Krutsch
Headphoneus Supremus
The Sony WM1A/Z is pure bliss with the 846.
Shure SE846 Impressions Thread
- Thread starter jelt2359
- Start date
The Sony WM1A/Z is pure bliss with the 846.
Când anyone compare then to Meze Rai Penta? And what would be the best place to buy them? Interested in the clear model
I'm selling a brand new pair for 590€. Have a look here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/brand-new-shure-se846.932742/#post-15625126
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Rai Penta has a smoother sound than the SE846. It has neutral bass, richer mid and smooth treble. SE846 has fun sound, great bass, better transparency and separation. Durability, fit and comfort is also better for me. It is the one I would keep.
The SE846 is also easier to find, cheaper and has stood the test of time.
* answer to your 2nd question is in the above post
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Thanks for posting this. I got this cable today and it was exactly what I was looking for. Comfortable and looks great.
Attachments
Hello!
Long time lurker of this forum, but I created an account today to seek help from the community!
I've been a happy user of the Shure 215s for a long time. I knew they weren't super high end but they served their purpose perfectly. I've gone through several pairs over the years and know them very well. There's just something about the Shure midrange that I love, and I find them really valuable for monitoring vocals while performing! I recently purchased a clear pair of 846s from Amazon for at home critical listening or mix monitoring as I'm such a fan of their house sound already,
When I initially tested the 846s, I was remote and only had my old Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and didn't expect any great results. I was surprised. I put on an old faithful midrange monster, Sepultura Roots, and the 846s did pretty well without a great source. There was way more bottom end than my 215s, and everything had more punch and attack about it, and it was a pretty balanced sound using the stock blue filter. Great!
When I arrived at home, I plugged them in to my home setup. I've been using a Prism Sound Lyra 2 ADC/DAC w/ built in headphone amp for my 215s as well as my ADAM A7X/sub external speaker setup. I listened to the same album that I had tested on the phone. What I heard was ...dull, scooped midrange, lack of high end, but plenty of bass & low mids. *scratched head* I put on some Radiohead albums I'm very familiar with ( In Rainbows, Kid A, Moon Shaped Pool) & it sounded like someone put a blanket on the snare & Thom was singing through a pillow lol. To be fair, these albums have a bit of a round sound to them even on the 215s, but it was a test I knew well so I wanted to hear something other than punchy metal. I pulled out my old trusty Avenson Audio headphone amp that we use for tracking a lot. The results were 'slightly' better, but pretty much the same.
Over the next couple of days I tried all kinds of things with filters & tips. The large Olive or Yellow tips seem to work the best for me for isolation & I've always used the large olives on the 215s. I also put in an order for some Medium/Large Spinfit CP800 & CP240's to test as well. In the mean time, I went back and forth swapping out all the stock filters, & then eventually trying different mods: Black no foam, Blue no foam, Blue TrishD, White, White with foam. The stock white with yellow foam tips seemed to work the 'best' but there was still seems to be something missing in the upper midrange/highs. It's like someone took an EQ and scooped it out.
I continue to investigate, reading this thread for days... HELLO Post 16349 & @ThomasHK
What I learned of course is that these IEM's are very sensitive and have a very low impedance ( around 8 ohms? ) which can effect drastically the mid/high curve depending on the output impedance of the headphone amp being used. I started looking at the manuals for the Lyra 2 & Avenson headphone amp sections but I couldn't get specific values on their output impedance, so I contacted the vendors. The results seem to be inline with what I'm hearing based on that post.
Lyra 2 Headphone output impedance: 100 ohms
Avenson Headphone output impedance: 30 ohms
Samsung Galaxy S5: ? (I assume much lower given the profile difference!)
So now I find myself in a dilemma. I've been doing some searching in this thread but most of the items I find are portable DAC/AMP combos. I don't really need portability or new converters. While the Prism Sound Lyra is some years old, it's still a respected mastering grade converter & it's setup is important to my current workflow. So the reasonable thing to do is to find another external headphone amp that has under 0.5 ohms output that I can attach to the balanced out of the converters. I also have the possible option of modifying the Avenson to produce lower output ohms, but I would have to send it out of country for modification or disassembling and modifying it myself. I think I'm more inclined to just find something new for this specific task of driving IEMs.
