[antness]

Hey,

Since the post is already at the top of the forum, I'll respond real quick.

First, I'd like to thank Kelly for taking a ton of his time to review this amp and for answering a lot of questions that I had for him.

To all of you posting about what you'd like to see in a "Max" gilmore, well, I appreciate your suggestions - keep them coming - and you'll just have to wait and see.

-antness

 

[Jackangel]

By 'upfrontness', I meant the opposite of a 'laid-back' or 'polite' sound that someone might consider 'uninvolving' when listening to rock and roll, or other music with a lot of energy. If I remember, acidtripwow indicated this as a problem in his review of the SonicAdventure Reality. In other words, a lack of impact in some places where it's desired.

Are there any other pictures of this amp floating around? Something closer up, and from different angles?

 

[Possum]

There were some pictures in old threads, though I don't know if you can find them anymore. I think all of the pictures he took can be found in this directory at his website:

http://www.headamp.com/amp_img

 

[Jackangel]

w3rd.

Those are perfect, thanks possum.

 

[eric343]

Quote:

Originally posted by kaiwei Avel-Lindberg toroidal transformers stepped attenuator Black Gate Caps Cardas Locking Jack[/list=1]

1. 
   
   
   Cardas locking jack? I didn't know Cardas made a locking jack... do you mean headphone jack or RCA jack?
   
   Or are you thinking of the Neutrik jack that HeadRoom uses on their amps? Antness already uses a version of it...
   
   
   Me, I'd vote for a MonoGilmore Blockhead style amp...

 

[wallijonn]

i've been itching to pull the trigger on the gilmore. but what does it output @ what impedence?

great review Kelly!

i just wish it could work with my akg k1000's

 

[antness]

For a 32 ohm load, the maximum output power is 1.125W

 

[eric343]

WHOA!

Have you measured how much power it'll put into a 120 ohm load? It sounds like it certainly could power the K1000s...

Heck, at most you'd just need a few more paralled output transistors

It also sounds like the Gilmore might be a really fantastic amp for the Sony R10s... which apparently need quite a bit of power into their 40-ohm load (unless you're using VD Nite ICs, in which case you can use nearly any amp

)

 

[wallijonn]

antness, anyway to mod it so that it outputs 1000mw@120? i know, that be about 4000mw@32, but how about an impedence matching circuit. think of all the guys here pushing 120/250/300 and 600 ohms. how about a 6 position impedence switch? make that change and i'll have the credit card number in your hands seconds later.

 

[kelly]

antness
He meant output impedance, not power given an impedance load. I'm not sure output impedance is so trivial to measure.

Jackangel
I considered the SonicAdventure to have enough authority, but found it lacked focus overall. The Gilmore has a much more pristine presentation but is also very authoritative and very quick. You would never find yourself wondering if your headphones were underpowered in some way.

my wish list in a Gilmore design:
dual mono design
balanced in for one input (xlr)
balanced loop out (xlr)
balanced pre out (xlr)
single ended pre out (rca)
single ended in for three inputs (rca)
single ended loop out (rca)
active tape out with crossfeed (xlr/rca)
custom goldpoint stepped attenuators with 1db steps
gain switch
Gilmore circuit used as buffer for Meier crossfeed - three stages plus off, Elna switches
blend function - Elna switches
locking Neutrik xlr/phono combo jacks - xlr is balanced, phono is independent (each steeped attenuator would control each phono jack seperately)
dual mono design, seperate Torroidal transformers for each channel of each amp (4 total, as in BlockHead)
Black Gates or Nichicon caps throughout
Steel rackmount enclosure
WBT RCA jacks, Neutrik XLRs
laser engraving

But I don't ask for much.

 

[eric343]

Good Lord, kelly, that's quite the shopping list... you'd need the whole rackmount encloure's panel space to fit all of those!

The "blockhead" version is already detailed in the original article on HeadWize; this would be necessary to implement all of your balanced/xlr bits without internally converting balanced -> single ended, which might have its own problems (I'm not sure though, not having ever done any balanced stuff).

Using the Gilmore circuit as a buffer for the Meier would pretty much double the cost of the amp, I'm guessing...

Custom stepped attenuators would mean Antness would probably have to solder them himself... dunno if he wants to do that, and he'd be quite justified in charging a fortune for labor.

The Neutrik COMBO jacks don't lock on the 1/4" jack, only the XLR. That's an interesting idea - to have one combo jack and one regular XLR - the 1/4" plug of the combo jack would be wired so you can plug in regular headphones, the XLR jacks for custom cabled ones (for Blockhead usage).

Steel rackmount enclosure - sounds cool, but steel is a @#%#!!! to work. Apheared, the great amp god, hated it... a nice alternative is a steel chassis with aluminum front/backplates. Like this one: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CH2/

The WBT jacks, while they look cool, are a bit pricey for RCA jacks - ~$75/pair(!!!). Neutriks are always good for the money though.

Laser engraving - http://www.frontpanelexpress.com/
That's exactly what you want. They do custom panels; pre-cut/drilled holes, recesses (like the way the switches are in the HeadRoom Max), etcetera.

antness: Sorry about jumping in and highjacking everything like this... hopefully I've saved you some research

while adding in my $.02 (well, more like $0.20)

As you can see, I'd really like to see the Gilmore go crazy

 

[kelly]

eric
Goldpoint offers custom stepped attenuators for a fee. I'd prefer this in 1db steps *if* a gain switch can be used to insure the proper range can be attained for any given phone.

 

[zbuddah]

Quote:

Originally posted by kelly Jack I'm not sure what is meant by upfrontness? The amp is extremely quick but with a nice solid weight. I was very pleased with the bass performance and I tend to be quite picky about such things. If I had not said so in my review, I had intended to say that vocals were very realistic -- breathy and liquid at the same time. Another Head-Fi'er once told me that part of the emotion for him was being able to hear the nuance of a female vocalist's saliva breaking in the back of her mouth as she began to sing. With the right source and phone, this amp is very capable of delivering just that without sounding artificial. All Else: Thanks for the kind words. Someone had asked about the Sugden and Max. I didn't have either of them present and feel uncomfortable saying too much from my memory alone. I did comment on my impressions of the Sugden in the review here a little (use Find in your browser).

If I remember, you like the bass coming out of your rvk? I've never heard the amp yet, but I remember you desrcibe the bass out of the RVK as something like the bass hits with Authority (if i'm worng then please correct me, I don't want to "put words into your mouth". Can the Gilmore deliver? Are they comparable within the aspects of the bass hitting with authority?

 

[kelly]

Quote:

Originally posted by zbuddah If I remember, you like the bass coming out of your rvk? I've never heard the amp yet, but I remember you desrcibe the bass out of the RVK as something like the bass hits with Authority (if i'm worng then please correct me, I don't want to "put words into your mouth". Can the Gilmore deliver? Are they comparable within the aspects of the bass hitting with authority?

As I said, the RKV has slightly stronger bass--stronger than neutral I believe and while very good, the Prehead and Gilmore strike me as more accurate and just as textured and detailed with better focus. I don't have a Max here to compare but I think the comparison is warranted.

 

[zbuddah]

ah ok... was just wondering if it provided the same level of bass authority as the RVK.