[jude]

My only experience with tube headphone amps has been with the MG Head DT. Loved the way it sounded -- 'cept for a dang hum I couldn't get rid of (would be interested in seeing if it'd still hum with the balanced power isolator behind it). Anyway, since then -- and since winning the Max -- I've been very happy in the solid state world.

Here's the deal: This year my job responsibilities have changed for the better (a lot less travel than last year -- a lot less). So now lucky me....I listen to my headphones for four to ten (sometimes even more) hours per day (with breaks of course) because my work allows me to. And so the sound of my rig has to be both absolutely beautiful and absolutely fatigue-free. My current home office rig is both of these things to my ears. I was a Grado man last year -- they're too bright for me now in marathon listening sessions. Even something just a wee bit too bright is way too bright in marathon listening sessions. I once put about 12 to 13 hours of listening in one day in with this rig, and with no fatigue.

But....as audio enthusiasts generally always are, I'm curious. I'm curious about giving tubes another try. Not to replace my Max, but to keep alongside it to change to periodically for a different sound, just as I switch between my MDR-7506's and my HD-600's. The Melos has been talked up a lot on the forums lately, and I'm sure it's all deserved. But they're few and far between (almost bought that one on eBay that someone else ended up buying), and I need something that has a reputation for high reliability. I don't have much spare time, and so don't want to be worrying at all about repairs. Cary is more than I want to spend. So I'm considering the MicroZOTL or the Wheatfield HA-2. There's a lot of talk about the MicroZOTL on the forums, but not nearly as much can be found on the HA-2.

I'm not sure yet how serious I am about this thought of revisiting the tube world. I spent way too much time tube rolling, researching and buying with the MG Heads, and don't want to get into all that again so heavily, so I'm a bit iffy about this -- I just want to listen.

I'd certainly appreciate your thoughts on this. Again, the sound must be awesome and fatigue-free and, well, tubey.

 

[mcbiff]

What about the Earmax Pro? It's supposed to be a match made in hea(d)ven with the HD600s.

 

[Nikolai Dot Org]

I have yet to read anything negative about the Earmax Pro/HD 600 combination. In fact, more than a few have said that this ended their search entirely.

I want to hear it for myself... I'm very curious. I'd probably buy the MicroZOTL though if Grado performance is still important. Many have said that the Earmax Pro only works with the HD600.

I say let's each put in an order for however many Melos clones can be built by Danny's friend. Since he owns everything that is left of Melos, I reckon he will be able to do it. Perhaps he could do it for a reasonable price?

 

[Vertigo-1]

I'd knock the HA-2 outta there and replace it with the Earmax Pro if it were up to me. The HA-2 might be rather difficult to tube roll with if you ever get around to it. From there, it's a choice of pure tuby sound or a cleaner tuby sound. Earmax Pro is probably really tuby sounding, while the ZOTL I would assume has a cleaner sounding treble and bass, while simply offering a lusher midrange than a solid state amp (not necessarily the same as warmer...that lusher sound is the magic of tubes I believe that isn't really explainable in words). Ideally I think you want a tube amp of the latter type...most high end tube amps try to go after that effect. The MG Head I heard was all midrange mostly. My RKV definitely sounds much better than the MG Head, and it's more balanced on the treble, midrange, and bass. From reviews I've read on both the Melos and the HP DCT-1, I think high end tube amps really just try to shoot for that balanced sounding effect.

 

[SumB]

I don't know where this misconception that the Earmax Pro only works well with high impedances stems from. Personally I used this amp with my RS-1's for some time and the two make wonderful music. Mr. Hutchens thinks it's dynamite with the CD3000's too. The Earmax Pro just has that magical personality that makes you want to get up and boogie. And if it's bass you crave the Earmax Pro driving a pair of V6's is insane.

 

[kwkarth]

I hope this doesn't stir up too much controversy, but I'm sort of from the school of "if you can hear it, you must be able to measure it somehow" camp. Granted, we haven't learned how to measure or what exactly to measure in all cases, but fundamentally, I believe that's the way things are.

Having said that, I also believe that our minds are wonderful "mismatch" detectors. Most of us are like the Princess and the Pea. When you listen to something long enough and "peas under the mattress" are going to irritate us like burrs under the saddle. Any anomaly from fairly flat frequency response at all listening levels, linear phase response, dynamic linearity, virtually any real amomaly deviating from live sound (assuming that is our point of reference) will eventually work its way under our skin as it were.

We are often initially attracted to something overly bright, or overly bassy, or overly lush, etc, only to find later with extended listening, that very thing which initially attracted us becomes the irritant which repels us.

With a setup which exhibits excessive phase anomalies, but otherwise "measures" well, we find flat sound staging, or "something else is not quite right, but we can't quite put our fingers on it."

