JM Audio Editions XTC Headphones
Sep 29, 2024 at 11:26 PM Post #1,771 of 1,866
How much are you looking to spend? Do you want to do a lot of tube rolling? If you are fine with a build project I would recommend pretty much any of the Bottlehead amps.
Not a bad idea. A lot of them are way focused on too much power to use well with easy to drive headphones and iems but the single ended experimenters kit might be a good idea. It's a bit too big for what I want size wise but that might be a good idea to run all of the headphones I have.
 
Sep 30, 2024 at 12:04 AM Post #1,772 of 1,866
How much are you looking to spend? Do you want to do a lot of tube rolling? If you are fine with a build project I would recommend pretty much any of the Bottlehead amps.
I was looking to keep it small and versatile for my desk. The S.E.X. amp might be the only one that can work with a super broad range of headphones and keep a relatively small size for the desk space I have available. It's a bit big for me but it might work. The other small-ish sized amps by them are too focused on hard to drive headphones, bot quite versatile enough. I have a Crack I built a while back and it's really only great for one type of headphones for me. I'm looking for more of a swiss army knife of an amp that can use many headphones and some iems. The S.E.X. does look good and is about to be discontinued according to an email I just got a few days ago. Not a bad idea for the search. Thank you.
 
Sep 30, 2024 at 12:32 AM Post #1,774 of 1,866
I was looking to keep it small and versatile for my desk. The S.E.X. amp might be the only one that can work with a super broad range of headphones and keep a relatively small size for the desk space I have available. It's a bit big for me but it might work. The other small-ish sized amps by them are too focused on hard to drive headphones, bot quite versatile enough. I have a Crack I built a while back and it's really only great for one type of headphones for me. I'm looking for more of a swiss army knife of an amp that can use many headphones and some iems. The S.E.X. does look good and is about to be discontinued according to an email I just got a few days ago. Not a bad idea for the search. Thank you.
Yeah, the Crack is meant for 200ohm and higher headphones. The S.E.X. should work with just about any ohm headphone. It is fairly small at 8"x10" which is really good for a headphone and speaker amp. Plus you can upgrade what ever parts you want. The 6FJ7 tube is also really cheap to get replacements pairs and for tube rolling, not sure if there is a lot of difference between the tubes brand. I've never tried the S.E.X. amp before but it seems like a very versatile amp. I skipped over the S.E.X. from the crack to the mainline and the Kaiju. I also got that email about it being discontinued. I think the owner of Bottlehead is retiring.
 
Last edited:
Sep 30, 2024 at 12:54 AM Post #1,775 of 1,866
Yeah, the Crack is meant for 200ohm and higher headphones. The S.E.X. should work with just about any ohm headphone. It is fairly small at 8"x10" which is really good for a headphone and speaker amp. Plus you can upgrade what ever parts you want. The 6FJ7 tube is also really cheap to get replacements pairs and for tube rolling, not sure if there is a lot of difference between the tubes brand. I've never tried the S.E.X. amp before but it seems like a very versatile amp. I skipped over the S.E.X. from the crack to the mainline and the Kaiju. I also got that email about it being discontinued. I think the owner of Bottlehead is retiring.
Id love a Mainline but that's way too much for my desk. I'm not looking for endgame here by any means. Just good tube stuff that is in small package for my desk. I have my end game tube stuff already, this is just a thing of convenience.

I have the Woo Audio Tube Mini and love it. I'm also seriously thinking of the Woo Audio WA7.
 
Sep 30, 2024 at 12:56 AM Post #1,776 of 1,866
I believe that is what I have on my closed backs.
Most likely is. I think that's the ideal tuning for his closed back that he starts with. The 32 ohm Wolfhawk I think. It sounds like an interesting headphone. I have 2 pair of his XTC2 open. I'd jump on the closed too but I really really really am not a fan at all of closed back. Can't stand them. Even though I hear they're great.
 
Sep 30, 2024 at 1:14 AM Post #1,777 of 1,866
Id love a Mainline but that's way too much for my desk. I'm not looking for endgame here by any means. Just good tube stuff that is in small package for my desk. I have my end game tube stuff already, this is just a thing of convenience.

I have the Woo Audio Tube Mini and love it. I'm also seriously thinking of the Woo Audio WA7.
I've never tried any of Woo Audio's stuff before. Though, the reviews I've read do give high praises for there amps.
Tor audio makes good Toroidal tube amps. I think they work with 25ohm headphones. Though, they are located in Ukraine. So shipping might take a while.

