[ekwinix]

Does the PINT synnergize Grado's well?

Also, what OPAMP would you recommend for the Grado's that has a warm character?

 

[Filburt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ekwinix Does the PINT synnergize Grado's well? Also, what OPAMP would you recommend for the Grado's that has a warm character?

kramer5150 seemed to really like my PINT with the AD8397 on the L/R and LM6172 on the ground with his RS-1. He hasn't heard the dual LM6172 yet, though.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Filburt The LM6172 is _much_ easier to tame than the 8397. You don't even have to do the mini3 mod to stabilise it in unity gain, nor do you need C6. The quiescent draw per channel on the LM6172 is listed at 2,3mV, so x4 = 9,2mV quiescent as opposed to 50-60mV on dual 8397. As you can imagine, battery life is better. I had the LM6172 in ground and AD8397 in L/R on one PINT. This one has LM6172 on both. Preliminary impressions are as follows: Less aggressive in the high mids, as expected, compared to the hybrid. However, has more depth/weight in the lows, is faster, and has a bit more detail. Also has more instrument separation and soundstage. It has a bit more laid back presentation, slightly, in general. However, it's more involving and inviting in general, and it really keeps the rhythm better than the AD8397 does. Overall, I'd say the LM6172 is a much more proficient op-amp in terms of speed, detail, accuracy, and imaging. You may find otherwise, but that's at least what I've found so far. It also doesn't even get warm while in operation, heh. The PINT does basically the best job I've heard with the AD8397, but the dual AD8397 is definitely shoutier and more aggressive in the high mids, with less presence and detail in the highs, and less soundstage, depth, and weight. The hybrid is a good comprimise if you want a bit more aggression as it takes on many of the traits of the dual LM6172, but it isn't as refined sounding and I kind of find I prefer the dual 6172 PINT overall. Basically the dual 6172 sounds like taking the differences between the hybrid and the dual 8397 and going a step further in it while gaining some more refinement.

Grrr....now you're making me want to do some de-soldering!

 

[ekwinix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron_Dreamer Grrr....now you're making me want to do some de-soldering!

Can't you use socketed opamps for swapping?

 

[[AK]Zip]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ekwinix Can't you use socketed opamps for swapping?

No. All/most parts are SMD. You would have to do some real DIY work to get that going. And fitting it in a case is going to be even harder.

-Alex-

 

[Andrea]

For those who aren't well disposed towards DIY, I'd recommend the dual LM6171 amp called "Pengamp" from eBay. It sounds as promised and looks professionally designed and built ...save the mint tin

Fliburt, thanks! Good to see my impressions confirmed.

 

[skurge13]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrea For those who aren't well disposed towards DIY, I'd recommend the dual LM6171 amp called "Pengamp" from eBay. It sounds as promised and looks professionally designed and built ...save the mint tin Fliburt, thanks! Good to see my impressions confirmed.

That Pengamp looks great but it's expensive (to me anyways).... I know next to nothing about electronics, but the idea of building an amp sounds like a lot of fun. Would a noob like me be able to build one of these LM6171 Pengamps? Is there a kit or instructions I could follow?

 

[jbloudg20]

Since I sold all my home amps to fund another build, I am ampless at the moment, except for my PINT. Running: Zen Micro -> PINT -> Grado 325i sounds absolutely amazing... much better than I expected.

 

[NeilR]

Filbert,

You seem to be the Pint/6172 maven here... I have a dual 8397 mini3fied Pint that is working fine but I want to try a dual 6172 with my spare board. Any suggestions as to the circuit- minified or stock, etc ? I've never worked with the 6172 but I see that it is a high speed chip so I guess it might be cranky. I was thinking about using the same mini2fied circuit as I used with the Pint. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated.

Anyone else- feel free to chime in...

Regards,
Neil

 

[Andrea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skurge13 That Pengamp looks great but it's expensive (to me anyways).... I know next to nothing about electronics, but the idea of building an amp sounds like a lot of fun. Would a noob like me be able to build one of these LM6171 Pengamps? Is there a kit or instructions I could follow?

