[bearwarrior]

Has anyone tried the new Schiit Aegir to drive any headphones? It seems very interesting. Might be a worthy challenger for Pass Labs amps.

 

[Mataugust]

Finaly I made my "Robinette box".

It really make my grado sing, even better than before

I haven't used noninductive resistors, yet. I'm still waiting for some Jantzen to arrive.
Used 7,5 & 0,5 ohm to be able to use this on my K872.

The Grado were easy to balance, but the K872 is not. Good luck for me was, that my amp (Luxman LV107u) has common grund, so I could make this little adapter.
The K872 has never sounded better than now. Sometimes i think I forgot to turn of the speakers,but I haven't. It's just such at great sound.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Finaly I made my "Robinette box".

It really make my grado sing, even better than before

I haven't used noninductive resistors, yet. I'm still waiting for some Jantzen to arrive.
Used 7,5 & 0,5 ohm to be able to use this on my K872.

The Grado were easy to balance, but the K872 is not. Good luck for me was, that my amp (Luxman LV107u) has common grund, so I could make this little adapter.
The K872 has never sounded better than now. Sometimes i think I forgot to turn of the speakers,but I haven't. It's just such at great sound.

Common ground in an amp, my NAD M3 is also such an amp, are not truly balanced due to that topography.

 

[Armaegis]

Finaly I made my "Robinette box".
It really make my grado sing, even better than before


I haven't used noninductive resistors, yet. I'm still waiting for some Jantzen to arrive.
Used 7,5 & 0,5 ohm to be able to use this on my K872.


The Grado were easy to balance, but the K872 is not. Good luck for me was, that my amp (Luxman LV107u) has common grund, so I could make this little adapter.
The K872 has never sounded better than now. Sometimes i think I forgot to turn of the speakers,but I haven't. It's just such at great sound.

I can't believe that box design is still going around. I'm glad to see you took out the switches at least.

Please tell me that the sleeve of that TRS adapter you made only connects to a single pin on the XLR4. It won't make any difference with an amp that has a shared ground on the negatives, but in the event you ever accidentally plug this into an amp that has live negatives, this will at least protect your gear.

 

[pompon]

I am looking for a true balanced headphone amp.
My audio-gd phoenix is damaged (overheat) ... unit stuck in debug-mode. I contacted audio-gd but probably the controller chip is defect.

The shipping cost should be high ...

Burson C3x, Phonitor, Holo Azure ...
Any other suggestions ? I was looking thx 789 but it's not balanced amp ... HD650 scale very well in balanced ...

 

[Sonic Defender]

I am looking for a true balanced headphone amp.
My audio-gd phoenix is damaged (overheat) ... unit stuck in debug-mode. I contacted audio-gd but probably the controller chip is defect.

The shipping cost should be high ...

Burson C3x, Phonitor, Holo Azure ...
Any other suggestions ? I was looking thx 789 but it's not balanced amp ... HD650 scale very well in balanced ...

It doesn't matter if the power comes from balanced or a single ended input, as long as the power is adequate and of good quality it is fine. How can your brain possibly know that the power is balanced? In order for it to be different in character that would imply that non-balanced power is audibly dirtier, which is of course nothing but a fairy tale in the audio world. Balanced is great for more power, absolutely, in extremely long cable runs, like major recording studios and live concert venues, sure, there is some noise in those EXTREME situations, but in your home system, physics can guarantee that there is no audible difference because there is no reason for a difference.

 

[532500]

hey guys, i have a question: i run my abyss 1266 (47 ohms) direct from the speaker taps of my integrated mcintosh speaker amp. my question is: the mcintosh has 2,4 and 8 ohm speaker outputs. which one should i use? so far i`m using the 8 ohm but will there be a difference if i use the 2 or 4 ohm output? and is there any danger to the amp if i would do so? thanx very much and regards from germany, oliver

 

[Armaegis]

hey guys, i have a question: i run my abyss 1266 (47 ohms) direct from the speaker taps of my integrated mcintosh speaker amp. my question is: the mcintosh has 2,4 and 8 ohm speaker outputs. which one should i use? so far i`m using the 8 ohm but will there be a difference if i use the 2 or 4 ohm output? and is there any danger to the amp if i would do so? thanx very much and regards from germany, oliver

See roughly 3/5 down the page here or do a page search for "autoformer": http://www.roger-russell.com/mcintosh1.htm

Tube amps typically have an "optimal" load to operate into. Speaker loads vary greatly however, and this can cause the amp to run outside of it's optimal range and/or produce unnecessary heat. If you go really far out of bounds (downwards), you risk damaging either amp or speaker. The autoformer is there to mitigate this and keep the amp running "in the zone" so to speak.

Typically, headphones are much higher in impedance than speaker loads, so this doesn't affect us very much. Pick the closest matching tap (in this case the 8 ohm).

 

[532500]

See roughly 3/5 down the page here or do a page search for "autoformer": http://www.roger-russell.com/mcintosh1.htm

Tube amps typically have an "optimal" load to operate into. Speaker loads vary greatly however, and this can cause the amp to run outside of it's optimal range and/or produce unnecessary heat. If you go really far out of bounds (downwards), you risk damaging either amp or speaker. The autoformer is there to mitigate this and keep the amp running "in the zone" so to speak.