TL;DR: I need a stand alone solid state head phone amp with an output of less than 0.5 ohms to drive my Shure 846s. Preferably something without a DAC/Battery that can take a balanced input from my Prism Sound Lyra 2 DAC. So far in my searches I've found the Schiit Jotunheim ( without DAC) that seems reasonably priced, but I'm not familiar with this brand or if there are better options out there.
Any feedback / help would be appreciated!
-G
Long time lurker of this forum, but I created an account today to seek help from the community!
I've been a happy user of the Shure 215s for a long time. I knew they weren't super high end but they served their purpose perfectly. I've gone through several pairs over the years and know them very well. There's just something about the Shure midrange that I love, and I find them really valuable for monitoring vocals while performing! I recently purchased a clear pair of 846s from Amazon for at home critical listening or mix monitoring as I'm such a fan of their house sound already,
When I initially tested the 846s, I was remote and only had my old Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and didn't expect any great results. I was surprised. I put on an old faithful midrange monster, Sepultura Roots, and the 846s did pretty well without a great source. There was way more bottom end than my 215s, and everything had more punch and attack about it, and it was a pretty balanced sound using the stock blue filter. Great!
When I arrived at home, I plugged them in to my home setup. I've been using a Prism Sound Lyra 2 ADC/DAC w/ built in headphone amp for my 215s as well as my ADAM A7X/sub external speaker setup. I listened to the same album that I had tested on the phone. What I heard was ...dull, scooped midrange, lack of high end, but plenty of bass & low mids. *scratched head* I put on some Radiohead albums I'm very familiar with ( In Rainbows, Kid A, Moon Shaped Pool) & it sounded like someone put a blanket on the snare & Thom was singing through a pillow lol. To be fair, these albums have a bit of a round sound to them even on the 215s, but it was a test I knew well so I wanted to hear something other than punchy metal. I pulled out my old trusty Avenson Audio headphone amp that we use for tracking a lot. The results were 'slightly' better, but pretty much the same.
Over the next couple of days I tried all kinds of things with filters & tips. The large Olive or Yellow tips seem to work the best for me for isolation & I've always used the large olives on the 215s. I also put in an order for some Medium/Large Spinfit CP800 & CP240's to test as well. In the mean time, I went back and forth swapping out all the stock filters, & then eventually trying different mods: Black no foam, Blue no foam, Blue TrishD, White, White with foam. The stock white with yellow foam tips seemed to work the 'best' but there was still seems to be something missing in the upper midrange/highs. It's like someone took an EQ and scooped it out.
I continue to investigate, reading this thread for days... HELLO Post 16349 & @ThomasHK
What I learned of course is that these IEM's are very sensitive and have a very low impedance ( around 8 ohms? ) which can effect drastically the mid/high curve depending on the output impedance of the headphone amp being used. I started looking at the manuals for the Lyra 2 & Avenson headphone amp sections but I couldn't get specific values on their output impedance, so I contacted the vendors. The results seem to be inline with what I'm hearing based on that post.
Lyra 2 Headphone output impedance: 100 ohms
Avenson Headphone output impedance: 30 ohms
Samsung Galaxy S5: ? (I assume much lower given the profile difference!)
So now I find myself in a dilemma. I've been doing some searching in this thread but most of the items I find are portable DAC/AMP combos. I don't really need portability or new converters. While the Prism Sound Lyra is some years old, it's still a respected mastering grade converter & it's setup is important to my current workflow. So the reasonable thing to do is to find another external headphone amp that has under 0.5 ohms output that I can attach to the balanced out of the converters. I also have the possible option of modifying the Avenson to produce lower output ohms, but I would have to send it out of country for modification or disassembling and modifying it myself. I think I'm more inclined to just find something new for this specific task of driving IEMs.
TL;DR: I need a stand alone solid state head phone amp with an output of less than 0.5 ohms to drive my Shure 846s. Preferably something without a DAC/Battery that can take a balanced input from my Prism Sound Lyra 2 DAC. So far in my searches I've found the Schiit Jotunheim ( without DAC) that seems reasonably priced, but I'm not familiar with this brand or if there are better options out there.
