[SolarCetacean]

There are several reasons why you could hear that buzz in your apartment from the AC. First, turn off your refrigerator and see if that's the cause! Turn off the other circuits if you can to see if it's some other appliance in your apartment. If that all fails, then try a filtering AC power strip (like a Furman) before you invest in something even more expensive like the Shunyata power cable.

I checked if it was my lights, as I've heard that some electronics can pick up EMI from fluorescent lights, but it wasn't that. I already use a filtering Furman power strip, but that makes no difference. I'll definitely demo a power cable before I buy one.

 

[JML]

I suggested checking the refrigerator because I remember reading that compressors often cause AC line noise (HVAC units, too). Another possibility is external apartment wiring! When I lived in the Heinz Lofts in Pittsburgh, a high-voltage line on the outside of the apartment caused buzzing in my stereo (not cured until I moved the turntable far from the outside wall).

Another common source is a grounding problem, which is more difficult to track down and eliminate, especially in an apartment. Have you checked the wall outlets? And the grounding of all the associated audio equipment? Check this site, for starters: https://www.techhive.com/article/58...noises-from-your-audio-and-video-systems.html

I once cured RF interference by redoing the grounding of my Linn LP-12 (the turntable/arm/cartridge decided to become a radio receiver).

 

[MoJaveMan250]

Thank you bevanc for organizing the meet and Mike from Stereo Stereo for hosting it. It was a fun time again. Listening to toobuzz's reel-to-reel player through headphones was amazing and Lordgwyn's amp was awesome too!

 

[Svperstar]

Speaking of estats, the Koss unit is good. Thanks @Svperstar for bringing it. I didn't sense the same staging qualities as on my L700, nor did it have the same bass texture as either the L700 or the Jr, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper, and it isn't as bright or nasally as the Stax. It's well balanced and affordable, which is a good combination of traits. I wish the amp's knob wasn't as finicky though.

Yeah for $350 the Koss was an absolute steal. It also has a lifetime warranty. Mine started cutting out sometimes when you pulled on the right earcup, I sent it to Koss with a money order for $9 and they sent me a brand new pair.

I'm still on the fence on getting the same modded Stax amp that you brought plus the adapter cable for the Koss, people claim a proper Stax amp makes the Koss estats really come to life. Not sure if its worth going down that rabbit hole and spending thousands when in the 19 years I have been in this hobby I have seen so many people get into Stax and sell them and go back to regular headphones for all kinds of reasons.

 

[Svperstar]

During this meet, I discovered that my apartment has crap wiring. I connected my amp to the Shunyata cable they had in the room, and after it powered up, I immediately thought, "where's the buzz?". At home, the moment the relay clicks and the amp output turns on, I hear a distinctive sawtooth buzz coming from the amp itself. I never figured out where exactly it was coming from, the tubes or something else, but it's always there. And it wasn't there at the meet. If I put my ear right up against the amp, I could hear the faintest buzz, but from the couch, I couldn't hear it at all. At home, I can hear it 8 feet away. So you guys really heard the best that my amp has to offer. I've always been a cable skeptic, but I'm seriously considering getting a Shunyata cable now, because the amp buzz at home is something that always slightly irritated me, but I thought it was inherent to the amp.

I got a Power Conditioner waaaay back in 2006 that still works fine. Brought it to the meetup, they claim they solve those kinds of problems, maybe try one? I know they aren't as popular in the headphone space as they were 15 years ago.

 

[SolarCetacean]

Yeah for $350 the Koss was an absolute steal. It also has a lifetime warranty. Mine started cutting out sometimes when you pulled on the right earcup, I sent it to Koss with a money order for $9 and they sent me a brand new pair.

I'm still on the fence on getting the same modded Stax amp that you brought plus the adapter cable for the Koss, people claim a proper Stax amp makes the Koss estats really come to life. Not sure if its worth going down that rabbit hole and spending thousands when in the 19 years I have been in this hobby I have seen so many people get into Stax and sell them and go back to regular headphones for all kinds of reasons.

I think part of why people leave Stax is because Stax headphones themselves do funny things with the sound. They have a unique tuning. So it's not as much about the amp as it is about the headphone. The Koss seems to me to have a more balanced and less esoteric tuning compared to the Stax, so I don't see that being as big of a concern.

