[Gary in MD]

Folks:
 
Just a quick note to let you know that my experiment with my Nikko NA-890 continues, and I love this thing.  Periodic age-related noise aside, I think it is actually better than the Odyssey Cyclops in driving the LCD-3s. I'm running it through my Mills resistor box (another source of periodic noise, as the connectors aren't real tight), and it is a perfect match.  Better attack than the Odyssey, particularly on the high end, with no harshness and no loss of warmth.  Incredible for an amp I bought 35 years ago.  I did recently try the HP jack on it, and it is harsher than my box/tap setup, so I'm sticking with the main connections.
 
The only problem is that now I'm hunting eBay for vintage Nikko amps, particularly the Alpha series, which are supposedly a big step up from mine.  I don't need another amp.  I already have 2 that I'm not using right now (Cyclops and Millenia).  I am writing to urge/beg/plead with all of you to please buy every Nikko amp on eBay and Audiogon IMMEDIATELY, so that I cannot act on this temptation. 
 
Thanks in advance for your help in this matter.... 
 
And happy holidays to all.

 

[cute]

For those that need a resistor box for a tube amp, I have moved to SS so I will be listing it on the F/S Thread after Christmas.

I am now using my Lyr 2 with '75 Voskhods as a pre-amp (my Audible Illusions M3 is too big), too either a Belles One or B & K 125.2 red. II. Charleston Cables UOCC Balanced to Draug 2 HE560 or Vanquish Alpha Dogs. I truly don't understand why people mess with underpowered, overpriced Specality HP Amps?!?

Edit: PM if you are interested in the HiFiman Adapter Box.

 
You have seen the light, overpriced HP amps never got me excited once I started using my Denon 4800, speaker taps to Ortho's.  My DAC is also used as a Tube Buffer, and those Norne Cables help seal the deal for me as well.  I have always put more focus on cables, because I knew how good the big powerful amps synergize with my headphones, and I have never really been impressed with portable gears, just relaxing with my room full of big powerful sound.  I only listen to my high end speaker system when others are here to share.
 
Kevin, best wishes for a Happy Holiday, and a great New Year!

 

[Wildcatsare1]

You have seen the light, overpriced HP amps never got me excited once I started using my Denon 4800, speaker taps to Ortho's.  My DAC is also used as a Tube Buffer, and those Norne Cables help seal the deal for me as well.  I have always put more focus on cables, because I knew how good the big powerful amps synergize with my headphones, and I have never really been impressed with portable gears, just relaxing with my room full of big powerful sound.  I only listen to my high end speaker system when others are here to share.

Kevin, best wishes for a Happy Holiday, and a great New Year!

David, thank you, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too you as well!

The Lyr does make a wonderful preamp or amp for my other HP's.

How are you getting along with your second set of Primes and 560's, how do they compare? I am shopping for IEM's now for portable use, David, do you have any recommendations?

Peace,

Kevin

 

[cute]

 

You have seen the light, overpriced HP amps never got me excited once I started using my Denon 4800, speaker taps to Ortho's.  My DAC is also used as a Tube Buffer, and those Norne Cables help seal the deal for me as well.  I have always put more focus on cables, because I knew how good the big powerful amps synergize with my headphones, and I have never really been impressed with portable gears, just relaxing with my room full of big powerful sound.  I only listen to my high end speaker system when others are here to share.

Kevin, best wishes for a Happy Holiday, and a great New Year!

David, thank you, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too you as well!

The Lyr does make a wonderful preamp or amp for my other HP's.

How are you getting along with your second set of Primes and 560's, how do they compare? I am shopping for IEM's now for portable use, David, do you have any recommendations?

Peace,

Kevin

 
Only portable I have is the HFM RE-272, great IEM, likes power too.  I have used it off of speaker taps BTW, use it for auto service away from home w/Sansa & line out to my E11, all I need.
 
The Prime and the 560's are a fantastic pair, and have significantly upscaled since the most recent version of jPlay!  I use jlPlaymini, and once the settings are tweeked, it is quite an Audiophile player.  You just copy tracks to the clipboard and hit the spacebar to play. I use the new version 5.2.1, Original, it is a free download to try, but I have had the full version since it was introduced a couple years ago, and all upgrades are free for me.  Best money I heve ever spent on an audio player, I use jRiver MC20 to manage files and rip CD's but playback is serious with jPlay, and it can even be configured to play from and internet music source, I am using Tidal, waiting for Lossless to launch.  If you use your computer at home as a source, you should give jPlay a try, you won't believe your ears.  It is like a huge upgrade to your DAC, truly magic, but you need to do some research on how to use it correctly.

