[Woody469]

@cooperpwc " Is anyone else using the Stepdance low gain setting with full size cans?"
 
Yes, after reading long ago in this thread that average_joe was using low gain with his StepDance and LCD-2 I decided to try it as well. I too prefer the low gain setting and experience results the same as ianmedium and cooperpwc describe above.

 

[shrisha]

Hello Paul, What makes you believe that Beyers TD880/600 deserve a powerful home amp? Do you feel like Stepdance not sufficient enough for them? My Stedance on the way and it's makes me nerves a bit since Jan promised me that Stepdance is driving 600Ohms cans with authority. 

 

[cooperpwc]

Thanks for the kind words, Ian . Good to know that I am not delusional in my discovery and that you have the same experience with the Denons. Oh, I will take you up on  those beers.

 
 
@Woody469: Thanks, I must have missed that in Joe's earlier post.
 
 
@shrisha: Please don't worry. The Stepdance is doing a lovely job with the DT880/600s. I am not at all oipposed to buying the Stepdance to drive 600 ohm Beyers. In fact, that was part of my decision process.
 
I have been a bit more opposed to buying the 600 ohm Beyers exclusively to use with the Stepdance. If that was to be your sole kit, the thinking is that the 250 ohm Beyers is a better choice. The 600 ohm headphones were intended for amps that can swing massive voltage, not even standard home amps. That is why the 600 ohm headphone is a specialty item, not the standard release.
 
Anyway, snce switching to low gain, I am having to revisit my thinking somewhat. I am listening to Eminem's Stain right now and it is... authoritative, smooth, lovely.

 

[ianmedium]

Your on Paul, any time your near these shores a pint of tres pistoles or two is on me! Thanks also to Joe,I missed that post.
 
I am sitting here, now on my second battery just lapping up the music, what a great hobby this is EH!

 

[cooperpwc]

Quote:

Your on Paul, any time your near these shores a pint of tres pistoles or two is on me! Thanks also to Joe,I missed that post.
 
I am sitting here, now on my second battery just lapping up the music, what a great hobby this is EH!

Second battery indeed. Now that I am using the Stepdance at my computer, the alkaline battery unit consumption is going up. I will be back in Toronto soon for a visit (too bad, not your part of Canada) and I will be looking for the Energizer XP8000. I frankly cannot find a suitable linear regulated ~230 volt PSU that I can get shipped to China. Anyway the XP8000 should be perfect for long listening, and 12 volts from battery should provide excellent SQ..

 

[ianmedium]

From what I am reading I have a feeling the XP8000 is going to be the better solution quality to dollar wise!
 
After all one is getting a higher power ultra clean supply where as one would have to spend a great deal on a mains supply that comes as close to clean and knowing now how important the power supply is to this amp that makes choosing the XP over an equivalent priced mains power adapter a no brainer for me!

 

[Racio]

 
Quote:

 
-snipped-
 
1)  The XP8000 can be found at several retailers, including Amazon - I've never looked for them at eBay.
 
The XP8000 has one jack for charging and three jacks for output voltages - 5V, 12V, and 19V (according to the specs seen here).
 
From all my research on Lithium Polymer batteries, however, I suspect that the actual voltages from those three XP8000 jacks are multiples of 3.7 Volts:  either 7.4V, 14.8V, and 22.2V (all higher than spec at full charge)  -OR-  3.7V, 11.1V, and 18.5V (all lower than spec at full charge - less likely).
 
It's very possible that Enercell has used some kind of IC to regulate the XP8000 voltages to the exact spec for each of the three output jacks (instead of just tapping a six-cell LiPo pack in various combinations of series or parallel to get non-spec voltages).
 
I would really love it if Racio has a voltmeter (or mutlimeter) and could measure the voltage of all three jacks for us. 

 
-snipped-  
3)  Racio should be able to confirm this, but the XP8000 comes with a power cord that includes many different tips that can be swapped at will - including a 3.5mm outside diameter / 1.35 mm (inside diameter) tip that will plug right into the Stepdance - no soldering required.  Just make sure you orient the polarized tip such that the + pole of the battery pack is at the tip, not the barrel of the connector. 
 
