Reminds me of plugging a 20ohm Planar into an OTL like this actually.
(Was told not to, but sometimes you just have to find out for yourself)
Helot 2x OTL - By Spartan Music
- Thread starter DropTekRoon
- Start date
(Was told not to, but sometimes you just have to find out for yourself)
DropTekRoon
100+ Head-Fier
Yikes I can't imagine that haha. The Helot works pretty well with lower impedance dynamic headphones though. A low impedance planar with the amp would probably be not listenable.Reminds me of plugging a 20ohm Planar into an OTL like this actually.
(Was told not to, but sometimes you just have to find out for yourself)
The 6sn7 tube is still listenable, but I guess it depends if you can deal with a small noise floor when there is no audio playing. 6sn7 tubes do tend to be more noisy than a 12au7 tube though. I'm tempted to try another 6sn7 though. Only problem is they can get expensive pretty quick and then there is the Ecc82/12au7 Gold Lion which has a better chance of having no noise floor you would think. One could always buy the iFi IEMatch I guess. That seems to be the only option that would get rid of the noise floor and won't effect the FR of the headphones. But idk if it's really worth it considering the price. You could get a nice tube for the same price.
DropTekRoon
100+ Head-Fier
Kinda dissapointing that no one seems to have any thoughts on the Helot 2x. It would've interesting to read what others and owners think about it. Also, I tried using another 12bh7 tube I have in the 12au7 socket.
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Which one?
Planning on the Golden Lion next month and an orange print Brimar, both 12au7.
DropTekRoon
100+ Head-Fier
Those should be really good. I tried the EH 12bh7 the amp came with first. That one was on the brighter side and kinda dry and open sounding. It had good separation. I tried a vintage BesTest one next. That one gave a warm and a somewhat distorted sound. Good low end.
Do you have any other tube amps? I don't have any other OTL ones and I've wanted to compare the Helot to something to see how tubey it sounds
^I use a transformer coupled Icon Audio HP8 mk2 as well as the Helot.
Something like a Feliks Echo might be interesting to compare the Helot against, granted different design...
"Tubey" to me is about the saturation of guitars, and the way they sit in the mix.
Something I have never experienced from SS/ THX amps.
Something like a Feliks Echo might be interesting to compare the Helot against, granted different design...
"Tubey" to me is about the saturation of guitars, and the way they sit in the mix.
Something I have never experienced from SS/ THX amps.
Slipmyster
100+ Head-Fier
Hi everyone. I decided to swap out the tube's today and noticed the JJ Tesla 12bh7 has a lot more output than the Electro Hormonix and the Sylvania and it's made a big difference to the sound of my Philips shp9500 and Grado sr60e. I still ended up with the Sylvania 12au7 up front but I was wondering if anyone knows why the JJ has so much more output and if there are any other 12bh7 tubes with a similar output as it seams as though it really suits the amp more.
Martin
Martin
Still enjoying the JJ 12bh7?
Been focused on the 12au7s myself, so that is interesting.
Slipmyster
100+ Head-Fier
It seems to be a very transparent tube. I get more of the difference between the 12au7 I've tried with the JJ than I do with the Electro Hormonix or the Sylvania. It also seems to to have a little more gain than the other 2. It's a decent tube from what I can tell.
I have a helot 2x. I use a golden EHX 12BH7 and I found the Mullard 12AU7/ECC82 tube better than the golden genalex, ehx and jj. With my DAC the genalex has too much bass. It has an amazing synergy with the hifiman HE400i 2020, probably works well with the other 400 variations. In this setup I like the 400i more than the HD650, while originally I bought this amp for the 650...
I used to use a Mullard 12au7 the first time I owned the amp, thanks for jogging my memory and shopping list!
(The CustomCans massloading kit is a good way to experiment with HD650 too.)
Slipmyster
100+ Head-Fier
Have you used any of the Brimar tubes they seem to have a good reputation and the 12 au7 look's to be a reasonable price.
Nah, I only tried the EHX, JJ tubes + the mullard and genalex au7s. I'm just too content with the mullard.
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Recently I borrowed a Hifiman Edition XS and a Quad Era-1, both are low impedance planars and strangely enough, both sound decently good on the spartan. Probable factors that make it work: the mullard tube, me not listening music loudly, me being unable to hear that it's supposed to sound bad. (I have a non OTL amp and it doesn't sound better with these, maybe worse. Somehow. Idk why.)
I heard the Quad 3,5 years ago, I was blown away. It's still as good as I remembered... What an underappreciated headphone!
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Recently I borrowed a Hifiman Edition XS and a Quad Era-1, both are low impedance planars and strangely enough, both sound decently good on the spartan. Probable factors that make it work: the mullard tube, me not listening music loudly, me being unable to hear that it's supposed to sound bad. (I have a non OTL amp and it doesn't sound better with these, maybe worse. Somehow. Idk why.)
I heard the Quad 3,5 years ago, I was blown away. It's still as good as I remembered... What an underappreciated headphone!
Slipmyster
100+ Head-Fier
Thank you for your reply. And thank you for confirming that the helot will drive the hifiman as it was something I was thinking about.
Martin
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