saturnine
Headphoneus Supremus
This is the absolute best review I've seen here. Bump for a permanent copy in the review section!!
Originally Posted by Salt Peanuts Very nice review! Your review makes me want to get a pair of AMT's, as I've been enjoying Ergo 2's. |
Originally Posted by saturnine This is the absolute best review I've seen here. |
Originally Posted by Duggeh The upper and lower areas of the driver on the outside facing edge do appear to be covered by some sort of wolly material held in place by tape, as evident from the photos, the inside facing edge has this also but not over as great an area. |
Originally Posted by duggeh I believe the AMP2 is a full class A with a meticulously designed EQ curve. The Amp1 imho could use a lift of a few db at around 40hz to give the sound a bit more meat. This might be accomplished with a beefier power supply, but given the amps topology I doubt it. |
Originally Posted by Duggeh Why do you ask about the padding? What purpose does it serve? Some sort of resonance control? |
Originally Posted by Duggeh If theres one design flaw id cite with the construction of the headphones its the poor way in which the drivers are affixed to the housings. |
Originally Posted by Duggeh ps, thanks for your kind words. |
Originally Posted by wualta Ah. So the pleats of the AMT extend farther above and below the tape (I couldn't tell what it was, what with the spirochete design motif embedded in it or printed on it), and yes, there's something squidgy under that tape. But most of the driver is hanging out there in space, though squished slightly by the pole piece crossbars. |
Originally Posted by wualta The tape would appear to be reflecting some of the sound back to the driver. I wonder why they didn't use netting or framing to hold the woolly stuff in place..? |
Originally Posted by wualta It would certainly need a bigger heatsink! But I would think that even AMP1 must be supplying some extra bass, no? |
Originally Posted by wualta Maybe it would be best to operate it from a good speaker amp's outputs with a custom digital EQ in the loop. Hard to say from here. The Ergo passive box does seem to be supplying some EQ of its own. |
Originally Posted by wualta My ideal amp to drive an AMT full range and use it as a headphone would supply absolutely hellacious amounts of bass boost with a sharp cutoff (and maybe an overall frequency-response tilt downward toward the treble end), but only at moderate levels. It would cut back, starting with the lowest frequencies, as you cranked the amp up, so no matter what you did, you'd still get clean sound. A soft-clip circuit would also be a good idea, I should think. |
Originally Posted by wualta I'd also go for the tightest possible seal to the ears/cranium I could get to keep that bass from leaking away, but that would do violence to the Jecklin Way. |
Originally Posted by wualta Precisely. My experience with a hardworking miniature Heil tweeter that looks surprisingly like your Ergo AMT driver is that at some midrange frequencies there's a narrowband natural resonance, which causes a kind of edginess. Some stuffing on the backside of the pleated surface cured the problem. Even the big Heils have a noticeable twang. I figured driving a small Heil full range, since small=stiff, might exacerbate the problem... or it might not. If you hear only a nice smooth flat response, then Precide's efforts (and sheep) have wrestled the problem to the noise floor. |
Originally Posted by wualta I understand your concern, but unless the job was done so badly that the driver's likely to come loose, it's actually better that the mounting is soft and nonresonant. In audio, rigidity is often sought but just as often creates intractable problems. A real Caccia-22, as the Italians say. In any case, I wouldn't worry about it. |
Originally Posted by wualta Quite welcome. I was very pleased that you thanked your dad for his Stax and, indirectly, for owning them, thus shining the Staxlight of goodness on your upbringing. |
Originally Posted by Duggeh The cross bar structure of the magnets may aid with the reducing the resonances you mentioned further down. |
Originally Posted by duggeh When you block off the outward facing edges with the palms of yoru hands there is a notable baffled bass increase. |
Originally Posted by Duggeh When I contacted Precide I was told that the Box is EQ'd and that its a lot to do with the coils. |
Originally Posted by Duggeh I spent a quarter hour gently bending the headband inward. I've now got all the comfort, but with a more secure less flappy fit and with measureably improved low end. |
Originally Posted by Duggeh I think that a closed design would be murder to baffle well. |
Originally Posted by Duggeh The resonant frequency of the driver pleats is right down below 20 hz. |
Originally Posted by Duggeh Theres no driver caused distortion anywhere in the main spectrum insofar as I can hear. |
Originally Posted by Duggeh It was just the absense of actual mechanical fixation that had got my eyebrow up. |
Originally Posted by Duggeh My dad got his Stax after being so impressed with my first one. His only previous headphone was an '80s model DT880. |
Originally Posted by Duggeh Although for almost all his listening he uses Triports. |