[davebot]

HeadRoom just notified me that my Beyerdynamic DT 880s are on the way! Since I've enjoyed my old DT 990s so much, I'm really looking forward to the new 880s. My DT 990s were powered by the headphone jack on my NAD 7175PE receiver, which always sounded great and had plenty of drive. (This was NAD's top-o-the-line receiver in the late '80's).

So, gentle Head-Fi-ers, what do you think? I've also been eyeing the Gilmore Lite, and I'm wondering how the Gilmore would compare with the NAD. Has anyone compared a Gilmore with an NAD receiver?

Thanks,

=davebot=

 

[third_eye]

Congrats, my DT880 just shipped from Todd. I am also looking forward to these as I used to have the 931's and liked many things about them. I also have a NAD receiver BTW. I will be using mine with a Corda HA-1 MKII. Have also heard good things about the Gilmore with this headphone, I'm sure it will be far better than the NAD receiver. Good luck with your choice and enjoy your new headphones.

 

[davebot]

I've read that the Beyer DT 880s work well with Gilmore amps. I've also read that the Gilmore Lite is the same circuit as the V2, but with less expensive pot and external (regulated) wall-wart (and without the preamp feature and additional headphone jack, both of which I don't need). I've noticed one or two Lites for sale recently by people who have had them a short while and are upgrading. This makes me curious.

How does the Gilmore Lite stack up against the V2? Opinions? What would be an upgrade from a Gilmore Lite, with the Beyers?

Thanks,

=davebot=

 

[ayt999]

there is a new version of the gilmore lite coming out shortly. I don't know if people are selling their current gilmore lite amps to upgrade to that, but it is a possibility.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Accordingly to Justin he's been designing new version just because he ran out of components for the current one, and sonic wise the difference between two will be perhaps in 1-5% range if any, that's about it. But hers's another wonderful news, there will be another optional external PSU for Lite, that should really wake it up and bring quite close to V2 level. That one will replace wall-mart in new or current version and you can actually trade in your current wall-mart. Not sure that I can say that but he also mentioned battery option for Lite he's working on.

 

[Mikey01]

I think he meant wall-wort as opposed to wall-mart. I would hate to think you would have to carry around a department store to power your Gilmore lite. I am just teasing a bit though. I offen thought buying a Gilmore lite was the way to go. You could replace the wall-wort with a much heftier "stand next to the Gilmore lite" DIY power supply, in another alum. enclosure. Or combine the two in a new, larger, more impressive box. Someone could build this for you or you could build it yourself.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikey01 I think he meant wall-wort as opposed to wall-mart.

That actually wall-wart, not wall-mart, pardon my spelling.

 

[gpalmer]

The Lite and the V2 are pretty close as it is. It does take quite a bit of burn-in before the Lite really hits it's stride. Before that it sounds good and the sound is consistent across the frequency range but it's very lacking in bass. The folks that are selling have not had them long enough for them to burn in and the bass to really develop on them. The Lite did a lot right out of the box, but the bass response was terrible.

I have both the V2 and the Lite and have heard the PPA. Assuming that you don't need the inputs and outputs of the V2 the PPA would be the next level. The sound is pretty much identical to the V2, maybe a slight touch more bass but that was about all I could hear for differences. I haven't priced PPAs so I'm not sure how much that next step up would cost you.

 

[davebot]

gpalmer sez:

Quote:

The Lite and the V2 are pretty close as it is. It does take quite a bit of burn-in before the Lite really hits it's stride. Before that it sounds good and the sound is consistent across the frequency range but it's very lacking in bass.

Interesting. Why do you think the Lite takes so long to burn in? And why do you think this affects the bass so much? Does it have something to do with capacitors?

Quote:

I have both the V2 and the Lite and have heard the PPA. Assuming that you don't need the inputs and outputs of the V2 the PPA would be the next level. The sound is pretty much identical to the V2, maybe a slight touch more bass but that was about all I could hear for differences. I haven't priced PPAs so I'm not sure how much that next step up would cost you.

The reason I looked at the Gilmore Lite originally was that it features a discrete, class-A design. Looks like the PPA design isn't discrete--but could it be class-A? Do you think this makes as much difference as the other design differences between these two amps?

=davebot=

 

[Andrew_WOT]

I may guess that that was wall-wart that required extra long burn in, but I'm not sure.

 

[davebot]

I'm just curious how good (or bad) this combination is. I think it's pretty good, but since I don't have anything better at hand, I have no idea what the Beyerdynamic DT 880s might be capable of with different amplification than my NAD receiver (late 80's 7175PE, 75 watts per channel with 6 dB headroom). So I'm curious whether any of you have tried powering the DT 880s with an NAD.

I did try the DT 880s with my pocket Sony radio last night. What was there sounded okay, but there wasn't a lot of bass, making for a lightweight tonal balance. I'm guessing the pocket radio's headphone jack doesn't have gobs of current. . . I also noticed that the NAD was running quite warm with the DT 880s (and no speakers connected), even though the volume control on my preamp was only at 9:00 at the most. Then again, the NAD does tend to run warm.


=davebot=