What did you end up doing for your end game?
 
Sep 30, 2024 at 1:15 AM Post #1,778 of 1,866
Most likely is. I think that's the ideal tuning for his closed back that he starts with. The 32 ohm Wolfhawk I think. It sounds like an interesting headphone. I have 2 pair of his XTC2 open. I'd jump on the closed too but I really really really am not a fan at all of closed back. Can't stand them. Even though I hear they're great.
I understand that problem with closed backs. I went through 15ish pairs of closed backs before finding a couple I really enjoyed. Can't do IEMs so had to trudge through a lot of closed backs.
 
Sep 30, 2024 at 1:24 AM Post #1,780 of 1,866
I've never tried any of Woo Audio's stuff before. Though, the reviews I've read do give high praises for there amps.
Tor audio makes good Toroidal tube amps. I think they work with 25ohm headphones. Though, they are located in Ukraine. So shipping might take a while.

What did you end up doing for your end game?
I had Pine Tree Audio build me a custom amp designed around my favorite tube the RCA 5692 redbase tube. It's Basically a 6SN7 tube so the amp can also use any 6SN7. I just love the RCA 5692 redbase so much that I wanted to know what an amp that is built around it would do and now I know. It's wonderful. I also bought a single tube 6SN7 OTL amp from them but that was not custom for me, that was an amp the designer built for himself and sold it to me for cheap. I don't mean super high end when I mean end game. It's more along the idea of what I personally want that will end the exhausting game of hifi hunting. I love those amps so much. Super happy with them. I don't really like super expensive stuff. I have tried it in the past and yes of course it sounds nice and special but for me spending more than $1500 MAX on any part of hifi gear is not what I want to do. I don't want to have to baby my gear because it cost as much as a car.
 
Sep 30, 2024 at 1:29 AM Post #1,781 of 1,866
I understand that problem with closed backs. I went through 15ish pairs of closed backs before finding a couple I really enjoyed. Can't do IEMs so had to trudge through a lot of closed backs.
You like the XTC2.5? that's a big endorsement coming from not liking closed backs. What other closed backs do you like as well?
 
Sep 30, 2024 at 1:45 AM Post #1,783 of 1,866
I had Pine Tree Audio build me a custom amp designed around my favorite tube the RCA 5692 redbase tube. It's Basically a 6SN7 tube so the amp can also use any 6SN7. I just love the RCA 5692 redbase so much that I wanted to know what an amp that is built around it would do and now I know. It's wonderful. I also bought a single tube 6SN7 OTL amp from them but that was not custom for me, that was an amp the designer built for himself and sold it to me for cheap. I don't mean super high end when I mean end game. It's more along the idea of what I personally want that will end the exhausting game of hifi hunting. I love those amps so much. Super happy with them. I don't really like super expensive stuff. I have tried it in the past and yes of course it sounds nice and special but for me spending more than $1500 MAX on any part of hifi gear is not what I want to do. I don't want to have to baby my gear because it cost as much as a car.
Dang, I've been looking for a pair of RCA 5692 redbase they are one of the few 6sn7 style tubes I haven't tried. I've never heard of Pine Tree Audio before. I will have to look into them.
 
Sep 30, 2024 at 2:01 AM Post #1,784 of 1,866
You like the XTC2.5? that's a big endorsement coming from not liking closed backs. What other closed backs do you like as well?
I would say the XTC2.5 is the most balanced closed back I've heard. Though, it still has a bit of the closed back sound to it. The GH50 JM50 or the Rognir would probably be the closest to sounding like an open back of the closed backs I've heard. they have artificially large sound stages on the cusp of being absurd, though, I haven't listened to them in a while.


I will say I prefer the 300ohm XTC2 open backs over the XTC 2.5 closed backs. Though John does say the 300ohm is the best driver he has.
 
Last edited:
Sep 30, 2024 at 2:50 AM Post #1,785 of 1,866
Dang, I've been looking for a pair of RCA 5692 redbase they are one of the few 6sn7 style tubes I haven't tried. I've never heard of Pine Tree Audio before. I will have to look into them.

The prices are amazing. Incredible bang for the buck. They’ve basically built all the parts of my headphone and speaker system I didn’t want to spend a billion dollars on.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

  • Zhon
Back
Top