[MalVeauX]

Quote:

 
Well... that was a fast update. This is really great news. Makes me think about ditching headphone amps all together and being exclusively speaker amps to drive headphones. The speaker amp market is very competitive and the quality of the units is really amazing. Headphone amps aren't nearly as competitive overall. 

 
Agreed,
 
This is why I started hunting down a speaker amp to basically remove the need for various headphone amps to have things to power different headphones, from things like Denons to Orthos. I found most headphone amps that can perform well on both are insanely expensive, compared to a $219 speaker amp with a volume knob that essentially does the same thing. So I have to recable or use adapters to use it, not a big deal to me, as I'd still rather use it than a headphone amp at this point since I have a setup that powers both speakers and headphones, and when I outgrow it, I don't have a brick sitting there that can't do anything except power a headphone. I like that I can swap speakers onto my LDMKIII -> Emotiva and have a tubey speaker setup too. Let alone headphones. Headphone amps are relatively new as it is, and frankly, are just low gain, low powered speaker amps, that are over-priced. I'm sure some golden-ear folk with absolutely disagree with that. But speaker folk probably would understand more why I would comment that. So far, I'm hearing excellent results from very budget friendly things that compare very much to some higher end equipment that I've listened to, so I'm enjoying the extra hundreds not spent on more headphones and more music instead of just more "gear." Universal balanced adapters and cables are simply awesome too. I just get my headphones modded to XLR balanced and I can use anything I want.
 
Maybe it's not summit-fi worthy, which is why this thread was moved.
 
But I'd love to put some of them up against this in a blind setup not knowing what they're plugged into.
 
Very best,

 

[preproman]

Quote:

Heya,
 
So this is a big deal.
 
I just got the XLR -> 500ohm resistor -> XLR adapter that Brian made me (BTG Audio). Wow. This thing is like a god send. I was already well off using my high impedance and low sensitivity orthos with the Emotiva. But this resistor lets me do several things I couldn't do as well before. One, I can now use any headphone that is low impedance with my OTL tube amp at it's more peak values, as I can make any of my lower impedance headphones instantly work with a 500+ ohm resistance. And it lets me also of course throw a big dumby load onto the Emotiva. I'm now using a Denon D5000 with the Emotiva, with no noise floor at all. When I hit pause on a track with the volume at listening level, it's dead silent. Before, without this resistor, the Denons were just too sensitive and there was noise floor due to the massive gain of the amp and the sensitivity of the Denon. That's completely gone with this 500ohm adapter.
 
My Denons are recabled (by Brian) to mini-XLR earrings (detachable cable) to balanced XLR, so I can use them unbalanced and balanced at will.
 
I'm running the Emotiva around 10 o'clock with my Denons currently, and my LDMKII pre-amp around 12 o'clock feeding the Emotiva. No equalization currently so that I'm hearing only how this performs without additional tweaks or line level adjustment.
 
Amazing fidelity. Very clear, transparent sound. I'm listening to some jazz and it's quite natural sounding, realistic, dynamic. The sound stage is wonderful. The bass is not over-board. Maybe I'm a little loopy, but it actually sounds tighter, way less loose sub-bass going on. Switching to some eletronica (Dredd sound track, yeeeaaaa), to see how it performs with big pulsing bass tones and intricate sugary melody, it's controlled and very tight. Separation is phenomenal. My biggest change so far is just how tight it is, very separated, great imaging, instead of kind of a loose, slow, warm treat. I'm very pleased with the performance. And I'm happy to report that you can absolutely use any headphone with the Emotiva.

My XLR -> 500ohm -> XLR adapter ran me $40 shipped from Brian. Highly recommended. This was an experiment and it paid off handsomely, as I can now use any headphone with the Emotiva,
 
I'll be testing it more with other headphones. I'm also curious to see what 1100ohms is like on my Beyer. And also how the HE500 and LCD2 perform with 538 and 550ohm of resistance as well. Will report back soon.
 
These are my balanced Denons with the 500ohm XLR resistor added at the end there.
 
Very best,

 
 
This is a great find.  We should somehow make this a sticky / guide.  This is very important information.

 

[mac336]

Quote:

 
 
This is a great find.  We should somehow make this a sticky / guide.  This is very important information.

lol. good luck with that

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
 
This is a great find.  We should somehow make this a sticky / guide.  This is very important information.

Slow down buddy.
 
A guide perhaps, after Mal has gone through everything and organized his opinions and thoughts regarding this whole project.
 
I wouldn't be so sure about a sticky Threads that are far more popular with more collective blood and sweat put in, e.g. T50RP modding thread, have yet to become stickied.

