[Apina]

Previously in this forum (sounds like a tacky american tv series

) I was asking about amps to feed my HP1K's and I'm happy for all the responces I received on that issue..... finances didn't allow an all singing all dancing tube amp so I decided to get a portable amp (SR-71) that I could use as a temp. solution for both my potable and in home needs.

Well to be honest I don't know where to start this initial thoughts write up but here goes

The initial amp, (headphone output from my hifi), I used with the HP1000's provided me with a mushy sound where the bass and the highs blended in with the the rest of the music which in turn didn't allow me to fully appreciate how good the grado's really do sound!

When I received the amp (thanks ttvj) the first thing that caught my attention about the SR-71 is the quality of the little amp and how cute it is (sorry I couldn't think of another word to describe it

). This is an amp that I can happily throw into a backpack and not stress about it breaking straight away!

First listening session was with my juke box (creative zen touch), because the zen doesn't have a line out I had a few doubts about how good this box of music could sound with the SR-71 and grados. I put on an mtv unplugged album and all i can say is WOW the SR-71 helped provide a nice clear signal to the phones which seperated all the instruments and allowed me to hear how the music should sound not the mush I was listening to before.
Now i know mp3 is not the best format for music to be in but I'm more then happy with the sound I was listening to.

Following on from this I provided a preamp signal to the little amp of joy and because of the higher signal quality I really could hear what the SR-71 is all about. It's an amp that sounds much larger then it is, the bass was smooth the highs sounded sweet and one thing that suprised me was that there was location to the different elements of the music I was listening to which I was use to hearing on my speaker system but not with headphones!

One thing that is nice about using batteries is that the silent parts of the music are deadly silent which would normally require an expensive psu and cable to achieve.

I've only listened to the amp for a few hours at the most and I'm happy with the purchase already

I'm going to listen to this little puppy while it's burning in and appreciate every note the tiny box of goodness can provide me with.

When the amp has been through burn in and I've had chance to watch movies from my laptop, listen to music from my juke box and hifi then I'll (try to!) provide a review of the amp and headphone combination.

Thanks for reading if you got to the end

 

[tk_suki]

Bravo for your aquisition and input. I experienced similar joys with the SR-71 in my porto rig. Blackness was fantastic. Great sound for something so tiny. Do not worry about batteries to much they will last a while.

One minor caution is the I&O plugs are not as indestuctable as the rest of the unit. Minis are fine but a 1/4" to mini adapter if strained has considerably more leverage, and can loosen the jack. I checked all the portable devices I own and even made perused local electronics store, they all have similar design and vulnerability. I sugggest using only a mini adapter or mini with a cord to the 1/4" instead of all-in-one cast. Mini cords should present little problems since leverage reduced.

What this means if ya want to use with your Senns andd std mini converter dont just chuck in your backpack, while the rest of the unit can probably surive some significant shock, the jacks are a weakness. I believe this is true of ANY amp I have seen on jack weakness. Normal push in pull out should work fine.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tk_suki I sugggest using only a mini adapter or mini with a cord to the 1/4" instead of all-in-one cast. Mini cords should present little problems since leverage reduced.

Grado makes such an adapter, and both Headroom and TTVJ sell it.

 

[PhilS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apina First listening session was with my juke box (creative zen touch), because the zen doesn't have a line out I had a few doubts about how good this box of music could sound with the SR-71 and grados. I put on an mtv unplugged album and all i can say is WOW the SR-71 helped provide a nice clear signal to the phones which seperated all the instruments and allowed me to hear how the music should sound not the mush I was listening to before. Now i know mp3 is not the best format for music to be in but I'm more then happy with the sound I was listening to.

When you hook the SR-71 through the headphone out of the Zen, are you able to use whatever equalization (bass boost, etc.) the Zen has? I am considering getting an MP3 player and a portable amp for use with my Ety's, but find I need some kind of bass boost. I know one option is the Supermono that has bass boost, but I may want more control over the sound spectrum than just bass boost, and am considering the SR-71 for other reasons as well.

Also, I am curious about the difference with the SR-71 in the loop. I've read other posts where people say that they could not hear a difference adding a portable amp to the headphone out of their MP3 player. But you obviously feel there is a significant improvement. Can you elaborate on how significant a difference you're hearing? Thanks.