Not it's not sold in kit. Anyhow, it appears to be regularly sold through ebay auctions also, so you can have it for significantly less money than the full price (so did I).

 

[Filburt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilR Filbert, You seem to be the Pint/6172 maven here... I have a dual 8397 mini3fied Pint that is working fine but I want to try a dual 6172 with my spare board. Any suggestions as to the circuit- minified or stock, etc ? I've never worked with the 6172 but I see that it is a high speed chip so I guess it might be cranky. I was thinking about using the same mini2fied circuit as I used with the Pint. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated. Anyone else- feel free to chime in... Regards, Neil

Just do the same mini3 procedure with the LM6172. My 'hybrid' is actually not even mini3ified and it has the 6172 in the ground channel. The 6172 seems to practically be an order of magnitude less cranky than the 8397, so you should be fine. I just dropped 2 6172s right into my dual 8397 board (after removing the 8397s, of course) and it worked just fine. Unless you're under space constraints (as I was with the tiny hammond that came with the kit), I strongly recommend 2x9v as the datasheet suggests the 6172's sourcing/sinking abilities scale up significantly (along with its slew rate) with more supply voltage. It's a fairly warm amp with the 6172s, but it feels balanced in some way as well. Does a nice job of bringing in the rhythm section on my Foreigner CDs w/ the K701. The AD8397, at first listen, seems like an enthusiastic and perhaps detailed chip but I found that, over time, I came to recognise that it wasn't as detailed as, say, my OPA2107 CMoy or the LM6172. I actually have 2 OPA627s in the test box/cmoy at the moment, and it sounds similar to the 2107 but perhaps a bit more aggressive.

 

[NeilR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Filburt Just do the same mini3 procedure with the LM6172. My 'hybrid' is actually not even mini3ified and it has the 6172 in the ground channel. The 6172 seems to practically be an order of magnitude less cranky than the 8397, so you should be fine. I just dropped 2 6172s right into my dual 8397 board (after removing the 8397s, of course) and it worked just fine. Unless you're under space constraints (as I was with the tiny hammond that came with the kit), I strongly recommend 2x9v as the datasheet suggests the 6172's sourcing/sinking abilities scale up significantly (along with its slew rate) with more supply voltage. It's a fairly warm amp with the 6172s, but it feels balanced in some way as well. Does a nice job of bringing in the rhythm section on my Foreigner CDs w/ the K701. The AD8397, at first listen, seems like an enthusiastic and perhaps detailed chip but I found that, over time, I came to recognise that it wasn't as detailed as, say, my OPA2107 CMoy or the LM6172. I actually have 2 OPA627s in the test box/cmoy at the moment, and it sounds similar to the 2107 but perhaps a bit more aggressive.

Thanks, Filburt, particularly re the 2x9V thing. I didn't think about that. This is going into a Serpac H65, probably, so lots of room for batteries and a trickle charging circuit. Given the low current draw I shouldn't need to be able to quickly switch batts (which is most of the point of this 2nd flavored Pint other than just to test drive a new chip for me).

This amp will mostly be used with Ety ER4-S's, although occasionally with Senn 650's.

 

[MisterX]

Quote:

Just do the same mini3 procedure with the LM6172.

What makes you think you need the ferrite's?

 

[Filburt]

You're welcome, Neil. Hopefully you'll like the sound as well. Hope it doesn't get too warm/bassy on the 650, though, as it really brings in weight/volume down there on my 701s...and I remember finding the 650s to be much more low end biased. However, they do have more up top I've found than the 8397, so maybe it'll balance out. The 8397 does have more aggressive mids, though, which may be something the 650s take to better.

 

[Filburt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterX What makes you think you need the ferrite's?

I haven't tried it without the ferrites, but I don't really see much harm in having them there, and it allows me to just swap out the chips with less worry at some future point without having to make sure I have those passive components handy in addition.