[joeike]

Hey everyone ... Which closed headphones have paired well with this amp? Need something new for use in an office setup with the CTH

The only close backs I own are the AKG 553 Pros and IMO I think they sound great on the CTH. They have a good seal and no leakage of sound.

 

[Jearly410]

Hey everyone ... Which closed headphones have paired well with this amp? Need something new for use in an office setup with the CTH

ZMF Atticus has a magical synergy with this amp.

 

[runeight]

Posted to wrong thread.

 

[Odin412]

Without going into great detail, an enormous amount of work had to be directed to finding substitutes for many of the parts. I know this because no part can be substituted without my approval.

Sorry - wrong thread.

 

[Zachik]

ZMF Atticus has a magical synergy with this amp.

Totally agree!
To be honest, I am yet to find an amp that ZMF Atticus does not sound great out of...

 

[JerryLeeds]

Atticus is a little bit out of my price range for a set of cans to leave at the office.

Maybe a MH40 or pushing the budget for campfire Cascades

 

[ScottFW]

K553 Pro is what I use at the office. They're inexpensive and don't leak much sound even when listening at decently loud volume. They're also easy to drive - pretty sensitive overall and the big biocellulose drivers make good bass without needing a monster amp. I run them off a Magni 3 which is similarly priced to the K553 and waaaay more power than they need. It's rare for me to run the volume above 9:00-10:00 on the low gain setting. The CTH will have more than enough power. I haven't actually listened to the combo yet since the K553 lives at the office and the CTH normally lives at home, but I'll get around to it pretty soon.

I should add that IMO the K553 sounds just slightly forward in the 2 KHz to 6 KHz range. Maybe it's my ears, or being used to HD650s, and I have no data to back it up, but I use 1-2 dB of EQ in foobar to make the K553 more palatable to my ears. The headband padding also sucks, so I removed the stock piece in favor of a cheap pad I found on eBay. They're worth the little bit of effort though and I've been really happy with them for what I paid on massdrop a couple years back ($120?). Not sure what else sounds as good while leaking less sound at a similar price unless you start looking at IEMs.

 

[greenkiwi]

I used it with my Ether Cs. It sounded just fine. You could find some used... Or the Aeon Flow C

 

[ohsigmachi]

You can buy aftermarket power supplies anywhere but the best results come from linear supplies - the amp comes with a switch mode supply = 28volts, 1.5Amps with a 2.1mm plug and uses approx 360mA in use (0.36Amp).

There are any number of manufacturers of Linear Power Supplies and if you're able, kits also available - Google is your friend

Something like this?

https://power.sager.com/gst25a28-p1...WlWLD9BIZ46CKxtpJ2Vt_lZ6P35vXgaRoC6xMQAvD_BwE

 

[ohsigmachi]

I've seen A LOT of these crop up in the for sale section. Are they not that good? Or do people just outgrow them really fast?

I currently have a Grace Design SDAC feeding a Darkvoice 336SE. I thought about upgrading the whole rig with the new R-2R DAC and the MCTH, but seeing all these people selling theirs off makes me hesitate...

 

[jrhill]

No, sorry 'ohsigmachi, those cheap power supplies are about the same as the one that comes with the amp - you're looking at a serious Linear Supply, not a 'switcher' supply and the amplifiers are nit at their best until you've put well over a hundred hours use on them

I haven't noticed 'all these people' selling off their CTH amplifiers apart from the usual number that want to try something else - frankly, these things with a decent linear power supply are definitely a 'keeper' but these linear power supplies will cost you as much, if not more, than the amp itself - from memory, a TeddyReg will set you back about U$450, the Paul Tynes SR-3 is a bit more, the Uptone audio is about U$400 and so on - there are a lot of cheaper ones on eBay too and they work okay too

In my opinion, the sound of the CTH is very different to the DarkVoice 336 - I have one of those here and completely rebuilt it, resistors, caps, tubes, socket, pot, etc and sourced some of those Chatham carbon tubes, etc and IMO, the CTH is a far superior amplifier
Mind you, some folks will prefer the sound of the Darkvoice 336 with say, Senn 650s, so my enthusiastic comments are from someone that's very happy with the amp - it seems to drive well the Massdrop HE 4xxS, Senn 650, the AKG k701/2, the Beter 880s (250R version) - the 'Thinksound' On2' is a bit heavy in the bass for me - I;m running a fairly good dac (Ayre Acoustic QB-9 sds) with a SOtM server so this is big on detail sound - I'm not at all sure about how good/bad the amp will sound with say, en MP3 data stream or low quality source.

 

[joeike]

K553 Pro is what I use at the office. They're inexpensive and don't leak much sound even when listening at decently loud volume. They're also easy to drive - pretty sensitive overall and the big biocellulose drivers make good bass without needing a monster amp. I run them off a Magni 3 which is similarly priced to the K553 and waaaay more power than they need. It's rare for me to run the volume above 9:00-10:00 on the low gain setting. The CTH will have more than enough power. I haven't actually listened to the combo yet since the K553 lives at the office and the CTH normally lives at home, but I'll get around to it pretty soon.

I should add that IMO the K553 sounds just slightly forward in the 2 KHz to 6 KHz range. Maybe it's my ears, or being used to HD650s, and I have no data to back it up, but I use 1-2 dB of EQ in foobar to make the K553 more palatable to my ears. The headband padding also sucks, so I removed the stock piece in favor of a cheap pad I found on eBay. They're worth the little bit of effort though and I've been really happy with them for what I paid on massdrop a couple years back ($120?). Not sure what else sounds as good while leaking less sound at a similar price unless you start looking at IEMs.

I agree the CTH has an abundance of power for the K553 I go back and forth between them and the t-xos from massdrop and when I purchased the angled sheepskin for the t-xos I put the hybrid pads from the T-xos on the K553 for a more comfortable fit.

 

[Bruc3]

Sorry but can someone tell me why linear power is so important for the CTH versus using the provided one?

Seems like an excessive additional cost.

 

[JerryLeeds]

It sounds fine without it ... I guess if you have dog hearing or are really young you might hear a difference side by side ... Don't sweat the hype . Besides once you get older your hearing won't be as good ...

 

[Bruc3]

It sounds fine without it ... I guess if you have dog hearing or are really young you might hear a difference side by side ... Don't sweat the hype . Besides once you get older your hearing won't be as good ...

hehe...thats what I suspected. I am in my 30s and my hearing is not great so guess I won't hear a difference anyhow.