[ev01ut10ndt]

After listening to the hd650 and the amp, I feel like the hd650 are turning into Grados. The highs are very detailed, emphasis on the upper midrange and a lean midrange. Is this because of my dac? Straight out of the dac is very smooth and less etchy in the highs. Or is it due to the lack of burn in so far? Thanks.

 

[purrin]

 
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True story, the LM4562 from the prelude seems a bit more amplified on the high end compared to the Lm4562 I bought from digikey and LME49720 I got from purrin.
 
It might just be something awkward with the batch Auzentech got...

 
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Yeah something's definitely different in the chips I have, given my setup. No way LM4562 is warmer than OPA2134 - my girlfriend listened to some music when I had the LM4562 in and without any prompting from me said it hurt her ears after prolonged listening, due to the emphasis at the top end...
 
For what it's worth, the LM4562 is a pull from an Auzen prelude, and the OPA2134 is the stock one from the M-Stage. Also without prompting, gf said that the OPA627 in class-a had all the detail she heard in the LM4562 without any of the fatiguing treble. This is exactly what I had independently concluded.
 

 

• LOL something is definitely atypical with your LM4562.  Maybe Auzen bought a batch of fakes from some unscrupulous counterfeiter in China 
  
    It's entirely possible your LM4562 is different from others.  I have two OPA2107s that sound slightly different with one being obviously more bright, and a LM4562 and LME47920 (supposedly same thing) that do sound slightly different. I think it's like CPUs - some overclock better than others depending upon what factory or batch they were made.
• In my experience, LM4562 and OPA627 in class A sounded very similar with the LM chip being a bit more dynamic but grainy and the BB chip being smoother.  Differences weren't major though in Class A.

 

[purrin]

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I've tried M-Stage before (about couple months ago), while I can remember how good its sound especially for midrange area, I just a bit forget about its treble section. If I have cans that produce aggresive treble (not harsh, just aggresive), is M-Stage suitable to make that treble a bit laidback (more relaxing)?

No. Definitely not. The M-Stage is not laid back in the treble. The treble is ever so slightly grainy. Don't get me wrong, it's a great amp for the price, but this is one of the M-Stage's weaknesses. Still the M-Stage mates with Grados better than many other "neutral" amps.
 
Everything is relative though, you have to take into account my other amp to know where I'm coming from.
 
With my PS1000s, which have a little bit of a treble peak, the M-Stage works ONLY with my Sony X Walkman (LOD out) and none of my other sources. The Sony X is a very warm source with smooth highs and FR balance similar to tube equipment (but of course without tubes' bloom and harmonic richness - or 2nd order harmonic distortion - or whatever you want to call it.)  My M-Stage is modified though, but I've taken pains to make sure it's balance is similar to stock. It may be a hair brighter than stock M-Stage though.

 

[Frank I]

 
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• LOL something is definitely atypical with your LM4562.  Maybe Auzen bought a batch of fakes from some unscrupulous counterfeiter in China 
  
    It's entirely possible your LM4562 is different from others.  I have two OPA2107s that sound slightly different with one being obviously more bright, and a LM4562 and LME47920 (supposedly same thing) that do sound slightly different. I think it's like CPUs - some overclock better than others depending upon what factory or batch they were made.
• In my experience, LM4562 and OPA627 in class A sounded very similar with the LM chip being a bit more dynamic but grainy and the BB chip being smoother.  Differences weren't major though in Class A.

You can order the Matrix with the 627 opamp installed with the mod if I am not mistaken as Jeffrey sai he would do the mod. Question how do you know if JTam are real for sure and how is it going to sound hopefully it would be better than stock

 

[purrin]

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After listening to the hd650 and the amp, I feel like the hd650 are turning into Grados. The highs are very detailed, emphasis on the upper midrange and a lean midrange. Is this because of my dac? Straight out of the dac is very smooth and less etchy in the highs. Or is it due to the lack of burn in so far? Thanks.

 
What's your DAC? For me, burn in didn't do anything for the Matrix. My Matrix does have a slightly lean low-midrange (from my removing the input caps and soldering on additional bypass caps for the output transistors to smooth the treble), but I would hardly call it lean overall or bright because of its decent bass. Give it a week though to let your ears burn in. It takes me a month for me to get accustomed to stuff and decide whether I truly like it or not.
 
As said in another post, the highs can be grainy.

 

[ev01ut10ndt]

I'm using a Hotaudio hotusb1. Its quite inexpensive...more to get rid of the laptop's interference in the audio and smooth out grain. 
 
