[genefruit]

What do CFA3 owners think of the upcoming headamp CFA3?
I was considering getting a Dukei built CFA3 and comparing it to the headamp version. I'm just not sure if I should wait for the headamp version.
How does the CFA3 compare to holo bliss kte?

As a previous CFA3 owner and someone who listened to it at CanJam, I think it looks and sounds good. The usual caveats of show conditions, limited exposure, non-production unit, it sounded very much like the CFA3 I owned. I think it's exciting for those who are looking for a click and order, US produced, smaller footprint unit. Ultimately it may or may not sound different than one from Dukei and even if it sounds different, will it be better? Subjective at best.

I moved to the Bliss. It's a good amp as well and has a preamp as part of its design. Both the CFA3 and Bliss are good amps that can power the usual suspects. Which you find better will depend upon the feature set you're looking for and whether you think one sounds pleasing to you.

 

[newToAudio100]

As a previous CFA3 owner and someone who listened to it at CanJam, I think it looks and sounds good. The usual caveats of show conditions, limited exposure, non-production unit, it sounded very much like the CFA3 I owned. I think it's exciting for those who are looking for a click and order, US produced, smaller footprint unit. Ultimately it may or may not sound different than one from Dukei and even if it sounds different, will it be better? Subjective at best.

I moved to the Bliss. It's a good amp as well and has a preamp as part of its design. Both the CFA3 and Bliss are good amps that can power the usual suspects. Which you find better will depend upon the feature set you're looking for and whether you think one sounds pleasing to you.

How is the detail retrieval on cfa3 vs bliss? I owned the bliss for several months and thoroughly enjoyed it. I just found the treble was slightly rolled off. I prefer just a bit more edge and detail vs the smoothness the bliss offers.

 

[newToAudio100]

Bliss was fully capable of retrieving all details and it sounded fantastic. It just didn't have this edge to the notes I have heard with other amps such as mj3. It's all there with the bliss you just have to look for the micro details a little more and I found I prefer to have a more resolving amp vs a smooth amp with the susvara. With hd800s I prefered a smoother sounding amp.

 

[genefruit]

How is the detail retrieval on cfa3 vs bliss? I owned the bliss for several months and thoroughly enjoyed it. I just found the treble was slightly rolled off. I prefer just a bit more edge and detail vs the smoothness the bliss offers.

In my opinion, the CFA3 would be going in the opposite direction of what you are seeking. I'm confident there are others will say the opposite.

 

[genefruit]

Bliss was fully capable of retrieving all details and it sounded fantastic. It just didn't have this edge to the notes I have heard with other amps such as mj3. It's all there with the bliss you just have to look for the micro details a little more and I found I prefer to have a more resolving amp vs a smooth amp with the susvara. With hd800s I prefered a smoother sounding amp.

If you want more resolving, have you considered the Benchmark AHB2?

 

[audioguru1]

What do CFA3 owners think of the upcoming headamp CFA3?
I was considering getting a Dukei built CFA3 and comparing it to the headamp version. I'm just not sure if I should wait for the headamp version.
How does the CFA3 compare to holo bliss kte?

It really depends what you want. There is more optionality with builders - we like to switch parts, voltages and make adjustments for preference (adding speaker jacks, etc). It’s a custom DIY project, after all. The head amp unit looks well made, is a commercial production unit with all the benefits that come with it. For those of us that like to tinker, swap parts make adjustments (like me), or want something custom we would still build vs buy. Dukei is the absolute best builder, and true gentleman.

For someone that wants a compact, well made unit that has a purpose designed case with reviews, measurements and warranty, I think it’s truly great that it exists. The CFA3 circuit is a fantastic and unique design, much thanks to Kevin Gilmore for making it available to us.

Sound wise i'd imagine they are similar but its really impossible to know for sure without headamp commenting if they made any custom design changes. Being fair to them, if they did, that's their proprietary info so it wouldn't be very fair to ask specifics. Looking at whats been posted, by Headamp, it looks very well done. It's honestly somewhat of a moot point b/c if you read through the thread you can see there many builds with different configurations, voltages, transistors and options. Much of whats been built DIY wise is akin to what Dumble did with guitar amps, each one a little different variation on a relatively common theme. If you think hifi prices are insane, look at what some of his amps go for. I admire his work and approach, as you can probably tell. I digress.

Both approaches are different, but great options.

Holo is a different game, all together. Good, sound with some quality parts (I used the same brand caps KTE does in my DIY build). The holo is a great unit, but it doesn't come close to the number of output devices or wattage (its rated 12w into 32 ohm, the CFA3 at 24v of power supply is 15w into 60 ohm - so when you account for the output load differences the CFA is more than double the power). The CFA3 also has 28 output transistors (Bliss appears to have 8)... and the CFA3 is class A.