That said, I think the modded T1/006t amps like the one I have are pretty bad value for pairing with the Koss. You're spending 4x the price of the headphones (and its stock amp) on an amp upgrade, not including the cost of the adapter cable. To me, that would be a tough sell. If you want a Stax amp for the Koss, I'd look at a refurbished SRM-313/323 - there are a few on the Mjolnir Audio website. Those are half the price of a modded 006t, they consume less power, they actually have higher voltage output (though less overall power output), and they're physically smaller and less bulky. You just lose the XLR inputs. Or if you find a good deal on an SRM-353x, those have XLR inputs while being pretty similar otherwise.

Regarding the power line and buzzing, I'm not too concerned at the moment. I'll be moving to a new place in less than 2 months, and I'll see if the buzzing is a problem there. I already have a Furman power conditioner, but it did not help with the noise vs a basic power strip, so I thought the noise was inherent to the amp. Now that I know that it's not, I can explore options to mitigate it, whether it be better-shielded cables or a better power conditioner. I don't want to go too crazy with it, like I think those Shunyata cables at the meet cost twice what my amp did, so I'm not getting those, but if the amp still buzzes at my new place, and I find an option for a few hundred bucks or less that fixes it, I will just spend some money to eliminate an annoyance.

 

[Svperstar]

That said, I think the modded T1/006t amps like the one I have are pretty bad value for pairing with the Koss. You're spending 4x the price of the headphones (and its stock amp) on an amp upgrade, not including the cost of the adapter cable. To me, that would be a tough sell. If you want a Stax amp for the Koss, I'd look at a refurbished SRM-313/323 - there are a few on the Mjolnir Audio website. Those are half the price of a modded 006t, they consume less power, they actually have higher voltage output (though less overall power output), and they're physically smaller and less bulky. You just lose the XLR inputs. Or if you find a good deal on an SRM-353x, those have XLR inputs while being pretty similar otherwise.

I would also use it as an amp for any Stax headphones I would get in the future, not just for the Koss. I've been on the fence on getting into Stax for 15 years now. If I did I would want to do it properly and get a good modded amp.

 

[Svperstar]

Oh yeah when I got home from the meet on Saturday I forgot that I had set my RME ADI-2 headphone jack to low gain not the Extreme Power setting. I am wondering what has more power, my SP200 or the Extreme Power headphone jack? Oh well. The HE62-SE might have benefited.

 

[Evshrug]

Towards the end of the show, I had conversations with a few people about spatial audio and headphone surround… well I just wanted to share, this is one of the best Dolby Atmos mastered albums I’ve ever heard (make sure your players has DA enabled!):
https://songwhip.com/nidarosdomensjentekor/arnesen-tuvayhun-—-beatitudes-for-a-wounded-world

This album also has unusually great Dolby Atmos effect (and may help someone if their AC is broken/turned off?):
https://songwhip.com/hoffensemble/quiet-winter-night-—-an-acoustic-jazz-project

@SolarCetacean Before your move, I have a pretty nice Titan Audio power cable if you would like to arrange a time to demo it in your space. It could help you determine if that’s the direction to go to solve the buzz.

 

[bevanc]

So the next question is, when do we want to do this again? That way, I've got time to get a link up to the next meet in the end of this one before they close it? I'm guessing before Christmas isn't going to be as great time. Maybe push it to the spring?

 

[Svperstar]

So the next question is, when do we want to do this again? That way, I've got time to get a link up to the next meet in the end of this one before they close it? I'm guessing before Christmas isn't going to be as great time. Maybe push it to the spring?

The last one I missed was was in October 2022, I would go back in October 2023 for sure.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

So the next question is, when do we want to do this again? That way, I've got time to get a link up to the next meet in the end of this one before they close it? I'm guessing before Christmas isn't going to be as great time. Maybe push it to the spring?

Spring works for me! By then, I'll have another amplifier done, a weird one...

 

[Fuku]

I would love to get in on the next one, October or spring both work for me.

 

[bevanc]

I spoke to Mike, we are thinking later October, early November.

 

[lord_tris]

I spoke to Mike, we are thinking later October, early November.

I like it!