[LouS]

Thanks man. I don't mind going over my budget if the difference is worth it and from doing some reading about what Don does it seems like it. I sent Don an email to inquire about a custom build. I don't mind the build time. I've waiting months before for custom cables lol. Can't wait to hear your impressions when you get it.

One more point, the A-Team o/p caps supposedly take 100 hours to fully break in, but I ought to have an idea pretty quickly.

 

[LouS]

Don's reply "Hi I would love to help you, but it is a single ended circuit. I can do a wonderful XLR input with Cinemag line transformers, but I cannot do XLR outputs, sorry."

bummer

I figured that if Cinemag made one, they would make the other. Sorry, but check out the master designer, Roy, he may have a circuit in his back pocket....

 

[LouS]

Doesn't your amp have SE inputs? Balanced circuits were designed for long cable runs which can pick up noise to help minimize noise that otherwise could be inducted into the sound from the cables, hence the output. 1 Meter cables are pretty much a non issue.

 

[Boogie7910]

Doesn't your amp have SE inputs? Balanced circuits were designed for long cable runs which can pick up noise to help minimize noise that otherwise could be inducted into the sound from the cables, hence the output. 1 Meter cables are pretty much a non issue.

Yes I have a Cavalli Liquid Gold which is fully balanced but also has a SE input. I am under the impression feeding it a balanced signal is the best option.

 

[LouS]

Yes I have a Cavalli Liquid Gold which is fully balanced but also has a SE input. I am under the impression feeding it a balanced signal is the best option.

Well, it MAY be. Generally speaking unless you are running longer runs of cable, balanced matters not. That said, some designs have more attention paid to one of the other. The Yggdrasil has a far better sounding balanced output than the SE output. So it's possible that the same is true for the inputs on your amp, I'd dig a little to find out if that's real, or urban legend. I don't know of any preamp for under 5, and some claim 10K that betters the DS2, so I would be slow to give up on it. Heck, it's even possible that the balanced inputs are better, but the DS2 is so much better than the competition that you could still be better off with using the SE inputs. If you live near 45044 we could likely pretty easily find out!

 

[LouS]

Yes I have a Cavalli Liquid Gold which is fully balanced but also has a SE input. I am under the impression feeding it a balanced signal is the best option.

TAS didn't note an issue with the SE input;

"Is there anything the Liquid Gold can’t do or are there any drawbacks we need to know about? I can think of two. First, note that the Liquid Gold is designed to power dynamic-type headphones, but not electrostatic ’phones. Those who have fallen in love with Stax’s superb SR-009 electrostatic headphones will need a dedicated electrostatic headphone amp (Cavalli’s Liquid Lightning MkII is ideal for such applications).

Second, the Liquid Gold absolutely will not and does not add any sort of sonic warmth or perceived “richness” to the music, unless, of course, those qualities are faithfully captured in your recordings. I mention this point because, frankly, a number of other fine headphone amplifiers do add a certain “tincture of warmth” to the musical proceedings, which is a euphonic coloration that I suspect some listeners will find appealing. If you want an amp that will generate its own aura of warmth or perceived richness, then the honest-to-a-fault Liquid Gold is probably not for you because it imparts very little sonic personality of its own. With recordings that sound vibrant, colorful, and alive the Gold will reflect precisely those qualities, but if fed thin, brittle-sounding, over-produced recordings, the Gold will unflinchingly reveal those characteristics, too—whether for good or ill. For my part, though, I find the transparency and honesty of the Cavalli refreshing and very desirable."

 

[Boogie7910]

TAS didn't note an issue with the SE input;

"Is there anything the Liquid Gold can’t do or are there any drawbacks we need to know about? I can think of two. First, note that the Liquid Gold is designed to power dynamic-type headphones, but not electrostatic ’phones. Those who have fallen in love with Stax’s superb SR-009 electrostatic headphones will need a dedicated electrostatic headphone amp (Cavalli’s Liquid Lightning MkII is ideal for such applications).

Second, the Liquid Gold absolutely will not and does not add any sort of sonic warmth or perceived “richness” to the music, unless, of course, those qualities are faithfully captured in your recordings. I mention this point because, frankly, a number of other fine headphone amplifiers do add a certain “tincture of warmth” to the musical proceedings, which is a euphonic coloration that I suspect some listeners will find appealing. If you want an amp that will generate its own aura of warmth or perceived richness, then the honest-to-a-fault Liquid Gold is probably not for you because it imparts very little sonic personality of its own. With recordings that sound vibrant, colorful, and alive the Gold will reflect precisely those qualities, but if fed thin, brittle-sounding, over-produced recordings, the Gold will unflinchingly reveal those characteristics, too—whether for good or ill. For my part, though, I find the transparency and honesty of the Cavalli refreshing and very desirable."

