[Rhamnetin]

It's painfully clear to everyone that the HD650 and Ember combo is not your cup of tea...we got it! Perhaps you could share what headphones in your humble opinion are a good match with this terrific amp so that we can all benefit from your insight. Seriously. Perhaps the reality is that Ember is not what you consider to be "your" amp...that's fair. However please do enlighten us what your dream amp, headphone or DAC is. Seriously.

I've already made other suggestions to the person seeking an amp for the HD 650 (Bottlehead Crack, I'll toss in a suggestion for the Millett Hybrid too), and even answered the very question you just asked previously (on the same page too). Forums never change; when one person offers a different opinion that is not positive, people get super defensive and often to an irrational extent and start berating said person with irrelevant, totally off topic questions. People are allowed to declare that so and so product is unbeatable for a price, but when one suggests it is not the end all be all solution, that's when problems start!

One of my major points earlier was that I fail to see a technical reason for the Ember II costing 3x more than a Schiit Magni 3 (being able to auto bias different tubes will add some cost but not 3x). Keep that in mind when considering the value of the Ember II.

 

[Tuneslover]

I've already made other suggestions to the person seeking an amp for the HD 650 (Bottlehead Crack, I'll toss in a suggestion for the Millett Hybrid too), and even answered the very question you just asked previously (on the same page too). Forums never change; when one person offers a different opinion that is not positive, people get super defensive and often to an irrational extent and start berating said person with irrelevant, totally off topic questions. People are allowed to declare that so and so product is unbeatable for a price, but when one suggests it is not the end all be all solution, that's when problems start!

One of my major points earlier was that I fail to see a technical reason for the Ember II costing 3x more than a Schiit Magni 3. Keep that in mind when considering the value of the Ember II.

I DO agree with you that we ALL have a right to express our opinions. I and MANY others support the HD650 Ember combo. Peace. Over and out.

 

[SuperU]

I love my Ember. It sounds great with my LCD-X.

I've been working so much that I've not had time for it. I use an Apogee Duet and have taken to using it in my music production. Wish I could somehow run my mic in through it but listen back through my Ember. Haven't figured that one out unfortunately.

 

[Geezer Rock 001]

Perceived value has a lot to do with features and benefits to the user. That certainly causes a big variation between all of us.

I happened on to the Ember by reading about it on this forum. It was my 5th attempt to learn about amps and their synergy good and not so good with different headphones. It has matched up from excellent to outstanding with two HD series Sennheiser s and the 5_different planars that I have used with it.

Different tubes and definitely the jumper settings have a big impact on the quality of what you hear with different headphones. Being able to change the jumpers on the fly is a huge plus as you can hear what sounds best to you immediately.

I am glad that I found out about the Ember here on H F. I run my set up through a SYS and have two amps that I can listen to. Ember gets about 90% of the play time and has excellent synergy with my headphones.

There are a lot of excellent cans and amps out there in the market place. We are fortunate to have so many great products to choose from!

 

[Rhamnetin]

Perceived value has a lot to do with features and benefits to the user. That certainly causes a big variation between all of us.

I happened on to the Ember by reading about it on this forum. It was my 5th attempt to learn about amps and their synergy good and not so good with different headphones. It has matched up from excellent to outstanding with two HD series Sennheiser s and the 5_different planars that I have used with it.

Different tubes and definitely the jumper settings have a big impact on the quality of what you hear with different headphones. Being able to change the jumpers on the fly is a huge plus as you can hear what sounds best to you immediately.

I am glad that I found out about the Ember here on H F. I run my set up through a SYS and have two amps that I can listen to. Ember gets about 90% of the play time and has excellent synergy with my headphones.

There is a lot of excellent cans and amps out there in the market place. We are fortunate to have so many great products to choose from!

I disagree about there being many great amps to choose from. Most amps seem to have fundamental flaws, things like $500 to $1,500 amps even without much class A power, inferior power supply designs, build quality issues, tube hybrids not running tubes within their optimal specs, and/or overpricing. The guys at head-case opening up popular amps and exposing these flaws are really doing us a service. Not that I am pointing fingers at the Ember II since I'm not, but one has to do a lot of research before buying a headphone amp because there are massive variations in quality (even among popular products) in every price range.

