I Blame you Bozebuttons

[tjkurita]

Nice! That thing is really nice. Are you going to have it modded? How extensive are the mods and what kinds of improvements do they make?

Congrats, man. Hopefully this is one that you will hold on to for a good long time.

 

[mattigol]

Sounds interesting. I heard, the Melos repair and modding service by one of the original Melos employees has ceased operation. Are there any other repair services available.

Also, does the Melos come with a decent phono board?

Cheers, M.

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattigol Sounds interesting. I heard, the Melos repair and modding service by one of the original Melos employees has ceased operation. Are there any other repair services available. Also, does the Melos come with a decent phono board? Cheers, M.

it says phono on the back but there isn't a phono stage in there. bah.

 

[mattigol]

A secret uber-phono stage similar to the Melos impressive headphone amp would have been nice but the lack-of is no deal braker for me as I am running a Cambridge 640P to great success. Most pres or integrateds at any price don't touch the quality of my little bargain anyway, says my dealer (who could have sold me much more expensive stuff if he had really pushed for it).

But what about repair shops?

 

[vpivinylspinner]

I haven't gotten around to putting it in as a preamp as of yet. I bought it as an office headphone amp until I can get it modded and possibly placed in my main system. However, right out of the box it seems to be taking every headphone I throw at it (even my Headphiled K340) and producing sound more natural than my other amps. I guess it is the tubes that give it more texture to instruments and voices that move the headphones closer to my speaker-based system in those regards. Now I just need to amass a collection of replacement tubes to try some swapping to see where I can go from here. I do intend to send the preamp in for some of the upgrades Bozebutton has done on his at some point but right now I am happy with the stock unit as a headphone amp.

From the user manual on the Pho-Tentiometer:

"This patented design varies signal level via photo sensitive resistors and as such has no moving parts, no connections and the highest frequency response of any passive volume control in the world. No volume control, regardless of price can pass an audio signal as uncolored and cleanly since mechanical controls all have physical contacts and constantly varying capacitance reuslting in high frequency roll off and hash. The Pho-tentiometer has no mechanical connections, no frequency response variation and replaces both the in line volume and balance controls with one heavy metal resistor and is totally passive"

 

[vpivinylspinner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyline889 You can get it directly from Melos? What's their pricing like? Or did you just send in an old one to get redone?

Nothing has been redone. It is an older one that happens to be spotless that I purchased from Toys From the Attic via Audiogon. There is another one on Audiogon at last check but I got a great deal on this one and the fact that the shop is about 20 minutes from my house was a big help in decision making.

 

[bozebuttons]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyline889 You can get it directly from Melos? What's their pricing like? Or did you just send in an old one to get redone?

Melos is no more,Only can be found on the used market.

 

[mattigol]

Sorry to be such a pain, but who's gonna fix it if something fails?

 

[vpivinylspinner]

If I can't fix it myself I am sure I can find someone that can do it for me.

 

[Jahn]

come to think of it, i have bozebuttons to blame for my Melos too. i would have been happy in MS-1 and Cmoy Land if it wasn't for that Qualia minimeet where the HP1000 and Melos combo amazed me (the PS-1 with flat pads destroyed me - totally different reaction haha).

The Melos is one of the futziest things in my system (in a system full of modded and vintage and "character" stuff) but I love it - I'm listening to Karma Police right now by Radiohead and it's Transportive.

 

[bozebuttons]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn come to think of it, i have bozebuttons to blame for my Melos too. i would have been happy in MS-1 and Cmoy Land if it wasn't for that Qualia minimeet where the HP1000 and Melos combo amazed me (the PS-1 with flat pads destroyed me - totally different reaction haha). .

Yeah I am just a BAAAD influence

 

[lan]

For a second, you had me scouring audiogon. Then I stopped

What can I say, I have a lot of willpower. I'm in control of the wallet.

Oh BTW, that's an interesting volume control.

 

[bozebuttons]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan For a second, you had me scouring audiogon. Then I stopped What can I say, I have a lot of willpower. I'm in control of the wallet.

You Know you want it

 

[jpelg]

The Melos is a great amp line. The SHA-Gold, and up models especially so after they've been modded. I still miss mine.

The stock photo-pot has been known to go out of whack, and require adjustment. I suggest when that happens going for a dAct stepped attenuator as a replacement. It's a great performer, and feels like a million bucks, imo.

Other than that, there's not too much to go wrong, other than tubes, if the unit is in good shape to begin with. Congrats on a nice purchase.

 

[vpivinylspinner]

I am actually using it as a preamp right now and I find that it does percussion and guitars extremely well while vocals are a bit recessed. Soundstage is great with an abundance of detail and spatial cues allowing live recordings to really come to life and the recording venue to become part of the performance. As a headphone amp I find that I greatly prefer it to my other amps. I haven't tried the balanced outputs but with their decent specified output I will have to plug some balanced headphones in and see what I get.