Any feedback / help would be appreciated!
-G
IEMusic
Headphoneus Supremus
There‘s a bunch of great Schiit out there. Yes, you’ve discovered the kryptonite of the se846, amps with high OI. You really want it less than 1Ohm. If you‘re determined to use your DAC, the Schiit amps are popular. I know you don’t need portability, but FWIW, I really like the se846 with the Dragonfly Cobalt (0.65 OI). You can run it off your computer’s USB, or run it off your phone.Hello!
Long time lurker of this forum, but I created an account today to seek help from the community!
I've been a happy user of the Shure 215s for a long time. I knew they weren't super high end but they served their purpose perfectly. I've gone through several pairs over the years and know them very well. There's just something about the Shure midrange that I love, and I find them really valuable for monitoring vocals while performing! I recently purchased a clear pair of 846s from Amazon for at home critical listening or mix monitoring as I'm such a fan of their house sound already,
When I initially tested the 846s, I was remote and only had my old Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and didn't expect any great results. I was surprised. I put on an old faithful midrange monster, Sepultura Roots, and the 846s did pretty well without a great source. There was way more bottom end than my 215s, and everything had more punch and attack about it, and it was a pretty balanced sound using the stock blue filter. Great!
When I arrived at home, I plugged them in to my home setup. I've been using a Prism Sound Lyra 2 ADC/DAC w/ built in headphone amp for my 215s as well as my ADAM A7X/sub external speaker setup. I listened to the same album that I had tested on the phone. What I heard was ...dull, scooped midrange, lack of high end, but plenty of bass & low mids. *scratched head* I put on some Radiohead albums I'm very familiar with ( In Rainbows, Kid A, Moon Shaped Pool) & it sounded like someone put a blanket on the snare & Thom was singing through a pillow lol. To be fair, these albums have a bit of a round sound to them even on the 215s, but it was a test I knew well so I wanted to hear something other than punchy metal. I pulled out my old trusty Avenson Audio headphone amp that we use for tracking a lot. The results were 'slightly' better, but pretty much the same.
Over the next couple of days I tried all kinds of things with filters & tips. The large Olive or Yellow tips seem to work the best for me for isolation & I've always used the large olives on the 215s. I also put in an order for some Medium/Large Spinfit CP800 & CP240's to test as well. In the mean time, I went back and forth swapping out all the stock filters, & then eventually trying different mods: Black no foam, Blue no foam, Blue TrishD, White, White with foam. The stock white with yellow foam tips seemed to work the 'best' but there was still seems to be something missing in the upper midrange/highs. It's like someone took an EQ and scooped it out.
I continue to investigate, reading this thread for days... HELLO Post 16349 & @ThomasHK
What I learned of course is that these IEM's are very sensitive and have a very low impedance ( around 8 ohms? ) which can effect drastically the mid/high curve depending on the output impedance of the headphone amp being used. I started looking at the manuals for the Lyra 2 & Avenson headphone amp sections but I couldn't get specific values on their output impedance, so I contacted the vendors. The results seem to be inline with what I'm hearing based on that post.
Lyra 2 Headphone output impedance: 100 ohms
Avenson Headphone output impedance: 30 ohms
Samsung Galaxy S5: ? (I assume much lower given the profile difference!)
So now I find myself in a dilemma. I've been doing some searching in this thread but most of the items I find are portable DAC/AMP combos. I don't really need portability or new converters. While the Prism Sound Lyra is some years old, it's still a respected mastering grade converter & it's setup is important to my current workflow. So the reasonable thing to do is to find another external headphone amp that has under 0.5 ohms output that I can attach to the balanced out of the converters. I also have the possible option of modifying the Avenson to produce lower output ohms, but I would have to send it out of country for modification or disassembling and modifying it myself. I think I'm more inclined to just find something new for this specific task of driving IEMs.
TL;DR: I need a stand alone solid state head phone amp with an output of less than 0.5 ohms to drive my Shure 846s. Preferably something without a DAC/Battery that can take a balanced input from my Prism Sound Lyra 2 DAC. So far in my searches I've found the Schiit Jotunheim ( without DAC) that seems reasonably priced, but I'm not familiar with this brand or if there are better options out there.