Mike

Sorry for the late reply Mike. FYI, I was indeed able to test the 3 output ports (5v, 12v, and 19v) with a digital multimeter, and the actual readings were 5v, 11.9v and 18.6v respectively.
 
With regards to the tip, unfortunately, my XP8000 arrived from Amazon without the correct tip for the Stepdance (which coincidentally is the same size as the 12v jack). But luckily, I was able to source a pair of angled tips that would fit the StepDance perfectly, and using 14awg speaker wires, we made a short 1.5 inch cable with the correct polarity to connect the Meier amp and the XP8000 and velcroed the two units together, as seen in the pic I posted back there.
 
By the way, sorry for the confusion but the HiFiMan DAP in the pic isn't mine, I'm actually using a 160GB iMod as my portable source for my lossless files. That photo was taken while a few fellow HeadPhilers of mine were testing their owns gears with my Meier amp in a recent meet.

 

[raizetcity]

guys i am just going to order the  stepdance.but reading those threads,seems,the battery is  a real issue.does anyone try the   sanyosanyo
 sanyo pedaj juice 9v rechargeable mobile booster?it 'expensive.but seems to be perfect.i just like to know if it can match with the stepdance

 

[raizetcity]

just talking about the sanyo pedal juice 9v rechargeable mobile booster

 

[ianmedium]

Just a quick question for those with the XP8000, I notice that there are six right angle tips that come with it, will one of these be the twelve volt tip and am I right in thinking that tip will fit the power input on the back of the stepdance?
I am so close to pulling the trigger on this as I know extra power gives and even better sound and am quite prepared to cart the extra bulk around with me for portable use!

Also how long between charges does one get using this battery?

Edit, I have just been looking at the Energizer site so will re-frame my question, I notice it is the cable, not the tip that dictates the 12volt supply so which of the supplied 6 tips would I use for the stepdance?
Thanks in advance folks, after much searching the cheapest I can get it for is B&H Photo who will ship it to Canada taxes and shipping $108

Oh, one last question, Racio has checked the output voltage at 11.9 for the xp. What would the difference be between that and the true 9.6V of the powerex in sound, anyone have any thoughts?

 

[zilch0md]

Hi raizetcity!
Quote:

just talking about the sanyo pedal juice 9v rechargeable mobile booster

 
I don't know of anyone using the Sanyo Eneloop Pedal Juice with the Stepdance, but I researched it a while back and decided not to go with it because it only puts out 9 Volts and it's too heavy and bulky for my portable needs, but the size and weight wouldn't be a problem if used as a desktop power supply. 
 
Althought a 9-Volt supply falls within the 6-Volt to 15-Volt range required by the Stepdance, at only 9 Volts, the Sanyo Eneloop Pedal Juice can never perform any better than a 9-Volt Alkaline internal battery (disregarding duration of play, of course).
 
This will be the third time I've posted the following in this thread, but here goes: 
 
In a January 11th e-mail I received from Jan Meier in response to my questions, he wrote:
 
    "Yes, a good powersupply [for the Stepdance] will definitely improve on sound quality, especially when it's supply voltage is so much higher than your battery voltage."
 
That's why I'm pursuing a 14.8-Volt solution.  UPS is scheduled to make the delivery tomorrow.  Joy!
 
That said, for those like you (raisetcity) who have not yet handled a Stepdance, there is a whole lot of sound quality to be enjoyed just using an 8.4-Volt rechargeable internal battery, thanks in part to Jan Meier's voltage doubling circuit.  So don't let all this experimentation with higher voltages give you any cause for concern about using an internal battery.  I've enjoyed many hours of wonderful Stepdance > LCD-2 listening while using the 8.4-volt rechargeables.

Mike

 

[zilch0md]

Hi Racio!
 
Quote:

 

Sorry for the late reply Mike. FYI, I was indeed able to test the 3 output ports (5v, 12v, and 19v) with a digital multimeter, and the actual readings were 5v, 11.9v and 18.6v respectively.
 