 

[goldwerger]

well, I've finally gone ahead and listed my CFA3 for sale on the classified.

For anyone, interested, Dukei built with speaker taps and some upgrades: https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/cfa3-by-dukei-speaker-taps.56005/

I'll probably end up getting naother CFA3 in smaller form. I just don't need the speaker taps. I think I may end up regretting this, but got to rearrange my rack..

 

[donato]

I finally joined the CFA3 club (when do I get my membership card?). I was impatient waiting for the headamp unit, so I bought a unit from the classifieds from a seller I already knew (build description below). It's a 2-chassis unit which works better for me with a tight desktop setup.

I only had a couple hours listening with it so far (plus it's record high temps here in SF and no central AC as is typical here so I'm minimizing use of heat producing gear), but I was very impressed. I bought this primarily for use with my Susvara and possibly secondarily for desktop speaker use (nice to have the option). I haven't used SS amplification for my Susvara for awhile (last used Pass XA25 speaker amp for SS and my daily driver is my Viva Egoista).

I was certainly impressed by the low end performance - both quantity and quality (so cleanly defined) and did find quite a good amount of body to the sound which only a decent powered amp will do with the Susvara. Any music with heavy rhythmic drive benefits from this low end performance.

Sound is so effortless, meaty, and solid with the Susvara. Overall tonality is quite warm which I did not expect, but is generally very pleasing for my taste (I dislike brightness, sibilance). I think it does miss a bit of air and sparkle (e.g. cymbals). I'll need some time to do a bit more listening and comparison, but those were my quick impressions.

- 2 chassis configuration. Both 10mm thick front. Black front/knob
- TKD 10K quad attenuator
- Matched octet of low noise JFET (LSK170/LSJ74) transistors for input.
- Matched small-signal transistors throughout the build
- Matched Toshiba output transistors
- Golden Reference +/-30V power supply and Nichicon muse capacitors, throughout the build.
- External PSU 150VA/115V AC. 1m cable
- Headphone Protector/Delay board
- Double shielded OFC wire (for signal)
- 5W non-inductive output resistors
- XLR inputs, 4-pin XLR output jack.
- Speaker taps
- Low gain/high gain switch

 

[donato]

I finally joined the CFA3 club (when do I get my membership card?). I was impatient waiting for the headamp unit, so I bought a unit from the classifieds from a seller I already knew (build description below). It's a 2-chassis unit which works better for me with a tight desktop setup.

I only had a couple hours listening with it so far (plus it's record high temps here in SF and no central AC as is typical here so I'm minimizing use of heat producing gear), but I was very impressed. I bought this primarily for use with my Susvara and possibly secondarily for desktop speaker use (nice to have the option). I haven't used SS amplification for my Susvara for awhile (last used Pass XA25 speaker amp for SS and my daily driver is my Viva Egoista).

I was certainly impressed by the low end performance - both quantity and quality (so cleanly defined) and did find quite a good amount of body to the sound which only a decent powered amp will do with the Susvara. Any music with heavy rhythmic drive benefits from this low end performance.

Sound is so effortless, meaty, and solid with the Susvara. Overall tonality is quite warm which I did not expect, but is generally very pleasing for my taste (I dislike brightness, sibilance). I think it does miss a bit of air and sparkle (e.g. cymbals). I'll need some time to do a bit more listening and comparison, but those were my quick impressions.

- 2 chassis configuration. Both 10mm thick front. Black front/knob
- TKD 10K quad attenuator
- Matched octet of low noise JFET (LSK170/LSJ74) transistors for input.
- Matched small-signal transistors throughout the build
- Matched Toshiba output transistors
- Golden Reference +/-30V power supply and Nichicon muse capacitors, throughout the build.
- External PSU 150VA/115V AC. 1m cable
- Headphone Protector/Delay board
- Double shielded OFC wire (for signal)
- 5W non-inductive output resistors
- XLR inputs, 4-pin XLR output jack.
- Speaker taps
- Low gain/high gain switch

Just a bit of a follow up after having spent a bit more time with this amp and more variety of music. I continue to be very impressed. My initial comments about this being a warm amp aren't quite right. It's definitely not cold at all, but it's ability to produce more bass out of the Susvara than my tube amp made me think that it was warmer that it was (plus that first listening session, I was enjoying the ability of the amp to produce bass/sub bass out of the Susvara I was listening to a lot of bass heavy tracks). HF extension is certainly not rolled off (and if anything it's my old ears that are rolled off anyway). This amp brings out much more detail than my tube amp. It's quite vivid when switching. It like when you apply a tasteful amount of sharpening to an image in photoshop and things just seem that much clearer. The "tradeoff" is that my tube amp creates a bit of bloom/body, but that comes with a definite loss of detail/resolution.

