[sheldaze]

No, unfortunately I have not heard the modified 6XX and I will not be attending the meet. I am happy with my headphone collection for now and my focus has shifted to finding a Liquid Crimson amp that someone is willing to sell. In the meantime, I am enjoying the MCTH very much. It gets me more wrapped up in the music I like more than any amp I have owned.

Not unfortunate, fortunate son
More just an alternative on the HD6XX, very slight change. And more glad to hear you enjoying the MCTH, and wishing you best of luck to find the Crimson

I'm also trying to better understand if a power supply can make the MCTH closer to the Crimson sound.

 

[fortunate son]

Not unfortunate, fortunate son
More just an alternative on the HD6XX, very slight change. And more glad to hear you enjoying the MCTH, and wishing you best of luck to find the Crimson

I'm also trying to better understand if a power supply can make the MCTH closer to the Crimson sound.

A few days ago I bought a Teddy Pardo 28V power supply for my MCTH which is on its way to me from Israel. I used one of Pardo's 12V units with a dac I used to own and it really opened up the sound a lot, improved focus and a lot of other good stuff. In case you have ever used Naim gear, the Pardo brought about the kind of improvement you get when you upgrade from a Naim built-in power supply to the TOTL Naim outboard power supply. This is the Pardo unit I bought, except it will be a 28V 1.25 amp instead of the 24V 1 amp version that is shown in this link: https://www.teddypardo.com/powersupplies/generic/teddy24.html

 

[Sanlitun]

Since receiving this amp I've spent a lot of time with it, rolled more than a few tubes and tried out some different sources that would seem appropriately matched.

The combo with the old X-Sabre and the Schiit Eitr is my fave. Detailed with solid bass and a chilling vocal presence. They stack well although I may put some black tape over the X-Sabre Logo.

Took a look at the Brooklyn as well as the units are about the same size and I thought the detail the Brooklyn has would suit the Cavalli. The Brooklyn has issues as a DAC as the output is so hot, but with the low gain jumpers set it was ok here. However I didn't find the extra detail really worked as it was mostly just adding edge definition and was not as realistic and present as the X-Sabre. I would rather just listen to the headphone out on the Brooklyn in this case and enjoy the resolution. The only reason I've hung on to the Brooklyn even though it didn't work out as a DAC for me is that the HP out is really good, and it's one of the better SS headphone setups I have heard when used as an all in one. The Brooklyn gets quite warm and doesn't like to be stacked, so another issue.

So the MCTH is a real surprise, it's a fantastic amp and has knocked my previous setup off the desk. It's easily the best bargain in headphone amps at the moment and is the better of some much more well known and / or expensive units. I rolled in almost all of my 6922 genre tubes including the super rare and super quiet and most of them were indistinguishable from each other. There were a few exceptions, and very few notable exceptions. I ended up using a 60's Siemens 6DJ8, one of the ones with RCA labels so not an expensive tube. The best tubes were those with a low noise floor and a flat response. Really happy with this purchase and I will pay close attention to what Massdrop does next.

 

[Raphael DeLaGhetto]

The new dac hasn't arrived yet but I found my CTH sitting at my door & dropped everything immediately to set it up. It's obviously not burned in yet but I wanted to hear the evolution over the next 100 hours they recommend. I'm so excited

I'm close to that 100 hour mark & the warmth has come down a tad. It sounds better than it did out of the box with my LCD-2Cs but the bass it added to the 6XXs has gone down a lot, which makes me sad

That being said I love this amp. Much better handling of distortion at high volumes v. my magni 3 & the coloration lends itself perfectly to the music I listen to.

 

[gken92]

I'm close to that 100 hour mark & the warmth has come down a tad. It sounds better than it did out of the box with my LCD-2Cs but the bass it added to the 6XXs has gone down a lot, which makes me sad

That being said I love this amp. Much better handling of distortion at high volumes v. my magni 3 & the coloration lends itself perfectly to the music I listen to.

Would u recommend pairing LCD2C with CTH? or does the magni 3 sounded better? Thanks

 

[Raphael DeLaGhetto]

Would u recommend pairing LCD2C with CTH? or does the magni 3 sounded better? Thanks

Pre-burn in, magni 3. On low gain it sounded it better but at high gain it distorted faster. Post burn in, CTH. Minimal distortion, widens the soundstage a bit, adds a touch of air to the treble. I'm about to sell my magni; it'll collect dust otherwise.

 

[lugnut]

So the MCTH is a real surprise, it's a fantastic amp and has knocked my previous setup off the desk. It's easily the best bargain in headphone amps at the moment and is the better of some much more well known and / or expensive units. I rolled in almost all of my 6922 genre tubes including the super rare and super quiet and most of them were indistinguishable from each other. There were a few exceptions, and very few notable exceptions. I ended up using a 60's Siemens 6DJ8, one of the ones with RCA labels so not an expensive tube. The best tubes were those with a low noise floor and a flat response. Really happy with this purchase and I will pay close attention to what Massdrop does next.

