[powertoold]

Darn, missed someone selling their MK6 in the For Sale forums

 

[jp11801]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -=Germania=- /img/forum/go_quote.gif Fully balanced end to end will likely have the best results. Plus, you did say "Fully Balanced" When I was talking about Indie labels, I was more speaking about what most people think of as indie labels. I really like Epitaph, but their mastering in many cases could use some work. Rock-On!

It's not the mastering on early epitaph that sucks it's the overall recording. That said the Rancor stuff sounds ok while Pennywise records pretty much sound poor.
Also why is balanced end to end better from your (engineer) perspective? Many balanced sources use an opamp in the xlr section. I can see no rational for balanced end to end (except maybe ego) over well executed single ended topology. Again my previous statement applies to most not all sources.

 

[-=Germania=-]

JP, I really do understand you.

Personally, I would probably do the same thing since investing in new equipment across the board just seems unreasonable to me at least. Although, he did say "Fully Balanced" so I thought he really did mean end to end. If it really didn't matter, why even have balanced to begin with?
The whole XLR dual 3 pin balanced concept doesn't entirely make sense to me anyway. Why did that become standard versus the 4 pin XLR which is much more convenient and serves the same exact purpose? Or even a 4 pole TRS (other than the potential shorting)? ( I realize that the LD amp is different from most in this regard)

I agree with you about a good single ended design. It is a law of diminishing returns. The headphone sees everything relative to ground, so I really do not quite understand the need for 2 ground signals. Wouldn't you want the right and left to be pulling from the base if for nothing else but matching?
If you want to go balanced, why bother if it is just going to end up being the same as a singular active ground channel down the line?

Feel free to disagree (this is all IMO).

Personally, I don't think that the Stax are really that expensive when you take in the price to performance ratio. You can pick up vintage Stax that beat out dynamic setups costing 2x's as much.

BTW: NONE of this has to do with engineering. It is just looking at things in an average person who doesn't know high-end kind of way and someone who is on a budget.

Flame away, I have already gotten used to it.


Regardless, I hope you really enjoy your new setup Lil' Knight!

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Well the only weird part is that while pre-amp cables are 3-pins with one to ground, but they used the same cables for headphones when only 2 pins are used for each channel of output - I suspect because someone/peeps were too lazy to use a single 4 pin much of the time with so many 3-pin plugs laying around. One advantage however is that 3-pin pre-amp cables can also act as headphone extension cables.

I've been converting my balanced phones to 4-pin, and have a 4-pin to dual 3-pin adapter plus a 4-pin to single ended adapter. I've done my D2000 and HD600 this way and now I can use them with my balanced amp or my laptop USB DAC amp too (my SR-325i are still a dual 3-pin for the moment).

 

[Lil' Knight]

The 4-pin XLR of the LD VI really sucks. I'm thinking about building a 4-pin to dual 3-pin XLR which I really don't like at all.

 

[blessingx]

Congrats Knight. Keep us informed on your LD VI impressions. Been curious about everything on that amp from its fans to tube-rolling possibilities. Certainly a beautiful choice.

 

[Lil' Knight]

Definitely, Ric

However, my experience with tube amp is almost zero. Now I have to do some searching around for it.

 

[razor]

I'm expecting my MK VI soon (next week hopefully) along with a CA DacMagic with balanced out. Also ordered some HGA silver braid to 4-PIN XLR for my HD-650s. Really looking forward to it! David at littledot really provides exceptional customer service. Also, they really do test the amps before they sent them out. There was an issue with mine which is getting a part replaced, or I would have had it this week..

So breakdown of costs are:

Headphones + 4pin Balanced cables + 2x 3-pin XLR ICs + Dacmagic ($400) + LD MK VI ($800)

 

[vcoheda]

^ that should be a nice compact, decent balanced system.

 

[Lil' Knight]

Quote:

Originally Posted by razor /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm expecting my MK VI soon (next week hopefully) along with a CA DacMagic with balanced out. Also ordered some HGA silver braid to 4-PIN XLR for my HD-650s. Really looking forward to it! David at littledot really provides exceptional customer service. Also, they really do test the amps before they sent them out. There was an issue with mine which is getting a part replaced, or I would have had it this week.. So breakdown of costs are: Headphones + 4pin Balanced cables + 2x 3-pin XLR ICs + Dacmagic ($400) + LD MK VI ($800)

Somehow we have the same setup, except the cable. I'll build some Mogami cables.

And I totally agree with the custom service of David. A real gentleman, he answered my emails in about 5 minutes.

 

[philodox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Knight /img/forum/go_quote.gif The 4-pin XLR of the LD VI really sucks. I'm thinking about building a 4-pin to dual 3-pin XLR which I really don't like at all.

Don't worry about that too much. One nice thing you could consider is building the adapter into a box and setting that box whereever you want to plug your headphones into. I think you can use the XLR outs on the back, so you wouldn't even have anything connected at the front of the amp. I've actually considered doing something like this with my amp since my K340 cable isn't really as long as I'd like.

 

[Lil' Knight]

I've thought about using the dual 3-pin XLR on the back panel but I have to put all the stuffs (amp, dac and laptop) on a very very small table in my dorm room

Hooking it up it in the back makes me feel uncomfortable.
I've contacted David regarding this issue but unfortunately the design was fixed and they can't change it