HeadAmp CFA3 Headphone Amp - The Official Thread

[justin w.]

Um, option 2 please...

I suppose we should be asking what price difference is there between option 1 & 2...

There won't be a difference

 

[bunnygal23]

There would be the sound of the relays changing when adjusting the volume,

I would heavily prefer option one if it means no sound heard when I changed volume please, not really picky if it's motorized or not

 

[elira]

Update: We have the first 15 of the CFA3 Standard Edition assembled and about to be burned-in!

For the Deluxe Edition, we have a decision to make ASAP. Our original plan for the motorized 47-step attenuator has fallen through, which I had previously mentioned delays about. There are 2 great options for a replacement:

1) ELMA 47-step attenuator, motorized. A very high quality mechanical stepped attenuator with a strong feeling detent between steps and a compact custom motor. Using the remote control will turn the motor so the knob will rotate automatically. it's also made to feel the same when turning by hand. The max attenuation is -72dB, with the first few steps 2 or 3dB and most of the steps 1.5dB. For my use this has always been enough steps especially with the low/high gain settings.

2) In the Grand Cayman thread I recently mentioned that we've started a collaboration on some projects with Kerry and Eksonic. One of those happens to be a motorized relay-based attenuator with up to 255 steps of 1/2dB. The relays would change the volume by turning a potentiometer, so it would be smooth and no detents and a huge number of steps to land on it would be almost seamless. There would be the sound of the relays changing when adjusting the volume, which is true of most gear using relay attenuators. It could also be possible to add left/right balance adjustments through buttons on the remote only.

I know which one I prefer, but I wanted to let the thread / customers with pre-orders decide.

Option 2 seems like the better option.

 

[yaluen]

There would be the sound of the relays changing when adjusting the volume, which is true of most gear using relay attenuators.

Noise from the unit and not the heaphone outs correct?

 

[VandyMan]

I would heavily prefer option one if it means no sound heard when I changed volume please, not really picky if it's motorized or not

I don't have one on order, so ignore me, but I really like the click-click-click sound of those types of volume controls.

 

[rwelles]

also option 2

 

[Benke]

Update: We have the first 15 of the CFA3 Standard Edition assembled and about to be burned-in!

For the Deluxe Edition, we have a decision to make ASAP. Our original plan for the motorized 47-step attenuator has fallen through, which I had previously mentioned delays about. There are 2 great options for a replacement:

1) ELMA 47-step attenuator, motorized. A very high quality mechanical stepped attenuator with a strong feeling detent between steps and a compact custom motor. Using the remote control will turn the motor so the knob will rotate automatically. it's also made to feel the same when turning by hand. The max attenuation is -72dB, with the first few steps 2 or 3dB and most of the steps 1.5dB. For my use this has always been enough steps especially with the low/high gain settings.

2) In the Grand Cayman thread I recently mentioned that we've started a collaboration on some projects with Kerry and Eksonic. One of those happens to be a motorized relay-based attenuator with up to 255 steps of 1/2dB. The relays would change the volume by turning a potentiometer, so it would be smooth and no detents and a huge number of steps to land on it would be almost seamless. There would be the sound of the relays changing when adjusting the volume, which is true of most gear using relay attenuators. It could also be possible to add left/right balance adjustments through buttons on the remote only.

I know which one I prefer, but I wanted to let the thread / customers with pre-orders decide.

Option 2 is my choice.

 

[Relaxasaurus]

I would heavily prefer option one if it means no sound heard when I changed volume please, not really picky if it's motorized or not

Same boat. We're probably in the minority considering the tier of amp but I wasn't the biggest fan of the clicking relays in my previous Audio-Gd gear.

 

[bifford]

I prefer option 2, which sounds similar to how the volume works on my LTA MZ3.

 

[Beefy]

Not a customer intending to buy this amp, so feel free to ignore me...... but surely, SURELY option 2 is better.

