[sahmen]

Is there some place where one can find a list of amp/dacs that play the nicest with the Tungsten? At the moment, it looks to me like a capshoot, although I have a Cen.Grand Big Silver Fox, a Niimbus US4, and a Pathos InPol Ear in my stable (and for DACs, a Sonnet Audio Pasithea, a Yggy OG A2 w/Unison, and a Bifrost 2/64). I can't say for sure if any Amp/DAC combo from that list would play nice with the Tungsten without having done an in-person audition. If anyone has listened to the Tungsten on any of the amps or DACs I have listed, I would like to hear your impressions about their synergy. Thanks.

 

[betula]

Looking at my next upgrade path for 2024 and wondering if the Cayin HA-3A is powerful enough to run a Tungsten DS?

I'll eventually move to an Ferrum Oor stack but that'll be more like an end of next year purchase and wondering if the HA-3A is good enough to tide me over.

I am not sure about Tungsten drivability, but in general I personally prefer my HA-3A with NOS tubes to the Ferrum stack.

 

[Kevintj604]

I am not sure about Tungsten drivability, but in general I personally prefer my HA-3A with NOS tubes to the Ferrum stack.

I wouldn’t be replacing the HA-3A. The Ferrum Stack would be in addition to the Cayin and CMA Fifteen.

 

[mfgillia]

Looking at my next upgrade path for 2024 and wondering if the Cayin HA-3A is powerful enough to run a Tungsten DS?

I'll eventually move to an Ferrum Oor stack but that'll be more like an end of next year purchase and wondering if the HA-3A is good enough to tide me over.

Recall @Bkido has confirmed that the HA-3A drives the Tungsten DS very well.

 

[ChJL]

if I understood @GoldenOne on "our favourate things" video correctly...
depending on listening volume the Amp has to put out quitet an amount of Volts (not power) :

10 to 15 Volts "what most amps can provide" ...
above 90 db 30 to 40 Volts (25 to 30 db gain) "choose your amp carefully"

I don't remember if he made a distinction between SS and DS variation though...

Do amp manufacturers provide that in Specs?
What's the relation between db gain and Volt output?
gotta be a fairly easy calculation...

 

[GoldenSound]

if I understood @GoldenOne on "our favourate things" video correctly...
depending on listening volume the Amp has to put out quitet an amount of Volts (not power) :

10 to 15 Volts "what most amps can provide" ...
above 90 db 30 to 40 Volts (25 to 30 db gain) "choose your amp carefully"

I don't remember if he made a distinction between SS and DS variation though...

Do amp manufacturers provide that in Specs?
What's the relation between db gain and Volt output?
gotta be a fairly easy calculation...

Generally speaking the easiest answer will be to look for amps with higher power at 300 Ohm as that guarantees the ability to provide higher output voltage.
Unfortunately many manufacturers only provide 32 Ohm specs nowadays which isn't that helpful for figuring out if an amp will be able to drive these to the volumes you want.

 

[gc335]

Is there some place where one can find a list of amp/dacs that play the nicest with the Tungsten? At the moment, it looks to me like a capshoot, although I have a Cen.Grand Big Silver Fox, a Niimbus US4, and a Pathos InPol Ear in my stable (and for DACs, a Sonnet Audio Pasithea, a Yggy OG A2 w/Unison, and a Bifrost 2/64). I can't say for sure if any Amp/DAC combo from that list would play nice with the Tungsten without having done an in-person audition. If anyone has listened to the Tungsten on any of the amps or DACs I have listed, I would like to hear your impressions about their synergy. Thanks.

In my experience, the Schiit Jotunheim 2 and the Violectic V550 drive the Tungsten extremely well.

 

[goldwerger]

Is there some place where one can find a list of amp/dacs that play the nicest with the Tungsten? At the moment, it looks to me like a capshoot, although I have a Cen.Grand Big Silver Fox, a Niimbus US4, and a Pathos InPol Ear in my stable (and for DACs, a Sonnet Audio Pasithea, a Yggy OG A2 w/Unison, and a Bifrost 2/64). I can't say for sure if any Amp/DAC combo from that list would play nice with the Tungsten without having done an in-person audition. If anyone has listened to the Tungsten on any of the amps or DACs I have listed, I would like to hear your impressions about their synergy. Thanks.

