[Thenewguy007]

We also compared the Bryston to the Pass again, and I again had a strong preference for the Bryston, especially its huge soundstage. I found myself tapping my toes with the Bryston and not with the Pass; this must come down ultimately to taste as several others have preferred the Pass.

Anyone know why this would be?
Pass Labs Class A should be automatically better than Bryston A/B, but does the Pass use negative feedback? I know Pass amps usually have a low damping factor, which usually means bassy, while smoothing the top end.

 

[Zhanming057]

Anyone know why this would be?
Pass Labs Class A should be automatically better than Bryston A/B, but does the Pass use negative feedback? I know Pass amps usually have a low damping factor, which usually means bassy, while smoothing the top end.

Class A/B isn't automatically worse than Class A, but if I recall the comparison was with the X150.8, which is also an A/B amp and only engages full class A for the first 13 watts. Pass is indeed on the warmer side with bigger mid-bass presence. Some people may not like that, of course.

With modern materials and proper power treatment, Class A, AB and D are more of a deliberate design choice than any indication of performance. And you're going to be looking at true monster amps if you want 200w of pure class A. The pair of Lamm 2.2's I tried were really astonishing amps and paired well with the SR1a, but not fundamentally better than high end Spectral and something like 200lbs between the two units.

 

[cladane]

Per my edit, above, Danny just called me back ... priceless timing!

Had a great chat with him, so it's just down to actually getting a pair as they're in high-demand and all spoken for at the moment.

Also expecting a set for end of week because of our headphones show in Nîmes (France) with other nice competitors like MySphere or 009S/Abyss TC/Susvara.
Paired with VIVA Solista 845.
Not sure delivery in time though

 

[Zhanming057]

Also expecting a set for end of week because of our headphones show in Nîmes (France) with other nice competitors like MySphere or 009S/Abyss TC/Susvara.
Paired with VIVA Solista 845.
Not sure delivery in time though

The Solista is only 22wpc right? Even for tubes, that's too low to get good performance out of the SR1a's.

Absolutely wonderful amp on the Abyss and Susvara, though, if not the single best tube amp I've ever tried the Abyss Phi with.

 

[cladane]

The Solista is only 22wpc right? Even for tubes, that's too low to get good performance out of the SR1a's.

Absolutely wonderful amp on the Abyss and Susvara, though, if not the single best tube amp I've ever tried the Abyss Phi with.

Solista is’nt Egoista (headphones amp derived from Solistino). The Solista is the double 845 speakers amp last version and given for 35W driving quite big loads.
At the show will be one brother Schembri from Viva. Good to ask about power needs.

 

[Zhanming057]

Solista is’nt Egoista (headphones amp derived from Solistino). The Solista is the double 845 speakers amp last version and given for 35W driving quite big loads.
At the show will be one brother Schembri from Viva. Good to ask about power needs.

Huh. I thought that the Solista is 22wpc and the Solistino/Egoista is 17wpc. I might be mistaken though. With a single 845 per channel I'm not sure if you can even get 35wpc.

35 wpc might be just about enough, but my experience with tubes is that something closer to 50w into 8 ohms is still a good target to hit.

 

[Aleksandar R.]

@RAAL requisite Alex so i see this Bryston 4B at 300WPC/8Ohm with no gain switch works fine. Thought the attenuator can only disperse 140w? Are there any concerns with 300WPC+ amps on the durability of the attenuator box?

Right, 140W is the dissipation of the resistors per channel in the Interface box, but that is derated by enclosing a bunch of them inside a box, so probably 100W is the realistic number.
So, with continuous 100W, the resistors will get to about 150°C. They will smoke the dust off at that point, but that would be their rated dissipation and nothing will happen to them.

To get a 100W continuous from a 300W amp, you would have to listen to some very compressed music at full blast and do that for about 5-10 minutes for the resistors heat up sufficiently to turn dust into smoke.

So, if you're not doing that, you're fine for decades.
If you are doing that daily, then maybe some of the resistors will fail in a year and maybe you'll need a couple of new ribbons.

 

[Aleksandar R.]

Hi guys, i was very happy when i knew the SR1a was tested using the Benchmark AHB2 since i bought that amp 6 months ago . I was ready to order the SR1a but after reading this thread my impression is that even though they use the AHB2 it doesn’t seem to make enough justice to the SR1a since most of the time i read that to deliver its full potential it needs diferent amps ( Bryston , Pass Lab , Schiit…)

I don’t like to feel i am missing something when i buy new gear and don’t want to constantly feel the need to upgrade ,since i live in Colombia ( South America ) and have to buy blindly , only based in reviews and opinions.

That’s why i like to know if someone has had the chance to listen to this combo SR1a/AHB2 and could tell me its impressions about it . I will appreciate it a lot .