Did he specifically mention that anywhere? I also have the Gungnir Multibit Dac. I wonder if it has the same SE limitations you mentioned for the Yggdrasil.

 

[LouS]

Yes I have a Cavalli Liquid Gold which is fully balanced but also has a SE input. I am under the impression feeding it a balanced signal is the best option.

I don't see any of the professional reviewers saying anything negative about the SE input. That's obviously anecdotal, but that to me seems telling.

 

[LouS]

Did he specifically mention that anywhere? I also have the Gungnir Multibit Dac. I wonder if it has the same SE limitations you mentioned for the Yggdrasil.

If it is an issue with the Gungnir, you can get Don to make you an XLR to RCA conversion cable for a nominal sum, or pay for the Cine Mag inputs, I personally made a conversion cable, I couldn't justify the cost of the transformers.

 

[jerick70]

Let me explane why I went balanced. And it was because it sounded better. I've had various issues with SE inputs on certain gear. Namely noise. I tried quite a few fixes that didn't work out and usually degraded the sound. Super expensive cables, power conditioners, isolation transformers, ect.... I even had an electrician come because I thought it was a grounding issue, but he couldn't find anything wrong with my electrical wiring. The last thing I tried was going fully balanced. It has fixed my noise issues totally and made the music sound like it should.

This may not happen to most people but it does in my setup with most SE gear so I've gone balanced.

 

[Boogie7910]

Let me explane why I went balanced. And it was because it sounded better. I've had various issues with SE inputs on certain gear. Namely noise. I tried quite a few fixes that didn't work out and usually degraded the sound. Super expensive cables, power conditioners, isolation transformers, ect.... I even had an electrician come because I thought it was a grounding issue, but he couldn't find anything wrong with my electrical wiring. The last thing I tried was going fully balanced. It has fixed my noise issues totally and made the music sound like it should.

This may not happen to most people but it does in my setup with most SE gear so I've gone balanced.

I may have to just get the Freya and swap out connections when switching to different balanced amp. Do you know of any other balanced tube preamps I could look out of of curiosity with no price limit?

 

[jerick70]

I may have to just get the Freya and swap out connections when switching to different balanced amp. Do you know of any other balanced tube preamps I could look out of of curiosity with no price limit?

Here are a few...

1) Hattor Audio - you will need to request a custom configuration. I've heard these are incredible for the price. You are welcome to pm me if you have questions about what I was looking at.

http://www.hattor.com/index2.html#ultimate

2) BAT REXII

3) Audio Research Ref6

 

[LouS]

Let me explane why I went balanced. And it was because it sounded better. I've had various issues with SE inputs on certain gear. Namely noise. I tried quite a few fixes that didn't work out and usually degraded the sound. Super expensive cables, power conditioners, isolation transformers, ect.... I even had an electrician come because I thought it was a grounding issue, but he couldn't find anything wrong with my electrical wiring. The last thing I tried was going fully balanced. It has fixed my noise issues totally and made the music sound like it should.

This may not happen to most people but it does in my setup with most SE gear so I've gone balanced.

Sounds to me like you are having RF interference issues and ought to be using shielded interconnects. There is some guy touting that his Duelund ICs are terminated, or perhaps he said grounded, on "both" ends. You DON'T do that, the shield should only connect to one end, generally the source. Otherwise you can end up with ground loops, lots of problems there. You'll notice one end goes into the RCA plug, the other end just has heatshrink. RCAs like these ought to clear up your problems. If it's not the incoming AC, something else has to be transmitting and being induced into the cables.

 

[jerick70]

Sounds to me like you are having RF interference issues and ought to be using shielded interconnects. There is some guy touting that his Duelund ICs are terminated, or perhaps he said grounded, on "both" ends. You DON'T do that, the shield should only connect to one end, generally the source. Otherwise you can end up with ground loops, lots of problems there. You'll notice one end goes into the RCA plug, the other end just has heatshrink. RCAs like these ought to clear up your problems. If it's not the incoming AC, something else has to be transmitting and being induced into the cables.

Yes I tried shielded interconnects. I tried everything I could think of. It took a year and a half of chasing to finally decide to go balanced. I had tried balanced in a few components at the beginning of my journey but wanted to to figure out what the issue was. I removed all rf that was close. No luck.

 

[LouS]

Yes I tried shielded interconnects. I tried everything I could think of. It took a year and a half of chasing to finally decide to go balanced. I had tried balanced in a few components at the beginning of my journey but wanted to to figure out what the issue was. I removed all rf that was close. No luck.

Since I don't believe in ghosts, I have to believe in physics, as ICs, balanced or not, seem to be the issue, you have something in the area inducing noise into the cables. I obviously don't know if the shielded cable were made by someone who knew about ground loops or not, but well shielded cables should take care of it assuming that the chassis is properly grounded, and it sounds like you made sure that was okay.