[HiGHFLYiN9]

Quote:

Originally posted by rwooda I believe you are mistaken. Lower impedance headphones will draw more current, but not necessarily more power. Higher impedance phones do require more power to be driven.

My mistake, thanks for pointing that out.

 

[TheMuffinMan_01]

Quote:

Originally posted by gpalmer The only Little I have tried was the Little with reference module and without the Little More Power. The Lite has a purer tone and better dynamics than the Little does. This might be changed by the Little more Power, I'm not sure. To me the Lite gets the music across better because of the improved dynamics and purity of tone. It will take a long time to break in though, I found it takes a long time to break in any of the Gilmores and the Lite is no exception. I would withold judgement until after its had about a month of 24 hours a day play. It will imprve beyond there, but that's when they start appealing to me.

so gpalmer likes the gilmore lite more, and it is way less expensive. i think thats enough to rule out the little.

 

[adhoc]

Quote:

Originally posted by doug zdanivsky For example the Senn HD650 impedence rating is 300, While the Beyer 770-250 Pro's are 80.. Is that the high and low end of the scale, or are they both high? Thanks!

anything from 16 to 120 is relatively low, ie can be powered satisfactorily (ie audible) from a portable.

anything above that definitely requires an amp.

general rule of thumb: low impedance phones improve less with amps than high impedance phones.

 

[doug zdanivsky]

Quote:

anything from 16 to 120 is relatively low, ie can be powered satisfactorily (ie audible) from a portable.

Ok, good to know.. Thanks!

 

[Ticky]

Quote:

Originally posted by TheMuffinMan_01 so gpalmer likes the gilmore lite more, and it is way less expensive. i think thats enough to rule out the little.

Nay. No offense, but doug should really try out the amps for himself and decide based on his first hand listening experience whether he likes the Little.

Doug, I would recommend that you check out the Corda HA-1 MKII as well. That amp runs for around $450. Todd should be happy to let you audition the amp. That way you can compare the Little (premium) to the Corda HA-1 and make an informed decision.

 

[doug zdanivsky]

Quote:

No offense, but doug should really try out the amps for himself and decide based on his first hand listening experience whether he likes the Little.

Yes, it's looking that way.. To bad I'm in the middle of nowhere..

I'm currently in talks with someone who can build me a PPA.. The word is they are better than the Little's by quite a margin, for the same price ($400US).. I think I'm going to do that.

Another advantage is he says he can:

"socket the gain resistors so you can quick change the configuration of the amp"

So that I can get cans that are either low or high impedence..

He's going to elaborate (it's all Greek to me), but that sounds like a nice feature..

 

[guzzler]

socketing the resistors, for my money, doesn't make sense on the PPA. The connection method is simply sticking the leads of the good quality resistors into sockets designed to take chips, no solder or anything. Not the best connection method, and to me negates the use of high quality resistors such as the Vishay-Dales your builder is likely going to use. Also, unless you know what you're doing, you'll have to know which resistors you need to change and to which values, although it's not terribly complicated. However, to balance the impedance into the opamp (I know, this is prolly a little over your head, but I'm sure you can learn =) ), you will need to change other resistors, and then more resistors after that, so isn't really that simple.

If you are set on a PPA, a gain of around 5 will do almost all headphones quite nicely; on low impedance (low-Z) phones, it will mean you're restricted a bit on the range of sensible volume control, and it may not have the juice to drive really hard loads such as the AKG-1000, although they really need more than a dynamic amp anyway.

Just by means of comparison, I use Sennheiser HD600s (high-Z), which are a very common headphone around here, and every amp I've built for myself has been set to a gain of just over 5, and I never get past 12 o'clock on my dial before it hurts, although I do listen quite quietly.

hope that was helpful

g

 

[doug zdanivsky]

Thanks for the input, G!

I've mentioned to him that if there's any risk of impairing the over-all performance of the unit we should just skip it.. We'll see what what he says..

I've got HD-25's right now, and they're growing on me. They have an impedence of 70..

But if ever I decide I want some HD-600's or Beyer 871's.. That's a whole other ball game..

 

[canned]

Little More Power Premium vs Headroom Max:

I've spent the last several days and many hours running the maxed out Little against the Max. All filters/process off (except the gain on the Max).

I am using HD-600s with Clou Red cable and a Sony 9000ES SACD.

I've really wanted to upgrade to the Max for quite some time, now I don't think so. The maxed out Little is at least 95% of the Max. The Max may have slightly more "punch" than the Little.
I'm just shocked.

I've tried the plain Little and it is not even close to the Little with the Premium module and the Power upgrade.

Maxed out Little $679.
Max $1599.

 

[doug zdanivsky]

Good to know, canned! Thanks!

How do you like that Clou Red cable?

 

[canned]

Quote:

Originally posted by doug zdanivsky Good to know, canned! Thanks! How do you like that Clou Red cable?

It's a little on the bright side. When I use it, no need for bright filters. It's outrageously stiff and heavy. I've tried a number of cables and have stayed with this one.

 

[doug zdanivsky]

Really?

Hmm.. maybe I'll stick with the stock cable for now, then..

Which other cables have you tried? What were the results with each?

Thanks!

 

[canned]

Contrary to popular thought, I find the stock cable to be pretty good. I tried the Cardas and the Equinox and sent them back, it's been a while so I can't recall details.

I tend to think that a person's like or dislike for a cable is colored by their headphone/source/amp combination.

 

[doug zdanivsky]

I'll keep that in mind..

I kinda jumped into the deep end right off with my PC headphones set-up (I go overboard concerning most things in my life

), so I'll be reigning it in for now, and will be quite happy with my set-up for now, I think..