mrarroyo
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2005
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Today Vorlon1, Mainframe and I met to go over various amps and cables. The meet was mostly on portable amps but Vorlon1's Heed CanAmp sneaked in!
This is the first time I meet Mainframe and I have to say it was a pleasure to share a few hours in the company of two great Head-Fiers, thanks Vorlon1 and Mainframe!
The portable amps available (no particular order) were:
01. Supermicro IV
02. Xin Reference Amp Beta-2 Version (red light on the on/off switch)
03. Xin Reference Amp Beta-3 Version (blue light, separate)
04. Porta Corda MkIII
05. RSA SR-71
06. RSA Tomahawk
07. TTVJ Millet Portable Amp
08. LaRocco PRII (blue finish)
09. LaRocco PRII MkII (silver finish)
10. Practical Devices XM3 w/ AD8620
11. Portaphile V2^2 Maxxed Out w/ Black Gates and LT1210
12. Heed CanAmp
Sources:
2 iModded iPod's 4th Gen 60 Gb Photo, and a 5 Gen iPod
ICs used:
01. 2 Revelation Audio Cryo Silver IC's, on mini to mini and the other 90 ell mini to 90 ell mini
02. ALO Cotton Mini to Mini
03. LaRocco silver 90 ell mini to RCA
04. DIY solid silver 90 ell mini to 90 ell mini made by Mainframe
05. DIY silver/copper strand weave 90 ell mini to 90 ell mini made by Mainframe
06. ALO Six Shooter Dock to mini
07. Dockstation dock
Cans used:
01. Equation RP21
02. V-Moda
03. AKG K501
04. AKG K701
05. Etymotic ER4S
06. Triple.Fi 10
I will start by thanking Vorlon1 for finding a venue for us to meet, specially his friend Harry who graciously opened his home for us. I should say that before we started listening we got a tour of Harry's vintage car collection. Lets just say he has to '64 and '65 GTO convertibles with 4 on the floor fully restored. I will stop at that because that was just the beginning. I almost forgot about the headphones and asked Harry to take one of the beauties out for an spin.
Well I lied I will also say the 3rd car was vintage Olds 442 convertible, ouch!
Ok, back to headphones. I will mention that today I finally understood why Vorlon1 loves the TTVJ Millet Portable Amp. One word ... intimate. Listening to the TTVJ Millet is like being in an small old time jazz club that sits maybe 20 or so customers. Then imagine a dark room, full of cigar/pipe smoke with a 4 piece jazz combo playing old standards less than 5 feet from you. If you can visualize it that is the sound of the TTVJ Millet, very engaging and immediately rewarding. I believe a group of people will love it and make it their primary amp, a second group of people (I think now I fall in that category) will understand what the amp does and why but will not be their favorite amp although it would be in their top 5. Finally there will be a group of people who will not get it and either be neutral or hate the amp. I am glad I finally figured out the sound of the TTVJ Millet and it is in my top 5 amp list.
Edit 1 on Sunday, 6/3 at 8:20 am
An analogy of the difference between the TTVJ Millet and other amp could be made with a guitar and the selection of strings and their effect on sound. For example, take a Fender Strat and string it with a set of 09-42. Take an identical guitar and string it with a set of 13-56. If you play a the same chord on each guitar the one with the 13-56 set will sound fatter/thicker versus the Strat strung wiht the 09-42. That is kind of what I hear, of course I used extremes in string size just to ilustrate, in real life the sound is not that off. Hope this helps.
Well I got to listen to one of Vorlon1's Supermicro IV with the post 4/11 mods. I am sorry guys but to me that continuous to be my favorite amp (Vorlon1 2nd favorite amp) it has such liquidity and huge soundstage that it boggles the mind. Then you realize the soundstage is both wide and deep with a sweetness of sound that you would think it is a tube amp. Just amazing! Needless to say it was a lot of fun to see Maifranme's face while listening to the amp.
The LaRocco PRII MkII continues in second place for me. It has a huge room sound, kind of when you go to an opera. Yet even though it is huge the level of detail and clarity it offers would have you think of a more intimate place. As a side note we compared both LaRocco's, although they are very close (as expected) the newer version is a bit darker and more involving, funnily Vorlon1 seems to prefer the newer version to the one he currently owns.
The SR71, Porta Corda MkIII, and Portaphile V2^2 round up the 3rd through 5 spot for me. I should say the at $160 including S&H from Dr. Meir makes this amp a fantastic buy, I believe that Mainframe will be ordering one tomorrow.
The Practical Devices XM3 with the AD8620 is a much more involving, detailed, and warm amp than with the OPA2134 chip. It truly makes the amp a nice unit that would be appreciated by more users if the amp was sold with the AD8620.
I have not said much about the Tomahawk because compared with the SR71 is a bit of a letdown. Yes it is a nice amp with good sound and features but the SR71 is a great amp. Will I keep the Tomahawk? Do not know, I will probably take a few weeks to make up my mind on it, I guess a lot will depend on how the Reference Xin develops.
Regarding the Reference Xin, we had two units. One had a bit less than 22 hours of burn in and the second had about 70 hours of burn in. Due to the low amount of burn in and since these two amps have Nichicon 15,000 uF caps which have demonstrated a large swing during 400 hours of burn in I will postpone making an in-depth write-up. I will say that they show a huge soudnstage with not only great resolution of the music it presents in front of you but just as importantly the perimeter music. I have said before that it seems like there are two amps inside the Reference Xin, one for the "center channel" and a second amp for the "extreme left and right".
Being a silver IC kind of guy I was in heaven with 7 out of the 8 IC's in silver. My favorites were the Revelation Audio Silver Cryo, ALO's Cotton Mini, and the DIY IC made by Mainframe. Any of the three would be enough to keep me happy.
