qutius
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2002
- Posts
- 59
- Likes
- 0
Hello folks,
My journey into the headphone world started a year ago this spring when I wanted to get a pair of cans for late night listening. I decided on the Sennheiser HD-280s due to their decent reviews, noise isolation, and price. I knew these weren’t going to be my last pair of headphones, but they did serve me well for many months. This Christmas, I received (by request) and set of Sennheiser HD-580s. I was pretty happy with the results when I first plugged them in, but I knew I would need to get an amp for these things to really shine.
After doing plenty of reading, I decided to go with the META42 due to its price/performance, and tweak-ability. My DIY skills are not the best, so I felt it would be best to hire a member of these fine forums to do the building for me. Everyone knows JMT is the MAN when it comes to such things, so I sent him a private message outlining my system, how much I wanted to spend, and a few of the details on how I wanted the amp to be built. He sent me a message back with a list of the components he would use, price, and of course answered a few of my questions. Jon was really helpful with everything and was VERY quick on replying to messages.
Here are the specifics of the amp straight from the main who built it:
•Multi-loop/META amp
•Hand matched Vishay Dale RN55D resistors
•Elna Cerafine 470µF/25v PS caps
•WIMA 6.8µF/50v reservoir caps
•Alps Blue Velvet 100K ohm potentiometer
•AD843KN op-amps
•Stacked output buffers (EL2001)
•Cardas gold plated teflon insulated RCA inputs
•Current source to bias to Class A
•Linkwitz cross-feed circuit
I’d say that’s a maxed out META42
This is being powered by a 24v regulated wall wart power supply which I picked up online from an electronics store. JMT did a fine, fine job on all of the soldering and the rest of the construction. It looks as good as it sounds! The blue LED adds a nice touch when the amp is powered on.
So, how does it sound, you ask? Well, I’m not the best on describing what I am hearing, but I will do my best. The first thing I noticed was _everything_ was more clear and refined. Vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, drums – everything. The highs sound great, the mids sound very clear, and the bass is nice and detailed.
One of the first albums to really blow me away was Beck’s ‘Mutations’. All of the background noises were very audible, the panning was beautiful, and it generally left me in awe of what I was hearing.
The album that really did it for me, however, was Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’. This is one of my favorite albums ever, which is no surprise…such a classic! It was like I had never heard the album before! The details were much more forward, the bass deep (but not over done), and overall, everything sounded much more full. It was 45 minutes of pure audio bliss and I had a ****-eating grin on my face the entire time.
Medeski Martin and Wood’s ‘Combustication’ was next – Billy Martin’s drums sound _excellent_ and very smooth, as did Chris Wood’s bass. All very detailed, and clean. Medeski’s swirling organs and sharp keyboards all sounded clear and well reproduced.
Lastly, John Scofield’s ‘A Go Go’ which features MMW on backup, was a real treat. Scofield’s guitar work really shined, due to the good extension of the amp. I could go on, but I don’t want to bore the readers – there are plenty of other well-written reviews out there, so check those out if you want a more detailed look at how the META42 sounds.
A BIG thank you goes out to JMT for building me this fine amp, and putting up with all of my n00b questions
Of course, the people behind the design of this amp deserve a whole lot of credit – Morsel, Eric343, Tangent, and Apheared, if I recall correctly. Thanks guys!
My system – Sony NS500v -> analog interconnects from wickedcables.com -> HD580s w/ stock cable.
Finally, here are a few pictures I took. For those interested, these shots were taken by a CoolPix 4500 digital camera. Sorry about some of the blurriness!
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/front.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/opamps.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/opamps2.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/EL2001.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/back.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/side.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/inside.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/inside2.jpg
My journey into the headphone world started a year ago this spring when I wanted to get a pair of cans for late night listening. I decided on the Sennheiser HD-280s due to their decent reviews, noise isolation, and price. I knew these weren’t going to be my last pair of headphones, but they did serve me well for many months. This Christmas, I received (by request) and set of Sennheiser HD-580s. I was pretty happy with the results when I first plugged them in, but I knew I would need to get an amp for these things to really shine.
After doing plenty of reading, I decided to go with the META42 due to its price/performance, and tweak-ability. My DIY skills are not the best, so I felt it would be best to hire a member of these fine forums to do the building for me. Everyone knows JMT is the MAN when it comes to such things, so I sent him a private message outlining my system, how much I wanted to spend, and a few of the details on how I wanted the amp to be built. He sent me a message back with a list of the components he would use, price, and of course answered a few of my questions. Jon was really helpful with everything and was VERY quick on replying to messages.
Here are the specifics of the amp straight from the main who built it:
•Multi-loop/META amp
•Hand matched Vishay Dale RN55D resistors
•Elna Cerafine 470µF/25v PS caps
•WIMA 6.8µF/50v reservoir caps
•Alps Blue Velvet 100K ohm potentiometer
•AD843KN op-amps
•Stacked output buffers (EL2001)
•Cardas gold plated teflon insulated RCA inputs
•Current source to bias to Class A
•Linkwitz cross-feed circuit
I’d say that’s a maxed out META42
So, how does it sound, you ask? Well, I’m not the best on describing what I am hearing, but I will do my best. The first thing I noticed was _everything_ was more clear and refined. Vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, drums – everything. The highs sound great, the mids sound very clear, and the bass is nice and detailed.
One of the first albums to really blow me away was Beck’s ‘Mutations’. All of the background noises were very audible, the panning was beautiful, and it generally left me in awe of what I was hearing.
The album that really did it for me, however, was Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’. This is one of my favorite albums ever, which is no surprise…such a classic! It was like I had never heard the album before! The details were much more forward, the bass deep (but not over done), and overall, everything sounded much more full. It was 45 minutes of pure audio bliss and I had a ****-eating grin on my face the entire time.
Medeski Martin and Wood’s ‘Combustication’ was next – Billy Martin’s drums sound _excellent_ and very smooth, as did Chris Wood’s bass. All very detailed, and clean. Medeski’s swirling organs and sharp keyboards all sounded clear and well reproduced.
Lastly, John Scofield’s ‘A Go Go’ which features MMW on backup, was a real treat. Scofield’s guitar work really shined, due to the good extension of the amp. I could go on, but I don’t want to bore the readers – there are plenty of other well-written reviews out there, so check those out if you want a more detailed look at how the META42 sounds.
A BIG thank you goes out to JMT for building me this fine amp, and putting up with all of my n00b questions
My system – Sony NS500v -> analog interconnects from wickedcables.com -> HD580s w/ stock cable.
Finally, here are a few pictures I took. For those interested, these shots were taken by a CoolPix 4500 digital camera. Sorry about some of the blurriness!
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/front.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/opamps.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/opamps2.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/EL2001.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/back.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/side.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/inside.jpg
http://www.quadforce.net/headamp/inside2.jpg