Any feedback / help would be appreciated!
-G
You should check out the RME ADI-2 DAC FS. It's has an output designed for IEM's with an output impedance of 0.1 OhmsHello!
Long time lurker of this forum, but I created an account today to seek help from the community!
I've been a happy user of the Shure 215s for a long time. I knew they weren't super high end but they served their purpose perfectly. I've gone through several pairs over the years and know them very well. There's just something about the Shure midrange that I love, and I find them really valuable for monitoring vocals while performing! I recently purchased a clear pair of 846s from Amazon for at home critical listening or mix monitoring as I'm such a fan of their house sound already,
When I initially tested the 846s, I was remote and only had my old Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and didn't expect any great results. I was surprised. I put on an old faithful midrange monster, Sepultura Roots, and the 846s did pretty well without a great source. There was way more bottom end than my 215s, and everything had more punch and attack about it, and it was a pretty balanced sound using the stock blue filter. Great!
When I arrived at home, I plugged them in to my home setup. I've been using a Prism Sound Lyra 2 ADC/DAC w/ built in headphone amp for my 215s as well as my ADAM A7X/sub external speaker setup. I listened to the same album that I had tested on the phone. What I heard was ...dull, scooped midrange, lack of high end, but plenty of bass & low mids. *scratched head* I put on some Radiohead albums I'm very familiar with ( In Rainbows, Kid A, Moon Shaped Pool) & it sounded like someone put a blanket on the snare & Thom was singing through a pillow lol. To be fair, these albums have a bit of a round sound to them even on the 215s, but it was a test I knew well so I wanted to hear something other than punchy metal. I pulled out my old trusty Avenson Audio headphone amp that we use for tracking a lot. The results were 'slightly' better, but pretty much the same.
Over the next couple of days I tried all kinds of things with filters & tips. The large Olive or Yellow tips seem to work the best for me for isolation & I've always used the large olives on the 215s. I also put in an order for some Medium/Large Spinfit CP800 & CP240's to test as well. In the mean time, I went back and forth swapping out all the stock filters, & then eventually trying different mods: Black no foam, Blue no foam, Blue TrishD, White, White with foam. The stock white with yellow foam tips seemed to work the 'best' but there was still seems to be something missing in the upper midrange/highs. It's like someone took an EQ and scooped it out.
I continue to investigate, reading this thread for days... HELLO Post 16349 & @ThomasHK
What I learned of course is that these IEM's are very sensitive and have a very low impedance ( around 8 ohms? ) which can effect drastically the mid/high curve depending on the output impedance of the headphone amp being used. I started looking at the manuals for the Lyra 2 & Avenson headphone amp sections but I couldn't get specific values on their output impedance, so I contacted the vendors. The results seem to be inline with what I'm hearing based on that post.
Lyra 2 Headphone output impedance: 100 ohms
Avenson Headphone output impedance: 30 ohms
Samsung Galaxy S5: ? (I assume much lower given the profile difference!)
So now I find myself in a dilemma. I've been doing some searching in this thread but most of the items I find are portable DAC/AMP combos. I don't really need portability or new converters. While the Prism Sound Lyra is some years old, it's still a respected mastering grade converter & it's setup is important to my current workflow. So the reasonable thing to do is to find another external headphone amp that has under 0.5 ohms output that I can attach to the balanced out of the converters. I also have the possible option of modifying the Avenson to produce lower output ohms, but I would have to send it out of country for modification or disassembling and modifying it myself. I think I'm more inclined to just find something new for this specific task of driving IEMs.
TL;DR: I need a stand alone solid state head phone amp with an output of less than 0.5 ohms to drive my Shure 846s. Preferably something without a DAC/Battery that can take a balanced input from my Prism Sound Lyra 2 DAC. So far in my searches I've found the Schiit Jotunheim ( without DAC) that seems reasonably priced, but I'm not familiar with this brand or if there are better options out there.
Any feedback / help would be appreciated!
-G
Krizit
Head-Fier
Hello!
Long time lurker of this forum, but I created an account today to seek help from the community!
