Quote:
It added warmth to the AD700, but that's not hard to do.
Are you sure it's not the DAC? Sometimes when an amp is super duper ultra transparent, it's easy to be fooled. I am sometimes.
I did this for about forever with my Micro Amp. I kept say it had a small soundstage, blah blah blah and it was my HRT MSII. Ooops.
LOD Ipod Touch 2G to Magni is the coldest sounding setup i've ever heard. Even more so than my ODAC, which is just weird saying that.
The Clip+ in comparison sounds like the PS1/SCPH-1001 on the Magni
I have an AD700, so i'll try it out.
BTW I tried my Koss A/250 and no extra warmth there. I think that has thinner mids than even the DT-880/K702 (K702 has a very slight touch of warmth IMO). One of the few headphones that might sound amazing with a very warm sounding tube amp. That headphone is so hard to like.
Off to try the K601 and AD700 with the Magni...
Wish I still had the K501..I miss it.
NOTE: I'm only up to 10 hours or so on the Magni, so it's possible something else may change. Best not to go there..
BTW when connecting the Magni up to a surge protector, there is some extra warmth due to being the sound screwed up. Sounds impossible right? It's very hard to detect, but it's there. I only heard it with my DJ100 and HD-650 (more forward low mids). I even went out and bought a more expensive surge protector. I think it's just adding in some distortion or something. I have no idea. I now don't think it's the noise filters, but something else. It's one thing i've never figured out. Both of my amps have this issue and sound better straight from the wall. I can't detect an ounce of difference on my Q701 really.
EDIT: I'm trying to do some research and it could be due to metal oxide varistors (MOVs) in my surge protectors. There's another type of surge protector that might be better. It's this type:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surge_protector#Transient_voltage_suppression_.28TVS.29_diode
Found one on Amazon, but it's $33. I don't even know if this is the cause. Again, it's 100% NOT the Magni's fault. I have this issue with every headphone amp.
Edit again: If anyone is curious, I found an old surge protector labeled as the Transient Voltage Suppression type listed above. I can't detect any degraded sound like with the MOV versions. At least not yet. So I guess i'll avoid the MOV versions for my headphone amps. OK, maybe it's just that the ones I have are cheap, but I did try an ISOBAR4 which is a bit higher quality I'd imagine. So glad to figure out this weird mystery. I imagine it's not an issue for 99% of everyone else.