 

[Terja]

  Folks:
 
Just a quick note to let you know that my experiment with my Nikko NA-890 continues, and I love this thing.  Periodic age-related noise aside, I think it is actually better than the Odyssey Cyclops in driving the LCD-3s. I'm running it through my Mills resistor box (another source of periodic noise, as the connectors aren't real tight), and it is a perfect match.  Better attack than the Odyssey, particularly on the high end, with no harshness and no loss of warmth.  Incredible for an amp I bought 35 years ago.  I did recently try the HP jack on it, and it is harsher than my box/tap setup, so I'm sticking with the main connections.
 
The only problem is that now I'm hunting eBay for vintage Nikko amps, particularly the Alpha series, which are supposedly a big step up from mine.  I don't need another amp.  I already have 2 that I'm not using right now (Cyclops and Millenia).  I am writing to urge/beg/plead with all of you to please buy every Nikko amp on eBay and Audiogon IMMEDIATELY, so that I cannot act on this temptation. 
 
Thanks in advance for your help in this matter.... 
 
And happy holidays to all.

 
Yup ... like Agent Smith said "It is inevitable." For a while after I started tapping my Luxman R-1030 I started looking around for other Luxmans. I still do, just to see what's out there not really because I need one. Happy holidays to all passers by!

 

[Chris J]

  I have done it with a McIntosh MC2205 and Sennheiser 600s with balanced cabling. I am feeding the MC2205 with an MS750 running through an MX118. I also have some high resolution digital takes from live tapes (192K - 24bit) that I play from a separate hard drive through a USB DAC to the MX118.
I have a resistor network connected to the amp (10 ohms, 400 watt wire wound for each channel), but do not use it when listening to the headphones - it is just there for when I turn off the headphones to keep a load on the amp (I know - many say you don't need a load on a solid state machine - but I am the "belt and suspenders" type).
I am running the 600s off of the 8 ohm tap.
I realize that there is a terrible impedance mismatch - but it does not degrade the sound to my ear.
.....redacted......
Thanks,
Jim

 
Hi Jim,
There is no impedance mismatch, that is an audiophile misconception.
The Mac merely drives voltage into a load, the load pulls however much current it requires.
No worries, mate!
Enjoy!
Regards,
CJ

 

[Sonic Defender]

My custom made Norne speaker tap cable should be here before the new year, it is already in Toronto so that is good news (even though there are Leaf fans there). So if all goes well I will be able to post impressions of using my HE 560 with my NAD amp. This should be sweet. While I won't suggest a night and day difference is likely, I do feel that the 560s love current and I anticipate the stability and power as made possible by the two large power supplies in the NAD should be able to outperform my other modest dedicated headphone amps. Is that a generally agreed upon principle that if the topology of the amp design is solid, that good power supplies make a difference versus perhaps less capable power supplies?

 

[Hun7er]

  First of all, the Stratus IS quieter, no doubt about that.  But the double C-Core OPTs in the Conqueror Silver + the ELROG 300B tubes help to give the music I listen to more presence, more weight, but still incredible smoothness, balance and tone to the instruments.  The bass is also more present with the 300B.  The Stratus just has a more ethereal sound to it, but is very well balanced.  With the Stratus, you are in heaven listening to recorded music; with the Conqueror you are close to real music, at least as close as  you can get with SET.  (An SET will perhaps never equal an amplifier with a transistor output stage in its faithfulness to the recorded version of the music.  This is largely because of the low distortion of this variety of SS amplifier in all harmonics and the abundance of second-order (pleasing) harmonics in SET amplifiers, as a rule.

Thank you.
Did you know cheaper amp that can give less ethereal presentation than the Stratus ?
 
Regards

 

[Frihed89]

  Thank you.
Did you know cheaper amp that can give less ethereal presentation than the Stratus ?
 
Regards

I have only seriously enjoyed and owned 3 headphone amps:  A SinglePower MPX3 SE, which i regret selling to some degree; a custom made Blue Circle SBH, which i still own, and will never sell; and the Stratus, which i certainly do not regret buying.  You may want to contact Gilbert Yeung at Blue Circle Audio in Canada and see what he can do for you.  Blue Circle Audio is a commercial audio mfr.; however, they also make custom gear at reasonable prices.  Before you do, you may want to look at the thread, started by hifimanrookie , entitled Blue Circle Audio "PaG" Custom Headphone Amp - first impressions/ new pics!. Newer Blue Circle gear (including the PaG, which i have not heard) aims at truthful presentation, but retains a lot of the musicality of the older gear, like the SBH.  You probably need to chat with hifimanrookie to confirm that, although he - hifimanrookie - told me that is the case.  If, in any event, you do contact Gilbert, tell him that "Chowderhead" was your contact.  Gilbert is very customer oriented and i have happily owned a number of pieces of BC gear on my audio journey. 
 