I guess I prefer a tube sound, where there is a lot of warmth and richness (or overemphasis if you may) in the midrange, even at the expense of top end detail. I'll try new interconnects since I'm using a cheap RCA to RCA and then another RCA to 3.5mm right now. 
 
Perhaps some modding is in order? Class A biasing + new OP amps... 

 
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What's your DAC? For me, burn in didn't do anything for the Matrix. My Matrix does have a slightly lean low-midrange (from my removing the input caps and soldering on additional bypass caps for the output transistors to smooth the treble), but I would hardly call it lean overall or bright because of its decent bass. Give it a week though to let your ears burn in. It takes me a month for me to get accustomed to stuff and decide whether I truly like it or not.
 
As said in another post, the highs can be grainy.

 

[Mad Max]

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No. Definitely not. The M-Stage is not laid back in the treble. The treble is ever so slightly grainy. Don't get me wrong, it's a great amp for the price, but this is one of the M-Stage's weaknesses. Still the M-Stage mates with Grados better than many other "neutral" amps.
 
...

I don't know about other "neutral" amps, but my SR325is does love the M-Stage indeed. 

 

[ninjikiran]

You should learn how to equalize, you can easily over emphasize any region

  Long as you get a good parametric EQ, most of which associated with VST.

 

[Mad Max]

Hell yeah, the Sonnox R3 EQ is awesome and doesn't dull or distort like the other EQs I've tried.

 

[ninjikiran]

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Hell yeah, the Sonnox R3 EQ is awesome and doesn't dull or distort like the other EQs I've tried.

I kinda wish I could EQ properly but I usually fail at it miserably. But what I do know is a mix of different software can easily give you that tubey distorted sound without breaking a sweat

 

[ev01ut10ndt]

I was looking into the OPA627...and there are so many of them, with prices varying drastically.
 
So when people are referring to the OPA627, which ones do you guys use? The OPA627BM? I know JTam uses the OPA627AU. What is even the difference between them?
 
List of the many different ones...
http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/opa627.html
 
So nice that we just just pull out the old one and just stick in a new one. 

 

[Mad Max]

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I kinda wish I could EQ properly but I usually fail at it miserably. But what I do know is a mix of different software can easily give you that tubey distorted sound without breaking a sweat

Or you can just use the Trident EQs like the A-Range and not bother with quantity.  It will dull the treble, though.
 
 
 
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I was looking into the OPA627...and there are so many of them, with prices varying drastically.
 
So when people are referring to the OPA627, which ones do you guys use? The OPA627BM? I know JTam uses the OPA627AU. What is even the difference between them?
 
List of the many different ones...
http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/opa627.html
 
So nice that we just just pull out the old one and just stick in a new one. 

 
627BM is military grade.  The military grades sound a little better and are more expensive.  627AU is lowest grade.

 

[francisdemarte]

Take a look at the datasheet, It explains the difference between versions as well as has drawings of each difference.
 
Difference in how the chip is packaged, either as a solder on, through pin, or metal tin. This affects the temperature and voltages ranges it can tolerate.
 
Other difference is how individual chips are packaged for loading into industrial machines. 
 
When most people refer to the OPA627 they are either referring to SOIC versions or PDIP versions. 

 

[francisdemarte]

Just got my OPA627's from JTam. He was nice enough to include one more because of the delay in shipping. Thanks Jeffrey! 
 
Going to do the class A mod next week

 

[ev01ut10ndt]

I love this amp.
 
So today I was wondering what the gain switches did...I was initially using the 18db setting. So going from 0db to 20 db, I felt like the soundstage got slightly smaller and more blurred. Reason being is that I feel that 20db smooths out a lot of the highs but at the expense of detail and thus instrument separation. The mids at 20db sounds richer and it tames the upper mids/lower highs slightly. I scared the heck out of myself when I flipped the switch from 0 to 20db and hit play. The knob at 12 oclock for 0db is ok, but not at 20db! To get the same volume, 20db was more like 9 oclock. Nonetheless, very cool that we can just flip a switch and we get a slightly different sound signature. 
 
What are you guys using for the HD650s? I read earlier someone was using the 18db setting, hence why I was using it. I might stick to 20 since I like the rich mids and smooth highs. Who knows! 
 
And perhaps someone more technically inclined can explain...how does the switch for gain settings work? And how does it account for the slight variation in sound signatures? Just curious...
 
Once again, I love this amp.