All in all, it's really a brilliant amp for the Susvara, but a lot of you already knew that and I'm just discovering what you already knew. I haven't attempted to try it with some of my more sensitive headphones (e.g. Caldera, Utopia). Plus the output from my DAC (May) is very hot and I can't even turn up the volume 1/4 of the way on the high gain setting (will have to play with the low gain setting). The noise floor seems imperceptible with the Susvara and hopefully that is still the case with much more sensitive HPs.

 

[audioguru1]

Just a bit of a follow up after having spent a bit more time with this amp and more variety of music. I continue to be very impressed. My initial comments about this being a warm amp aren't quite right. It's definitely not cold at all, but it's ability to produce more bass out of the Susvara than my tube amp made me think that it was warmer that it was (plus that first listening session, I was enjoying the ability of the amp to produce bass/sub bass out of the Susvara I was listening to a lot of bass heavy tracks). HF extension is certainly not rolled off (and if anything it's my old ears that are rolled off anyway). This amp brings out much more detail than my tube amp. It's quite vivid when switching. It like when you apply a tasteful amount of sharpening to an image in photoshop and things just seem that much clearer. The "tradeoff" is that my tube amp creates a bit of bloom/body, but that comes with a definite loss of detail/resolution.

All in all, it's really a brilliant amp for the Susvara, but a lot of you already knew that and I'm just discovering what you already knew. I haven't attempted to try it with some of my more sensitive headphones (e.g. Caldera, Utopia). Plus the output from my DAC (May) is very hot and I can't even turn up the volume 1/4 of the way on the high gain setting (will have to play with the low gain setting). The noise floor seems imperceptible with the Susvara and hopefully that is still the case with much more sensitive HPs.

Dukei is a fantastic builder, I have chatted with him and he is razor sharp and ad a nice guy to boot. You have found a great unit, that was built to the highest standard!

Glad you ear enjoying it. I actually quite like it with the Caldera too. I do agree it drives the Susvara quite well!

I've had zero noise floor issues, I even tried a IEM just for laughs. It was not a problem (though a silly choice).

Happy listening!

 

[jlbrach]

Just a bit of a follow up after having spent a bit more time with this amp and more variety of music. I continue to be very impressed. My initial comments about this being a warm amp aren't quite right. It's definitely not cold at all, but it's ability to produce more bass out of the Susvara than my tube amp made me think that it was warmer that it was (plus that first listening session, I was enjoying the ability of the amp to produce bass/sub bass out of the Susvara I was listening to a lot of bass heavy tracks). HF extension is certainly not rolled off (and if anything it's my old ears that are rolled off anyway). This amp brings out much more detail than my tube amp. It's quite vivid when switching. It like when you apply a tasteful amount of sharpening to an image in photoshop and things just seem that much clearer. The "tradeoff" is that my tube amp creates a bit of bloom/body, but that comes with a definite loss of detail/resolution.

All in all, it's really a brilliant amp for the Susvara, but a lot of you already knew that and I'm just discovering what you already knew. I haven't attempted to try it with some of my more sensitive headphones (e.g. Caldera, Utopia). Plus the output from my DAC (May) is very hot and I can't even turn up the volume 1/4 of the way on the high gain setting (will have to play with the low gain setting). The noise floor seems imperceptible with the Susvara and hopefully that is still the case with much more sensitive HPs.

interestingly with my chord dave and blu2 I have to turn the volume part up to around 1-2 pm normally and sometimes even a bit further

 

[Dukei]

interestingly with my chord dave and blu2 I have to turn the volume part up to around 1-2 pm normally and sometimes even a bit further

It is because you have a stepped attenuator and most if not all of the CFA3s I have made have smooth potentiometer. The attenuation curve is different on your khozmo compared to Alps/TKD. That is why you need to rotate the knob a little bit further. The rotational angle is also larger due to the many steps. I believe it is 15 degrees more than conventional smooth pots (315° in total).

 

[paradoxper]

It is because you have a stepped attenuator and most if not all of the CFA3s I have made have smooth potentiometer. The attenuation curve is different on your khozmo compared to Alps/TKD. That is why you need to rotate the knob a little bit further. The rotational angle is also larger due to the many steps. I believe it is 15 degrees more than conventional smooth pots (315° in total).

Don't forget the Acoustic Dimension 41.

 

[Dukei]

Don't forget the Acoustic Dimension 41.

Oh yeah, how can I forget the mighty AD

 

[jlbrach]

It is because you have a stepped attenuator and most if not all of the CFA3s I have made have smooth potentiometer. The attenuation curve is different on your khozmo compared to Alps/TKD. That is why you need to rotate the knob a little bit further. The rotational angle is also larger due to the many steps. I believe it is 15 degrees more than conventional smooth pots (315° in total).

glad to see you keeping us on our toes....perhaps you have answered this but how do you think the new cFA3 version coming soon will compare with your versions or mine lol