I provided a bunch of amp info for Tungsten in my review: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/mod-house-tungsten.26823/reviews#review-32108

In specific though , the Pathos InPol Eer can't drive it well. I tried this combo and it's not a good match I'm afraid. But there are many other options in this price range (and cheaper) I've mentioned.

if I understood @GoldenOne on "our favourate things" video correctly...
depending on listening volume the Amp has to put out quitet an amount of Volts (not power) :

10 to 15 Volts "what most amps can provide" ...
above 90 db 30 to 40 Volts (25 to 30 db gain) "choose your amp carefully"

I don't remember if he made a distinction between SS and DS variation though...

Do amp manufacturers provide that in Specs?
What's the relation between db gain and Volt output?
gotta be a fairly easy calculation...

I agree with @GoldenOne -- I came up with a simple rule of thumb suggestion of using about 20V as a rough heuristic for which amps will work best, but of course there are some exceptions either way (explained both in link above).

@ChJL you can derive the voltage specs from wattage specs given for specific impedance levels using V = square roote of (W x R)

 

[Menkau-ra]

I did some testing today. Folkvangr can drive Tungsten DS without clipping! With headroom even on Low Gain. But you need Wandla for that.

 

[goldwerger]

I did some testing today. Folkvangr can drive Tungsten DS without clipping! With headroom even on Low Gain. But you need Wandla for that.

if I recall, Wandla outputs about 9V balanced, similar (not coincidentally) to the mytek DACs. This obviously helps any amp to reach a higher voltage per given gain (had this experience with the Viva 845 which clipped on the Tungsten unless it was fed with at least 6V). Just note this may affect noise floor but if it sounds good to you then it's a great discovery obviously

 

[vcoheda]

the Wandla output level is really high.

Output level:— RCA: 4.65VRMS— XLR: 9.3VRMS

are those values "fixed" or you can lower them. i can't imagine having much headroom in terms of volume control using more efficient headphones.

 

[kumar402]

Well I’m interested in these but not sure if my amp is cut out for it. Can Bliss drive it with 4v input ? I do have Freya + to bump up some db in active mode.

 

[Menkau-ra]

if I recall, Wandla outputs about 9V balanced, similar (not coincidentally) to the mytek DACs. This obviously helps any amp to reach a higher voltage per given gain (had this experience with the Viva 845 which clipped on the Tungsten unless it was fed with at least 6V). Just note this may affect noise floor but if it sounds good to you then it's a great discovery obviously

I tested the noise floor with S12... And it was dead silent! Low Impedance and Multiplier off.

 

[sahmen]

Here are some output power numbers from the user manual of my Niimbus US4, but I do not know how to interpret and decipher the characters and figures except maybe those in the mw column which I am guessing to be milliwatts. Are the numbers under the (V) column those that represent output voltage, and are those in the very first column on the left impedance numbers in ohms? I just want to know whether the amp is capable of outputting enough voltage to drive the Tungsten. I am suspecting it can since it comes from the same family as the Violectric V550, which allegedly can, although the Niimbus belongs in a higher tier in the Vilectric/Lake People amp hierarchy as compared to the V550. Still, I want some positive confirmation of this speculation so if someone can tell from the following numbers whether the Niimbus is indeed capable, please let me know : Many thanks in advance

 

[goldwerger]

Here are some output power numbers from the user manual of my Niimbus US4, but I do not know how to interpret and decipher the characters and figures except maybe those in the mw column which I am guessing to be milliwatts. Are the numbers under the (V) column those that represent output voltage, and are those in the very first column on the left impedance numbers in ohms? I just want to know whether the amp is capable of outputting enough voltage to drive the Tungsten. I am suspecting it can since it comes from the same family as the Violectric V550, which allegedly can, although the Niimbus belongs in a higher tier in the Vilectric/Lake People amp hierarchy as compared to the V550. Still, I want some positive confirmation of this speculation so if someone can tell from the following numbers whether the Niimbus is indeed capable, please let me know : Many thanks in advance

This table makes life easy as it spells things out rather than make you calculate them (power holdings manuals, at least violecric and nimbus I’ve seen, seem to share this nice level of transparency).

So this says that at 100 ohms we get 25.6v and at 300 ohm we get 29.5v (btw, at 100 ohm if you do 25.6x25.6/100 you get the 6.5 watts, which they conveniently calculate).

What we see here, which I’ve also seen with the V281, is that voltage increases with impedance. It’s likely because the designers curb the output voltage at lower impedances in order to limit the amount of current (to whatever max specs their components can handle). Eyeballing this table, we can guesstimate this amp will provide 26-27v at around 150ohm which would be potentially fantastic to drive the Tungsten