[MacedonianHero]

I can't find too much information about using the TT2 in low or high gain with headphones. Is there a general rule of thumb here or just pick whichever sounds better to you?

I would go with the lowest gain that works best for your headphones. If it's too low, then kick it up a level.

 

[Mediahound]

I can't find too much information about using the TT2 in low or high gain with headphones. Is there a general rule of thumb here or just pick whichever sounds better to you?

I would go with the lowest gain that works best for your headphones. If it's too low, then kick it up a level.

Rob Watts prefers high gain for headphones:

Actually the intent was for low gain to work with efficient IEM's... I run normal headphones in high gain mode, as there is no way you will hear the residual noise. But take care with volume! But DAC mode is set to low gain mode, and I guess driving power amps direct low gain would be the most appropriate setting.

 

[betula]

Rob Watts prefers high gain for headphones:

Thanks. The reason I asked is because I also prefer high gain mode. To me it is just ever so slightly cleaner and more dynamic/punchy. But I also didn't want to use too high gain. Glad Rod, the designer gives his blessings.

 

[betula]

I think it matters, because you are falsely implying, by the use of unqualified generalisation, that the Hugo 2 is preferable overall to TT1. It is not.
I’ve heard plenty of people state that they prefer H2 to TT1, but I’ve also heard plenty say the opposite.
I just don’t like generalisations, which promote false assumptions.

I didn't mean to upset you.
I did have Hugo2 on extensive loan but never heard TT1. I did love and owned Mojo, 2Qute and Qutest for extensive periods though.

When I was wondering about changing my Qutest+SS amp for Hugo2 or TT1 I did some extensive research. Most sources I found preferred Hugo2 overall but that didn't mean TT1 had no fans. This just made my decision even harder as there were pros and cons on both sides.
TT1 fans said the warm and clean tonality is addictive. Hugo2 fans said the overall win in clarity and detail is well worth it.

I got so lost I quit the debate and eventually went for the TT2 which surpasses both.

Having heard the Hugo2 but not the TT1 I think it is a matter of taste. Hugo2 might be technically more advanced but the tonality and sound signature of the TT1 must be quite addictive too.
I was in love with my 2Qute after owning a Mojo. More than impressed after swapping my 2Qute for the Qutest.

Anyway, I thought I just jump and instead of spending much time with debating between Hugo2 and TT1 just go for the TT2. No regrets here, I can assure.
One step closer to (audio) heaven.

Happy listening to you all!

 

[betula]

I have just spent some interesting and educational time with my TT2 and Taurus MKII (on sale atm).

I have upgraded to TT2 from Qutest+Taurus MKII. The TT2 with the Taurus definitely sounds like a clear upgrade over the Qutest. More details, more natural timbre. It is a pricey upgrade though if you only use TT2 as a DAC.

The Taurus is a beautiful and addictive sounding SS amp I have to admit. It does sound clean but has its characteristics just like any other amps. Versus the TT2 alone TT2 with Taurus MKII sounds like the same picture where saturation has been enhanced by 20%. A bit more colourful but also a bit further away from reality and slightly less clear. Just a hint less realistic vocals.

TT2 with Taurus definitely sounds like an improve over Qutest + Taurus. The real question is TT2 alone or TT2 with amp?

The best metaphor coming to my mind is how you like your coffee? Do you like it straight with perhaps just a hint of milk? That is TT2.
Do you like it with two sugars and creme? That is adding a (good) amp.

I am very much exaggerating here but TT2 with the Taurus was like Disneyland, and TT2 alone was the raw, perfect and beautiful reality.
Matter of taste I guess but I prefer my reality as raw as possible. I don't need seduction and lies, no Disneyland lollipops regardless how sweet they taste.

I want to see what the music really is. Even though it is perhaps a bit less sweet but more true and more accurate.
The same way how I like my morning coffee: some milk but no sugar please, thanks.

I can see however if someone else wants to add a £1-2000 sugar cube to the picture. A journey to Disneyland can be a lot of fun if that's what floats your boat and you can afford it.
Not really for me though. I prefer the purest reality.

 

[Ragnar-BY]

@betula great explanation. I had similar impressions after upgrading my Qutest and Violectric to TT2. Amp is now sold, no regrets.

 

[kyle1010]

I have just spent some interesting and educational time with my TT2 and Taurus MKII (on sale atm).

I have upgraded to TT2 from Qutest+Taurus MKII. The TT2 with the Taurus definitely sounds like a clear upgrade over the Qutest. More details, more natural timbre. It is a pricey upgrade though if you only use TT2 as a DAC.

