[syaknikwa]

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2783, ordered last month, assured it would ship in November.  I added the DAC cable by the way.  Rob has made a few of the old style.  It is a brilliant concept in my opinion.

can you update us then when you receive your amp

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

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Well, certainly not to dis on Ray Sam or anything because I am a fan of his Raptor amp (which I have owned for quite a while and LOVE) ...
 
But I will say this:
 
A couple of weeks ago myself and a local pal spent some time A/B ing the Arrow with my buds RS Predator and, well, to use the words of my friend who owns the Predator: "The Predator was just crushed by the Headstage amp. It wasn't even close!" This is not a competition, I know and I hate it when folks dis on particular builders for one reason or the other and so again, this is not a slant against RS as I consider him a fairly bad ass designer. 
 
But I'm also aware that we are all looking for the best performance for our money and in this case, the Headstage Arrow is the far better sounding amp. Across the board, really. The Predator sounded thin, tinny and well, just utterly lifeless sat next to the Arrow. Even with the Arrow 'zero'd' out, no bass boost or otherwise, it was still a far more "full" sounding, "rich" and much more engaging portable amp. Furthermore, the Predator just could not drive the full sized cans nearly as well (we tried Shure SR840's that day, a fairly low impedance can but also one that genuinely sounds better when properly amped) ... the Arrow, again was far superior (and sports a much more user friendly price tag that a lot of inferior portables out there). All listening was done on the Arrow's default gain/impedance settings with no need to ever adjust these to higher or lower settings. There is an incredible amount of power headroom available with the Arrow ... 
 
(my above mentioned local pal is already making plans to sell his Predator and get the Arrow; so chalk one more up for Rob, eh?)
 
Anyway, just more confirmation that it *is* indeed worth the wait.
 
Rock it.
 
.joel.

I just wanted to toss in that the Predator sounded like poop out of the box, and even up to 300 hours I was ready to sell mine.  But by 600 hours it was sounding really good, and sounded it's best after 1,000 hours.  We compared my 1,000+ hour Predator to one with 200-300 hours at a meet in 2008, and mine was clearly better sounding.  On top of that, the P-51 (unknown hours) was noticeably better sounding than the Predator even after all that improvement with burn-in, but a fully burned in Predator will never sound "thin, tinny and well, just utterly lifeless." if it's been fully burned in - it will be full and weighty and rich sounding.  I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it for myself.
 
However, I have no doubt the Arrow is a good amp even though I haven't heard it, because I've owned other amp's he's designed that sounded great.
 

 

[s1rrah]

 
Quote:

I just wanted to toss in that the Predator sounded like poop out of the box, and even up to 300 hours I was ready to sell mine.  But by 600 hours it was sounding really good, and sounded it's best after 1,000 hours.  We compared my 1,000+ hour Predator to one with 200-300 hours at a meet in 2008, and mine was clearly better sounding.  On top of that, the P-51 (unknown hours) was noticeably better sounding than the Predator even after all that improvement with burn-in, but a fully burned in Predator will never sound "thin, tinny and well, just utterly lifeless." if it's been fully burned in - it will be full and weighty and rich sounding.  I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it for myself.
 
However, I have no doubt the Arrow is a good amp even though I haven't heard it, because I've owned other amp's he's designed that sounded great.
 

 
No worries, mate. Thanks for the input.
 
Best!
 
.s1rrah.

 

[aamefford]

Quote:

can you update us then when you receive your amp

Will Do.
 

 

[dizzyraider]

Good news for Triple.Fi owners! (me)
 
I noticed that my shipping info says "Arrow G2.2 Shipped". I knew Robert changed opamp in the 2.1 to get rid of the pop during turn-on, but I don't know what change was in 2.2. After several emails, Robert told me that a customer wrote him about bad synergy with their TF10. Robert said he went out and ordered a TF10 and found that the output impedance really sounds bad with them so he removed the output resister for the G2.2. So for those of you that got a shipping notice with G2.2, the difference is in the removal of the output resister.
 
BTW with Robert's lenient policy, I'm sure he'll let you exchange for one without the output resister if you are going to use it with TF10. As far as I know, TF10 is the only phones that behaves badly with additional resistance, so no need to freak out if you don't have the 2.2 version.

 

[Hellenback]

Quote:

 I think email alerts just break once in a while.
 
 http://www.headphonia.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=8

Or get sent to the spam folder

I was wondering why I wasn't getting updates so turned off the "immediate spam delete" and saw the updates start coming into the spam box! I've reset my email so hope to get updates directed to my in-box again! Very weird....
 
It's nice to read that so many people are enjoying the Arrow as much as I've been. Here's hoping that the wait isn't too long for those who don't have theirs yet. It certainly doesn't seem to be taking as long as the first batch of Arrow 2Gs!

 

[Anaxilus]

Will removal of the output resistor affect non TF10 phones?  I guess I don't full understand what's so unique about the TF10 compared to other phones.  I certainly want my amp to play nice w/ the TF10 but not at the expense of my collection.  Could someone electrically proficient present a Barney style breakdown for those of us that cringe at the site of wire diagrams?

 

[dizzyraider]

Quote:

Will removal of the output resistor affect non TF10 phones?  I guess I don't full understand what's so unique about the TF10 compared to other phones.  I certainly want my amp to play nice w/ the TF10 but not at the expense of my collection.  Could someone electrically proficient present a Barney style breakdown for those of us that cringe at the site of wire diagrams?

