[the terabyte]

in my searches for a compact setup to avoid lugging the vinyl/tube rig with me to college, i decided that the griffin powerwave might be the ideal solution. after picking one up earlier this evening, i can see that this is not at all the case. the concept of the powerwave is a great one, and the quality is certainly impressive, but combined with the k1000s it is nearly unlistenable to me.

now, i've owned the infamous SR-325s and never thought they were bright paired with either a tube or solid state amp. what i'm hearing here is just insane. i couldn't even make it through one well-recorded album before resorting to software equalization to tame the highs. i wish i had some way of accurately measuring the frequency response, but subjectively between 4 and 16khz everything is elevated (relative to my KT88 amp) to such an extent that i just want to tear the headphones off after less than 10 minutes of listening. if you're considering this combo and don't like brightness, i'd have to recommend against it. i'm going to keep listening to it for the next week or so before returning it, but i just can't believe that things will improve much. oh well.

 

[ampgalore]

I thought powerwave is a power conditioner?

 

[the terabyte]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ampgalore I thought powerwave is a power conditioner?

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powerwave/

 

[Wodgy]

The Powerwave is a digital amp. Digital amps are usually designed to drive an 8 ohm nominal load; they exhibit pretty significant frequency response shifts when driving other loads. I can understand why the K1000s (at 120 ohms) would sound bad with it.

 

[hottyson]

I bought the Sonic Impact Portable T-Amp for $30 from Target online.

It's amplification is similar to the PowerWave. The Sonic Impact Portable T-Amp lacks any digital input so I have connected it to the analog out of my M-audio Sonica.

I tried driving headphones from the Sonic Impact Portable T-Amp and all I can tell you is that it really sucks trying to drive headphones. I too was hoping for some sort of budget magic combo for the AKG K-1000. I guess this is not it.

However, for speakers it sounds pretty good and consumes very little power. I have a 1-amp wallwart as power supply. My speakers are Polk audio LSi7 connected to a passive Bose Acoustimass 10 subwoofer. It can't play loud without clipping but sounds good at moderate volume levels.

I also hooked it up to my Carver Amazing Platinum Mk. IV speakers just for sheets and gigles. I usually feed the Carvers 2,500 watts. I wanted to see what these 30-digital-watts could do. As expected, it sounded so-so and okay, but could not reach an exceptable volume.

 

[the terabyte]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wodgy The Powerwave is a digital amp. Digital amps are usually designed to drive an 8 ohm nominal load; they exhibit pretty significant frequency response shifts when driving other loads. I can understand why the K1000s (at 120 ohms) would sound bad with it.

that is probably the issue, as the k1000s are brighter than i've ever heard them on a solid state amp and my etys sound quite good with it.

 

[the terabyte]

update:

the ER-4S sounds incredible out of the headphone out on the powerwave, but my 4ohm 89db/1w speakers sound thin and fake out of the speaker terminals (due to impedance missmatch again?). my 70s technics solid state integrated literally blows the little powerwave away in this application. although it has failed miserably at powering anything i have from the speaker terminals, i am still tempted to keep it due to the magnificent performance with the etys. i wonder though if something like the echo indigo would work as well and be physically smaller.

 

[ooheadsoo]

The sonic impact is supposed to be 15w too, I believe, into 6 ohms or so. A new power supply is supposed to help. I've heard many, if not most commercial speakers are often optimistic in their impedance and sensitivity figures, but who knows?

 

[the terabyte]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ooheadsoo The sonic impact is supposed to be 15w too, I believe, into 6 ohms or so. A new power supply is supposed to help. I've heard many, if not most commercial speakers are often optimistic in their impedance and sensitivity figures, but who knows?

these aren't commercial

 

[ooheadsoo]

I take it they are kit or diy? Do you mind me asking which one? I will be building a pair of mbow1's and driving it with a digital amp in a couple weeks' time.

 

[NightWoundsTime]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hottyson I tried driving headphones from the Sonic Impact Portable T-Amp and all I can tell you is that it really sucks trying to drive headphones. I too was hoping for some sort of budget magic combo for the AKG K-1000. I guess this is not it.

Is this referring to using the headphone out of the amp or the speaker outs? I've used the speaker outs of my Marantz 1060B for a borrowed K1000 and the sound was pretty nice.

 

[the terabyte]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ooheadsoo I take it they are kit or diy? Do you mind me asking which one? I will be building a pair of mbow1's and driving it with a digital amp in a couple weeks' time.

the dayton IIIs:

http://speakerbuilder.net/web_files/...D3/dayton3.htm

i may just be too accustomed to tube/vintage sound, so don't put too much stock in my experience.

 

[ooheadsoo]

Ah yeah, the d3. I considered either the d3 or d8 (mtm with the dayton 8" woofers) a long while ago.

Here's the link to what I'm going to build soon: http://murphyblaster.com/content.php?f=MBOW1.html
Dennis designed the ellis audio 1801 and salksound veracity, along with a bunch of other well received speakers. I'm doing the mbow1 because it uses the ow1 tweeter and the gr research woofer also has some good things going for it. Best of all, I can covert it into Dennis's 3 way design later when I have the space for it. I'm very interested in how these digital amps fare because they've gotten some really good press in the asylum and audio circle.

 

[hottyson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ooheadsoo The sonic impact is supposed to be 15w too, I believe, into 6 ohms or so. A new power supply is supposed to help. I've heard many, if not most commercial speakers are often optimistic in their impedance and sensitivity figures, but who knows?

My Polk and Carver speakers are rated 4-ohms each and the tiny amp does not get hot. It is pretty cool that it can handle a 4-ohm load. Most inexpensive amps can not.

As for the power supply, I have tried a bunch that I had lying around. It improved in overall volume with each jump in rated amperage. Once I reached 1-amp and above the improvement in volume stopped. It looks like a 12-volt, 1-amp power supply or better is what this amp needs.
Quote:

Originally Posted by NightWoundsTime Is this referring to using the headphone out of the amp or the speaker outs?

I used the speaker outs since the Sonic Impact Portable T-Amp lacks a headphone output. I also had to listen in mono using one chanel of the amp since the left and right chanels do not share a commone ground. All of my headphones share common ground for both chanels.

 

[the terabyte]

one last thing: when using the USB input (haven't tried differently), there's a kind of chunchiness or static reverberation on the "edges" of sounds. it's quite irritating in quiet passages with staccato rhythms.