I've been a happy user of the Shure 215s for a long time. I knew they weren't super high end but they served their purpose perfectly. I've gone through several pairs over the years and know them very well. There's just something about the Shure midrange that I love, and I find them really valuable for monitoring vocals while performing! I recently purchased a clear pair of 846s from Amazon for at home critical listening or mix monitoring as I'm such a fan of their house sound already,
When I initially tested the 846s, I was remote and only had my old Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and didn't expect any great results. I was surprised. I put on an old faithful midrange monster, Sepultura Roots, and the 846s did pretty well without a great source. There was way more bottom end than my 215s, and everything had more punch and attack about it, and it was a pretty balanced sound using the stock blue filter. Great!
When I arrived at home, I plugged them in to my home setup. I've been using a Prism Sound Lyra 2 ADC/DAC w/ built in headphone amp for my 215s as well as my ADAM A7X/sub external speaker setup. I listened to the same album that I had tested on the phone. What I heard was ...dull, scooped midrange, lack of high end, but plenty of bass & low mids. *scratched head* I put on some Radiohead albums I'm very familiar with ( In Rainbows, Kid A, Moon Shaped Pool) & it sounded like someone put a blanket on the snare & Thom was singing through a pillow lol. To be fair, these albums have a bit of a round sound to them even on the 215s, but it was a test I knew well so I wanted to hear something other than punchy metal. I pulled out my old trusty Avenson Audio headphone amp that we use for tracking a lot. The results were 'slightly' better, but pretty much the same.
Over the next couple of days I tried all kinds of things with filters & tips. The large Olive or Yellow tips seem to work the best for me for isolation & I've always used the large olives on the 215s. I also put in an order for some Medium/Large Spinfit CP800 & CP240's to test as well. In the mean time, I went back and forth swapping out all the stock filters, & then eventually trying different mods: Black no foam, Blue no foam, Blue TrishD, White, White with foam. The stock white with yellow foam tips seemed to work the 'best' but there was still seems to be something missing in the upper midrange/highs. It's like someone took an EQ and scooped it out.
I continue to investigate, reading this thread for days... HELLO Post 16349 & @ThomasHK
What I learned of course is that these IEM's are very sensitive and have a very low impedance ( around 8 ohms? ) which can effect drastically the mid/high curve depending on the output impedance of the headphone amp being used. I started looking at the manuals for the Lyra 2 & Avenson headphone amp sections but I couldn't get specific values on their output impedance, so I contacted the vendors. The results seem to be inline with what I'm hearing based on that post.
Lyra 2 Headphone output impedance: 100 ohms
Avenson Headphone output impedance: 30 ohms
Samsung Galaxy S5: ? (I assume much lower given the profile difference!)
So now I find myself in a dilemma. I've been doing some searching in this thread but most of the items I find are portable DAC/AMP combos. I don't really need portability or new converters. While the Prism Sound Lyra is some years old, it's still a respected mastering grade converter & it's setup is important to my current workflow. So the reasonable thing to do is to find another external headphone amp that has under 0.5 ohms output that I can attach to the balanced out of the converters. I also have the possible option of modifying the Avenson to produce lower output ohms, but I would have to send it out of country for modification or disassembling and modifying it myself. I think I'm more inclined to just find something new for this specific task of driving IEMs.
TL;DR: I need a stand alone solid state head phone amp with an output of less than 0.5 ohms to drive my Shure 846s. Preferably something without a DAC/Battery that can take a balanced input from my Prism Sound Lyra 2 DAC. So far in my searches I've found the Schiit Jotunheim ( without DAC) that seems reasonably priced, but I'm not familiar with this brand or if there are better options out there.
Any feedback / help would be appreciated!
-G
While you might not care for portability, there are many reasonably priced portable amps that will be <0.5 ohms. I recommend looking into Fiio products.
Schiit has a good reputation. If it meets your specifications and budget then go for it.
Oh man. If I didn't already have AD/DA covered, I would be all over that. My workflow is pretty set but that looks like a beautiful unit! I actually use RME's Raydat card with the Lyra2 to get around USB for latency issues. I'd be more inclined to spend that kind of money on a higher end amp than the ones I've been looking at?
ThanatosVI
Headphoneus Supremus
The Jotunheim is great and it comes with 5 years of warranty.Hello!
Long time lurker of this forum, but I created an account today to seek help from the community!
I've been a happy user of the Shure 215s for a long time. I knew they weren't super high end but they served their purpose perfectly. I've gone through several pairs over the years and know them very well. There's just something about the Shure midrange that I love, and I find them really valuable for monitoring vocals while performing! I recently purchased a clear pair of 846s from Amazon for at home critical listening or mix monitoring as I'm such a fan of their house sound already,
When I initially tested the 846s, I was remote and only had my old Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and didn't expect any great results. I was surprised. I put on an old faithful midrange monster, Sepultura Roots, and the 846s did pretty well without a great source. There was way more bottom end than my 215s, and everything had more punch and attack about it, and it was a pretty balanced sound using the stock blue filter. Great!
When I arrived at home, I plugged them in to my home setup. I've been using a Prism Sound Lyra 2 ADC/DAC w/ built in headphone amp for my 215s as well as my ADAM A7X/sub external speaker setup. I listened to the same album that I had tested on the phone. What I heard was ...dull, scooped midrange, lack of high end, but plenty of bass & low mids. *scratched head* I put on some Radiohead albums I'm very familiar with ( In Rainbows, Kid A, Moon Shaped Pool) & it sounded like someone put a blanket on the snare & Thom was singing through a pillow lol. To be fair, these albums have a bit of a round sound to them even on the 215s, but it was a test I knew well so I wanted to hear something other than punchy metal. I pulled out my old trusty Avenson Audio headphone amp that we use for tracking a lot. The results were 'slightly' better, but pretty much the same.
Over the next couple of days I tried all kinds of things with filters & tips. The large Olive or Yellow tips seem to work the best for me for isolation & I've always used the large olives on the 215s. I also put in an order for some Medium/Large Spinfit CP800 & CP240's to test as well. In the mean time, I went back and forth swapping out all the stock filters, & then eventually trying different mods: Black no foam, Blue no foam, Blue TrishD, White, White with foam. The stock white with yellow foam tips seemed to work the 'best' but there was still seems to be something missing in the upper midrange/highs. It's like someone took an EQ and scooped it out.
I continue to investigate, reading this thread for days... HELLO Post 16349 & @ThomasHK
What I learned of course is that these IEM's are very sensitive and have a very low impedance ( around 8 ohms? ) which can effect drastically the mid/high curve depending on the output impedance of the headphone amp being used. I started looking at the manuals for the Lyra 2 & Avenson headphone amp sections but I couldn't get specific values on their output impedance, so I contacted the vendors. The results seem to be inline with what I'm hearing based on that post.
Lyra 2 Headphone output impedance: 100 ohms
Avenson Headphone output impedance: 30 ohms
Samsung Galaxy S5: ? (I assume much lower given the profile difference!)
So now I find myself in a dilemma. I've been doing some searching in this thread but most of the items I find are portable DAC/AMP combos. I don't really need portability or new converters. While the Prism Sound Lyra is some years old, it's still a respected mastering grade converter & it's setup is important to my current workflow. So the reasonable thing to do is to find another external headphone amp that has under 0.5 ohms output that I can attach to the balanced out of the converters. I also have the possible option of modifying the Avenson to produce lower output ohms, but I would have to send it out of country for modification or disassembling and modifying it myself. I think I'm more inclined to just find something new for this specific task of driving IEMs.
TL;DR: I need a stand alone solid state head phone amp with an output of less than 0.5 ohms to drive my Shure 846s. Preferably something without a DAC/Battery that can take a balanced input from my Prism Sound Lyra 2 DAC. So far in my searches I've found the Schiit Jotunheim ( without DAC) that seems reasonably priced, but I'm not familiar with this brand or if there are better options out there.
Any feedback / help would be appreciated!
-G
Yes, this unit is freaking outstanding with IEM's if you want a desktop unit for that purpose. This is the stripped down version of the DAC without the AD conversion, btw. Not sure if that matters or not.
James-uk
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 22, 2013
- Posts
- 964
- Likes
- 642
Hello!
Long time lurker of this forum, but I created an account today to seek help from the community!
