[kelvinwsy]

I use my Abyss ab1266 exclusively with Spkr amps
Go to Robinette Hp calc sheet at
https://robrobinette.com/HeadphoneResistorNetworkCalculator.htm
U can wire a Vishay 10ohm 25 watt resistor ( my Hp amps are 15 & 8 tube and 7 watt SS) across the speaker taps. Then connect your 4 wire 4pin XLR connector to the same spkr taps. You are hood to go BUT u need volume control on your DAC or use a preamp before the Spkr amps
See my photos below. What Joe is saying is correct as u dont need 125watt/6 = 20watts!
8watts from a good Tube amp or SS amp is sufficient!
The twin KSA 5 are clones from Aliexpress which I had my local tech upgrade the power tranny and all Capacitors I use them as monoblocs with Left and Right channel Volume controls..
On my Audiopax Stereo 15 KT88 tube amps this 10watt Lpad works well ! My He560 is hooked up to this setup!
On my Audionotes Quest Silver Monoblocs the 10watt parallel Lpad did not work Amp goes silent shutdown . So I switch back to the Hifiman Resistor box.. Also helps to reduce gain am hiss on my Senn HD800 and Verum 1
My case was a switch fr Spks to HPs.. How to use my hi-end tube amps w/o spending another fortune on a Hi end HP amp. I just bought the abyss ab1266 phi cc and i just added the modded KSA5 clones to mt HP setups..
Hope the above helps

 

[Litlgi74]

I'm going to be jumping on the speaker amp bandwagon very soon... I demo'd a Moon 600i yesterday. It was the best my 1266s have ever sounded.

The Moon 600i makes using a speaker amp for headphones very doable and with "minimal" risk. The M-eVOL2 employs two Multiplying Digital-to-Analog Converters (MDACs), one per channel, to enable precise volume adjustments in increments of 0.1dB, for a total of 530 individual steps. Between 0 and 30dB, volume adjustments are made in 1dB increments. From 30 to 80dB (full power), adjustments are made in increments of 0.1dB. You can also set and lock a volume position to help eliminate accidental overload to your headphones.

During my demo I had the volume knob upwards of 40dB... My headphones exhibited none of my fears. No pops, cracks, sizzles or smoke. I am sold on this incredible amplifier.

I will own the incredible 600i by the end if the month.

I am beyond excited.

 

[Litlgi74]

I use my Abyss ab1266 exclusively with Spkr amps
Go to Robinette Hp calc sheet at
https://robrobinette.com/HeadphoneResistorNetworkCalculator.htm
U can wire a Vishay 10ohm 25 watt resistor ( my Hp amps are 15 & 8 tube and 7 watt SS) across the speaker taps. Then connect your 4 wire 4pin XLR connector to the same spkr taps. You are hood to go BUT u need volume control on your DAC or use a preamp before the Spkr amps
See my photos below. What Joe is saying is correct as u dont need 125watt/6 = 20watts!
8watts from a good Tube amp or SS amp is sufficient!
The twin KSA 5 are clones from Aliexpress which I had my local tech upgrade the power tranny and all Capacitors I use them as monoblocs with Left and Right channel Volume controls..
On my Audiopax Stereo 15 KT88 tube amps this 10watt Lpad works well ! My He560 is hooked up to this setup!
On my Audionotes Quest Silver Monoblocs the 10watt parallel Lpad did not work Amp goes silent shutdown . So I switch back to the Hifiman Resistor box.. Also helps to reduce gain am hiss on my Senn HD800 and Verum 1
My case was a switch fr Spks to HPs.. How to use my hi-end tube amps w/o spending another fortune on a Hi end HP amp. I just bought the abyss ab1266 phi cc and i just added the modded KSA5 clones to mt HP setups..
Hope the above helps

Thanks for your description... Did you forget to attach the photos?

