mordy
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2010
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My main headphones are 80 ohm. Most of the time I use the Ultimate as a preamp and listen through speakers. Sometimes it occurs to me that certain tube combinations work better with the speakers compared to the headphones.It's more to do with the headphones you're using. With a warmer sounding headphone like Atrium, you'll want more energy from your tubes, hence higher gain. With a very inefficient headphone like Susvara you definitely want higher gain tube.
With my very efficient Grado GH1, a 20 mu is more than sufficient. The less the better with Grados.
I think it's common sense to match bright drivers with warm power tubes to balance it out and vice versa. However sometimes uncommon sense prevails when you specifically choose a bright setup or a very warm setup.
For example I am usually someone who prefers transparency and neutrality but when I listen with Audeze LCD4 and Auris Nirvana, the chocolate syrupy sound taste good in mouth literally.
So no formula. On Monday, you like bright sound. On Tuesday, a bit more moderate. On Wednesday you're almost over the hill, so you start to gravitate towards warmth. Come Friday, you're all blues and smokey. On the weekend, you pass out and just sleep in.
Does using the Ultimate as a preamp change the mu matching of input to output tubes?
I have another amp that has two headphone jacks - one for low ohm and one for high ohm headphones. When I asked the designer which jack to use for preamp out, he said to use the low ohm jack.