Typically, headphones are much higher in impedance than speaker loads, so this doesn't affect us very much. Pick the closest matching tap (in this case the 8 ohm).

i never said that my amp is an tube amp - which isn`t. it`s an solid state amp. thanx very much anyway

 

[Armaegis]

i never said that my amp is an tube amp - which isn`t. it`s an solid state amp. thanx very much anyway

It's significantly less important for solid state designs as their performance does not vary as much with loading as with tubes, but it's possible McIntosh still designed around particular loading requirements on their solid state amps. Autoformers also impart their own sonic characteristics to the sound, which is arguably part of what derives the well know McIntosh sound.

 

[kelvinwsy]

What is the power of your McIntosh Amp - I guess at least 100 Watts 8 ohm - than Abyss 1266 at 47 is about 6 times less. - So 16.5 watts
Joe of Abyss says 5-6 watts direct into the 1266 is about the max safe loading. So I would say don't turn your volume knob more than 9-10 o'clock
Safer to use a resistor box. Search in the Hifiman online shop for this. I use 1 with my 30 watt class A amp to drive my HP - He-560 which is 45 ohm.
My Abyss AB-1266 Phi/cc is driven by a pair of monoblock 7watt class A amp from the speaker taps - I use Lpad to adjust the resistance effectively seen +ve and -ve speaker terminals. I get a full 7 watt Class A into the Abyss HP. I don't have to turn the volume knob more than 11 o'clock.
Good luck and be careful not to blow your HP's. The amp must have overcurrent/direct short circuit protection circuit. Not safe other wise.

 

[kelvinwsy]

What is the power of your McIntosh Amp - I guess at least 100 Watts 8 ohm - than Abyss 1266 at 47 is about 6 times less. - So 16.5 watts
Joe of Abyss says 5-6 watts direct into the 1266 is about the max safe loading. So I would say don't turn your volume knob more than 9-10 o'clock
Safer to use a resistor box. Search in the Hifiman online shop for this. I use 1 with my 30 watt class A amp to drive my HP - He-560 which is 45 ohm.
My Abyss AB-1266 Phi/cc is driven by a pair of monoblock 7watt class A amp from the speaker taps - I use Lpad to adjust the resistance effectively seen +ve and -ve speaker terminals. I get a full 7 watt Class A into the Abyss HP. I don't have to turn the volume knob more than 11 o'clock.
Good luck and be careful not to blow your HP's. The amp must have overcurrent/direct short circuit protection circuit. Not safe other wise.

Sorry left this out. The Lpad I refer to is basically a Vishay Wirewound 5% tolerance Resistor across the speaker taps. 1 per channel. GO to Robinette's
website here: https://robrobinette.com/RobinetteBox.htm

 

[Sonic Defender]

What is the power of your McIntosh Amp - I guess at least 100 Watts 8 ohm - than Abyss 1266 at 47 is about 6 times less. - So 16.5 watts
Joe of Abyss says 5-6 watts direct into the 1266 is about the max safe loading. So I would say don't turn your volume knob more than 9-10 o'clock
Safer to use a resistor box. Search in the Hifiman online shop for this. I use 1 with my 30 watt class A amp to drive my HP - He-560 which is 45 ohm.
My Abyss AB-1266 Phi/cc is driven by a pair of monoblock 7watt class A amp from the speaker taps - I use Lpad to adjust the resistance effectively seen +ve and -ve speaker terminals. I get a full 7 watt Class A into the Abyss HP. I don't have to turn the volume knob more than 11 o'clock.
Good luck and be careful not to blow your HP's. The amp must have overcurrent/direct short circuit protection circuit. Not safe other wise.

There is no need to have a resistor box, just don't turn up the volume control. Your ears will tell you what is too loud long before the headphone would be damaged. I drove my HE560 from the speaker terminals of my 180 watt integrated amp without a problem. I have continued to do so with many headphones and I have never even come close to damaging a headphone. I simply make sure that the volume is where it needs to be and I don't spin the dial for fun while listening.

 

[340519]

It doesn't matter if the power comes from balanced or a single ended input, as long as the power is adequate and of good quality it is fine. How can your brain possibly know that the power is balanced? In order for it to be different in character that would imply that non-balanced power is audibly dirtier, which is of course nothing but a fairy tale in the audio world. Balanced is great for more power, absolutely, in extremely long cable runs, like major recording studios and live concert venues, sure, there is some noise in those EXTREME situations, but in your home system, physics can guarantee that there is no audible difference because there is no reason for a difference.

Great post! Bravo sir. I use SE wherever possible as the difference is not audible.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Great post! Bravo sir. I use SE wherever possible as the difference is not audible.

Absolutely. I use balanced connections simply for the extra power, but I have never heard a difference in sound quality despite all the bias inducing statements that people make to the contrary. If I was to try and determine if there were audible differences I would most certainly use multiple, blind listening trials. Cheers.