Good luck.

 

[Hun7er]

  I have only seriously enjoyed and owned 3 headphone amps:  A SinglePower MPX3 SE, which i regret selling to some degree; a custom made Blue Circle SBH, which i still own, and will never sell; and the Stratus, which i certainly do not regret buying.  You may want to contact Gilbert Yeung at Blue Circle Audio in Canada and see what he can do for you.  Blue Circle Audio is a commercial audio mfr.; however, they also make custom gear at reasonable prices.  Before you do, you may want to look at the thread, started by hifimanrookie , entitled Blue Circle Audio "PaG" Custom Headphone Amp - first impressions/ new pics!. Newer Blue Circle gear (including the PaG, which i have not heard) aims at truthful presentation, but retains a lot of the musicality of the older gear, like the SBH.  You probably need to chat with hifimanrookie to confirm that, although he - hifimanrookie - told me that is the case.  If, in any event, you do contact Gilbert, tell him that "Chowderhead" was your contact.  Gilbert is very customer oriented and i have happily owned a number of pieces of BC gear on my audio journey. 
 
Good luck.

 
Thanks you
But I was more speaking about speaker amp
 
Regards

 

[Happy Camper]

My custom made Norne speaker tap cable should be here before the new year, it is already in Toronto so that is good news (even though there are Leaf fans there). So if all goes well I will be able to post impressions of using my HE 560 with my NAD amp. This should be sweet. While I won't suggest a night and day difference is likely, I do feel that the 560s love current and I anticipate the stability and power as made possible by the two large power supplies in the NAD should be able to outperform my other modest dedicated headphone amps. Is that a generally agreed upon principle that if the topology of the amp design is solid, that good power supplies make a difference versus perhaps less capable power supplies?

Music is made by power supplies. Be it a source or amp, the quality of power is the foundation for what is heard.

 

[preproman]

For those that need a resistor box for a tube amp, I have moved to SS so I will be listing it on the F/S Thread after Christmas.

I am now using my Lyr 2 with '75 Voskhods as a pre-amp (my Audible Illusions M3 is too big), too either a Belles One or B & K 125.2 red. II. Charleston Cables UOCC Balanced to Draug 2 HE560 or Vanquish Alpha Dogs. I truly don't understand why people mess with underpowered, overpriced Specality HP Amps?!?

Edit: PM if you are interested in the HiFiman Adapter Box.

 
 
Ha ha...
 

 

[Frihed89]

I see you are in France.  Contact Lavardin.  In Germany, there is Hegel.  For tube amps, I would not recommend Jadis, but you might look into Audio Note (UK) which has some dealers in France.  If you don't mind paying shipping, you can't go wrong with Blue Circle in Canada.  They cover all price ranges.

 

[Hun7er]

  I see you are in France.  Contact Lavardin.  In Germany, there is Hegel.  For tube amps, I would not recommend Jadis, but you might look into Audio Note (UK) which has some dealers in France.  If you don't mind paying shipping, you can't go wrong with Blue Circle in Canada.  They cover all price ranges.

Hi,
 
This amp http://app.audiogon.com/listings/tube-tube-audio-lab-we91a-w-many-upgrade-parts-handcrafted-300b-amp-2014-12-19-amplifiers-135-957 took my interest.
As speaker amp I owned an Threshold SA30S recapped, MCIntosh MC225, Audio Research D70MKII and Audiomat Prelude Reference 20.
I think my preferred was the Threshold as it throws very smooth sound, meatier without any edgy sound. Also it was less ethereal than any amp I own. It lacks a bit air but doesn't bother that much.
I prefered to be in the room with the singer that see the singer within a cloud.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Music is made by power supplies. Be it a source or amp, the quality of power is the foundation for what is heard.

That is what I understand and why I went to all the trouble to have very nice speaker taps made. Frankly I don't care whether or not cables can make a difference, I'm not in any position to really test anyway, so even if there was a difference, I probably couldn't tell. For me, the quality of construction and good looks matter so now I will have a nice 12 foot length of speaker tap in two sections. I have a four foot section that stays hooked into the amp all the time so I can simply disconnect my 560 at the 4 pin XLR connector rather than fiddling with the somewhat delicate connectors on the 560 cups. For me, that was worth the expense, convenience and quality construction. If there is sonic characteristics imparted by the cable, great bonus score, if not, no biggie, I got what I wanted. And while I realize the NAD isn't the be all and end all of amps, not by any stretch, it is well designed and the power supplies are quite good so that should be an excellent base.