Thanks in advance,

Carlos

Hello Carlos,

Nobody yet compared the Benchmark to those others mentioned.
i did with Bryston, some Pass amps including the ones mentioned here, Krell, McIntosh, Classe, zero feedback custom builds, etc.
Except the sheer bass slam power, Bryston is not exactly reaching the Benchmark performance. It's not far off, but not it. The good thing about Bryston is that what it doesn't know how to do, it won't do it at all. It won't turn it into distorted shreaking, it'll just ignore it. Compared to Benchmark, that became the criterion for quality amps to me, as none I tried so far, can actually do what Benchmark does.
AHB2+SR1a is a very, very impressive performance by any measure in any part of audio universe and THE performance in my part of it.
Benchmark has a different kind of beauty to it's sound compared to euphonic kind of beauty of any flavor.
It's of "a burden fell off my chest" kind and that makes it very musical in it's own special way. So far, AHB2 is the closest performance to the live sound I've ever heard.
I did my own recordings during the course of development of True-ribbon headphones and if you don't hear some detail or nuance on Benchmark, it means that it isn't on the recording. It will reach the deepest depths of any recording and it will do it effortlessly and with graceful beauty.
All I'm saying is that you won't find amps that do music with more insight and such grace. With a different flavor perhaps, or different agility of their gracefulness, but not really with more insight and hearing any kind of gracefulness is good.
Also, if one AHB2 feels underpowered with certain speakers, get two, bridge them and they will hit like a freight train.

 

[manzano804]

Hello Carlos,

Nobody yet compared the Benchmark to those others mentioned.
i did with Bryston, some Pass amps including the ones mentioned here, Krell, McIntosh, Classe, zero feedback custom builds, etc.
Except the sheer bass slam power, Bryston is not exactly reaching the Benchmark performance. It's not far off, but not it. The good thing about Bryston is that what it doesn't know how to do, it won't do it at all. It won't turn it into distorted shreaking, it'll just ignore it. Compared to Benchmark, that became the criterion for quality amps to me, as none I tried so far, can actually do what Benchmark does.
AHB2+SR1a is a very, very impressive performance by any measure in any part of audio universe and THE performance in my part of it.
Benchmark has a different kind of beauty to it's sound compared to euphonic kind of beauty of any flavor.
It's of "a burden fell off my chest" kind and that makes it very musical in it's own special way. So far, AHB2 is the closest performance to the live sound I've ever heard.
I did my own recordings during the course of development of True-ribbon headphones and if you don't hear some detail or nuance on Benchmark, it means that it isn't on the recording. It will reach the deepest depths of any recording and it will do it effortlessly and with graceful beauty.
All I'm saying is that you won't find amps that do music with more insight and such grace. With a different flavor perhaps, or different agility of their gracefulness, but not really with more insight and hearing any kind of gracefulness is good.
Also, if one AHB2 feels underpowered with certain speakers, get two, bridge them and they will hit like a freight train.

Alex, thanks a lot for your excellent explanation ! It is great to know your experience with the SR1a/AHB2 . Now i feel completely confident to pull the trigger . My experience with the Benchmark DAC3 HGC/AHB2 driving my Magnepans has been awesome and it seems it will also be with the SR1a.
Regards,
Carlos

 

[yates7592]

When folk here are buying after market cables for SR1a, is it the headphone cable or the adapter box cable, or both? I guess both.

 

[Jerseyboy]

When folk here are buying after market cables for SR1a, is it the headphone cable or the adapter box cable, or both? I guess both.

I think both - for the purposes of experimentation I have ordered a set of Shunyata Sigma jumper cables for the adapter box, and a headphone cable from Your Final System who do a pure copper Litz cable specifically built for the SR1a.

 

[yates7592]

Thanks Jerseyboy. how much is that YFS speaker cable for SR1a?

 

[cladane]

Hello Carlos,

Nobody yet compared the Benchmark to those others mentioned.
i did with Bryston, some Pass amps including the ones mentioned here, Krell, McIntosh, Classe, zero feedback custom builds, etc.
Except the sheer bass slam power, Bryston is not exactly reaching the Benchmark performance. It's not far off, but not it. The good thing about Bryston is that what it doesn't know how to do, it won't do it at all. It won't turn it into distorted shreaking, it'll just ignore it. Compared to Benchmark, that became the criterion for quality amps to me, as none I tried so far, can actually do what Benchmark does.
AHB2+SR1a is a very, very impressive performance by any measure in any part of audio universe and THE performance in my part of it.
Benchmark has a different kind of beauty to it's sound compared to euphonic kind of beauty of any flavor.
It's of "a burden fell off my chest" kind and that makes it very musical in it's own special way. So far, AHB2 is the closest performance to the live sound I've ever heard.
I did my own recordings during the course of development of True-ribbon headphones and if you don't hear some detail or nuance on Benchmark, it means that it isn't on the recording. It will reach the deepest depths of any recording and it will do it effortlessly and with graceful beauty.
All I'm saying is that you won't find amps that do music with more insight and such grace. With a different flavor perhaps, or different agility of their gracefulness, but not really with more insight and hearing any kind of gracefulness is good.
Also, if one AHB2 feels underpowered with certain speakers, get two, bridge them and they will hit like a freight train.

As far as the designer is concerned it looks that amplification isn’t so expansive or huge W amps demanding. Good news.

Benchmark is renowned in the professional field and I have understood that SR1a was conceived for that purpose. Does it mean that listening at those headphones for audiophile pleasure requires another kind of amplification ? Much more $$$$ ?

 

[P.Car]

Cladane,

Read through the thread a little bit.

All of your questions have been answered and amplification has been discussed previously in this thread...

The SR1a sound great with lower powered amps as well as high powered reference amps. If you hit the target that RAAL has laid out for you concerning minimum power requirements, you should be all set.

You don't need to spend big money to get great sound. It's all in this thread if you care to do some digging...

 

[dieslemat]

You don't need to spend big money to get great sound.

Cheers to that!