The Taurus is a beautiful and addictive sounding SS amp I have to admit. It does sound clean but has its characteristics just like any other amps. Versus the TT2 alone TT2 with Taurus MKII sounds like the same picture where saturation has been enhanced by 20%. A bit more colourful but also a bit further away from reality and slightly less clear. Just a hint less realistic vocals.

TT2 with Taurus definitely sounds like an improve over Qutest + Taurus. The real question is TT2 alone or TT2 with amp?

The best metaphor coming to my mind is how you like your coffee? Do you like it straight with perhaps just a hint of milk? That is TT2.
Do you like it with two sugars and creme? That is adding a (good) amp.

I am very much exaggerating here but TT2 with the Taurus was like Disneyland, and TT2 alone was the raw, perfect and beautiful reality.
Matter of taste I guess but I prefer my reality as raw as possible. I don't need seduction and lies, no Disneyland lollipops regardless how sweet they taste.

I want to see what the music really is. Even though it is perhaps a bit less sweet but more true and more accurate.
The same way how I like my morning coffee: some milk but no sugar please, thanks.

I can see however if someone else wants to add a £1-2000 sugar cube to the picture. A journey to Disneyland can be a lot of fun if that's what floats your boat and you can afford it.
Not really for me though. I prefer the purest reality.

$8k sugar cube. Mmmmmmm. (I also have a mean sweet tooth, and I’m going to Disneyland in 2 weeks cuz Galaxy’s Edge)



Wow I did not know this thread was still going. Where’s my thread update emails head-fi? Anyway, quick question my dudes. Sadly, I feed this handsome setup optical signal from a Chromecast Audio. Don’t get me wrong it still sounds jaw droppingly good, but I’m greedy for it to sound better already. Planning to M-scaler the situation as a Christmas present to myself this year, but in the meantime would I REALLY get a significant step up in overall sound quality if I upgraded to say a Bluesound Node 2i streamer(also optical out)? The reason for that Node 2i is said streamer needs to be able to be tucked under that nightstand out of sight..preferably no screen and remote where I’d have to point at it under the nightstand to operate it. No VCR sized box will work. Thoughts?

 

[George Hincapie]

$8k sugar cube. Mmmmmmm. (I also have a mean sweet tooth, and I’m going to Disneyland in 2 weeks cuz Galaxy’s Edge)



Wow I did not know this thread was still going. Where’s my thread update emails head-fi? Anyway, quick question my dudes. Sadly, I feed this handsome setup optical signal from a Chromecast Audio. Don’t get me wrong it still sounds jaw droppingly good, but I’m greedy for it to sound better already. Planning to M-scaler the situation as a Christmas present to myself this year, but in the meantime would I REALLY get a significant step up in overall sound quality if I upgraded to say a Bluesound Node 2i streamer(also optical out)? The reason for that Node 2i is said streamer needs to be able to be tucked under that nightstand out of sight..preferably no screen and remote where I’d have to point at it under the nightstand to operate it. No VCR sized box will work. Thoughts?

What is the HPA please?

 

[kyle1010]

What is the HPA please?

The headphone amp? Woo Audio WA33.

 

[George Hincapie]

The headphone amp? Woo Audio WA33.

Thanks. Looks impressive. I have never listened to music through a tube HPA before.

 

[kyle1010]

Thanks. Looks impressive. I have never listened to music through a tube HPA before.

Well that one is on the extremist end of tube headphone amps. Depending on your headphone’s efficiency, you can get away with a much cheaper or less powerful option. I finally went with WA33 because it’s a tube amp but it’s also lightning fast and powerful to keep up with the micro details, timing cues, and transient responses these top Chord Dacs are putting out. I’ve also heard it effortlessly crank out even more detail from a dCS Rossini dac which blew my mind cuz I didn’t know any tube amp could be that transparent. Had to have it for future proofing my dac upgrades. Anyway, if you’re like me and could care less about neutrality or accuracy to the original recording, tube headphone amps combined with the right dac can be very intoxicating. As in the sound is so lush, natural, detailed, and three dimensional that it becomes super hard to take the headphones off and stop listening. You really gotta hear it to understand. The nice thing about TT2 is if I wanna go solid state for certain tracks, it has silly amounts of power to push the wildly inefficient LCD-4s.

 

[George Hincapie]

Well that one is on the extremist end of tube headphone amps. Depending on your headphone’s efficiency, you can get away with a much cheaper or less powerful option. I finally went with WA33 because it’s a tube amp but it’s also lightning fast and powerful to keep up with the micro details, timing cues, and transient responses these top Chord Dacs are putting out. I’ve also heard it effortlessly crank out even more detail from a dCS Rossini dac which blew my mind cuz I didn’t know any tube amp could be that transparent. Had to have it for future proofing my dac upgrades. Anyway, if you’re like me and could care less about neutrality or accuracy to the original recording, tube headphone amps combined with the right dac can be very intoxicating. As in the sound is so lush, natural, detailed, and three dimensional that it becomes super hard to take the headphones off and stop listening. You really gotta hear it to understand. The nice thing about TT2 is if I wanna go solid state for certain tracks, it has silly amounts of power to push the wildly inefficient LCD-4s.