 

[Geezer Rock 001]

I am not an EE and am not qualified to talk about what is under the hood. It is what comes out the headphone jack that gets my attention.

I didn't know beans from Apple butter when I started my can and amp learning experience. Read a lot of stuff and watched a lot of videos and got my head all turned around.

Started with a $50 dac/amp and an HD 650. Blah! Then went more $ is better. $500 amp, better but not Wow. So I understand what you are saying about what is under the hood can be deceiving and in some cases over priced.

History lesson: Back in the last century, the cutting edge was the most wattage amp/tuner that you could afford, a 20 foot cord and a pair of Koss headphones,(Sennheiser if you were really big time). That was the high fidelity head phone experience. Pretty lame compared to today.

Today's choices are much more diverse and in some cases polarizing with owner's and reviewer's opinions.

My ears like what comes out of my Ember's headphone jack!

 

[husafreak]

The Ember II is a great amp for you to consider! The great thing about the Ember is it can be adjusted for just about any headphone. Shoot them an email and they can even recommend tube choices and settings for your 650's

 

[timjclark]

I'm glad to see some activity on this thread. I've had my Ember 2.1 for about a year now and I'm very well pleased with it. I used a borrowed pair of HD600's on it for ~5 months while I waited for my HD6xx to arrive from Massdrop. I think they pair quite nicely. I'd love to hear what tubes you like best. My main music genre's are classic & prog rock, jazz and bluegrass.

I keep a GE 6DJ8 chrome top in mine most of the time. I picked up a cheap 12ax7 on eBay a while back which I like too, but I suspect this particular tube is getting on in age.

I really want to try out a Project Kameleon to tweak the 6xx's a tad. My primary sources are my Arcam DVD player and a turntable which is why the Kameleon makes most sense for me. I have not dabbled with hi-res audio yet and my computer dac is a Dragonfly 1.0 which is a huge improvement over the 1/8" output on my MacPro, but I've not decided on what DAC to go with to upgrade the DF.

One other thing I'd like to mention that the Ember and my vintage receiver (Pioneer SX-727) sound very similar. If the 727 was as quiet as the Ember, I'd consider using the 727 for headphone work.

 

[Geezer Rock 001]

There is a lot of Ember tube rolling info on the dedicated thread. I have tried about 15 different tubes in mine. None of them sounded terrible and 4 or 5 really stood out. A 6DJ8 Bugle Boy, a 6SN7 Ken Rad and my all time fav is the 6SN7 Jungle Tube from Upscale Audio. Like it so much that I bought a back up in case this one burns out.


On the transport side, I am very happy with the Tascam CD2000. Tascam also makes a model that you can dock an iPhone in to play music that way.

The SX 737 was my 80's amp too. Sorry that I parted with it.

 

[hawkwindx]

I’ve read that someone could detect a hiss when using the Ember with Fostex TH900’s.

Has anyone else used the Ember with the TH900’s?

 

[DavidA]

I’ve read that someone could detect a hiss when using the Ember with Fostex TH900’s.

Has anyone else used the Ember with the TH900’s?

I did but it was a while ago (2 years+) but I didn't detect any hiss/noise back then, it could also be the tube used at the time the person heard the hiss

 

[dakanao]

Can anyone chime in what the relative differences will be between the HD 650/6xx with the Ember II with a good tube as compared to the Mojo? Both connected separately on their own, because I can only have 1 device. (DavidA told me in PM, but I want more opinions)

 

[Tuneslover]

Can anyone chime in what the relative differences will be between the HD 650/6xx with the Ember II with a good tube as compared to the Mojo? Both connected separately on their own, because I can only have 1 device. (DavidA told me in PM, but I want more opinions)

I can't compare the Mojo to the Ember but I can assure you that the Ember pairs very well with the HD650/HD6XX.

 

[dakanao]

I can't compare the Mojo to the Ember but I can assure you that the Ember pairs very well with the HD650/HD6XX.

Even without any DAC connected to the Ember (just connected to the laptops 3.5mm jack)?

 

[Bren Arden]

Just add a Audiquest Dragonfly Black/Red or some other high quality (fairly priced) DAC-dongle to the laptops USB-port and youre ember will sound great. I can not compare to the mojo either tho.