I hope both Mainframe and Vorlon1 chime in shortly. BTW pictures were taken by Vorlon1 who should be adding them later.
Thanks for reading.
The portable amps available (no particular order) were:
01. Supermicro IV
02. Xin Reference Amp Beta-2 Version (red light on the on/off switch)
03. Xin Reference Amp Beta-3 Version (blue light, separate)
04. Porta Corda MkIII
05. RSA SR-71
06. RSA Tomahawk
07. TTVJ Millet Portable Amp
08. LaRocco PRII (blue finish)
09. LaRocco PRII MkII (silver finish)
10. Practical Devices XM3 w/ AD8620
11. Portaphile V2^2 Maxxed Out w/ Black Gates and LT1210
12. Heed CanAmp
Sources:
2 iModded iPod's 4th Gen 60 Gb Photo, and a 5 Gen iPod
ICs used:
01. 2 Revelation Audio Cryo Silver IC's, on mini to mini and the other 90 ell mini to 90 ell mini
02. ALO Cotton Mini to Mini
03. LaRocco silver 90 ell mini to RCA
04. DIY solid silver 90 ell mini to 90 ell mini made by Mainframe
05. DIY silver/copper strand weave 90 ell mini to 90 ell mini made by Mainframe
06. ALO Six Shooter Dock to mini
07. Dockstation dock
Cans used:
01. Equation RP21
02. V-Moda
03. AKG K501
04. AKG K701
05. Etymotic ER4S
06. Triple.Fi 10
I will start by thanking Vorlon1 for finding a venue for us to meet, specially his friend Harry who graciously opened his home for us. I should say that before we started listening we got a tour of Harry's vintage car collection. Lets just say he has to '64 and '65 GTO convertibles with 4 on the floor fully restored. I will stop at that because that was just the beginning. I almost forgot about the headphones and asked Harry to take one of the beauties out for an spin.
Ok, back to headphones. I will mention that today I finally understood why Vorlon1 loves the TTVJ Millet Portable Amp. One word ... intimate. Listening to the TTVJ Millet is like being in an small old time jazz club that sits maybe 20 or so customers. Then imagine a dark room, full of cigar/pipe smoke with a 4 piece jazz combo playing old standards less than 5 feet from you. If you can visualize it that is the sound of the TTVJ Millet, very engaging and immediately rewarding. I believe a group of people will love it and make it their primary amp, a second group of people (I think now I fall in that category) will understand what the amp does and why but will not be their favorite amp although it would be in their top 5. Finally there will be a group of people who will not get it and either be neutral or hate the amp. I am glad I finally figured out the sound of the TTVJ Millet and it is in my top 5 amp list.
Edit 1 on Sunday, 6/3 at 8:20 am
An analogy of the difference between the TTVJ Millet and other amp could be made with a guitar and the selection of strings and their effect on sound. For example, take a Fender Strat and string it with a set of 09-42. Take an identical guitar and string it with a set of 13-56. If you play a the same chord on each guitar the one with the 13-56 set will sound fatter/thicker versus the Strat strung wiht the 09-42. That is kind of what I hear, of course I used extremes in string size just to ilustrate, in real life the sound is not that off. Hope this helps.
Well I got to listen to one of Vorlon1's Supermicro IV with the post 4/11 mods. I am sorry guys but to me that continuous to be my favorite amp (Vorlon1 2nd favorite amp) it has such liquidity and huge soundstage that it boggles the mind. Then you realize the soundstage is both wide and deep with a sweetness of sound that you would think it is a tube amp. Just amazing! Needless to say it was a lot of fun to see Maifranme's face while listening to the amp.
The LaRocco PRII MkII continues in second place for me. It has a huge room sound, kind of when you go to an opera. Yet even though it is huge the level of detail and clarity it offers would have you think of a more intimate place. As a side note we compared both LaRocco's, although they are very close (as expected) the newer version is a bit darker and more involving, funnily Vorlon1 seems to prefer the newer version to the one he currently owns.
The SR71, Porta Corda MkIII, and Portaphile V2^2 round up the 3rd through 5 spot for me. I should say the at $160 including S&H from Dr. Meir makes this amp a fantastic buy, I believe that Mainframe will be ordering one tomorrow.
The Practical Devices XM3 with the AD8620 is a much more involving, detailed, and warm amp than with the OPA2134 chip. It truly makes the amp a nice unit that would be appreciated by more users if the amp was sold with the AD8620.
I have not said much about the Tomahawk because compared with the SR71 is a bit of a letdown. Yes it is a nice amp with good sound and features but the SR71 is a great amp. Will I keep the Tomahawk? Do not know, I will probably take a few weeks to make up my mind on it, I guess a lot will depend on how the Reference Xin develops.
Regarding the Reference Xin, we had two units. One had a bit less than 22 hours of burn in and the second had about 70 hours of burn in. Due to the low amount of burn in and since these two amps have Nichicon 15,000 uF caps which have demonstrated a large swing during 400 hours of burn in I will postpone making an in-depth write-up. I will say that they show a huge soudnstage with not only great resolution of the music it presents in front of you but just as importantly the perimeter music. I have said before that it seems like there are two amps inside the Reference Xin, one for the "center channel" and a second amp for the "extreme left and right".
Being a silver IC kind of guy I was in heaven with 7 out of the 8 IC's in silver. My favorites were the Revelation Audio Silver Cryo, ALO's Cotton Mini, and the DIY IC made by Mainframe. Any of the three would be enough to keep me happy.
I hope both Mainframe and Vorlon1 chime in shortly. BTW pictures were taken by Vorlon1 who should be adding them later.
Thanks for reading.