I believe that with either valve or solid state design done "right" it is possible to get exceptionally good sound. The problem comes with stability over the long term. Valves wear. The filament boils off electrons until eventually things aren't quite right anymore. Then we replace the valve and the process starts over again.

Being an inteverate tweaker, in many instances, that's ok because it gives me something to do! The "thrill of the hunt" as it were. There are other times that I just want everything to be right without me having to "mess" with it. That is the attraction of a superb solid state design.

I believe fundamentally that through careful manipulation of frequency, dynamic, and phase response characterisics we can pretty much achieve any "type" of sound we want. It doesn't take much. half a db here, 30 degrees phase shift there and things are different. So there you have it, a good arguement for either valve or solid state, depending upon what you're really looking for.
Disclaimer:This entire diatribe is not quite worth .02

YMMV Cheers!

 

[KR...]

Well, you know guys that since the EarMax Pro was made for Grados in mind, you would think that they would match well

http://www.audiophileclub.co.uk/earmax.html

 

[Bob]

I have owned the Ear Max Pro with NOS tubes and currently own the MicroZOTL. I must say that for me, the MicroZOTL bests the Ear Max Pro in just about every catergory as far as sound goes. The one thing that really bothered me about the Ear Max Pro was the build quality. I did not care for the black plastic housing, nor the volume knob nor the headphone jack. Do not get me wrong ... the Ear Max Pro sounds great ... but I prefer the MicroZOTL. While the MicroZOTL is ugly, it is built like a freakin tank ... you could strap some wheels and a motor to it and drive it around if you wanted too! Just my 2 cents ... though ... more then likely worth about 0.5 cents

 

[DRCope]

I'd like to add my vote for the ZOTL. I've justed voted with my checkbook, in fact, buying a ZOTL for the second time, with the much vaunted Cary 300sei inbetween. With Senn 600's and appropriate NOS (or used) tubes, the ZOTL is the perfect balance between clean sound with no background noise and rich, organic, whole music.

I can't wait to try AKG K-1000's with the ZOTL speaker outputs!

I'll post listening comments once everything gets here.

 

[markl]

"I don't know where this misconception that the Earmax Pro only works well with high impedances stems from."

That would likely be from me. I have detailed my experiences heavily over at HeadWize, but I'll summarize here. I originally owned the standard Earmax to power my HD600s and I was underwhelmed and could clearly hear the bass clipping. Earmax would not let me turn up the volume loud enough to be satisfying prior to clipping. I replaced it with the Pro and that problem just disappeared.

Indeed, to my ears, Earmax Pro and HD600 is absolutely "magical" (gotta get those Sylvania Gold Brand 12AT7s, though). Best bass ever.
I then tried the ER4S with the Earmax Pro and again experienced severe bass clipping. I surmised that it was an impedence matching problem and figured that Grados and Sony CD3000 would therefore be a bad match. Maybe impedence has nothing to do with it; I only know what I heard with my phones. Maybe it has more to do with current, power output or something else?

I now own the ZOTL, and Jude if you're thinking CD3000 (which I think you are), I vote buy the ZOTL. Pure synergy!

Of course, there is Door #3: you could be the first kid on the block to own the Zeus! I think it's on sale for a mere $1500. There was a thread about it recently. We'd all love to know what that baby sounds like! Any chance of that?


markl

 

[Neruda]

I don't speak for Jude or anything, but think he's hoping for somethign more expensive than $1500...

 

[jaghouse]

jude... go with the ZZZZZs:

Acoustic Zen>>>>>
Zeus
or
ZOTL

 

[jeremymayf]

hey jude,
haven't heard the ZOTL so I can't speak on it, but i do have EMP and 333--at times it's almost magical, especially with sacd's. i still haven't had a chance to listen to this combo with the senns--waiting their arrival and i guess things at the post office have slowed to a trickle---but even with rs-1's and ety4p's--pure bliss. Have not experienced any clipping-but i keep the volume at fairly moderate levels. About the build quality, I recall having read somewhere that the plastic housing of EMP is material designed to keep out signals--like insolation--whereas my ra-1 picks up lots of radio signals(I'm close to some mountains which-i guess--bounces back radio signals) the EMP is dead quiet. Anyway, 333+EMP is a very good combo

 

[KurtW]

Jude, I think you'd still have a big smile on your face after 10 or 12 hours with the ZOTL. Tube life can be a concern with heavy duty users but David Berning says the tubes should last 10 to 20 years with "moderate" usage; maybe you can get a several years out of them.

 

[aeberbach]

Don't overlook the DIY option - the World Audio Design HD83 kit is great, absolutely great. A bonus is that it's cheap and it looks OK too. It's not a good first project and I think it could sound pretty awful if built badly but I love mine. There have been a few discussions about this amp on this site, and on Headwize you'll find more including a description of what I did to mine.

(I bought that Melos BTW - but only because the HD83 is on my desk at work with my HD580s.)

http://www.worldaudiodesign.co.uk/taps.html