Porta Corda MkIII out now!

[Sisyphos]

Seems that nobody has recognized this yet:

Meier-Audio has just released the new Porta Corda.
It's the MkIII-version and comes with an USB-DAC option.

Further information (including some photos) about the new amp of the amp can be found on Jan Meier's homepage.

 

[Andrea]

I beat you, I saw it first yesterday

But unfortunately it seems to have no class A bias possibility like the previous model, is it correct ?

 

[Flea Bag]

Beat you too!

I saw it at least three days ago. Problem is, I also found out the my Prehead MkII (paid for it less than 1 month ago) is now $45 cheaper

and similar price drops across the more recent Amps.

The Prehead MkI is also no longer advertised.

 

[Sisyphos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrea I beat you, I saw it first yesterday But unfortunately it seems to have no class A bias possibility like the previous model, is it correct ?

Alright, but I've got some additional info:
The MkIII is running in class-A-mode and there's no way to change the bias. Because of the added gain switch and the DAC-chip there was not enough room left. But almost everybody who has got a Porta Corda runs it in class-A, so this feature seems somewhat obsolete.

 

[Sisyphos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flea Bag Beat you too! I saw it at least three days ago. Problem is, I also found out the my Prehead MkII (paid for it less than 1 month ago) is now $45 cheaper and similar price drops across the more recent Amps.

Not sure if this is the reason for the price drops, but remember that Jan is selling from Germany and that the Dollar prices are dependent on the current ROE and the prices in Euro haven't changed since the release of the new line of amps.

 

[Flea Bag]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sisyphos Not sure if this is the reason for the price drops, but remember that Jan is selling from Germany and that the Dollar prices are dependent on the current ROE and the prices in Euro haven't changed since the release of the new line of amps.

Oh nope sorry about that. I wasn't implying that the Porta Corda MkIII was responsible for the price drops. I was just referring to the fact that not only did the new amp appear but a lot of other things changed on his webpage.

I'm quite sure the price drops were due to the fact that the previous generation of amps are probably more or less sold out now and so there won't be any internal price competition between the old amps and the new, hence the new generation of amps can how take a price cut to compete with other brand amps, most of which are outside of the EU.

I don't have much info to provide about the Porta Corda MkIII so I'm sorry for the side-step but of course, I'm curious about how it compares to the Headrooom competition.

 

[Jan Meier]

Dear Headfellows,

"The MkIII is running in class-A-mode and there's no way to change the bias."

It's true. By experience nobody cared for the 100 hours battery life-time of the old MkII model and nearly everybody immediately switched to the 40 hours class-A mode. I therefore decided to set the MkIII to class-A permanently.

"Not sure if this is the reason for the price drops, but remember that Jan is selling from Germany and that the Dollar prices are dependent on the current ROE and the prices in Euro haven't changed since the release of the new line of amps."

True again. Remember that I live in an Euro country. Recently the value of the Euro has dropped considerably compared to the Dollar and therefore I was able to lower dollar prices. Over the last few years the exchange rate Dollar-Euro changed from 80 around dollar-cents to a maximum of 132 cents. I was forced to raise my dollarprices accordingly. It's good to do the other way round now. Hopefully the Dollar will gain some of its old strength.

I did put a few old model amp on sale (as well as a few headphones). There's a webpage with Head-Fi-specials at:

http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/headfi.htm

Cheers

Jan

 

[atx]

May I ask what is the improvement from the Mk II model ? (apart from the USB option and the bias)

 

[SockMan!]

Excellent! I can't wait to see comparisons between the Total Bithead and the Porta Corda III USB.

 

[sacundim]

Heh, I beat you all. I've had mine (USB) since last week . (Haven't done any critical listening.)

 

[Andrea]

I'd have a question.
Being it an output buffer -less amp, would it be capable of enough current to properly drive such 'phones as (my) HD650 and HD595 ? And, would it drive equally well both low impedance and high impedance phones ?
(I'm referring to the optimum conditions, that is, with a proper external power supply)

 

[Cris]

What do you mean with: ' nobody has recognized this yet' - I bought one .

Till now I have not posted any impressions because it is the first amp I own and therefore can't compare. I'm also very new to head-fi and don't feel like an expert. But even when compaired to my home denon 1803 amp I can here a difference with some vivaldi pieces (a fact I am very proud of - I was afraid that my ears would not be sensitive enough to here a difference - which is still true for some hiphop and rock pieces ).

I use it mainly connected to my laptop with my Ultrasone Proline 750 and am very satisfied.

Hope someone qualified can post some comparisons.

r, cris

 

[sacundim]

I've had the USB version for a week. I've not tried to evaluate its sound systematically in any way. I've mostly been using it at work, listening to Apple Lossless out of the USB port of a Powerbook, with a really screechy Sony MDR-V7 (with the treble EQ'ed down). In that setup, all I can really say so far is that the bass presence improves in comparison to the Powerbook's headphone out.

I've used it a little bit at home with an HD 555 and a DT 880, where my comparison point is my "big" setup (NAD C542, Meier Corda HA-2, DT 880). All I will dare to say right now is that I don't feel that the Porta Corda III really gets the DT 880's bass going so far (and I have no clue whether burn-in and/or an external power supply will help there). I still do prefer listening to the DT 880 on the PCIII, compared to the Sennheiser.

Of course, once I get a nicer closed headphone for work (DT250-250?), I expect I'll be pretty happy...

 

[Cris]

Hi

Just noticed I didn't describe how it sounded:

When I listened to Vivaldis 4 Seasons with my Denon 1803 amp I didn't like the sound. It was tinny and had some kind of unnatural sound characteristics. It had an almost annoying unbalanced sound picture.
(But maybe the Denon is a pretty bad headphone amp?)

With the MkIII the sound got enjoyable with a much more harmonious sound picture. So even to me (an unexperienced listener) the sound definitely improved.

I did the test with both the PL750 and the HD25-1 with similar results (except that the PL750 sounds better than the HD25-1

). But I think both headphones are quite easy to drive.

That the sound improves in comparison to the standard soundcard of my notebook (Fujitsu/Siemens) is no surprise.

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sacundim (...) Of course, once I get a nicer closed headphone for work (DT250-250?), I expect I'll be pretty happy...

Good idea - you should have no problem driving the DT250/250 with your PortaCorta.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini