- Joined
- Apr 28, 2007
- Posts
- 5,494
- Likes
- 1,084
Welcome John!
Having learned, with some math tutelage from Armaegis, that the resistor network built by Jan Plummer for my TBI Millenia MG3 reduces the power output by 15.8 dB (from 5.1W into 50 Ohms to 133mW into 50 Ohms), I no longer use the attenuated, Class BD MG3 with my LCD-2, due to the loss of dynamics and bass control had with only 133mW. Of course, the real reason for using a resistor network with the MG3 is to silence the hiss inherent to its excessive gain - a hiss that can be easily heard with transducers that are far more sensitive than the typical 8-Ohm loudspeakers for which it was designed.
But, as FlySweep later convinced me, that MG3 + 10/2 resistor network sounds freaking awesome with the HD600 that I purchased at his recommendation. He has since gone on to say that his more recently acquired HD650 are even better with the MG3 + resistor network. The good news is that the story ends well, after silencing the MG3's hiss, by using headphones that don't need more than 133mW into 50 Ohms (or 23.4mW into 300 Ohms). I'm also blown away by how wonderful the attenuated MG3 sounds with my HD800 (at least with recordings that don't have a lot of bass - a weakness of the HD800 that the relatively neutral MG3 can't compensate). Overall, the HD600 is a much better match to the MG3 + resistor network (as is, the HD650, per FlySweep, who started out with the HD800 on his attenuated MG3).
So why should anyone buy an over-powered speaker amp for use with headphones - especially if you have to attenuate the output? Because the amp itself might bring something to the table that you're not able to get from any other amp you've heard.
Seriously, it's surely not the 110W into 8 Ohms that Gary is exploiting when he listens to his Odyssey Audio Cyclops Extreme - fed directly into his LCD-3. He's using a tiny fraction of that power. No... He must just be attracted to those same qualities that make the amp so popular with HiFi enthusiasts - the amp's sound!
Mike
And here all this time I thought you just wrote down the names of your components on a spinning dartboart and picked a new combo each morning...
And speaking of stuff I already owned...
[snip]
so I figured I'd take it home with me and try it as a headamp. I mean, that's what we do on this thread right?
[snip]
In the East they were pretty much the store brand of Tech HiFi, one of the stores I used to haunt back then (haunt being the operative and appropriate term... I think they performed several exorcisms to keep me away, but it didn't work).
[snip]
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
This sucker kicks arse!!!!
It isn't the equal of the Odyssey, but it is more than a match for the Millenia MG-3. No noise -- hiss, static or other -- through the box. Clean, tight, punchy. Decent soundstage (much better than the Millenia). Dynamics? Craploads. Edgier than the Odyssey in the treble, with a tiny bit of harshness up there, so some of you might actually like it better.
I don't like it better than the Odyssey, but I like it just fine as a backup amp. I wouldn't pair it with the HD800, but it is pretty damned nice with the LCD-3s and even the HD650s. None of the other amps I tried last summer, including the MJ and Soloist, are in this league. And it was free. Well, it wasn't free when I bought it in the 1970s, particularly given my economic situation at the time (poor student), but I think I can depreciate that purchase price enough now that for all intents and purposes it's free.
So if you happen to see a vintage but functional Nikko amp anywhere on eBay, Audiogon or at a yard sale or thrift shop, you might want to risk that $5 or even $85 (that was the asking price on a couple of old eBay ads I saw). I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how well it can drive a pair of cans from the speaker outs.
As for me, I already got my hidden treasure. I feel like somebody on one of those PBS or cable shows who brings an old piece of junk in and finds out it's worth a fortune.
Damn I love free stuff that works great!!!
On the other hand, now I have too many headamps... I guess I need a 3-output pre-amp and another pair of cans so I can have 3 easy choices for my daily listening. Hmmm, maybe this thing ain't quite as free as I thought!!!