 

[Joe Skubinski]

Also a lot of the tapping adaptors I see around are terminated in a balanced xlr, is there a reason for that or can a 1/4 " TRS be used as well? I usually prefer to use my single ended lazuli cable with my abyss

Reason being some amps, typically higher power, have floating grounds. The negative terminals are not ground but rather amplified, so if you happen to short the amp's L and R negative terminals together as would be the case with a single ended connection, boom!

 

[kelvinwsy]

Always 4pin xlr! I hv been running the Robinette Lpad for 3-4 years niwSo far so good

 

[kelvinwsy]

The KSA5 hv very good speaker protection for DC and shorts! The Audiopax also

 

[kelvinwsy]

Audiopax Stereo 88 15watt p channel KT88 and a 45 Tube 6n1p preamp with 5ar4 tube rectified PSU - i use a 10 watt Lpad and hook up my Hifiman He560 directly to the KT88 amp for my Clearaudio T/T Avantgarde Magnum setup

 

[kelvinwsy]

I always use my He560 as a test Hp whenever I make changes to my PC Hqplayer Main System which i use my Abyss hp on. Any issues the He560 will tell at no risk to the ab1266.. Once music is flowing Volume off Switch to Abyss 1266!

 

[Ayodej]

Reason being some amps, typically higher power, have floating grounds. The negative terminals are not ground but rather amplified, so if you happen to short the amp's L and R negative terminals together as would be the case with a single ended connection, boom!

Thanks for the reply Joe! So would simply asking the manufacturer over at Wells audio if the Innamorata’s L & R negative terminals are individually grounded or not determine if I can use a TRS termination (Yes being for grounded, & No for amplified)?

I always use my He560 as a test Hp whenever I make changes to my PC Hqplayer Main System which i use my Abyss hp on. Any issues the He560 will tell at no risk to the ab1266.. Once music is flowing Volume off Switch to Abyss 1266!

Yes I was also thinking of using my old spare headphones Sennheiser HD598 as a tester before the TC as the impedance is fairly close to it at 50 ohm, but I’m not sure if there are any design limitations of those headphones that could be detrimental to the amp, since they are not necessarily built to the same level as hifi cans? I.e dynamic vs planar drivers.

 

[Joe Skubinski]

@Ayodej You would be speaking to Jeff, let him know what you are planning to do and see what he says.

 

[astrostar59]

I'm going to be jumping on the speaker amp bandwagon very soon... I demo'd a Moon 600i yesterday. It was the best my 1266s have ever sounded.

The Moon 600i makes using a speaker amp for headphones very doable and with "minimal" risk. The M-eVOL2 employs two Multiplying Digital-to-Analog Converters (MDACs), one per channel, to enable precise volume adjustments in increments of 0.1dB, for a total of 530 individual steps. Between 0 and 30dB, volume adjustments are made in 1dB increments. From 30 to 80dB (full power), adjustments are made in increments of 0.1dB. You can also set and lock a volume position to help eliminate accidental overload to your headphones.

During my demo I had the volume knob upwards of 40dB... My headphones exhibited non of my fears. No pops, cracks, sizzles or smoke. I am sold on this incredible amplifier.

I will own the incredible 600i by the end if the month.

I am beyond excited.

Nice! I get your beyond excited, it is how the Abyss was from day one for me, and now it is at orgasmic level....

On connections, I would say use Male XLR and at the other end Banana plugs, so grounds stay separate. I simply adapted a Norne Audio 4 pin cable extension I had already. Add some shrink wrap at the banana plug ends for strain relief, and then run the cable under the amp and have the 4 pin near the front for hook up.

The 600i has a nice look, and a big rd display for volume, source etc. The remote is also very nice.

On power, remember a 8W single 300B tube amp at 8 ohms could end up <2W into 50 ohms, so that may explain how some amps struggle on the Abyss.

 

[simorag]

Here’s another update of my AB-1266 amplifier quest saga ... sorry for bothering you guys

After listening the Air Tight ATM-300R in August, and liking it quite a bit, I spotted a ‘regular’ – i.e. not Reference – 2nd hand ATM-300 on a shop relatively close to where I live. Being the 300R way out of my budget at 15-18kEuro depending on the 300B tube pair, I was curious to check its predecessor out.

The unit I tried had Cetron 300B upgraded tubes, by the way.

To my disappointment, the ATM-300 I tried had serious background noise issues with the Abyss, which was an immediate show stopper. Also, the control over the bass was way worse than the 300R, to the point that the lowest frequencies were borderline bloated.

Next on my audition list was an Octave V80 SE, a beast of a push-pull KT150 class AB tube integrated (80W/8Ohm) beautifully crafted in Germany, listed about 11k but possibly within my reach as an ex-demo deal.

The V80SE was totally devoid of hiss / hum nasties, and I could play with a decent amount of volume adjustment range, therefore fine tuning the loudness to my liking without being nervous about the slightest rotation of its (big and satisfying) knob.

Listening to the V80 SE (on speaker taps, as its headphone out is not up to the task with the Abyss) was a striking experience.

In a nutshell, it was like listening to the AB-1266 on steroids.

The presentation was bold, vast, with plenty of extension at both extremes of the spectrum. The amp had an iron grip over the Abyss drivers and the bass was thunderous, cavernous yet very fast and fully controlled. To be honest, on some recordings, the pairing of the generous bass response of both Abyss and amplifier sounded a bit overdone to me.

Soundstage was huge in all three dimensions yet very clean – i.e. not artificially diffuse – with very good imaging and instrument separation.

Mids and treble were on the neutral side, no hint of tubey warmth / euphonics that I could tell, perhaps only a bit of (welcome) midrange forwardness. In comparison, with the Riviera AIC-10 and the Thrax Enyo I tried in the recent past the mids sounded thicker, creamier, probably more colored, but more enjoyable to my ears and emotionally engaging.

Transparency, detail retrieval, transient response were the best I have heard out of any amp I have tried so far (headphones or speaker), on par with directly driving the HP out of the DAVE. Visceral impact was also top notch.

In summary, the Octave expanded on all the strengths of the AB-1266, while reinforcing their ‘reference’ signature, with no intention of being pleasing, forgiving or catchy in any way.

Personally, I would have liked some more harmonics richness and color saturation, but you cannot have it all, right?

Or perhaps ... yes?

I demo'd a Moon 600i yesterday. It was the best my 1266s have ever sounded.

Nice! I get your beyond excited, it is how the Abyss was from day one for me, and now it is at orgasmic level....

I wish I could get to hear a Moon 600i at this point!

 

[Litlgi74]

I wish I could get to hear a Moon 600i at this point!

What's stopping you? No dealers?

 

[Zhanming057]

@simorag I have listened to the Phi on the ATM300 with stock tubes, no noise issues at all and the bass wasn't much worse than Stefan's 300R. It's possible that the one you listened to had some issues (or had a bad set of tubes).

The V80SE is also great although at 11,000 euros the price is higher than US prices - not sure if it's just European pricing though. Have you tried any 845 amps with the Abyss?

 

[simorag]

What's stopping you? No dealers?

I contacted the Simaudio dealers within 200km distance from where I live a couple of weeks ago, and none of the had a 600i available on display / demo

@simorag I have listened to the Phi on the ATM300 with stock tubes, no noise issues at all and the bass wasn't much worse than Stefan's 300R. It's possible that the one you listened to had some issues (or had a bad set of tubes).

Yes, definitely possible, I was surprised as well. Not something related to the tubes though, as we tried two different sets, the original Electro Harmonix and the Cetron. In both cases the bias was OK, but the hum was audible. Perhaps something related to the output transformers? The unit was 8 years old, so ...

@simorag The V80SE is also great although at 11,000 euros the price is higher than US prices - not sure if it's just European pricing though.

Yep, official Italian pricelist is 10900Euro, retail can go down to 15% on a brand new V80SE.

@simorag Have you tried any 845 amps with the Abyss?

Not yet, I should be able to try a VIVA Solistino and a Line Magnetic LM-845 soon.​