Thanks for that - very useful. I need to listen to one.

 

[STR-1]

Well that one is on the extremist end of tube headphone amps. Depending on your headphone’s efficiency, you can get away with a much cheaper or less powerful option. I finally went with WA33 because it’s a tube amp but it’s also lightning fast and powerful to keep up with the micro details, timing cues, and transient responses these top Chord Dacs are putting out. I’ve also heard it effortlessly crank out even more detail from a dCS Rossini dac which blew my mind cuz I didn’t know any tube amp could be that transparent. Had to have it for future proofing my dac upgrades. Anyway, if you’re like me and could care less about neutrality or accuracy to the original recording, tube headphone amps combined with the right dac can be very intoxicating. As in the sound is so lush, natural, detailed, and three dimensional that it becomes super hard to take the headphones off and stop listening. You really gotta hear it to understand. The nice thing about TT2 is if I wanna go solid state for certain tracks, it has silly amounts of power to push the wildly inefficient LCD-4s.

The Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC sounded very good out of the WA33 at last weekend’s CanJam London. I’m trying to arrange a demo of the Abyss driven by the DAVE (which I have) and TT2 (which I once owned and might buy again). Don’t really want to add a dedicated headphone amp to my system.

Thanks. The reason I asked is because I also prefer high gain mode. To me it is just ever so slightly cleaner and more dynamic/punchy. But I also didn't want to use too high gain. Glad Rod, the designer gives his blessings.

You are hearing the same that I was hearing when I had the TT2. Mentioned it on this thread but never got an answer from Rob that explained this difference between low and high gain. Genuine question this as I really don’t know the answer - is there any risk to iems or headphones using high gain if you keep volume to normal listening levels, which in my case is not loud enough to cause hearing damage? I didn’t own any iems when I had the TT2 (I do now) but all my headphones (Utopia, HE1000v2, LCD4) sounded better on high gain.

 

[miketlse]

The Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC sounded very good out of the WA33 at last weekend’s CanJam London. I’m trying to arrange a demo of the Abyss driven by the DAVE (which I have) and TT2 (which I once owned and might buy again). Don’t really want to add a dedicated headphone amp to my system.



You are hearing the same that I was hearing when I had the TT2. Mentioned it on this thread but never got an answer from Rob that explained this difference between low and high gain. Genuine question this as I really don’t know the answer - is there any risk to iems or headphones using high gain if you keep volume to normal listening levels, which in my case is not loud enough to cause hearing damage? I didn’t own any iems when I had the TT2 (I do now) but all my headphones (Utopia, HE1000v2, LCD4) sounded better on high gain.

Surely the answer by Rob quoted several times recently in this thread should suffice.

'Actually the intent was for low gain to work with efficient IEM's... I run normal headphones in high gain mode, as there is no way you will hear the residual noise. But take care with volume! But DAC mode is set to low gain mode, and I guess driving power amps direct low gain would be the most appropriate setting.

@Rob Watts will be flying off on holiday on Sunday, but you may be lucky and get an answer before then.

 

[STR-1]

Surely the answer by Rob quoted several times recently in this thread should suffice.

'Actually the intent was for low gain to work with efficient IEM's... I run normal headphones in high gain mode, as there is no way you will hear the residual noise. But take care with volume! But DAC mode is set to low gain mode, and I guess driving power amps direct low gain would be the most appropriate setting.

@Rob Watts will be flying off on holiday on Sunday, but you may be lucky and get an answer before then.

Thanks. I do recall reading that post and did understand the noise and volume issues, but lacking much technical knowledge I did wonder if those were the only differences. This really does betray my lack of technical knowledge but I wondered, especially with highly efficients iems, whether you could have too much current even at the same volume level. I suspect the answer is something like - “Don’t be stupid - no chance. That’s not the way it works”. Either way, I’ll be more knowledgable once I have the answer.

The reason I am wondering about this is that I am much nearer now to setting up a system in the bedroom for quite iem listening, which I wasn’t near to doing when I originally acquired the TT2 as part of a trade-in for my Blu2 (got M Scaler, TT2 and a bit of credit). I currently have Noble Audio Kaiser Encore and Westone W60 iems and might find when trying with the TT2 that noise argues for use of low gain. But if noise is not a problem on high gain and I find that sounds better than low gain, just as it did with my headphones, then I just want to be sure that it would be safe to use my iems with high gain at normal volume levels. As I said, probably a non-issue, but...