With regards to the tip, unfortunately, my XP8000 arrived from Amazon without the correct tip for the Stepdance (which coincidentally is the same size as the 12v jack). But luckily, I was able to source a pair of angled tips that would fit the StepDance perfectly, and using 14awg speaker wires, we made a short 1.5 inch cable with the correct polarity to connect the Meier amp and the XP8000 and velcroed the two units together, as seen in the pic I posted back there.
 
By the way, sorry for the confusion but the HiFiMan DAP in the pic isn't mine, I'm actually using a 160GB iMod as my portable source for my lossless files. That photo was taken while a few fellow HeadPhilers of mine were testing their owns gears with my Meier amp in a recent meet.

Hey, no problem on the delay - I'm thrilled that someone who actually owns the Energizer XP8000 has taken the time to measure the voltages at the three output jacks!  Thank you very much!
 
So, now we know that the 12-Volt jack actually delivers 12-Volts (+/- a bit with discharge, I suppose).   That makes it a pretty good DC pack for use with the Stepdance, in terms of voltage - better for sure than the 8.4-Volt internal rechargeable LiPo batteries I'm currently using.
 
Regarding capacity, the specs show that it has a capacity of 8000 mAh at 5-Volts and 2000 mAh at 20-Volts.  This means that at 12-Volts (with the Stepdance), it would have a capacity of 3333.33 mAh (or better than 8 times the capacity of internal rechargeable batteries). 
 
   8000 mAh * 5-Volts = 40,000 milliwatt-hours   (enough to power a 40-Watt light bulb for one hour)
   2000 mAh * 20-Volts = 40,000 milliwatt-hours
 
   So...  40,000 milliwatt-hours / 12-Volts = 3333.33 mAh  (enough to power the 1242-milliwatt Stepdance for 32.2 hours!)
 
Where did I get 1242-milliwatts?  In an e-mail exchange with Jan Meier, he wrote that when using my 13.8-Volt regulated power supply, the maximum current that the Stepdance can demand (in High Current mode, to which it goes automatically when an external supply is attached), is 45 milliamps per channel (90 mA, total).  13.8-Volts * 90 milliamps = 1242-milliwatts (or 1.242 Watts).  Dividing 1242 milliwatts into the 40,000 millwatt-hour capacity of the Energizer XP8000, gives us 32.2 hours of play time.  (I realize there's a little slop in my calculations because 12-Volts does not equal 13.8-Volts, but I'm not going to trouble Jan Meier with the question:  "How much current can the Stepdance draw with a 12-Volt external supply?"   I'm pretty sure that at just about any supply voltage the maxium current demand will be somewhere around 90 to 100 mA, with a mean current consumption of 50 mA.
 
Lastly, please don't confuse my use of milliwatts with the number of milliwatts driving your headphones.  I'm talking about the number of milliwatts of DC power consumed at the back end of the amplifier.
 
-----
 
Regarding the interchangeable tips that come with the XP8000:   I thought that the purchase price includes one free tip of your choice per year for the life of ownership - or something like that - for any tip they make that's not included in the original set.  Did you (Racio) buy the XP8000 new?  If so, are you aware of the free tip program?  (They do charge for shipping, if I recall correctly.)
 
Thanks again for taking the voltage measurements!
 
By the way,  B&H Photo is offering the XP8000 for $80.59, currently - best price I've seen, lately.  These guys are very reputable - I've bought a lot of camera gear from them over the years.
 
Also:  KLS was the first poster to suggest using the XP8000 with the Stepdance:  http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/507835/meier-audio-stepdance-discussion-and-impressions-thread/435#post_7062790
 
Mike
 

 

[ianmedium]

Thanks Mike,
So using the XP would give us around 24 volts as the Stepdance doubles the voltage I think?

 

[zilch0md]

 
Yes, Jan Meier says that external supply voltages are doubled, as are internal battery voltages when in the High Current setting.
 

 

[ianmedium]

Oh my poor wallet! All that and 32 hours of continuous playback!
Thanks so much Mike for taking the time to do all the calculations, idiots like me are very grateful!