Reviews of Zhaolu's Discrete Headphone Amp

[roy_jones]

I don't know if it's just me, but I had been expecting a wave of reviews of the discrete headphone amp for the 2.0, shortly after it became available. It seemed like everyone and his cousin was waiting for that particular upgrade to become available before ordering...and yet, it seems that there is a conspicuous absense of reviews out there on the discrete amp?

I think I've seen a couple of them scattered in amongst other posts in the Zhaolu threads...but for the most part, I don't have a solid feel for where the level of performance of the amp is at, relative to other amps (ie: Dynalo/Lite, PPA, SR71, etc..).

I know that it was said to be good with low impedence phones, but in the couple of reviews I do remember reading, it didn't sound as though the reviewers were nearly as impressed with it as Sean_H who was the original head-fier who owned the earlier version of the amp upgrade with his 1.3.

Is there anyone out there that has received the discrete amp upgrade and would be willing to throw their hat into the ring?

 

[bizkid]

Well the Amp loves my A900LTD & K81, but i heard from another user that his A900 doesnt change much with the headfive for example. It seems to really have great synergy with low impedence phones. I dont have anything to try it against nor higher impedence phones though.
I'm very very happy with mine.

 

[Cyrilix]

Can you really expect to see many reviews within a month of a product's release? I've had my A900 LTDs for a month and a bit, and I've only posted brief impressions. I've had my DT880s for 5 months, and I've only posted a mini-review on these. Unless you can get someone experienced with a lot of time to do this kind of thing, I'd wait longer.

I'd say, if you're relying on reviews to buy, rather than just small impressions, you're going to be sitting around for a while before buying...

 

[device manager]

The Zhaolu D2 w/ discrete amp is my first piece of headfi equipment, so unfortunately the only thing I can compare it to is my X-Fi. However, I should receive my Headfive in a few days and I'll be able to do a real comparison.

 

[Sean H]

Quote:

Originally Posted by roy_jones I know that it was said to be good with low impedence phones, but in the couple of reviews I do remember reading, it didn't sound as though the reviewers were nearly as impressed with it as Sean_H who was the original head-fier who owned the earlier version of the amp upgrade with his 1.3.

I think I can recall impressions from a few others as you have said and I believe they were using higher impedance cans. Like I have said before, it did well with HD650's and K701's but I could tell a Corda Aria I had at the time, as well as my Mapletree Purist tube amp, could handle those cans just a hair bit better in terms of dealing with complexity and such. But you aren't going to find anything remotely close to this price that can drive those cans that well. If you have HD650's and are looking for the discrete amp to drive them like a $500 amp that has been optimized to deal with the HD650's voltage swings then you are expecting too much. On the other hand if you are looking to drive Grado's I can safely say it will exceed expectations immensely. It seems to be very high in current and drives Grado's extremely well. Yes, Grado's are easier to drive but if you know Grado's well you know when they are being driven right. The discrete amp in the 2.0 is on par with what I have heard in the old one, seems the same to me.

 

[roy_jones]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyrilix Can you really expect to see many reviews within a month of a product's release? I've had my A900 LTDs for a month and a bit, and I've only posted brief impressions. I've had my DT880s for 5 months, and I've only posted a mini-review on these. Unless you can get someone experienced with a lot of time to do this kind of thing, I'd wait longer. I'd say, if you're relying on reviews to buy, rather than just small impressions, you're going to be sitting around for a while before buying...

I dunno...I still would expect more feedback than what we've seen. Look at the reviews already up for the HeadFive, and it's been in people's hands for a matter of days, I believe. Look at the GS-1000. I tend not to agree with your belief that it usually takes a couple of months before real reviews start rolling in.

Maybe the ones that come out initially are premature, you might be correct in implying that....but whenever there's an 'anticipated' product launch, and I would say that the release of the discrete head amp upgrade would qualify based on my impressions of the number of people that said they were waiting for it, there's usually more feedback than what I think we've seen.

The evidence does appear to be on your side, though, so I guess I can't say for sure.

Sean_H:
I think you're probably right about the high current of the Zhaolu amp. Just to clarify, I wasn't saying that the discrepancy of opinion was a result of your initial analysis being incorrect, but just noting that it did seem that was a discrepancy...and I think you're probably correct about where that difference is coming from, in people's comments.

 

[swt61]

I would have thought there would be more feedback on it as well. Should have mine soon. I'll post when it arrives.

 

[Sean H]

EDIT

 

[ODG]

The Zhaolu DAC 2.0 w/ discrete amp package what you get is an excellent dac source with a very good amp to drive a wide range of headphones. The dac is very versatile with its 3x opamp based output stage, you can tweak the sound source to match the type of headphones you are using. This ability to tune the sound source affects how the discrete amp will sound. When just using the discrete amp, it performs very well, but when you compare it to other amps you may or may not find it superior, just different. I would say though I find the discrete amp more on the digital, ie. Hi-Fi kinda sound style. Sometimes I like it, but when I feel for more analog, easy listening, I switch to another amp.

I was thinking of getting a headfive, so I also like hear how it compares to the discrete amp. I dont think the discrete will lose by much or not at all.

 

[gregmorris]

A tweak to keep in mind is that the discrete amp can be biased into Class A or Class AB. Quote from Eddie Wu:

"Working in class A will having warm and rigid bass
Working in class AB will be more active and feelling more dynamic."

I asked Eddie to bias mine as close to Class A as possible while still being able to keep his hand on the heat sink. He also said he would include a diagram on the four potentiometers that adjust current and offset. I'm thinking I could potentially bias all the way into Class A with a larger heatsink and case modification.

 

[bizkid]

Are there more instructions on how to bias it to Class A / AB? My heatsink gets pretty hot already, i can touch it for maybe 10 seconds but it feels seriously hot. Soundwise it seems to run on Class AB, it fits exactly to the description eddie gave with my A900LTD.

 

[gregmorris]

I'll try to post the current biasing diagram when I receive it.

 

[gregmorris]

" My heatsink gets pretty hot already, i can touch it for maybe 10 seconds but it feels seriously hot. "

Hmmm.... I hope Eddie doesn't adjust mine too much further towards Class A. Sounds like it's already about as close as it can safely get with the included heatsink.

 

[B-side J]

I'd like to know how the new amp compares to the stock one?
I doubt I'd spend much time with the onboard amp after I get my RP33, but it might be worth getting just to have a different sound, if it is much better than the stock amp that is.

 

[bizkid]

Got instructions from Eddie:

"There is a trimmer sitting on both side of the PCB .
The pair sitting in the middle is for offset and don't touch it.Use an DC voltmeter --Black colour pot to ground (means to case) and red one to the first pin from side of pcb .The socket which show out having three pins and unclover and that is the one.Turn the trimmer and check the DC volt to a bit higher like 0.5v .The max of it need to ask factory and respond you tonight."