The New Enleum AMP-23R Amplifier (Successor to Bakoon AMP-13R) Thread

[RustyGates]

Goldensound may be correct about the Enleum being sensitive to input voltage. I put a Jensen xlr to rca converter between the Holo May and the Enleum which converts the signal from +4db to -10db, and it sounds noticeably better than it did before. Don't know how much to attribute it to using the May's xlr outputs and how much it's due to what Goldensound was saying about the Enleum:

"To me the 23R sounded notably better when the DAC feeding it had about 8-10dB of DSP headroom/volume control applied, with things coming across less ‘dense’, slightly more neutral, and having better clarity of separation between elements.

If you have a 23R it’s worth playing about with this, you can pretty much ‘tune’ the amp by increasing/decreasing your DAC volume between -0dB and -10dB (assuming your DAC outputs about 2V on RCA)."

Since the May put's out 5.8v xlr and 2.8v rca, the Jensen converter really matches the system well by lowering the signal strength into the Enleum. Or it could be that the May's xlr out is just a better quality output than it's rca. Perhaps both the Enleum and the May benefit this.

Edit: I went back to just the rca's. The Jensen transformer was a little lean on the bass and the vocals were not as prominent.

After playing around with input voltage levels, the AMP23R sounds best with the Tambaqui at 6V. As Soo In mentions - the line level is not the level of the music, in which signals can drop to a dynamic range of -96dB below that for 16-bit CD quality, or -144dB below that for 24-bit Hi-Res. Also, when I have the 23R gain limited to 7dB, 6V matches the input sensitivity of the amp in that 'gain limited' mode (its max output Vrms is 15V).

 

[Tubewin]

After playing around with input voltage levels, the AMP23R sounds best with the Tambaqui at 6V. As Soo In mentions - the line level is not the level of the music, in which signals can drop to a dynamic range of -96dB below that for 16-bit CD quality, or -144dB below that for 24-bit Hi-Res. Also, when I have the 23R gain limited to 7dB, 6V matches the input sensitivity of the amp in that 'gain limited' mode (its max output Vrms is 15V).

Yeah, I stopped using the jensen converter for awhile now. Robs some dynamics somewhere in the conversion.

 

[RustyGates]

After owning the Zahl HM1 for the past couple of weeks, it reminds me how much I love the AMP-23R (V3).

The least technical description I can give - If the HM1 serves up the best bowl of fruit salad in the world, the best you'll ever have in a lifetime, the AMP-23R serves up that same bowl of fruit salad with a big serve of butterscotch ice cream on top. Drowns out the flavors of the fruits ever so slightly, but... ice cream.

 

[Naimmuso]

I have

After owning the Zahl HM1 for the past couple of weeks, it reminds me how much I love the AMP-23R (V3).

The least technical description I can give - If the HM1 serves up the best bowl of fruit salad in the world, the best you'll ever have in a lifetime, the AMP-23R serves up that same bowl of fruit salad with a big serve of butterscotch ice cream on top. Drowns out the flavors of the fruits ever so slightly, but

 

[Naimmuso]

I have to agree ,there is something magical about the Enleum that other amps can't produce

I

 

[Drewligarchy]

Deleted: Wrong Thread

 

[Mista Lova Lova]

I have the AMP-23R here and some other amps (i.e. $35k monos which do 55wpc in class A). With certain speakers the Enleum quite frankly is spectacular and competitively priced considering what it does. It just needs particular speakers to work its magic. That's all there is to it really.

If you still have access to the Hifiman Susvara - what's your impressions of its synergy with the AMP-23R, especially compared to other amps such as the AHB2 or the Bliss?

 

[Matez]

If you still have access to the Hifiman Susvara - what's your impressions of its synergy with the AMP-23R, especially compared to other amps such as the AHB2 or the Bliss?

I have no idea to be honest, I don't own the other two amps and I haven't heard them. For what it's worth, the Sus with Enleum is up there just about enough for me to not seriously consider any other headphone amps. Besides, I'm into high-efficiency speakers too, and with them the Enleum is glorious. This one box handles pretty much all my amp needs and that's the really cool part about it from my perspective.

 

[Icenine2]

Really late to the game here. This looks fantastic. I have Stealth, DAVE>MScaler and wondering how this would sound with those?

 

[Naimmuso]

Really late to the game here. This looks fantastic. I have Stealth, DAVE>MScaler and wondering how this would sound with those?

I can only imagine it be wonderful ,for me it the best headphone amp on the market

 

[Icenine2]

I see MacHero started this thread. Been a long time. Was it Woo amps years ago where you used to post all the time or maybe Audeze?

 

[Matez]

I have to agree ,there is something magical about the Enleum that other amps can't produce

My bet is on the fact that this is in reality a power amp with variable gain, just disguised as volume control. Very unique topology.

 

[Mista Lova Lova]

My bet is on the fact that this is in reality a power amp with variable gain, just disguised as volume control. Very unique topology.

Is it not common knowledge that the amp's volume control is in reality an adjustment of the amp's gain in real time, so as to preserve as much dynamic range as possible? I thought that the "clicks and pops" that some people have reported hearing from the amp when they're changing the volume were directly linked to this "volume" control solution.

Or did you mean something else?

 

[RustyGates]

My bet is on the fact that this is in reality a power amp with variable gain, just disguised as volume control. Very unique topology.

It sounds great because it's a Current mode amplifier (like the Mass Kobo 465) with Zero NFB whilst maintaining THD+N < 0.1% & flat (independent of frequency), and the Ensense input buffers having a bandwidth up to 1MHz.

 

[Matez]

Is it not common knowledge that the amp's volume control is in reality an adjustment of the amp's gain in real time, so as to preserve as much dynamic range as possible? I thought that the "clicks and pops" that some people have reported hearing from the amp when they're changing the volume were directly linked to this "volume" control solution.

Or did you mean something else?

It doesn't work like that. Let me elaborate. 99% of regular integrated amps have two things: a resistive volume control (say a volume pot or resistor array) to trim signal level, and a power amp stage with maybe two or three different gain settings. When you look at say iFi's Pro iCAN, you see a regular volume knob and just below it there's a gain switch with three different gain settings to boost signal level by 0, 9 and 18dB extra and *aside* what volume knob on this amp does. This is the conventional way.

Enleum is entirely different because it doesn't feature a regular signal trimmer *at all*. Instead it has a power amp stage with not two or three gain settings like in iFi's amp, but more than a thousand of them. Instead of trimming signal level, the Enleum's volume knob directly changes the gain factor of its power stage, so the concept of regulating output level in it is thus entirely different. Its "volume" knob connects to a relay matrix (which explains why folks hear clicks upon rotating the dial, relays click when they switch), but relays on that circuit change the gain value on the power amp. This is why the manufacturer calls this Enleum as an amp with true variable gain.

Functionally Enleum operates like a regular amplifier, so it's understandable that it may be seen like a device with fancy discrete volume control. In reality though this is a power amp with variable gain, just dressed like an integrated device.