Nov 1, 2024 at 12:40 PM Post #3,916 of 3,946
Alex,

Thank you. I've owned the amp going on 10 years. I wanted to trial with my Calderas prior to buying yet another amp. My current HP amps are less than stellar. Recently moved, so I came upon my owners manual. Yeah, thought to read it.

I use a high class preamp to control volume, so far no issue. Amp appears to run the same temperature as if I'm using my 4ohm speakers. The sound is off the charts and much better than any amp previously used in the home or at shows.

I'll try the new Headamp amp this next week at Capital Audiofest, if stellar, I may buy it versus using the A-70.

Thank you
Pls see earlier posts in this thread under ‘resistors’ - the approach most of us who do this are using is to place a resistor across the (+) and (-) posts for each channel equal to the resistance that the amp is expecting to see IN PARALLEL to the HP cables attached to the speaker amp binding posts. I myself accomplished this by a Zynsonix adapter box, which does the job neatly if not particularly cheaply, and (as mine is designed) provides 2 four-PIN XLR HP outs, one with no additional resistors in serial to the signal chain (for Susvara and other very insensitive HPs) and the other for more sensitive HPs with serial resistors producing a -12dB difference from the other four-pin out.

Note that the parallel resistor will not save your headphones from damage using such a device if you don’t use it carefully and wisely every time (below is my own list of operations in order to minimize risk). The parallel resistor is to protect the amp not the headphones.

Order-

Inserting headphones :

Dac on

Preamp on/ tubes on

Power Amp on

Be sure all music is off and volume is minimal/muted at all stages

Plug in Headphones

Start music and gradually increase volume



To remove:

Mute/ reduce volume

Headphones out

Power amp off

Preamp off

Dac off

Probably better to check this carefully every use.

Avoid changing gain, inputs, or anything else other than volume while HPs are attached to four-pin. If using a turntable, needle drop should proceed unmute/volume adjustment. If you have tubes in the chain be sure that they are quiet and ‘pop’ free.

Some leave the HPs in all the time and just just keep the speaker amp on standby etc. I too skiddish for that, as power on or off can be associated with rapid voltage spikes that could be damaging.
 
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Nov 1, 2024 at 1:53 PM Post #3,917 of 3,946
Alex,

Thank you. I've owned the amp going on 10 years. I wanted to trial with my Calderas prior to buying yet another amp. My current HP amps are less than stellar. Recently moved, so I came upon my owners manual. Yeah, thought to read it.

I use a high class preamp to control volume, so far no issue. Amp appears to run the same temperature as if I'm using my 4ohm speakers. The sound is off the charts and much better than any amp previously used in the home or at shows.

I'll try the new Headamp amp this next week at Capital Audiofest, if stellar, I may buy it versus using the A-70.

Thank you
Great, as long as you carefully turn up the volume so you dont get into clipping and ear bleed levels your probably ok...
Just use caution as always..

Good to see you going to the Capital Audiofest, I am in Raleigh Nc and went once...met Jim from Salk Sound and his partners in "crime".. enjoy!

Alex
 
Nov 1, 2024 at 1:56 PM Post #3,918 of 3,946
Pls see earlier posts in this thread under ‘resistors’ - the approach most of us who do this are using is to place a resistor across the (+) and (-) posts for each channel equal to the resistance that the amp is expecting to see IN PARALLEL to the HP cables attached to the speaker amp binding posts. I myself accomplished this by a Zynsonix adapter box, which does the job neatly if not particularly cheaply, and (as mine is designed) provides 2 four-PIN XLR HP outs, one with no additional resistors in serial to the signal chain (for Susvara and other very insensitive HPs) and the other for more sensitive HPs with serial resistors producing a -12dB difference from the other four-pin out.

Note that the parallel resistor will not save your headphones from damage using such a device if you don’t use it carefully and wisely every time (below is my own list of operations in order to minimize risk). The parallel resistor is to protect the amp not the headphones.

Order-

Inserting headphones :

Dac on

Preamp on/ tubes on

Power Amp on

Be sure all music is off and volume is minimal/muted at all stages

Plug in Headphones

Start music and gradually increase volume



To remove:

Mute/ reduce volume

Headphones out

Power amp off

Preamp off

Dac off

Probably better to check this carefully every use.

Avoid changing gain, inputs, or anything else other than volume while HPs are attached to four-pin. If using a turntable, needle drop should proceed unmute/volume adjustment. If you have tubes in the chain be sure that they are quiet and ‘pop’ free.

Some leave the HPs in all the time and just just keep the speaker amp on standby etc. I too skiddish for that, as power on or off can be associated with rapid voltage spikes that could be damaging.
Thank you. I always thought the resistor approach was protecting the headphone, but the purpose is to protect the amp. Ok. I am using this right now.

https://fogcityaudio.com/products/adaptor-cable-speaker-banana-plugs-to-female-4-pin-xlr
Just use caution as always..

Good to see you going to the Capital Audiofest, I am in Raleigh Nc and went once...met Jim from Salk Sound and his partners in "crime".. enjoy!

Alex
I'm in Wilmington. Will be working up in MD next week. So, yeah, thought I would go one day. Should be fun.
 
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Nov 1, 2024 at 3:08 PM Post #3,919 of 3,946
In my case, speaking to an earlier question about why anybody would want to use a speaker amplifier to drive headphones, for myself, I had what I thought was a really great integrated amplifier with no headphone input and I just wanted to see how it did.

To answer that, my NAD M3 seems to have been really good driving headphones directly from the speaker terminal with no resistors added. I was very pleased with several different headphones. It allowed me to have one less device.
 
