New balanced tube amp from Moon Audio + K&K?

[saturnine]

I was just reading over Drew's mall ad, and saw that Moon Audio is close to releasing a new balanced tube amp designed by K&K Audio.

They don't have a name for it yet, but the specs look pretty good

Anyone know anything else about it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MallFi Ad The ________ headphone amplifier is a fully differential transformer-coupled vacuum tube design that provides enough gain and low enough output impedance for virtually all high end headphones. It has a transformer-coupled input stage utilizing the excellent 6n23P/6DJ8/6922 family of tubes that integrates the volume control in a way that allows either unbalanced or balanced inputs and offers excellent common mode noise rejection. The ________ is configured with two unbalanced inputs and one balanced input. This stage is directly coupled to a differential 6H30 output stage that uses a high performance Lundahl output transformer to couple the output stage to the headphone load. Because the output impedance is less than 20 ohms, bass control on virtually any dynamic headphone is truly excellent. The power supply is tube rectified/inductively filtered for low noise. The use of high quality audio transformers and the absence of coupling capacitors ensures the preservation of recorded musical details and the faithful reproduction of the original ambient information captured in the recording process. The _________ will be available in two versions: one with standard high end parts quality and a "hot rod" version with high tech amorphous core audio transformers, discrete resistor volume control, Black Gate power supply capacitors, and silver plated AC input components.

 

[Akathriel]

Sounds interesting, although after close inspection I don't think its actually balanced. It says it has balanced inputs but I suspect its just dual mono since it doesn't say anything about outputs. Drew care to clarify

 

[jimmyjames8]

Not sure about balanced but I spent a couple of hours with a K&K prototype headphone amp that he was sending to the AES convention last year. I listened to mostly SACD's thru a Marantz SA11S1 (balanced output available) player and my Senn HD650's. I absolutley do not remember it being driven by the balanced outs of the cdp but I could be wrong. Anyway, it was the best sounding head phone I had ever heard at the time. Now that I have my Woo3 and with NOS after mkt. tubes, I don't know if it was better but it sure sounded good. Santana Abraxas SACD sounded incredible.

 

[drubrew]

The Amp is fully Balanced in and out. On the back panel there will be 1 XLR input and 2 rca input. There will be 1 rca and 1 xlr output, as it is a very high quality preamp as well as headphone amp. The front panel will have 2 XLR combo jacks for either 2 pairs of Headphones or for a single pair of Balanced Headphones. The Unit that was at AES only had rca in and outputs. The proto chassis that was used did not have enough room for XLRs. Here is a picture of the rear. Waiting on the knobs to arrive and I will post the complete amp pictures.

 

[drubrew]

The Prototype is silver but the production version will be black anodized.
Make sure to send in your entrees for the "Name That Amp Contest". See Mall Fi ad for details.
Enjoy
Drew

 

[Voltron]

Dang, that thing looks sweet! I'm looking forward to checking it out on Saturday!

BTW, you should add those pics to your Mall-Fi ad, and also can you say whether this will be branded as a K&K Audio product (helps for the name-game).

Cheers,
Volt

 

[jimmyjames8]

Wow! This looks nothing like the amp I auditioned, at least on the outside. You know what the next question is. How much?

 

[Borat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voltron Dang, that thing looks sweet! I'm looking forward to checking it out on Saturday! BTW, you should add those pics to your Mall-Fi ad, and also can you say whether this will be branded as a K&K Audio product (helps for the name-game). Cheers, Volt

This is one contest you're not going to win Brother Voltron! I already sent in the future winning name for this amplifier a few days ago. Wait for it....





*The KC Masterpiece


Boo YEAH! That is short for Kevin Carter's Masterpiece. Beat that suckers!

Drew, you can go ahead and send that Blue Dragon cable to...

Borat Sagdiyev
10 Kazakhstan Road
Kazakhstan

*[size=xx-small]KC MASTERPIECE is a registered trademark of The HV Food Products Company.[/size]

 

[drubrew]

We got a good chuckle over KC Masterpiece. Silly Boy...

The amp is a collaboration between me and Kevin. I have been bugging him to build a Tube Headphone Amp for me to sell for 2 years now. I told him what I wanted as far as functionality, and he designed away. It took a while but it finally happened. He is the designer and builder, I am the salesman

Enough good things can not be said about his design capabilities. He is also contracted by Art Audio to build things for them. The Vinyl Reference is one unit he makes for them. He has a new massive amp for them, that was at CES this year. Anyway, I look forward to meeting all you guys this wknd. It will be good to put a face with an email address.

Drew

 

[Borat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by drubrew We got a good chuckle over KC Masterpiece. Silly Boy...

Glad you liked that. But "Boy"? I see no boy here.

I actually did submit a real entry for the contest in addition to the above gag one though. I hope you saw that one, too. Although with it being branded K&K instead of Moon Audio, I will probably have to go back to the drawing board.

I had a question about the amplifier. What will be displayed on that screen in the middle? Volume level? Input name?

 

[jjcha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Borat What will be displayed on that screen in the middle? Volume level? Input name?

Yeah, I was wondering the same.

Hey, we might want to move this discussion to the thread Drew posted in the members-of-the-trade forum. That way he can be a bit more free in expressing his opinions and enthusiasm for the amp.

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=159377

Best,

-Jason

 

[drubrew]

The theme is still Moon Audio based for the name. Yes we can go into details in the other forum post.

 

[timoteus]

Here is the schematic that Kevin posted on the K&K (Lundahl) forum last year.

http://www.kandkaudio.com/images/Dif..._Amplifier.pdf

 

[pawlowski6132]

Quote:

Originally Posted by drubrew The Amp is fully Balanced in and out. On the back panel there will be 1 XLR input and 2 rca input. There will be 1 rca and 1 xlr output, as it is a very high quality preamp as well as headphone amp. The front panel will have 2 XLR combo jacks for either 2 pairs of Headphones or for a single pair of Balanced Headphones. The Unit that was at AES only had rca in and outputs. The proto chassis that was used did not have enough room for XLRs. Here is a picture of the rear. Waiting on the knobs to arrive and I will post the complete amp pictures.

I can't tell for sure by looking at the guts of this thing but, just because there are XLR connectors does not believe the unit has a balanced design. Actually, most amps, preamps, cd players convert a balance signal to an unbalanced one internally.

Also, unless you have a truly balanced signal coming from your source, your original signal will be unbalanced and simply converted using a phase-splitter to balanced.

 

[drubrew]

Electronics aren't balanced or unbalanced, but signals are, and therefore cables are. Electronics can have "differential inputs" (transformer or active) and "differential outputs" (transformer or active). The Headphone amp has a transformer input with selectable ground reference, which makes it differential with balanced signals. The output can be (or not) ground referenced, so it can transmit a balanced signal.
There is a vast body of confusion on this subject out there, even with designers.