[Uncledan]

I try to get an amp, but I am thinking to get a Max out META42 or Gilmore. Most of my time, I use my headphones (Grado 325 and Sony CD3000) to listem mp3 from my computer. Should I just get a META42 or get a better glimore?

Any comment?

 

[radrd]

You should stop listening to mp3s if you really want to take advantage of a good amp. Spending over $150 on an amp to listen to mp3s is a waste of money IMO. If you are considering a Gilmore, I would make sure that you have a good audiophile sound card or better yet a home cdp to really take advantage of it.

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally posted by radrd You should stop listening to mp3s if you really want to take advantage of a good amp. Spending over $150 on an amp to listen to mp3s is a waste of money IMO. If you are considering a Gilmore, I would make sure that you have a good audiophile sound card or better yet a home cdp to really take advantage of it.

Agreed, even to listen mp3s I would think twice before getting the CD3000, IMO is a waste of a headphopne for that.....(I can't talk about the grados as I've never tried any)

 

[TimSchirmer]

if you want to use MP3's, just get a sony V6 or some Koss portapros, and you will be happy.

 

[earthling]

Quote:

Originally posted by Uncledan I try to get an amp, but I am thinking to get a Max out META42 or Gilmore. Most of my time, I use my headphones (Grado 325 and Sony CD3000) to listem mp3 from my computer. Should I just get a META42 or get a better glimore? Any comment?

A Meta42 will help you get the most out of your system but make sure you pair it with a decent sound card. The M-Audio revolution is a good one for music (not games). Either the Meta 42 or the Gilmore is going to show you the deficiencies of mp3 encodings if you listen hard enough, or more accurately I should say critically enough.

I equate listening to mp3s on my computer to listening to the cd player in my car. Both have a background artifact that you can easily dismiss and still enjoy the music. It is about the music after all. When I want to do really critical listening, when I really want to escape, I listen to my main stereo but when I cannot do that (Because its late) then I listen to the meta42 connected to my CD player.

In my opinion I would just get the meta42. You can do quite well with one of the maxed out variants. Mine has stacked 2002s and dual AD843 op-amps but you may not want to go that far. A meta42 based on an 8620 and stacked 2001s will do quite well.

It is a bit more of a self contained design and takes up very little desk space compared to the gilmore although neither is a desk hog.

edit: If your mp3s are encoded at less than 192Kb VBR you probably won't like them very much, in fact I can pretty much guarantee that you will hate the sound. Any good amp is going to be so revealing of the artifacting that you will not have a decent listening experience, especially with those CD3000s. All of my mp3s are encoded at 320Kb with lame and -insane setting. At that level of encoding I can listen with either my Senn 580s or my co-workers grados for extended periods of time without suffering from listening fatigue. I certainly can hear the mp3 artifacts but they are at a level and quantity where they can be ignored, especially since I don't have access to a cd source for A/B comparison. Besides, its hard to beat the convenience of having 6000 tracks worth of albums available at my fingertips

 

[charlesb]

Quote:

Originally posted by earthling In my opinion I would just get the meta42. You can do quite well with one of the maxed out variants. Mine has stacked 2002s and dual AD843 op-amps but you may not want to go that far. A meta42 based on an 8620 and stacked 2001s will do quite well. It is a bit more of a self contained design and takes up very little desk space compared to the gilmore although neither is a desk hog. edit: If your mp3s are encoded at less than 192Kb VBR you probably won't like them very much, in fact I can pretty much guarantee that you will hate the sound.

It is important to keep the whole system in balance and not bother to improve one component far beyond the quality of the others. I'm using a kurtw portable meta (8620, stacked 2001 buffers) Ety 4P's and do a lot of listening to mp3 files (192 VBR rate or better) and with this setup 192 VBR is a minimum. Earlier I was listening to the mp3 files with Er6's plugged straight into the laptop (Apple Powerbook) and I thought things sounded pretty good. With the META and the Er4 setup, the sound is "ok", but some things have awful artifacts. High frequency piano passages with lots of dynamics sound shrill and harsh. I may have to go back and re-rip all the CD's because the quality difference even compared to my not-great PCDP is striking.

So, rip the mp3 at the -insane level and don't bother going beyond the portable META if all you listening is mp3s.

 

[Uncledan]

I understand that, it is stupid to get a good cans and amp to listen mp3. However, I am same as most of the young adult, always site beside computer to work, study, play game....etc. Therefore, I already choose a great soundcard, audigy2 (maybe some of Hi-Fier disagree of it), and listen to at least 192kb mp3. I know it is still not good enough. Therefore I will change my source in future after I get a job. But now, I want to upgrade amp first.

I have two choices, META42 and Gilmore Lite, they both cost almost the same. Based on antness information,

"The differences between the Lite version and the normal version is mainly the enclosure, jacks, and power supply. The Lite version uses a wall-wart as a power supply, and has one headphone jack and one RCA input. The normal version has a large, extremely well regulated power supply, and two headphone jacks, two RCA inputs, and an RCA pre-out."

Since Gilmore Lite are using Wall-Wart, then the sound will make a big different to Gilmore normal which power by regulated power supply. (based on my knowledge, correct me if I am wrong)

But then, META42 Max out and Gilmore Lite, they both use wall-wart, then I confuse which design is better.

 

[radrd]

I bet that a META42 with good components will sound better than a Gilmore-Lite, but that's just speculation because I haven't heard a Gilmore period.