The "Lovely Cube" Headphone Amp (Lehmann Black Cube Linear Clone)

[francisdemarte]

Great job! Glad to see you got it all up and running!

 

[aspenx]

Thanks kmoebudu for the compliment!
 
Francis: Thanks! I'm lucky it wasn't as difficult as I thought it'd be... And welcome back. I hope you had a great wedding.
 
Now, please let us know what you'd be modding soon. Do you think a YJPS or TREAD will really improve this? Will you still be proceeding with replacing the pot with the Joshua Tree? How about direct-coupling the inputs? Have you tried opamp-rolling with it yet?
 
Sorry for all the questions. I blame the DIY bug. Which reminds me that I'm itching to build a DAC for this Lovely Cube.

 

[DaEMoNteNTAcLe]

 
i've just got my unit last friday,...
after some extensive listening,
i conclude that this amp is quite a value for its price,
it is able to push my can (profile pic) very high.. not many headamps i've tried (maverick D1, hifiman EF5, crossroad Amp, Linearossa K3, etc) is able to do so.
lasercollection was also prompt in replying my email and questions.
since my order got delayed for about 10days coz of the talema toroid, he actually provided some extras along with the amp as compensation. very nice seller.
 
the bottom line, i got my cans to a level im quite happy with.. now i can sleep

 

[Bullseye]

Anyone performed any RMAA on this amp? Looks quite good for the price!

 

[sunneebear]

I bought a pair with the intention of trying them balanced.  I just tried one out on the table top without any chassis.  I am quite surprised that there is no interference noise without a chassis to shield.  Also at max gain it is dead quiet.  I am using transformers from the same seller for power.  Running itunes to a Matrix Mini-i DAC and driving a SA5000.
 
Have to agree that it sounds pretty sweet for $100.  Being a Lehmann linear clone, I guess it should sound good.  Not bad for fresh out of the box, workbench wired and no warm up or burn in.  All I have to do now is look for a case of some sort.

 

[aspenx]

Don't know if you guys are aware, but the seller made a webpage for the Lovely Cube:
 
http://www.alicemagicbox.com/lasercollection/lovelycube.html

 

[purrin]

Quote:

I bought a pair with the intention of trying them balanced...

That's awesome - was thinking the same thing.

 

[InFn-0]

Anybody tried comparing this to the actual black cube linear or the m stage??

 

[francisdemarte]

Quote:

That's awesome - was thinking the same thing.

x3 Same here! Race may be on to see who has the first balanced Lovely Cube...or should I say Lovely Cube^2 

 
 
 

 

[francisdemarte]

 
Quote:

Don't know if you guys are aware, but the seller made a webpage for the Lovely Cube:
 
http://www.alicemagicbox.com/lasercollection/lovelycube.html

Thanks for the link! I've added it to the first post for everyone's reference.


 
Quote:

Thanks kmoebudu for the compliment!
 
Francis: Thanks! I'm lucky it wasn't as difficult as I thought it'd be... And welcome back. I hope you had a great wedding.
 
Now, please let us know what you'd be modding soon. Do you think a YJPS or TREAD will really improve this? Will you still be proceeding with replacing the pot with the Joshua Tree? How about direct-coupling the inputs? Have you tried opamp-rolling with it yet?
 
Sorry for all the questions. I blame the DIY bug. Which reminds me that I'm itching to build a DAC for this Lovely Cube.

 
Thank you for the wedding wishes! I actually just got back from Costa Rica yesterday, the wedding and Honeymoon was quite an adventure!
 
To answer your questions. With the amp being near silent as it is, I don't believe a better power supply will have a good cost/benefit. You'll probably need something much better than a simple Tangent THREAD, your definitely looking at either the YJPS or AMB's sigma 22 to improve on the on board.
 
The wedding/honeymoon pretty much blew my budget for head fi for a while. I was going to try some opamp rolling (maybe pick up the OPA627 or Burson discrete op amp) and do the Class A biasing as detailed on headfonia.com and in the M-Stage thread. The next major mod would be to purchase another Lovely Cube board and create a balanced version of the amp for my HD650's. 
 
 
 

 

[DaEMoNteNTAcLe]

haha..
very proud i got my amp in the links..
that one from malaysia is mine.
 
anyways, contrary to reviews, i found this amp to be quite neutral.
btw, anyone modded or swapped op-amp on this one?

 

[ninjikiran]

Although I would say an alluminum or similar metal enclosure would be best you can buy one of those plastic food containers and easily cut a few holes into that for volume knob and the such.  Best yet you can take your amp to work with a cheese sammich on top of it.
 
http://www.traderscity.com/board/products-1/offers-to-sell-and-export-1/plastic-take-away-food-container-900ml-rectangle-70399/
 
Heck add an extra layer and you can cannibalize a dac and solder the output directly to your DIY amp eliminating the need for long external cables

 

[sunneebear]

Was at a liquor store today and saw that Ty-Ku white comes in a decent looking bamboo box with laser etched designs on the sides.  Could be a nice enclosure.  Might have to get drunk one weekend.

 

[ninjikiran]

Quote:

Was at a liquor store today and saw that Ty-Ku white comes in a decent looking bamboo box with laser etched designs on the sides.  Could be a nice enclosure.  Might have to get drunk one weekend.

Don't know the properties of bamboo but might be a bit of a fire hazard in a worst case scenario.

 

[aspenx]

 
Quote:

haha..
very proud i got my amp in the links..
that one from malaysia is mine.
 
anyways, contrary to reviews, i found this amp to be quite neutral.
btw, anyone modded or swapped op-amp on this one?

Burning in with LT1364 now and 2 DIP sockets for fast class A biasing on standby.
 
Oversized input bypass and decoupling .022uF caps just because I had to make up the sum to get free delivery.
 
I don't know if transistor "rolling" because I shorted them accidentally counts though. ><
 
EDIT: I just checked the M-Stage thread and purrin has done the multiple DIP socket for biasing thing first and has pics for it! My MM02 DAC has only 0.2mV of DC offset on both channels so I might try direct coupling sometime later too, but right now LT1364 is sounder MUCH better for the main kinda songs I listen to.