I've been a happy user of the Shure 215s for a long time. I knew they weren't super high end but they served their purpose perfectly. I've gone through several pairs over the years and know them very well. There's just something about the Shure midrange that I love, and I find them really valuable for monitoring vocals while performing! I recently purchased a clear pair of 846s from Amazon for at home critical listening or mix monitoring as I'm such a fan of their house sound already,
When I initially tested the 846s, I was remote and only had my old Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and didn't expect any great results. I was surprised. I put on an old faithful midrange monster, Sepultura Roots, and the 846s did pretty well without a great source. There was way more bottom end than my 215s, and everything had more punch and attack about it, and it was a pretty balanced sound using the stock blue filter. Great!
When I arrived at home, I plugged them in to my home setup. I've been using a Prism Sound Lyra 2 ADC/DAC w/ built in headphone amp for my 215s as well as my ADAM A7X/sub external speaker setup. I listened to the same album that I had tested on the phone. What I heard was ...dull, scooped midrange, lack of high end, but plenty of bass & low mids. *scratched head* I put on some Radiohead albums I'm very familiar with ( In Rainbows, Kid A, Moon Shaped Pool) & it sounded like someone put a blanket on the snare & Thom was singing through a pillow lol. To be fair, these albums have a bit of a round sound to them even on the 215s, but it was a test I knew well so I wanted to hear something other than punchy metal. I pulled out my old trusty Avenson Audio headphone amp that we use for tracking a lot. The results were 'slightly' better, but pretty much the same.
Over the next couple of days I tried all kinds of things with filters & tips. The large Olive or Yellow tips seem to work the best for me for isolation & I've always used the large olives on the 215s. I also put in an order for some Medium/Large Spinfit CP800 & CP240's to test as well. In the mean time, I went back and forth swapping out all the stock filters, & then eventually trying different mods: Black no foam, Blue no foam, Blue TrishD, White, White with foam. The stock white with yellow foam tips seemed to work the 'best' but there was still seems to be something missing in the upper midrange/highs. It's like someone took an EQ and scooped it out.
I continue to investigate, reading this thread for days... HELLO Post 16349 & @ThomasHK
What I learned of course is that these IEM's are very sensitive and have a very low impedance ( around 8 ohms? ) which can effect drastically the mid/high curve depending on the output impedance of the headphone amp being used. I started looking at the manuals for the Lyra 2 & Avenson headphone amp sections but I couldn't get specific values on their output impedance, so I contacted the vendors. The results seem to be inline with what I'm hearing based on that post.
Lyra 2 Headphone output impedance: 100 ohms
Avenson Headphone output impedance: 30 ohms
Samsung Galaxy S5: ? (I assume much lower given the profile difference!)
So now I find myself in a dilemma. I've been doing some searching in this thread but most of the items I find are portable DAC/AMP combos. I don't really need portability or new converters. While the Prism Sound Lyra is some years old, it's still a respected mastering grade converter & it's setup is important to my current workflow. So the reasonable thing to do is to find another external headphone amp that has under 0.5 ohms output that I can attach to the balanced out of the converters. I also have the possible option of modifying the Avenson to produce lower output ohms, but I would have to send it out of country for modification or disassembling and modifying it myself. I think I'm more inclined to just find something new for this specific task of driving IEMs.
TL;DR: I need a stand alone solid state head phone amp with an output of less than 0.5 ohms to drive my Shure 846s. Preferably something without a DAC/Battery that can take a balanced input from my Prism Sound Lyra 2 DAC. So far in my searches I've found the Schiit Jotunheim ( without DAC) that seems reasonably priced, but I'm not familiar with this brand or if there are better options out there.
Any feedback / help would be appreciated!
-G
this topping headphone amp is the state of the art . Its measurements are as good as it gets and it’s reasonably priced.
https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-a90-headphone-amplifier-review.13592/
BobJS
Headphoneus Supremus
Monoprice Monolith THX AAA 887
Edit: (Which I own). Or to save $100 the presumably equivalent DROP + THX AAA™ 789 LINEAR AMPLIFIER (Which I don't own)
Edit: (Which I own). Or to save $100 the presumably equivalent DROP + THX AAA™ 789 LINEAR AMPLIFIER (Which I don't own)
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