[ESL-1]

Thank you very much for your answer ESL-1. Yes i asked this because i also have the T1, and following the Teac instruction manual i always use the gain/damping setting in the low position since this should be the one for the 600 ohm headphones (or maybe i misunderstood the manual... ? ) but especially with rock music i have the sensation that there is not enough power with this kind of setting even if i turn up the volume nearly to the max... As a source i use a desktop sacd/cd player the sony xa 5400 es and works flawlessly with any other amp that i have so i do not think it's a source problem.

I didn't use the upper level of the gain/damping setting since i thought this could damage the headphones :tongue_smile:  , maybe i was misguided by the Teac manual ... sorry but i do not have much experience this is my first serious headphone system

So if you tell me there is no danger i will try your setting 

Thanks again for you help.

Any further info will be much appreciated 

 

No danger at all, feel free to experiment, you may find yourself adjusting the setting according to the sonic quality of the source to find the setting that sounds best with what you are listening to.

Enjoy the experimenting, let me know how it goes.

 

[breizh]

Hi,
 
I own a Beyer T1 and the Teac HA-501, and I use the damping selector on the "high" position, but I have to admit I don't hear huge difference with the lowest position.
It is more evident with my AKG K550 which is a low impedance headphone, and for which the "high" position clearly gives a bit more bass.
 
Now for the sound level with the T1, my main listening is done between 22 and 30 on the volume knob (rock music especially), depending on the recording - with classical music, I sometimes have to raise the volume a bit more (up to 17-20)
Actually if you take a look at the specs, you will notice that this amp is punchy for low impedance headphones but not much for high impedance ones.
 
The Schiit Asgard that I used to own had more power for my T1 (and K550 also), but the clarity and articulation were less impressive.
 
Richard

 

[nikko2014]

No danger at all, feel free to experiment, you may find yourself adjusting the setting according to the sonic quality of the source to find the setting that sounds best with what you are listening to.

Enjoy the experimenting, let me know how it goes.

Thank you again for your help ESL-1, after dinner i will experiment a little with the gain setting and see what happens

I will post the results!

 

[nikko2014]

  Hi,
 
I own a Beyer T1 and the Teac HA-501, and I use the damping selector on the "high" position, but I have to admit I don't hear huge difference with the lowest position.
It is more evident with my AKG K550 which is a low impedance headphone, and for which the "high" position clearly gives a bit more bass.
 
Now for the sound level with the T1, my main listening is done between 22 and 30 on the volume knob (rock music especially), depending on the recording - with classical music, I sometimes have to raise the volume a bit more (up to 17-20)
Actually if you take a look at the specs, you will notice that this amp is punchy for low impedance headphones but not much for high impedance ones.
 
The Schiit Asgard that I used to own had more power for my T1 (and K550 also), but the clarity and articulation were less impressive.
 
Richard

Hi Richard,
 
thanks for your contribution. Like i said i've always used the gain setting in the "low" position, and the volume level set between 15 and 12 (only with some cd's like the shm platinum cd's that have a lower level of volume registration i had to push the volume at 7...) but generally speaking i had always the feeling that with this gain setting the Teac had not enough power to drive well the T1. 
 
Tonight i will try different levels of gain/damping and see what happens. I'm sure that ESL-1 is right when he says that also the source is important when you choose which level of gain/damping to select.
 
By the way can i ask you guys which are the sources that you are actually using with the Teac and the T1?

 

[ESL-1]

Hi Richard,

thanks for your contribution. Like i said i've always used the gain setting in the "low" position, and the volume level set between 15 and 12 (only with some cd's like the shm platinum cd's that have a lower level of volume registration i had to push the volume at 7...) but generally speaking i had always the feeling that with this gain setting the Teac had not enough power to drive well the T1. 

Tonight i will try different levels of gain/damping and see what happens. I'm sure that ESL-1 is right when he says that also the source is important when you choose which level of gain/damping to select.

By the way can i ask you guys which are the sources that you are actually using with the Teac and the T1?

With my turntable temporarily not in the system my source is CDs played on a Theta Data Basic II transport and Theta DS Pro Basic III DAC.

 

[breizh]

On my side, the chain is: laptop (foobar with MP3 320k or flac) --> HRT streamer II+ Dac --> TEAC

 

[nikko2014]

So guys i have done some experiments with the damping/gain setting, but i have to say the differences were not so big as i expected... i find the sound in the "low setting" position to be warmer and a little bit softer, on the higher positions it's a little bit louder and crispy to me, but again i'm talking about really small differences...
 
Thanks again to ESL-1 and breizh for your help 

 

 

[ivanlyf]

Joining this thread!
 
I just bought the TEAC HA-501 headphone amplifier 2 days ago to replace my ifi audio iCan. Bah, the iCan v2 sounds super hollow as compared to the TEAC HA-501!
 
My setup:
 
Genre: Classical music and Jazz
PC: J River MC20, AIFF files
Cables: Cardas Clear USB, XLR and RCA cables
DAC: Mytek Stereo192-DSD DAC
Speakers: Adam Audio Artist 5
Headphone: Sennheiser HD800 (stock)
Power: Isotek Evo 3 power conditioners and power cables
 
Thus far, have found that a high damping factor makes the classical a bit too fast paced....the middle setting fits better.
 
Oh, and I'm also using the TEAC HA-501 as a pre-amp to my speakers

 

[ESL-1]

Joining this thread!

I just bought the TEAC HA-501 headphone amplifier 2 days ago to replace my ifi audio iCan. Bah, the iCan v2 sounds super hollow as compared to the TEAC HA-501!

My setup:

Genre: Classical music and Jazz
PC: J River MC20, AIFF files
Cables: Cardas Clear USB, XLR and RCA cables
DAC: Mytek Stereo192-DSD DAC
Speakers: Adam Audio Artist 5
Headphone: Sennheiser HD800 (stock)
Power: Isotek Evo 3 power conditioners and power cables

Thus far, have found that a high damping factor makes the classical a bit too fast paced....the middle setting fits better.

Oh, and I'm also using the TEAC HA-501 as a pre-amp to my speakers

Enjoy your new acquisition, it is a very good and flexible piece. I use the output in the fixed setting to daisy chain my source to my other HP amps, glad to hear it is working well as a preamp.

In the Metro NY area American Audiophile in Lynbrook is an authorized dealer and Mike is a great guy to deal with.

Have fun.....

 

[ivanlyf]

Have nearly achieved 5 hours of use so far as a speaker pre-amp and a headphone amplifier...
 
The amplifier is fitting nicely into my setup which I tweaked for classical music and a bit of a jazz.
 
I'm very picky with the treble signature because a suppressed or uncontrolled treble can very quickly and surely destroy the sound of a string work (quartet, quintet, sextet, trios etc.). The TEAC HA-501 has shown that it can control the treble well - the treble is certainly not suppressed and neither is it harsh. 
 
I will try to add more impressions as the amplifier comes "on-line" with burning in.

 

[ESL-1]

  Have nearly achieved 5 hours of use so far as a speaker pre-amp and a headphone amplifier...
 
The amplifier is fitting nicely into my setup which I tweaked for classical music and a bit of a jazz.
 
I'm very picky with the treble signature because a suppressed or uncontrolled treble can very quickly and surely destroy the sound of a string work (quartet, quintet, sextet, trios etc.). The TEAC HA-501 has shown that it can control the treble well - the treble is certainly not suppressed and neither is it harsh. 
 
I will try to add more impressions as the amplifier comes "on-line" with burning in.

 
As a headphone amp the bass is also very well controlled so I expect it to be the same via preamp outputs.  Which amp and speakers are you hooked up to?
 
Burn in on it for my application as headphone amp was not overly long, less than 50 hours I would guess.  Prior to the unit I purchased I had an opportunity to audition a demo model from American Audiophile for a couple of weeks in my set up and that was the convincer for me.  It has been a very good match for a majority of my dynamic phones and also did well with the notoriously hard to drive AKG K340 electret/dynamic hybrid.  My Woo WA3 is particularly good with the AKG also, no surprise there as an OTL it does like higher impedence loads.

 

[ivanlyf]

   
As a headphone amp the bass is also very well controlled so I expect it to be the same via preamp outputs.  Which amp and speakers are you hooked up to?
 
Burn in on it for my application as headphone amp was not overly long, less than 50 hours I would guess.  Prior to the unit I purchased I had an opportunity to audition a demo model from American Audiophile for a couple of weeks in my set up and that was the convincer for me.  It has been a very good match for a majority of my dynamic phones and also did well with the notoriously hard to drive AKG K340 electret/dynamic hybrid.  My Woo WA3 is particularly good with the AKG also, no surprise there as an OTL it does like higher impedence loads.

 
I'm using Active Speakers - Adam Audio Artist 5 speakers
 
The source is AIFF files and a Mytek Stereo192-DSD DAC
 

 

[552388]

This unit seem fit my case, still waiting more reviews coming

 

[hodgjy]

  This unit seem fit my case, still waiting more reviews coming

 
More reviews probably won't come because it's from a mainstream manufacturer, and audio reviewers tend to only focus on boutique stuff.
 
But, this is the endorsement I can give about this amp: I was a tube snob for years and turned my nose at solid state amps. This is the solid state amp that lets dust collect on my tube amp collection.

 

[ivanlyf]

  This unit seem fit my case, still waiting more reviews coming

 
May I ask what is the background / situation / context of your case? Some of us owners might share the same situation and can give you more specific opinions / recommendations.
 
For example, you may listen mainly to classical music like me so I might be able to provide specific opinions