Spareribs
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- May 24, 2006
- Posts
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The Ming Da MC84 C07. Price paid from Pacific Valve distributer: $414.
IMPRESSIONS:
The build quality is highly impressive. It’s beautiful and I love the wood paneling. It’s also heavy and built like a bullet proof box. The sound is stunningly good. Rich and warm especially when vintage tubes are used. The music really sings and can be addictive with the more lush sound of the older tubes. Very nice clarity too- it has a nice balance of being warm and clear but not going overboard in any direction.
Minor Hum Issue:
There is a very very faint hum that’s barely noticeable when the CD player is not playing music. However, the hum disappears when the music is playing. It sounds really fantastic with the AKG K701, K501 and Sennheiser HD650. However, with a lower impedance headphone like the Grado SR60 (32 ohms), the hum was obvious. As a result, it is not for low impedance headphones. The K701 has a relatively low impedance of 62 ohms but it still sounds great IMO, and it’s actually my main headphone. Grado users may want to skip this amp. For me, it's not a problem since I rarely use Grados even though I do like them.
Edit:
I changed the 12AX7 tube on the right channel and the hum was gone. It was a defective tube. It still hums for the Grado however but the hum is gone from the K 701 and the other headphones.
Speaker outs:
As a 5 watt amp, it still gets very loud. I tested it with my set of Marantz bookshelf speakers and it sounded very good. I also tried it with Insignia bookshelfs and since it’s harder to drive, I had to turn the volume up higher but it still sounded good. With the AKG K1000 speaker phone, it drove it decent but I am one of those people who believe that you need an amp with the right specs for it to really sing. Eventually, I will get a set of some serious speakers that will perfectly match this amp. Can’t wait!
Despite the spec limitations, sonically, the amp is amazing!
IMPRESSIONS:
The build quality is highly impressive. It’s beautiful and I love the wood paneling. It’s also heavy and built like a bullet proof box. The sound is stunningly good. Rich and warm especially when vintage tubes are used. The music really sings and can be addictive with the more lush sound of the older tubes. Very nice clarity too- it has a nice balance of being warm and clear but not going overboard in any direction.
Minor Hum Issue:
There is a very very faint hum that’s barely noticeable when the CD player is not playing music. However, the hum disappears when the music is playing. It sounds really fantastic with the AKG K701, K501 and Sennheiser HD650. However, with a lower impedance headphone like the Grado SR60 (32 ohms), the hum was obvious. As a result, it is not for low impedance headphones. The K701 has a relatively low impedance of 62 ohms but it still sounds great IMO, and it’s actually my main headphone. Grado users may want to skip this amp. For me, it's not a problem since I rarely use Grados even though I do like them.
Edit:
I changed the 12AX7 tube on the right channel and the hum was gone. It was a defective tube. It still hums for the Grado however but the hum is gone from the K 701 and the other headphones.
Speaker outs:
As a 5 watt amp, it still gets very loud. I tested it with my set of Marantz bookshelf speakers and it sounded very good. I also tried it with Insignia bookshelfs and since it’s harder to drive, I had to turn the volume up higher but it still sounded good. With the AKG K1000 speaker phone, it drove it decent but I am one of those people who believe that you need an amp with the right specs for it to really sing. Eventually, I will get a set of some serious speakers that will perfectly match this amp. Can’t wait!
Despite the spec limitations, sonically, the amp is amazing!
