What are some very good power speakers that are not as big as a fridge? I've seen some in the 2nd hand market of power amps with very good reviews and good pairing with Susvara (e.g. F7) but I wish the size was a little more compact and a little more desk friendly.
Speaker amps for headphones
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A Jedi
500+ Head-Fier
If you want a lot of class A power, it's going to be big. There's no way around it - class A generates a lot of heat that has to be dissipated through big metal (heatsinks).
class AB can be great. i use an OG Burson timekeeper and it’s a top performer and very compact. Bakoon 13r is essentially a speaker amp also and it’s not very big. It’s not impossible. I‘m hoping there’s some out there that are compact and very good that I haven’t heard of.
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Going to be trying out a Kinki EX M1+ integrated amp and a set of AGD Audion monoblocks this weekend. The Kinki M7 stereo power amp is also on my radar, depending how the integrated one performs. Have just sold the Apollon to a local buyer. I hope i dont regret it later...
DamageInc77
100+ Head-Fier
I use an Accuphase E-280 to power my Fostex TH900. Works great.
Articnoise
Headphoneus Supremus
IMO Kinki Studio EX-M1 is better sounding than the Marantz PM11 for example, but not up to the SQ level of Moon 600i. EX-M1 also have too much gain to be a good match with many more easy do drive headphone.
Am thankful to have friends willing to lend me stuff to try!
Long story short..
The AGD Audion monoblocks have a really wonderful midrange and an amazing sense of width, imaging and depth. The 3d feel is very pronounced and a it is a rather odd sensation in the beginning. However it seems to lack the low end extension and bass slam/punch and occasionally sounds a little too polite/rolled off at the top.
The Audion also doesn't have enough power for the Raal.. Its quite apparent, when raising the volume, the highs get louder faster than the mids and bass.
The Kinki sounds really good with the Susvara and TC and actually had a bit more fullness/low end than my Apollon amp. On low gain, I can run the susvara at 10-14. It needs to be on high gain with the Raal. I think it makest a nice pairing with the Raal and I have a better time with this amp than my Apollon without EQing the Raal.
The Kinki is a solid massive beast and I almost broke my back lifting it.. Very quality build with lovely heavy knobs and a display which can be turned off or dimmed (on/dim/off).
I didn't try my Utopia with either as that was not the intention.
smodtactical
Headphoneus Supremus
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You guys see this? Abyss guys claiming dangerous to use speaker amps with headphones. Not meant to handle high impedance of headphones and can blow up.
So far running my 300 ohm headphones out of my pass amp for about a year without issue. Thoughts?
Nimzerz
1000+ Head-Fier
Maybe dangerous if you have no idea what you're doing.... lol they're probably just trying to play it safe by not advocating for the use of speaker amps with their headphones
smodtactical
Headphoneus Supremus
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I think the fact that they sell headphone amps may play a role too. They have that Xiaudio right on the table and even compared it to a moon speaker amp and argued the xiaudio is better lol.
This has been discussed at length in 1266 and Susvara forums. Essentially, people still find speaker amps sound better than headphone amps. It could be due to having more options, and not necessarily driving headphones with more power. Many headphone amps (Bakoon, XI Audio, Riviera, Viva, WA33) are already powerful enough.
From what I understand the danger comes from disconnecting a load, something speaker amps have not been designed for. With headphone amp, you can easily connect a headphone or disconnect while playing music. But with speakers, you don’t really do that, do you?
ThanatosVI
Headphoneus Supremus
Most (not all) solid state speaker amps are fine with the higher load.
However among tube amps it's a lot more common that they have trouble with the high load, causing damage to the amp (therefore it's generally advised to use parallel resistors)
The problem is, that you can't generally say it's fine, for those cases where it's not (while you can always connect it to a headamp, without causing damage)
Nimzerz
1000+ Head-Fier
There are a lot of good points made, but you can hear the bias coming in. It is true that with a speaker amplifier (especially vintage ones, with capacitor failure being more likely), any issues that occur within the actual amplifier can be amplified to the headphone. This is one reason I would suggest anyone with a vintage amplifier to consider recapping the unit. Also, some amplifiers cannot have their outputs shorted--they might not have any protection circuit built in, etc. When connecting and disconnecting a headphone with a TRS plug to banana plug adapter, I believe the connection temporarily shorts the outputs when plugging it in? I'm not 100% sure but I think that's true. Maybe if the connection remains like that, you could damage the amplifier.
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number1sixerfan
Headphoneus Supremus
Exactly, it's clear as day and it's the main issue with the video. Acknowledging the risks are fine, but the conflict of interests and bias is why it's so over the top and ridiculous.
At one point, they mention the abundance of amp selections as another 'downside' of speaker amps. Like come on lol..
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