 

[elwappo99]

Quote:

 
Agreed,
 
This is why I started hunting down a speaker amp to basically remove the need for various headphone amps to have things to power different headphones, from things like Denons to Orthos. I found most headphone amps that can perform well on both are insanely expensive, compared to a $219 speaker amp with a volume knob that essentially does the same thing. So I have to recable or use adapters to use it, not a big deal to me, as I'd still rather use it than a headphone amp at this point since I have a setup that powers both speakers and headphones, and when I outgrow it, I don't have a brick sitting there that can't do anything except power a headphone. I like that I can swap speakers onto my LDMKIII -> Emotiva and have a tubey speaker setup too. Let alone headphones. Headphone amps are relatively new as it is, and frankly, are just low gain, low powered speaker amps, that are over-priced. I'm sure some golden-ear folk with absolutely disagree with that. But speaker folk probably would understand more why I would comment that. So far, I'm hearing excellent results from very budget friendly things that compare very much to some higher end equipment that I've listened to, so I'm enjoying the extra hundreds not spent on more headphones and more music instead of just more "gear." Universal balanced adapters and cables are simply awesome too. I just get my headphones modded to XLR balanced and I can use anything I want.
 
Maybe it's not summit-fi worthy, which is why this thread was moved.
 
But I'd love to put some of them up against this in a blind setup not knowing what they're plugged into.
 
Very best,

 
I blind tested the Emotiva against a little dot MKVI+ with a pretty serious tube arrangement and found the emotiva edged a better performance overall. Only complaint I have about the emotiva is the soundstage. It sounds like a speaker unit with the "three blob" sound, and not so much the infront spread out sound. Much like the Mjolnir. All emotiva would need to do is add a chassis mounted 4 pin Xlr to the front of this unit and it would be stellar. Or even a TRS, although I haven't hooked up a headphone that shared a ground. 

 

[preproman]

My goodness.  Why all the hate?  I just made a simple suggestion.  That's all.  
 
The reason I said that in the first place is because unlike modded headphones.  Playing around with this amp and sensitive headphones can lead to big time trouble.  
 
We're not talking about applying some dynamte and cotton here.  We'er talking about headphones blowing up.  That's why it's important information.  GEEEEZZZ.
 
I was just saying....

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

 This is very important information.

 
I'll eventually go through it all and link everyone's reports on the subject on the first post and organize it once most of the headphones and gear I have access to have been tested more extensively.
 
I think just having it in my signature will promote itself enough, since I'm no slacker when it comes to posting (

).
 
Quote:

after Mal has gone through everything and organized his opinions and thoughts regarding this whole project.
 

 
That's coming soon. So much to filter through to organize this, going to slowly work on that.
 
Quote:

 
I blind tested the Emotiva against a little dot MKVI+ with a pretty serious tube arrangement and found the emotiva edged a better performance overall. Only complaint I have about the emotiva is the soundstage. It sounds like a speaker unit with the "three blob" sound, and not so much the infront spread out sound. Much like the Mjolnir. All emotiva would need to do is add a chassis mounted 4 pin Xlr to the front of this unit and it would be stellar. Or even a TRS, although I haven't hooked up a headphone that shared a ground. 

 
I always wanted to try the flagship Little Dots. They're beautiful. I simply use the baby brother of them as a pre-amp.
 
Very best,

 

[TwinQY]

^^ If people just bump this thread all the time so it remains on the top of the feeds/pages, we won't even need a sticky 

 

[preproman]

Quote:

 
I'll eventually go through it all and link everyone's reports on the subject on the first post and organize it once most of the headphones and gear I have access to have been tested more extensively.
 
I think just having it in my signature will promote itself enough, since I'm no slacker when it comes to posting (

).
 
 
That's coming soon. So much to filter through to organize this, going to slowly work on that.
 
 
I always wanted to try the flagship Little Dots. They're beautiful. I simply use the baby brother of them as a pre-amp.
 
Very best,

 
 
Good enough..

 

[Joong]

I ordered an Emotiva mini-x today.

I hope that all those recommendation will be true.
Schiit Lyr will have a real challenger here....

 

[TwinQY]

Quote:

I ordered an Emotiva mini-x today.

I hope that all those recommendation will be true.
Schiit Lyr will have a real challenger here....

Maybe you'll see why I've held myself from buying a Lyr for so long...hehe
 
Hope you enjoy them. They came pretty quickly for me, within the week I ordered them.

 

[Joong]

In this way we return the original amplifier back to its deserved honor.
Why do we invent the wheel again?
All the headphone amp may not have very well defined engineering parameters.
Even though metrics of some headphone amps are wonderful, there are so many witnesses here that have counter proof against.

 

[ToInfinity]

So I've heard back from Brian from BTG...he recommended a 1/4" (I'm assuming female) to banana plug cable....BUT only if the Mini-X has shared grounds for each channel. I think I remember somewhere in this epic thread that someone called Emotiva and confirmed that it does have shared grounds?

 

[mac336]

Quote:

So I've heard back from Brian from BTG...he recommended a 1/4" (I'm assuming female) to banana plug cable....BUT only if the Mini-X has shared grounds for each channel. I think I remember somewhere in this epic thread that someone called Emotiva and confirmed that it does have shared grounds?

 
Yes the grounds are shared.  I am using the female 1/4" to banana plugs.    works great.  

 

[ToInfinity]

Quote:

 
Yes the grounds are shared.  I am using the female 1/4" to banana plugs.    works great.  

Thanks for a quick response. Good to know.