardless of whatever warts might exist) as a complete picture of the music as a whole. I really don't know if the former is the intended characteristic of Tube Amps ,but it simply ruins following a Composers orchestration by highlighting individual parts of the playing. The good news is my Fosgate isn't sounding like that anymore !
I really didn't think is sounded very good using 12AX7 tubes. I was using 5751 tubes for awhile & they appeared to be more to my liking,but I still wasn't sold on how my 800 still ran out of "volume headroom" a bit quicker than I was finding the dynamic headroom I was looking for, so I took a stab at trying to see if there might be a tube that gave me a little more & tried using a Electro Harmonics EH12AY7 that is currently sounding pretty fantastic with the 800 ,but this amp is still a little finicky about reaching the last iota of the ideal playback level for the various symphonic works I listen to . I can normally get it to 95 to 97% of what I'd like with this very complex music. It's a little easier to find the playback level i like with the HE-6 (i'm not finding these to present any problems to drive, i'm not sure if this is because I'm not running the 6s stock & am also using an aftermarke cable on them (like im running on the HD800; which I hardwired to the cable; Ill probably end up hardwiring the HE-6 at some point ,but they''re sounding pretty good with the single ended cable I added so there's no rush)
I'm not sure why Tyll was "lukewarm" about this amp, but it's sounding pretty good these days with the Metrum Hex DAC & Equitech 1.5Q BPT line conditionet sitting in front of it. (& I honestly think the Equitech is what is making the most difference in what I'm listening to) I'm glad the tube substitution & Cryo-ed cables & fuse ended up working so well, as I have no budget for a new Headphone Amp at present: the Rothwell Inline Attentuators I Ihave on order should help me with getting a little more volume "wiggle" from the amp.
If you have this Amp taking up some shelf space give a few of these things a try, before writting it offf as an unsuccessful buy. (I can't be the only person who "hoards" equipment, & is glad they did because they're
currently "Audio Purchase" challenged !
First I have to say at some point in the last several months the Fosgate's pronounced "tubed headhone amp" sound characteristics of "let's place an additional "airy" sound envelope around players that seperates them from the rest of the entire acoustic of the recording" to presenting evertything (regardless of whatever warts might exist) as a complete picture of the music as a whole. I really don't know if the former is the intended characteristic of Tube Amps ,but it simply ruins following a Composers orchestration by highlighting individual parts of the playing. The good news is my Fosgate isn't sounding like that anymore !
I really didn't think is sounded very good using 12AX7 tubes. I was using 5751 tubes for awhile & they appeared to be more to my liking,but I still wasn't sold on how my 800 still ran out of "volume headroom" a bit quicker than I was finding the dynamic headroom I was looking for, so I took a stab at trying to see if there might be a tube that gave me a little more & tried using a Electro Harmonics EH12AY7 that is currently sounding pretty fantastic with the 800 ,but this amp is still a little finicky about reaching the last iota of the ideal playback level for the various symphonic works I listen to . I can normally get it to 95 to 97% of what I'd like with this very complex music. It's a little easier to find the playback level i like with the HE-6 (i'm not finding these to present any problems to drive, i'm not sure if this is because I'm not running the 6s stock & am also using an aftermarke cable on them (like im running on the HD800; which I hardwired to the cable; Ill probably end up hardwiring the HE-6 at some point ,but they''re sounding pretty good with the single ended cable I added so there's no rush)
I'm not sure why Tyll was "lukewarm" about this amp, but it's sounding pretty good these days with the Metrum Hex DAC & Equitech 1.5Q BPT line conditionet sitting in front of it. (& I honestly think the Equitech is what is making the most difference in what I'm listening to) I'm glad the tube substitution & Cryo-ed cables & fuse ended up working so well, as I have no budget for a new Headphone Amp at present: the Rothwell Inline Attentuators I Ihave on order should help me with getting a little more volume "wiggle" from the amp.
If you have this Amp taking up some shelf space give a few of these things a try, before writting it offf as an unsuccessful buy. (I can't be the only person who "hoards" equipment, & is glad they did because they're
currently "Audio Purchase" challenged !