Nov 2, 2024 at 11:47 AM Post #3,920 of 3,946
Resistors paralleled on the outputs of the amplifier are generally unnecessary unless it is a tube amp with transformer/autoformer output. Solid state amps for the most part don't really care what kind of load they see (unless it's a super low value which most headphones are not). Tube amps and transformer-coupled tube amps generally have an "ideal" load that they want, and also "must" have at least some kind of minimum load to prevent the circuit from burning itself out.

Parallel resistors do nothing to reduce the amount of power going into the headphones. Series resistors do. You can also have a combination of the two, either doing a parallel-first or series-first, both of which will ultimately reduce the power into the headphones in slightly different ways.
 
Nov 2, 2024 at 5:29 PM Post #3,921 of 3,946
Alex,

Thank you. I've owned the amp going on 10 years. I wanted to trial with my Calderas prior to buying yet another amp. My current HP amps are less than stellar. Recently moved, so I came upon my owners manual. Yeah, thought to read it.

I use a high class preamp to control volume, so far no issue. Amp appears to run the same temperature as if I'm using my 4ohm speakers. The sound is off the charts and much better than any amp previously used in the home or at shows.

I'll try the new Headamp amp this next week at Capital Audiofest, if stellar, I may buy it versus using the A-70.

Thank you

I think you are probably fine but if concerned reach out to the manufacturer. I did with my Pass amp and they said it was fine, just to be careful not to feed the headphones too much power.
 
Nov 24, 2024 at 7:04 PM Post #3,923 of 3,946
I want to use the schiit wotan just because I love heat sink lmao
I keep looking for some sonic impressions has anybody seen any drop yet?
 
Nov 27, 2024 at 9:15 PM Post #3,924 of 3,946
Hey all, I am selling a mint Bryston 4BSST2 if you're looking for a potential endgame speaker amp.
PM me if interested!
3 - 4RjLwrg.jpg
 
Dec 23, 2024 at 8:33 PM Post #3,925 of 3,946
I think you are probably fine but if concerned reach out to the manufacturer. I did with my Pass amp and they said it was fine, just to be careful not to feed the headphones too much power.
I see you have both the Enlum and Woo Audio Wa33 with Chord MDave. Any preference.over the other? Have you tried the Holo Bliss? BTW, you chose to go with dedicated HP amp versus sticking with the Pass amp?
 
Dec 26, 2024 at 5:30 PM Post #3,926 of 3,946
Resistors paralleled on the outputs of the amplifier are generally unnecessary unless it is a tube amp with transformer/autoformer output. Solid state amps for the most part don't really care what kind of load they see (unless it's a super low value which most headphones are not). Tube amps and transformer-coupled tube amps generally have an "ideal" load that they want, and also "must" have at least some kind of minimum load to prevent the circuit from burning itself out.

Parallel resistors do nothing to reduce the amount of power going into the headphones. Series resistors do. You can also have a combination of the two, either doing a parallel-first or series-first, both of which will ultimately reduce the power into the headphones in slightly different ways.
Decided to purchase the Zynsonix speaker to HP converter box. Not so much for my Accuphase A-70, but more so for my Synthesis A100 https://www.synthesis.co.it/product.php?id=32

Will this box work for me?
 
Dec 26, 2024 at 6:30 PM Post #3,927 of 3,946
Decided to purchase the Zynsonix speaker to HP converter box. Not so much for my Accuphase A-70, but more so for my Synthesis A100 https://www.synthesis.co.it/product.php?id=32

Will this box work for me?

should work just fine. if there is a tube warm up period on turning on before the amp becomes functional, I'd wait for that to complete before connecting the headphones to the box. I don't like having tube pops and crackles (if any) transmitting to my headphones.
 
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Dec 26, 2024 at 8:00 PM Post #3,928 of 3,946
should work just fine. if there is a tube warm up period on turning in before the amp becomes functional, I'd wait for that to complete before connecting the headphones to the box. I don't like having tube pops and crackles (if any) transmitting to my headphones.
Ahh, good advice. Yes, there is a warm up period. The noise level on this tube amp is quite high, which is only amplified in the headphones, but suppose comes with the territory. Thank you.

Roasty, you have a serious music setup. Curious, what do you like better, the Riviera or the Zahl HM1?
 
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Dec 26, 2024 at 9:50 PM Post #3,929 of 3,946
Decided to purchase the Zynsonix speaker to HP converter box. Not so much for my Accuphase A-70, but more so for my Synthesis A100 https://www.synthesis.co.it/product.php?id=32

Will this box work for me?
I have the Zynsonix box also.

In actual practice, power amp, preamp and DAC are ‘on’ all the time but in standby mode when headphones aren’t connected. If I am swapping DAC output between my 2 pre-amps, i deliberately switch off everything every time, even though headphones aren’t connected, to avoid the possibility of an inadvertent mistake.

I Do not change output or gain modes of the DAC or pre-amp while hp is plugged in. No changes other than music muted with volume down before plugging/unplugging.

I realize some folks leave their headphones plugged in all the tim3, but for those of us with a speaker amp at the end of the chain and we are connected either directly or indirectly via a box like Zynsonix’, it seems important to be more deliberate and cautious.
 
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Dec 27, 2024 at 12:07 PM Post #3,930 of 3,946
@harris4crna
I'm guessing you mean this thing: https://www.zynsonix.com/Speaker-Amp-to-Headphone-Converter-Box-Bypass_p_54.html

As my usual advice goes, only ever get the version with the 4-pin XLR output and never buy the one with the 1/4" jack even if you know your amplifier has a shared ground... because there's always the chance that you're gonna forget and try out a different amp, or lend it to someone, blah blah, and whoopsee doodle something then goes fizzle pop and lets out the magic smoke.
 

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