[Phasey]

 
My taste leans towards vintage and tube gear.  My two main sources are a rebuilt Revox B226 Signature CD player and and a Sony s900ES SACD player.  For vinyl it is a Sl1200 with Shure V15 III and Jico SAS stylus.  
 
The C220 with NOS Telefunkens really tames the sibilance on the HD800.  The vocal midrange is lush, the bass is full and the highs sparkle without piercing. I am quite thrilled with the sound.  I have tried Bluegrass, Blues, Pop, Classical and Jazz.  
 
Having the Lehmann in line with the C220 gives me the advantage of switching sources, EQ (although it is now bypassed) and tube rolling.  I think NOS Bugle Boys would be even better.
 
Revox B226>McIntosh C220>Lehmann BCL>HD800
 

 

[dex85]

^^ sounds like an interesting idea, tubed pre-amp + BCL. i tried BCL with vinyl setup (Music Hall mmf 2.2 le + Pro-Ject Phono Box II) and i really liked what i heard. it wasn't perfect, bass was loose and less controlled than with digital, sibilance of vocals sounded little weird and overall sound was definitely not neutral, even AKG K701 sounded like bass heavy cans which is quite an achievement 

but it did so many things good that i could easily live with that setup - huge soundstage, rich tonal textures, musical involment, timing, lack of listening fatigue and most of all sense of naturalness and continuous sound without grain. it seriously got me thinking about vinyl.
 
you mentioned you are using pre-out outputs of C220. have you tried the fixed outputs? (labeled as TAPE i believe). it makes more sense unless you insist on using C220's volume control.

 

[GreyArea]

OK, I'm definitely going to go and try all the different preamp/headamp stringing combos I can now. 
 
By the way, has anyone been enjoying the LBCL pre-amp? I'm trying to work out whether using the LCBL and buying a pre-amp would work better than my current pre-stringing that I've got going on now.
At the moment, because my integrated amp doesn't have a pre-in and none of the loops or RCA inputs bypass the pre-amp, to get audio out of my speakers, I'm going:
 
DAC - LBCL - Marantz IntAmp - Speakers
 
The Marantz pre-amp is being fed by the LBCL pre-amp. It sounds slightly different to just using the Marantz on it's own (but is more convenient and not necessarily detrimental to sound quality).

 

[Phasey]

Quote:

 
you mentioned you are using pre-out outputs of C220. have you tried the fixed outputs? (labeled as TAPE i believe). it makes more sense unless you insist on using C220's volume control.

I think the tape out does not use the 12AX7 stage, so I am using one of the other outputs.  The owners manual does not have a schematic and I can't find one online, but I am pretty sure that only the one balanced and two unbalanced outs go through the tubes.
 
Not even the C220 headphone amp is using the tube circuit, so using the Lehmann BCL to monitor off the tube stage  is an excellent solution for me. 
 
As someone on HeadFi said, Tubes are where it's at for the HD800.  Not sure how this set-up will compare with a Woo, but for now it is providing many hours of enjoyment.

 

[Lex Tan]

I'm a new owner of Lehmann BCL and a something peculiar with this amp. When I configure the gain switch to very loud +20 DB, and when I turned the volume knob to 12 o'clock with HD800 hooked up. I hear a hissing noise. Is this a norm? Anyone?

 

[Lex Tan]

Hi, does you lehmann BCL at gain setting +10 dB experienced hissing sound when turn your volume knob to one o'clock position? :mad:

 

[Mhdeia]

No i never had this problem with my BCL. No gain when i hook up the DENON AH-D7000 and +10 gain with HIFIMAN HE-500 but i have never heard anything.

 

[LesT73]

I love the sound of my LCD 2s through my Lehmann Linear. Cracking amp IMO. I also have this strong itch to buy a pair of hd800 to use with it, which I am trying to ignore! This can indeed become an expensive hobby!

 

[Lex Tan]

I have downgraded the amp to non usb and finally got that problem resolved. Haha... I bought the HD800 due to same itch as you. I finally the sound pretty good and it is really a good buy IMO. Thanks

 

[Twangsta]

I've had the BCL, non USB version for a month now. Good deal on a carefully used unit, past it's burn in I think. Though I did hear my HD800 get warmer after a week of intensive use. Not sure if it was the amp, probably the phones since they're relatively new.

I listen to all kinds of music, I'm extremely satisfied. The difference between my UA audio interface's on board headphone amp and the BCL is quite real and in my case has been very instructional, can't believe I thought on board sounded good.

Wonder what else this forum turns me onto down the road.