I agree with most of your findings ! I also have a nice little collection of 6dj8/6922 left over from previous preamps/headphone amps. I think the tube that comes with amp is actually quite good, and will probably be all you need for most headphones. I am trying out all my headphones with this amp, I Like to spend at least 4 or 5 days with each one. For me this is a much better way of comparing hp's vs trying to compare each pair a song at a time. So far here is what I have listened to.
1. Beyer Amiron Home, sounds great with this amp. Large sound stage, just a rich overall sound. Stock tube is just fine no need for me to chase a dragon for different tubes.
2. AQ Nighthawk, sound was a little bloated, I did try another tube in place of the stock tube. Pulled a early 1960's Bugle Boy out of my speaker system preamp. Main difference was slight but noticeable tighter bass and more definition, bass slammed as good as solid state, with 3d like effect that a tube can bring.
3. Senn HD650 stock tube again was a winner with these, very nice. Not as much effect as the previous HP's however I am just starting my time with these.
For a $250 amp, I could not really ask for more. I am also surprised how well it matches with the stock tube. It is euphoric with a very large soundstage with the Amiron and I would guess would be the same with other Beyerdynamic HP's. Looking forward to trying out some headphones with this little amp !

 

[JWahl]

[Edited update of the below: I might have jumped the gun. I let it run for awhile and came back to it and it's sounding a bit better. Must be the fresh tube running in. I'll give it more time before passing any judgements.]

Got mine in today and did some early listening and comparing to the iCan Micro SE and listening with my modded HD-650. So far, for my tastes, i'm a little underwhelmed. I'm still going to give it plenty more time though. I'm still waiting on my Chord Qutest to compare them with instead of the Mojo.

Right now, It's a lot more laid back than I was expecting. Probably the most laid back sounding amp I've owned yet. The lower midrange down feels loose and indistinct. A lot of that could be the lack of a linear power supply, but I don't have that problem with the iCan (when the similar price point of both are considered).

In all fairness, I did recently downgrade from a much higher-end Torpedo III DIY amp. I don't expect either of them to be on the same level. However, the little iCan has impressed me so far at its price point.

On the plus side, the CTH does have a nice sense of air and space from the tube, as well as pleasant, euphonic tone. It does seem to lean a bit more toward that euphonic spectrum than neutral. It also looks very nice and fits perfectly on my mini desktop shelf.

 

[JWahl]

Pretty much disregard my whole previous post. I'm now finding the CTH superior to the iCan in every way. It sounded like hot garbage out of the box, but it is much better now. I'm well aware that solid state circuitry can take awhile to warm up from cold, this seemed to take longer than I expected to get to temp. That and the new tube, I'm guessing. It's been running for at least 3 hours now.

Much better soundstage and 3d positioning. Midrange clarity is improved. Lows are less wooly and it's less laid back overall. Very impressed for $250. Can't wait to hear how it handles the better source.

[Edited update of the below: I might have jumped the gun. I let it run for awhile and came back to it and it's sounding a bit better. Must be the fresh tube running in. I'll give it more time before passing any judgements.]

Got mine in today and did some early listening and comparing to the iCan Micro SE and listening with my modded HD-650. So far, for my tastes, i'm a little underwhelmed. I'm still going to give it plenty more time though. I'm still waiting on my Chord Qutest to compare them with instead of the Mojo.

Right now, It's a lot more laid back than I was expecting. Probably the most laid back sounding amp I've owned yet. The lower midrange down feels loose and indistinct. A lot of that could be the lack of a linear power supply, but I don't have that problem with the iCan (when the similar price point of both are considered).

In all fairness, I did recently downgrade from a much higher-end Torpedo III DIY amp. I don't expect either of them to be on the same level. However, the little iCan has impressed me so far at its price point.

On the plus side, the CTH does have a nice sense of air and space from the tube, as well as pleasant, euphonic tone. It does seem to lean a bit more toward that euphonic spectrum than neutral. It also looks very nice and fits perfectly on my mini desktop shelf.

 

[crazychile]

You've got to let the amp (and/or your ears) break in a little and acclimate to the sound of the MCTH. While I liked the amp from the beginning, I'm appreciating it more and more as time goes by. The HD-650s and this amp are a great match.

 

[swmtnbiker]

It sounds great with my Clears as well. Now I've got to decide between this, my Vali 2, and my Magni 3.

 

[franz12]

It has been about a week since I got it. I use with my ether c flow. But sound doesn't seem to be as much clean as I expected.
Especially, when I raise volume from 7 to 8 o'clock, I hear audible noise when music is playing. Is it normal? Is there anyone else who hear unwanted noise?

 

[swmtnbiker]

Mine is dead silent, even at the 10 o'clock position. Could be your source. Noisy USB perhaps.

 

[GuddoggEli]

Hi, franz12. This isn't about the MCTH in particular, but I had a similar problem once. The first thing I did was to move computer, dac, amp, etc to several different locations. In my case, the noise signature remained the same. That meant my problem was in the device chain. I was fortunate, after replacing cables (no answer), I bought an ifi iPurifier2 that not only got rid of the noise, but increase the sound quality a bit. My device chain now contains an ifi Nano iOne, which is a dac (Burr-Brown) and most of the noise-correcting circuitry that ifi makes, it has a HiRes quality Bluetooth capability, including aptx, and includes galvanic isolation on spdif. This worked for me, but the iPurifier2 (under $100) and the iOne ($200) are not cheap solutions. YMMV.

 

[franz12]

Thanks for the replies! Noise is heard only when I am dialing volume somewhere between 7 and 9 o'clock. I am unsure at this point whether the amp circuits are defective.
I changed the RCA cables today, but the issue persists. I am receiving a Toslink cable tomorrow for the coaxial input and see whether the issue goes away.