[borkenarrou]

Anyone ordered this amp from Thomann, is there any import taxes to be paid when it reaches the US, will ship to Oregon which is sales tax free, I ultimately will take it out of the US so may not require the warranty if I buy from Power-Holdings and price at Thomann is bit better at present.

 

[Alien HP]

Anyone ordered this amp from Thomann, is there any import taxes to be paid when it reaches the US, will ship to Oregon which is sales tax free, I ultimately will take it out of the US so may not require the warranty if I buy from Power-Holdings and price at Thomann is bit better at present.

I did and I had the same concern. But I didn't have to pay any import taxes.

 

[borkenarrou]

Cool

I did and I had the same concern. But I didn't have to pay any import taxes.

That is nice!!!

 

[Monsterzero]

Question for all of the V550 owners;

How big of a difference in SQ is there between the SE and balanced jacks?

 

[shwnwllms]

There shouldn’t be any, but be sure to use the right jack if going SE (the left jack is reversed polarity)

 

[Monsterzero]

There shouldn’t be any, but be sure to use the right jack if going SE (the left jack is reversed polarity)

Yeah someone had mentioned that to me prior. I'm more interested in using the SE jacks to do fast A/B comparisons between two headphones and then balanced jack for listening for fun.

So on the left SE jack, are the channels flipped or is there a significant difference in frequency response/sound?

 

[Ichos]

Question for all of the V550 owners;

How big of a difference in SQ is there between the SE and balanced jacks?

Do you mean outputs or inputs?

 

[Monsterzero]

Do you mean outputs or inputs?

The SE output jacks, where you plug the headphone in.

 

[Ichos]

The SE output jacks, where you plug the headphone in.

The balanced output is much better.
You are using the four internal amplifiers and you get more expanded and holographic soundstage, deeper detail retrieval, more open sound, greater dynamics.
Well better.

 

[Monsterzero]

The balanced output is much better.
You are using the four internal amplifiers and you get more expanded and holographic soundstage, deeper detail retrieval, more open sound, greater dynamics.
Well better.

I understand that and intend to use the balanced output for general listening.

The dual SE jacks are of interest to me for doing A/Bing between two headphones for my headphone reviews, but if the left SE output sounds vastly different to the right SE output that defeats the purpose, or am I not understanding you guys correctly?

 

[Ichos]

I understand that and intend to use the balanced output for general listening.

The dual SE jacks are of interest to me for doing A/Bing between two headphones for my headphone reviews, but if the left SE output sounds vastly different to the right SE output that defeats the purpose, or am I not understanding you guys correctly?

The left and right single ended outputs sound excaltly the same.

 

[Monsterzero]

The left and right single ended outputs sound excaltly the same.

Thank you!

 

[shwnwllms]

The left and right single ended outputs sound excaltly the same.

That’s not exactly correct (according to the manual anyway)

 

[Alien HP]

It's interesting why an inverted polarity headphone output even exists. I could be wrong, but from what I understand, it can be used for certain poorly recorded songs where microphones might have been misplaced affecting the signal and making it out of phase or weak. I think the idea is that inverting the polarity would fix it and improve the weak signal. I don't know how frequent this problem is. I also don't know if the difference is noticeable if the signal is inverted on a good recording.

You can read more about it here and here.

 

[Ichos]

That’s not exactly correct (according to the manual anyway)

It's interesting why an inverted polarity headphone output even exists. I could be wrong, but from what I understand, it can be used for certain poorly recorded songs where microphones might have been misplaced affecting the signal and making it out of phase or weak. I think the idea is that inverting the polarity would fix it and improve the weak signal. I don't know how frequent this problem is. I also don't know if the difference is noticeable if the signal is inverted on a good recording.

You can read more about it here and here.

The internal amplifier is differential balanced.
This is the connection topology to get two single ended outputs (instead of the usual one) without further signal processing and further balanced to unbalanced conversion.

Both single ended outputs sound excaltly the same.
Everything else belongs into the sphere of imagination.

I have reviewed the amplifier and I am not just speculating.