This is the thrill I had when I got my HE-6 and found all the headphone amps I tried to be underperforming. A pair of Rotel RMB-100s at 125w are running my HE-6. I've heard better amps but for free, I'm a happy camper.And speaking of stuff I already owned...
I was at my elderly parents' place last weekend, and my mother asked me if I could take a box up to the attic. While I was up there, I did a little lookin' 'round, and found my old Nikko NA-890 integrated amp from the late 1970s that I had given them to use in the 1980s or early 1990s along with a pair of my old speakers so that they could listen to music at bridge games or whatever. In any case, they were clearly no longer using it (my mother was never really into it and my father is almost 87, mostly deaf... too many years playing bass too close to the drummer... that's his story, he's sticking to it...) so I figured I'd take it home with me and try it as a headamp. I mean, that's what we do on this thread right?
A little about the amp: it is solid state, rated at 70 wpc into 8 ohms, .04% THD 20 to 20K, blah, blah. Specs on a ~35-year-old amp are pretty meaningless, they designed/tested mostly by ear in those days. Nikko was never a big player in the audio business, they mostly did big industrial electronics (circuit breakers, etc.) but they did a lot of contract audio work, and sold amps and tuners under their own name on the East and West coasts. In the East they were pretty much the store brand of Tech HiFi, one of the stores I used to haunt back then (haunt being the operative and appropriate term... I think they performed several exorcisms to keep me away, but it didn't work). This particular amp was not a top-of-the-line unit, but it was what I could afford as a teenager and at that time it was a big step up.
So I finally got around to playing with it Friday night. First I looked at the connections in the rear... certainly no 5-ways back there. In fact, the posts were tiny, so that I couldn't even fit spades in there. Crap, no way to directly connect the speaker tap without undoing the tap's connectors, and I wasn't going to do that.
I was tired, so I just decided to try the HP jack in the front. Connected the Yulong DA-8 to the Aux inputs, jacked in, powered on and... staticky noise. Lots of it. First in the left ear, then when I adjusted the volume, the noise came and went, sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right. But when the static wasn't there it sounded okay. A bit congested, though rich and full-bodied. . But that noise was not acceptable. Oh well, it was worth a try right? I gave up and went to bed.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
As usual, I do my best thinking while I'm asleep :evil: . I woke up yesterday realizing that I had the solution to the rear connections... a resistor box. I cut a couple of ~1-foot hunks of 12-gauge speaker wire that just barely fits in those posts, and connected up my spare box (the one with the Mills resistors). Connected the speaker tap and then the LCDs. Power on. JRiver open. Click on a test tune...
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
This sucker kicks arse!!!!
It isn't the equal of the Odyssey, but it is more than a match for the Millenia MG-3. No noise -- hiss, static or other -- through the box. Clean, tight, punchy. Decent soundstage (much better than the Millenia). Dynamics? Craploads. Edgier than the Odyssey in the treble, with a tiny bit of harshness up there, so some of you might actually like it better .
I don't like it better than the Odyssey, but I like it just fine as a backup amp. I wouldn't pair it with the HD800, but it is pretty damned nice with the LCD-3s and even the HD650s. None of the other amps I tried last summer, including the MJ and Soloist, are in this league. And it was free. Well, it wasn't free when I bought it in the 1970s, particularly given my economic situation at the time (poor student), but I think I can depreciate that purchase price enough now that for all intents and purposes it's free.
So if you happen to see a vintage but functional Nikko amp anywhere on eBay, Audiogon or at a yard sale or thrift shop, you might want to risk that $5 or even $85 (that was the asking price on a couple of old eBay ads I saw). I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how well it can drive a pair of cans from the speaker outs.
As for me, I already got my hidden treasure. I feel like somebody on one of those PBS or cable shows who brings an old piece of junk in and finds out it's worth a fortune.
Damn I love free stuff that works great!!!
On the other hand, now I have too many headamps... I guess I need a 3-output pre-amp and another pair of cans so I can have 3 easy choices for my daily listening. Hmmm, maybe this thing ain't quite as free as I thought!!!