Fostex TH900 Impressions & Discussion Thread
Dec 29, 2017 at 7:46 PM Post #15,676 of 18,737
Amplification advise needed. I know I should do more research, but 1045 pages are too much. Give me some ideas, please! :)

Right now I have Meridian Explorer 2 DAC and a Violectric V200 amp. Both the DAC and the amp have slightly polite and smooth character with rolled off treble. Together all it sounds very comfortable, but too smooth for me. I like Violectric a lot, but want to try something completely different for an experiment. I want to try a quick and transparent amplifier which will drive TH-900 in more forward, crisp and aggressive way. I found that Burson Soloist (the bigger one, not SL) might be a solution. Are there any more suggestions?

They, along with the Denon siblings, sound great out of vintage speaker amps...............
 
Dec 29, 2017 at 9:55 PM Post #15,677 of 18,737
They, along with the Denon siblings, sound great out of vintage speaker amps...............
Thank you for suggestion, but I don`t feel comfortable with such experiment. I don`t have any vintage speaker amp in my possession. And there are at least two problems with this solution. A "first watt problem" and a chance to accidentally burn $1000+ headphones.
 
Dec 30, 2017 at 5:36 AM Post #15,678 of 18,737
Amplification advise needed. I know I should do more research, but 1045 pages are too much. Give me some ideas, please! :)

Right now I have Meridian Explorer 2 DAC and a Violectric V200 amp. Both the DAC and the amp have slightly polite and smooth character with rolled off treble. Together all it sounds very comfortable, but too smooth for me. I like Violectric a lot, but want to try something completely different for an experiment. I want to try a quick and transparent amplifier which will drive TH-900 in more forward, crisp and aggressive way. I found that Burson Soloist (the bigger one, not SL) might be a solution. Are there any more suggestions?

I had a Bakoon HDA-5210mk3 which was just plain crazy good pairing with TH900s. Very aggressive and energetic sound.
 
Dec 30, 2017 at 9:29 AM Post #15,679 of 18,737
i can recommend the questyle cma600i for similar reasons. both the bakoon and questyle utilise current amplification so maybe that has something to do with it - who knows? the cma400i is cheaper and appears to offer much of what the cma600i does on paper but i've not tried it.
 
Dec 30, 2017 at 10:13 AM Post #15,680 of 18,737
I have been using four different TH900s on the go in Hong Kong. In a tiny city packed with 8 million people I had no problem wearing the TH900 packed with peopke on trains, buses, taxi and ferrys. People are usually staring at their phones and many have blue tooth earphones in their ears.
 
Dec 30, 2017 at 7:11 PM Post #15,681 of 18,737
I had a Bakoon HDA-5210mk3 which was just plain crazy good pairing with TH900s. Very aggressive and energetic sound.
It`s quite expensive. I would not say it`s an no go price, but definitely tough decision. I found the only online store in Australia and the price range is $1,5k - $2,5k depending on options. Do you know what options are really useful, what are not?

i can recommend the questyle cma600i for similar reasons. both the bakoon and questyle utilise current amplification so maybe that has something to do with it - who knows? the cma400i is cheaper and appears to offer much of what the cma600i does on paper but i've not tried it.
Thank you. I`ve never heard about it before. It`s your main amp for Fostex? Did you make any comparsions with other amps?
 
Dec 30, 2017 at 7:56 PM Post #15,682 of 18,737
i don't own the cma600i but am considering it mainly as a solid state option for the utopia. i tried it with the utopia the other day actually but not with the th900. i did try it some time ago with the th900 tho. i haven't compared it directly with other amps. it's a dac/amp/pre-amp combo. its presentation is highly detailed, "transparent", spacious and fast - perhaps too much so for the utopia as it seemed to turbo charge it in a way that the burson conductor v2+ didn't when i tried it at another store a short time later.
 
Jan 2, 2018 at 12:49 AM Post #15,683 of 18,737
It`s quite expensive. I would not say it`s an no go price, but definitely tough decision. I found the only online store in Australia and the price range is $1,5k - $2,5k depending on options. Do you know what options are really useful, what are not?

I had the fully tricked out version, but I don't know how much the options really affect the sound. The amp was very powerful though, on low gain I couldn't turn the volume pot beyond 1,5-2 (on the amp's scale) without it getting too loud. Otherwise it was phenomenal amp, but in the end I couldn't justify owning so expensive audio gear and ended up selling it.
 
Jan 16, 2018 at 11:25 PM Post #15,686 of 18,737
Jan 17, 2018 at 8:31 AM Post #15,689 of 18,737
Jan 17, 2018 at 8:58 AM Post #15,690 of 18,737
I use it with Chord Mojo & Ifi Micro IDSD Black. IFI Black performs better than Mojo with TH900. I have recently bought Cayin N5ii. I liked it with TH900 especially in mid-range. But it performs better if it is used as a transport for IFI Black.
 

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