[Byronb]

Awesome. I've been using my MDs faithfully for five years. Looks like Dan lowered the price on the upgrade recently, so that's an added bonus.

It will be a sad day when these headphones are gone.

 

[Nick-s-f]

Just bit the bullet to upgrade my Mad Dogs to Alpha Prime. Sending them to Dan on Saturday. The upgrade has been on my bucket list for over a year. How excited should I be?

I've heard every 'dog', the Prime clearly bests them. I like them equally as much as Aeon Open, can't go wrong.

 

[Maelob]

To be honest I totally prefer the sound signature of the primes to the closed Aeons, if I say this in the Aeon thread I would get killed Lol

 

[Serge Bernamej]

To be honest I totally prefer the sound signature of the primes to the closed Aeons, if I say this in the Aeon thread I would get killed Lol

Hahah! I did that exactly and even Dan PM’d me, but he was totally understanding and fair.
Let’s keep thid thread alive though. The Prime lovers are hardcore fans.
Although i’m enjoying The Thx00 mohagony lately.

 

[targetrein]

Just me, waiting on the Primes to arrive
Figured I'd better step up the amplification game...

 

[swspiers]

Just me, waiting on the Primes to arrive
Figured I'd better step up the amplification game...

Just a guess, but that could be awesome!

 

[Baten]

I got a used Alpha Prime and a used Bottlehead Crack with upgrades.

This is the best thing I ever heard.

 

[Serge Bernamej]

I got a used Alpha Prime and a used Bottlehead Crack with upgrades.

This is the best thing I ever heard.

Rrally ? Prime with an OTL? Is that a normal matching ?

 

[Baten]

Rrally ? Prime with an OTL? Is that a normal matching ?

No not really. Prime is low-ish impedance and the Crack high impedance, although the mismatch isn't as important with planars. It's said OTL gets plenty of voltage but little current, though.

But it goes loud, controlled, no bloaty or muddy bass. Everything is clear, and sounds amazing to me. Either that or I like the distortion it adds, lol, but seriously the bass or clarity isn't much different on my O2 solid state amp. The Crack just sounds infinitely more musical. I truly like this combo (I don't think I need any better, permanent).

 

[Paladin79]

I own both but to be honest I had not tried it before so I just hooked Primes to a Crack amp I modified. Volume level was certainly low so I cranked up the pre amp that drives the Crack and that helped some, the sound was decent but lacking bass and mids. Then I hooked Sennheiser 650's up and the sound level was extremely high for those and naturally they sounded so much better lol. Do not get me wrong, I love the Crack amp and the Primes but they are not exactly a good match. I listen to the Primes on a dual amp totally balanced setup and love them there. One of these days you are going to plug some decent high impedance headphones into that Crack and then realize what you had been missing. Everything is relative. I love tube sound so put the primes on another tube amp one day made for low impedance cans and then you will be more amazed I bet.

 

[Baten]

I own both but to be honest I had not tried it before so I just hooked Primes to a Crack amp I modified. Volume level was certainly low so I cranked up the pre amp that drives the Crack and that helped some, the sound was decent but lacking bass and mids. Then I hooked Sennheiser 650's up and the sound level was extremely high for those and naturally they sounded so much better lol. Do not get me wrong, I love the Crack amp and the Primes but they are not exactly a good match. I listen to the Primes on a dual amp totally balanced setup and love them there. One of these days you are going to plug some decent high impedance headphones into that Crack and then realize what you had been missing. Everything is relative. I love tube sound so put the primes on another tube amp one day made for low impedance cans and then you will be more amazed I bet.

Hmm well, my Crack gets the Primes to ear-bleeding level. Crazy high. So I'm not sure why you'd need a pre-amp. The mids are super sweet on mine, bass is there but not crushing hard. I like it!

 

[Paladin79]

Perhaps your Crack amp has been modified some.

As for a pre-amp, naturally you are running some kind of audio into your Crack amp, a line out from another device. That signal can be from a Dac, or DAP or a computer, or even the preamp output of another amp. It can be fixed or variable. In my case I run the signal from a Schiit Valhalla 2 and it is variable. Leaving the level where it was to drive 250 ohm headphones, the amp level was way too low for the Primes. Adjusting the signal for the Primes, it was too high for the Sennheisers. Low impedance headphones need high current, the Crack produces high voltage, low current. Power equals voltage times current, increase the level coming in and you increase the output current or voltage thus the power measured in watts. You might want to go into the Crack OTL thread and ask a few questions, driving the current to a higher level to make them usable at 32 or even 50 ohms may not be good for that amp. I made my Primes more usable with the Crack but I was probably over driving the amp to achieve that level.

In no way is my intention to say you do not like what you hear. The amplification of a tube amp is linear, solid state is logarithmic so when you do drive that amp to a certain level, I would think it might maintain a quality sound longer. It has been ages since I studied tube theory but over-biasing a tube (called hot bias as I recall) shortens the life of a tube.

 

[omegaorgun]

Has anyone tried the ZMF lambskins? I think the give a little more bass, widen the soundstage due to the width and increase the clamping force.

ZMF Lambskins, no tuning devices and a little EQ = Oh My! So clear with smooth impacting bass. What's odd is the alpha pads on my Argon make that sound way smoother.

 

[Nick-s-f]

Has anyone tried the ZMF lambskins? I think the give a little more bass, widen the soundstage due to the width and increase the clamping force.

ZMF Lambskins, no tuning devices and a little EQ = Oh My! So clear with smooth impacting bass. What's odd is the alpha pads on my Argon make that sound way smoother.

Do you have the MK2 or the new MK3 Argon?

Also, once tried the ZMF Cowhide pads on my Primes and they seemed to cut the highs down a bit. By the same token, they took the slight zip out of the treble that I like, so it was a no go.
Also slightly prefer the comfort of the Alpha Pads (cushier), even if they are more cramped around the ears.

Edit: Now I want to try out my Ori's Lambskin pads on the Prime. ha

 

[omegaorgun]

Do you have the MK2 or the new MK3 Argon?

Also, once tried the ZMF Cowhide pads on my Primes and they seemed to cut the highs down a bit. By the same token, they took the slight zip out of the treble that I like, so it was a no go.
Also slightly prefer the comfort of the Alpha Pads (cushier), even if they are more cramped around the ears.

Edit: Now I want to try out my Ori's Lambskin pads on the Prime. ha

I got the Massdrop MK2 converted. The Alpha pads I have are the first version, I've learned they use different foam on the newer ones so I'll probably get them for it as they are more comfortable. Mine are squashed a bit probably from storage in the box

The ZMF pads are the lambskin ones so a little softer than the cowhide.