I've got the original Kevin Gilmore latching relay attenuator with 255 0.5 dB steps in my Exstata, and it is *absolutely glorious*. No 'regular' stepped attenuator I have used even comes close. The smooth pot feel is better, the precise volume control is better, and I bet the physical contacts on high quality latching relays sound better with a longer service life. And dammit, I love the clickety-clack.

 

[elira]

Same boat. We're probably in the minority considering the tier of amp but I wasn't the biggest fan of the clicking relays in my previous Audio-Gd gear.

Audio-gd uses a very small encoder that doesn’t feel that nice, also the attenuation curve ramps up very slowly. There are better implementations like the Benchmark HPA-4, that one feels very sturdy. The Flux Labs one uses a small potentiometer and lacks substance.

From what I understand option 2 in here should be a motorized potentiometer, closer to the Schiit implementation than to the Audio-gd one. I don’t recall how well the Schiit ones feel, but a good potentiometer should feel better than a small encoder.

 

[Chefguru]

Update: We have the first 15 of the CFA3 Standard Edition assembled and about to be burned-in!

For the Deluxe Edition, we have a decision to make ASAP. Our original plan for the motorized 47-step attenuator has fallen through, which I had previously mentioned delays about. There are 2 great options for a replacement:

1) ELMA 47-step attenuator, motorized. A very high quality mechanical stepped attenuator with a strong feeling detent between steps and a compact custom motor. Using the remote control will turn the motor so the knob will rotate automatically. it's also made to feel the same when turning by hand. The max attenuation is -72dB, with the first few steps 2 or 3dB and most of the steps 1.5dB. For my use this has always been enough steps especially with the low/high gain settings.

2) In the Grand Cayman thread I recently mentioned that we've started a collaboration on some projects with Kerry and Eksonic. One of those happens to be a motorized relay-based attenuator with up to 255 steps of 1/2dB. The relays would change the volume by turning a potentiometer, so it would be smooth and no detents and a huge number of steps to land on it would be almost seamless. There would be the sound of the relays changing when adjusting the volume, which is true of most gear using relay attenuators. It could also be possible to add left/right balance adjustments through buttons on the remote only.

I know which one I prefer, but I wanted to let the thread / customers with pre-orders decide.

The real question is how long a wait would be for #2.
Given the timeframe perhaps do #1 now while working towards #2 for what I would assume is Q4+?

 

[George Hincapie]

I prefer option 2, which sounds similar to how the volume works on my LTA MZ3.

Nice amp. Getting CFA3 to run which cans?

 

[justin w.]

Audio-gd uses a very small encoder that doesn’t feel that nice, also the attenuation curve ramps up very slowly. There are better implementations like the Benchmark HPA-4, that one feels very sturdy. The Flux Labs one uses a small potentiometer and lacks substance.

From what I understand option 2 in here should be a motorized potentiometer, closer to the Schiit implementation than to the Audio-gd one. I don’t recall how well the Schiit ones feel, but a good potentiometer should feel better than a small encoder.

For the relay attenuator, we copied the attenuation curve of the Alps RK50. The motorized potentiometer is an Alps RK168 so it has a good feel. You don't ever have to worry about quality of those types of parts on anything that we build.

 

[Beefy]

Audio-gd uses a very small encoder that doesn’t feel that nice, also the attenuation curve ramps up very slowly. There are better implementations like the Benchmark HPA-4, that one feels very sturdy. The Flux Labs one uses a small potentiometer and lacks substance.

Yep, optical encoders feel awful. And if the control is linear with a single rotation for full volume range, you end up getting to 12 o'clock on the dial and still being at a stupid high attenuation of -63.5 dB. Worse than a traditional volume control, where you can't go past 9 o'clock without things being too loud.

For the relay attenuator, we copied the attenuation curve of the Alps RK50.

Perfect! Never any doubt that you and Kerry know exactly what you are doing.