I'm not electrically proficient....but from what I can gather is that some crossover in multi-driver IEMs seems to not function very well when additional impedance is introduced. For the most part, many multi-driver IEM seems to work just fine, but the crossover in the TF10 is incredibly sensitive to the change. With additional impedance, the TF10's crossover will completely wipe out the higher frequencies and all you hear is mid and lows (if you can imagine what it sounds like, very very dull sound). 
 
I think when Robert included output resistor in his design, the additional impedance is there to take out some background hiss for the more sensitive phones. I'm sure there is no harm by taking out the output resistor in this case since his amp has very low noise (at least from the impressions I get here). Although I did shoot him another email regarding the impedance setting to see if the other impedance settings are preserved (use to be 10/50/80, so I'm not sure it it is now 0/40/70 or 0 altogether).
 
Once it gets here, I'll let you know how it works out with my cans

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

Quote:

Will removal of the output resistor affect non TF10 phones?  I guess I don't full understand what's so unique about the TF10 compared to other phones.  I certainly want my amp to play nice w/ the TF10 but not at the expense of my collection.  Could someone electrically proficient present a Barney style breakdown for those of us that cringe at the site of wire diagrams?

I'm not electrically proficient....but from what I can gather is that some crossover in multi-driver IEMs seems to not function very well when additional impedance is introduced. For the most part, many multi-driver IEM seems to work just fine, but the crossover in the TF10 is incredibly sensitive to the change. With additional impedance, the TF10's crossover will completely wipe out the higher frequencies and all you hear is mid and lows (if you can imagine what it sounds like, very very dull sound). 
 
I think when Robert included output resistor in his design, the additional impedance is there to take out some background hiss for the more sensitive phones. I'm sure there is no harm by taking out the output resistor in this case since his amp has very low noise (at least from the impressions I get here). Although I did shoot him another email regarding the impedance setting to see if the other impedance settings are preserved (use to be 10/50/80, so I'm not sure it it is now 0/40/70 or 0 altogether).
 
Once it gets here, I'll let you know how it works out with my cans

Thx, good answer.  Hopefully I'll have a TF10 on the way to observe the phenomena first hand.

 

[Nirvana1000]

Sounds like a great amp.I have been looking to replace my ALO Mini^3 which has superb sound quality.Fantastically big sound stage accompanied by smooth and detailed highs,mids and wonderful punchy,full deep bass.It makes all my DAPs sound better especially my Cowon S9.The Arrow's sound quality seems to be similar.But has what my Mini^3 is missing which is bass boost/control and gain control which is what my HD580s are missing with the ALO Mini^3.It does power them to very loud volume levels but at about 3:00 - 5:00 o'clock which isn't good for battery life.And I've read that the Arrow powers the HD650s very well.Can anyone with the HD580,HD600 or HD650 elaborate on what the Arrow does exactly well for them and how much volume to spare?

 

[Hellenback]

Quote:

Sounds like a great amp.I have been looking to replace my ALO Mini^3 which had superb sound quality.Fantastically big sound stage accompanied by smooth and detailed highs,mids and wonderful punchy,full deep bass.It makes all my DAPs sound better especially my Cowon S9.The Arrow's sound quality seems to be similar.But has what my Mini^3 is missing which is bass boost/control and gain control which is what my HD580s are missing with the ALO Mini^3.It does power them to very loud volume levels but at about 3:00 - 5:00 o'clock which isn't good for battery life.And I've read that the Arrow powers the HD650s very well.Can anyone with the HD580,HD600 or HD650 elaborate on what the Arrow does exactly well for them and how much volume to spare?

With HD650s you can run the Arrow on gain II  but the volume needs to be set quite high to attain the level I like (which is higher than most I must admit). On Gain III you don't need to push the volume much past half way for a good volume level.

 

[aamefford]

I sure hope that the G2.2 keeps the 50 ohm.  My main reason for this amp is to take my ER4P (25 ohm) to the 75 ohm S version via the 50 ohm setting, without the need for the adapter cable. Cross feed was reason #2, Bass boost was #3, and form factor and what appears to be very substantial output voltage from a portable pretty much round it out.

 

[dizzyraider]

Quote:

I sure hope that the G2.2 keeps the 50 ohm.  My main reason for this amp is to take my ER4P (25 ohm) to the 75 ohm S version via the 50 ohm setting, without the need for the adapter cable. Cross feed was reason #2, Bass boost was #3, and form factor and what appears to be very substantial output voltage from a portable pretty much round it out.

I'll let you know when it gets here 

 

[aamefford]

Quote:

Quote:

I sure hope that the G2.2 keeps the 50 ohm.  My main reason for this amp is to take my ER4P (25 ohm) to the 75 ohm S version via the 50 ohm setting, without the need for the adapter cable. Cross feed was reason #2, Bass boost was #3, and form factor and what appears to be very substantial output voltage from a portable pretty much round it out.

I'll let you know when it gets here 

Please do!  What is your order number, by the way?  I am 2783.  Supposed to get a DAC cable with it.  I think the DAC cable is a brilliant idea if it is even remotely decent sounding.  It uses the Wolfson 8740, which is what my imod and diymod (both departed, and now missed...) use, and I thin my old Dacmagic as well.  It should sound at least as good as the i/diymods did, which was darned nice...

 

[Caphead78]

Quote:

I sure hope that the G2.2 keeps the 50 ohm.  My main reason for this amp is to take my ER4P (25 ohm) to the 75 ohm S version via the 50 ohm setting, without the need for the adapter cable. Cross feed was reason #2, Bass boost was #3, and form factor and what appears to be very substantial output voltage from a portable pretty much round it out.

Also, the total impedance of the S version is about 100 ohms, the adapter adds 75 ohms, not 50, though 50 would probably get close to the s sound