 

[Apina]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhilS When you hook the SR-71 through the headphone out of the Zen, are you able to use whatever equalization (bass boost, etc.) the Zen has? I am considering getting an MP3 player and a portable amp for use with my Ety's, but find I need some kind of bass boost. I know one option is the Supermono that has bass boost, but I may want more control over the sound spectrum than just bass boost, and am considering the SR-71 for other reasons as well. Also, I am curious about the difference with the SR-71 in the loop. I've read other posts where people say that they could not hear a difference adding a portable amp to the headphone out of their MP3 player. But you obviously feel there is a significant improvement. Can you elaborate on how significant a difference you're hearing? Thanks.

The zen has several default options for equalisation as well as the option to create a user defined eq setting, they do make a difference to the listening experience through the SR-71 and it will allow you to have more control then just a bass boost switch on the amp unit.

Because I'm using my MP3 player with Grado HP1000's I needed an extra boost on the signal to give me a strong enough output to power the phones. (The zen touch's output quality is very high, I can feed it to my stereo and the sound quality I'm receiving is splendid, hmmmm that makes me wonder if i feed the mp3 player through the SR-71 to my hifi will it sound better!??)

For my setup and the cans i'm using the amp cleans things up and gives the music's elements a bit more space to breathe..... I still need to burn the amp in fully before I can give you a full heads up on the exact pluses and minuses of the amp.

Personally I'd pick up a high quality mp3 player and check out how the ety's sound first before jumping into buying an amp. The zen touch has excellent sound quality and the battery life when i tested it was over 25 hours on a 3 hour charge!!!

How do I post pics??

 

[Apina]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tk_suki Bravo for your aquisition and input. I experienced similar joys with the SR-71 in my porto rig. Blackness was fantastic. Great sound for something so tiny. Do not worry about batteries to much they will last a while. One minor caution is the I&O plugs are not as indestuctable as the rest of the unit. Minis are fine but a 1/4" to mini adapter if strained has considerably more leverage, and can loosen the jack. I checked all the portable devices I own and even made perused local electronics store, they all have similar design and vulnerability. I sugggest using only a mini adapter or mini with a cord to the 1/4" instead of all-in-one cast. Mini cords should present little problems since leverage reduced. What this means if ya want to use with your Senns andd std mini converter dont just chuck in your backpack, while the rest of the unit can probably surive some significant shock, the jacks are a weakness. I believe this is true of ANY amp I have seen on jack weakness. Normal push in pull out should work fine.

Thanks for the advice on the input ports, the cables I have for the amp were custom made for me by fiddler, nice bloke and very good cables too! If I can manage to post up some pics (not the best quality I took them using my mobile phone's camera, it's the only digital one i got!!) you'll be able to see the cables i'm using.

 

[Apina]

Hope this works, here are the pics for my portable rig, sorry about the quality but as mentioned before it's taken using a mobile phone camera!!

 

[blessingx]

Nice setup!

 

[tk_suki]

even in those pics. thks for sharing. Hmm looks like maybe I need to do some cable shopping.

 

[Jahn]

That's a great setup! Congrats on the new amp!

 

[gpalmer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apina Hope this works, here are the pics for my portable rig, sorry about the quality but as mentioned before it's taken using a mobile phone camera!!

Talk about overkill, that's as bad as me using my Jukebox 3 to source my Grace 901 and PS-1s.

 

[blessingx]

I'm telling ya, for at least the ten minutes I heard them, the R10 sounded pretty nice straight off the iPod.

 

[Apina]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gpalmer Talk about overkill, that's as bad as me using my Jukebox 3 to source my Grace 901 and PS-1s.

Ok Ok to be honest I know it's a bit overkill but I use my hifi's pre out as well with the SR-71 to power the cans.


tk-suki I got the cables from fiddler on this site, he costom built an extension cable as well for me and his prices were very good for the quality of cable I got

if you're looking for cables send a pm or mail to eugene (fiddler) you won't be disapointed, he'll build up all your cable needs

http://www.fidaudio.com/

Any suggestions for a resonable set of cans to go with this kind of setup...!?

 

[PhilS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apina Personally I'd pick up a high quality mp3 player and check out how the ety's sound first before jumping into buying an amp.

That seems like good advice to me. Thanks for your thoughts on the SR-71.

 

[enzoferrari650]

dang. This is so hard just watching everyone slowly one by one getting the sr-71. I have to hear for myself someday