svyr
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2009
- Posts
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so who's next and when? (could send it somewhere, could melb meet it)
I've been using it for a few days and the impressions are mixed.
Circuit wise it looks like a very simple opamp based amp, with about 20-30 parts in total.
(ad8656 opamps + caps and resistors network (cmoy?)?. The circuit near the battery probably relates to charging
)
Let's start with the bad:
Problematically, the output socket barely holds the plug at all. (the headphone out socket).
Not sure what's going on there but I suppose it's a demo unit, so it's seen a bit of misuse?
K0 seems to change the sound of merlins in a very unfavourable way:
a) they start having nearly no sub or mid bass (and develop and upper bass hump)
b) and the mids start sounding muddy and the treble loses refinement and crisp.
Maybe it's an amp output impedance mismatch or something? (shouldn't be the former see post #4)
I much prefer the merlins out of Clip+
I can't say I like it with GMP450 pro, but those aren't easy to drive with 300 ohm drivers.
The full size headphones became boomy with an upper+mid-bass hump, and mid-centric in a mixed way (somewhat pleasant but metalic sounding). I think that might be fairly characteristic of trying to drive those types of cans with IEM oriented amps so it's not really a fair test. That said - it drove it plenty loud...
Now the good
a) It sounds pretty good with the H-200.
I find the mids sound a bit more fun with the amp vs clip+. (and the bass content or flavour doesn't really change although perhaps there's a bit of a upper-mid bass bloat from it too).
I thought it augmented the H200 in such a way that might also make it sound more spacious. (probably to do with how the mids/upper mids change)
b) the vol pot looks pretty good. Usually cheaper amps have a problem there.
c) unlike shozzy's px-m1, K0 can charge and play without distortion.
d) it's not a bad looking box and charges from usb.
unsure: battery life - haven't run it continously while monitoring it and left it on in my pocket a couple of times.
overall:
wait for more impressions and maybe the bass version or K2 (=k2?)(I wonder if K2 is an extra bass boost circuit + different opamp version lol).
Can I recommend it? Maybe for H-200. How about for $70? probably not.
How about for $35 - maybe if you get positive impressions for the headphones you want to drive?
I'm a bit unsure if simple amps are stable and have even performance with a variety of headphones or even IEMs
) there're a few simple cheap amps around from $35-80 (and probably a few more outside ebay) quite a few look like black boxes with a handful of opamps, caps and resistors (they probably cost from 10-20 to make 
?) . I'm not in a good position to judge their relative value
I've been using it for a few days and the impressions are mixed.
Circuit wise it looks like a very simple opamp based amp, with about 20-30 parts in total.
(ad8656 opamps + caps and resistors network (cmoy?)?. The circuit near the battery probably relates to charging
) Let's start with the bad:
Problematically, the output socket barely holds the plug at all. (the headphone out socket).
Not sure what's going on there but I suppose it's a demo unit, so it's seen a bit of misuse?
K0 seems to change the sound of merlins in a very unfavourable way:
a) they start having nearly no sub or mid bass (and develop and upper bass hump)
b) and the mids start sounding muddy and the treble loses refinement and crisp.
Maybe it's an amp output impedance mismatch or something? (shouldn't be the former see post #4)
I much prefer the merlins out of Clip+
I can't say I like it with GMP450 pro, but those aren't easy to drive with 300 ohm drivers.
The full size headphones became boomy with an upper+mid-bass hump, and mid-centric in a mixed way (somewhat pleasant but metalic sounding). I think that might be fairly characteristic of trying to drive those types of cans with IEM oriented amps
so it's not really a fair test. That said - it drove it plenty loud... Now the good
a) It sounds pretty good with the H-200.
I find the mids sound a bit more fun with the amp vs clip+. (and the bass content or flavour doesn't really change although perhaps there's a bit of a upper-mid bass bloat from it too).
I thought it augmented the H200 in such a way that might also make it sound more spacious. (probably to do with how the mids/upper mids change)
b) the vol pot looks pretty good. Usually cheaper amps have a problem there.
c) unlike shozzy's px-m1, K0 can charge and play without distortion.
d) it's not a bad looking box and charges from usb.
unsure: battery life - haven't run it continously while monitoring it and left it on in my pocket a couple of times.
overall:
wait for more impressions and maybe the bass version or K2 (=k2?)(I wonder if K2 is an extra bass boost circuit + different opamp version lol).
Can I recommend it? Maybe for H-200. How about for $70? probably not.
How about for $35 - maybe if you get positive impressions for the headphones you want to drive?
I'm a bit unsure if simple amps are stable and have even performance with a variety of headphones or even IEMs
) there're a few simple cheap amps around from $35-80 (and probably a few more outside ebay) quite a few look like black boxes with a handful of opamps, caps and resistors (they probably cost from 10-20 to make ?) . I'm not in a good position to judge their relative value
