[mattiastomas]

Anyone know if the ZMF Homage has enough juice drive the Tungstens?

 

[skeeb23]

Anyone know if the ZMF Homage has enough juice drive the Tungstens?

I inquired about it and was told it won't. It's 475mw @150ohm. So that is a little low for the Tungsten.

 

[ScornDefeat]

Anyone know if the ZMF Homage has enough juice drive the Tungstens?

I don't think it will be nearly enough; 475mw at 150 ohms will give you very limited headroom. You'd need >1.5w to get headroom for peak transients up to 110db.

However, @mattiastomas , I believe your Aegis might be a very, very good option for Tungsten DS.

 

[mfgillia]

I can definitely confirm that the Midgard doesn't do the Tungsten any justice. I paired it up with the BF 2/64 and I had to go almost 90-90% volume on high gain. It lacked dynamics and just wasn't a good listen. I'd be very curious on a pre-amp for sure...but boosting the volts may introduce other unwanted things with an amp like the Midgard. I only say that because it isn't a true balanced amp.

As noted on the Bliss thread, recently had a great chat on a related topic which started off first discussing this issue of whether inputing higher voltages into a headphone amplifier would in general lead to degradation - i.e., more noise, distortion or some other harmful effect. As with most things in life the tldr was - it depends.

Regarding specifically that amplifier (Bliss kte), comparing measured results inputting 5 volts versus 10 volts resulted in no harmful effects. If anything performance improved very slightly with the higher input voltage, which is likely consistent with many / most ss amps including the Midgard. However, the key takeaway was that this ultimately doesn't matter. The output voltage on the Bliss is capped at 21 volts, which can be achieved by inputting just around 5 volts or so from the dac.

So in my situation feeding in 11.6 volts from my dac into the Bliss I perceived more power was available to drive the Tungstens because I was getting closer to the maximum output at a lower volume / db setting. However, this was just an illusion. The maximum output of the Bliss is still capped so whether that's achieved around the midpoint of the volume dial or towards the end doesn't change that reality.

Therefore the final takeaway was to not judge the power of an amplifier or its ability to drive a particular headphone by looking at the volume dial, which is something I need to keep reminding myself as its become somewhat of a habit ingrained over time.

 

[goldwerger]

Anyone know if the ZMF Homage has enough juice drive the Tungstens?

I don't think it will be nearly enough; 475mw at 150 ohms will give you very limited headroom. You'd need >1.5w to get headroom for peak transients up to 110db.

However, @mattiastomas , I believe your Aegis might be a very, very good option for Tungsten DS.

The Homage won’t be the right amp for the Tungsten (but it’s a wonderful lamp, and really versatile to match most headphones with its impedance selector).

The Aegis is outstanding with the Tungsten (both SS and DS) both in power and, mostly, synergy. Haley recommended.

So the final takeaway was to not judge the power of an amplifier or its ability to drive a particular headphone by looking at the volume dial, which is something I need to keep reminding myself as its become somewhat of a habit ingrained over time.

That’s a very good conclusion. The volume knob says absolutely nothing except an arbitrary location of a dial and does not denote the portion of power used or the headroom of an amp, just how the attenuation control is implemented (which is often non linear anyway).

 

[KipFox]

Curious if anyone has an A30Pro laying around and tried the balanced out on it with the Tungstens? I know it’s not high end but it has decent power output.

 

[vcd23]

Anyone here tried the tungsten on Fezz audio lupi?? it only has 250mw but it was said to power susvara with tons of headroom

 

[mfgillia]

Curious if anyone has an A30Pro laying around and tried the balanced out on it with the Tungstens? I know it’s not high end but it has decent power output.

Just dusted it off and plugged it into the RCAs on the Spring 3 - plenty of power to drive my ds Tungstens.

 

[EternalChampion]

You have to remember the scale of the company Modhouse is and I would imagine it is not so easy to continue trying out different drivers and all that goes into it from the cost perspective.

Why not though? Having gone through all that hassle without selling anything first.

Now that the mill got going it should be a lot more feasible I think.

I would have no issues running it from the GT just as it is. But it would be nice to see it becoming a bit more efficient thus directed towards a broader range of devices, if possible, too.

 

[KipFox]

Just dusted it off and plugged it into the RCAs on the Spring 3 - plenty of power to drive my ds Tungstens.

Thanks for checking that, awesome to know! Did it pair well or a little sterile?
Might be a good option for folks looking for something to start off with.

 

[250lbs]

I think the Kinki Studio Vision THR-1 amp of Flux fa10/fa12 will do a good job driving them for not too much money. Furthermore a Ferrum Oor of a violectric V281 will drive it well as solid state amps for more money

​

 

[De7mi]

As noted on the Bliss thread, recently had a great chat on a related topic which started off first discussing this issue of whether inputing higher voltages into a headphone amplifier would in general lead to degradation - i.e., more noise, distortion or some other harmful effect. As with most things in life the tldr was - it depends.

Regarding specifically that amplifier (Bliss kte), comparing measured results inputting 5 volts versus 10 volts resulted in no harmful effects. If anything performance improved very slightly with the higher input voltage, which is likely consistent with many / most ss amps including the Midgard. However, the key takeaway was that this ultimately doesn't matter. The output voltage on the Bliss is capped at 21 volts, which can be achieved by inputting just around 5 volts or so from the dac.

So in my situation feeding in 11.6 volts from my dac into the Bliss I perceived more power was available to drive the Tungstens because I was getting closer to the maximum output at a lower volume / db setting. However, this was just an illusion. The maximum output of the Bliss is still capped so whether that's achieved around the midpoint of the volume dial or towards the end doesn't change that reality.

So the final takeaway was to not judge the power of an amplifier or its ability to drive a particular headphone by looking at the volume dial, which is something I need to keep reminding myself as its become somewhat of a habit ingrained over time.

Thank you for such informative post!
I got a couple of questions, how did you know that Bliss can output 21 volts? How do we know exactly for any Amp how much volts it produces?

And how much volts does the DS tungsten need to be driven properly?

And lastly how did you like the synergy of Bliss with DS tungsten? Did you feel that you are missing out on more potential of the headphone?

 

[Pharmaboy]

It's been 13 weeks for me and i still haven't heard anything, and the expected lead time was 10 weeks back when i ordered it. So it can take time.

These are pictures of you, waiting for your headphones? (brilliant)

 

[mfgillia]

Thanks for checking that, awesome to know! Did it pair well or a little sterile?
Might be a good option for folks looking for something to start off with.

During my 5 to 10 minutes of playing around using it, didn't sound particularly sterile to me and was more engaging than pairing it with my LCD-X and Verite Closed.

I would need to use it for longer to make sure but sounded just a bit more congested and closed in than my other amps.

However, at just $250 on Apos it probably is one of the better options within that price bracket.

 

[droptables]

I inquired about it and was told it won't. It's 475mw @150ohm. So that is a little low for the Tungsten.

I reached out to ZMF support and was told it would be able to drive them without an issue.
I guess we will see when it shows up.