[Houbi]

hi guys

i'm in the building process of my first high-end headphone rig. My target is to beat my Speaker Setup in every way. It's a 40k+ US$ system, so listening to music is already on a certain level (this is the speakers rig: http://houbi.heimkino.info )

What i have so far is a ton of excellent sources (mainly high-res FLAC's, well recordedd CD's as FLAC's, etc...), an ASUS Essence STX which i am very pleased of, and foobar2000 with WASAPI and all other tricks.

Last night i ordered a brand new Beyerdynamic T1 for an absolutely insane price, i couldn't say no. For the next day's i'm going to drive it with the Essence's STX built-in headphone amp...

now there are two setups that i can imagine, a single ended and a fully balanced one. let's assume money doesn't play a role, what should i choose?

Setup 1: Essence STX -> analog RCA -> WA2 -> T1 (stock cable)

or the more expensive and complex

Setup 2: PC -> Async USB DAC with balanced XLR Out (CambridgeAudio DACMagic Plus maybe?) -> analog XLR -> WA22 -> T1 (reterminated with balanced XLR Plugs)

WA2 or WA22?

thanks for your opinions,
Houbi

 

[Seamaster]

I don't know about WA2, stock WA22 don't have the drive for T1 for its max potential. I offen turn the pass 2:00 pm position on my WA22 with stock cabled T1

 

[Houbi]

but you are happy with the combination, aren't you? or don't you recommend a T1 coupled with WA22?

 

[Seamaster]

No I was not happy with T1 with WA22, at the time I had T1, HD650, Grado RS-1i, and later LCD-2. HD650 and LCD-2 have great synergy with the amp even in stock form. T1 feels like lack dynamic and attack. The Grado RS-1i was unlistenable.

 

[Houbi]

OK, thanks for your Explanation. So WA22 isn't the best match for the T1. I read a lot about WA2 and T1 beeing a magical combination. I'm i going the right way with the WA2?

 

[smurfz]

I was pretty close to ordering a decently priced used-WA22 today without having a chance to test it. Since I do like the T1, BHA-1 is back on target for now.

 

[Chodi]

Quote:

I was pretty close to ordering a decently priced used-WA22 today without having a chance to test it. Since I do like the T1, BHA-1 is back on target for now.

I don't know if I would run away from that WA22 so fast. Seamaster  said his WA22 won't drove the T1's properly but the specs sure looks ok. He said he was driving them with stock cable. Just a guess, but perhaps he hadn't re-terminated them to operate as balanced. I think the WA22 has one single ended ouput but that is not really the intention of that amp. It is designed to be run balanced and re-terminating a T1 is very easy as the stock cable is really balanced cable terminated SE. If Seamaster was really running that system fully balanced, 700mw output is far above the 300mw max input on the T1. I just bought a WA2 for my T1's but if I could have afforded it I would have gotten the WA22 for sure.

 

[wisemanja]

Quote:

I don't know if I would run away from that WA22 so fast. Seamaster  said his WA22 won't drove the T1's properly but the specs sure looks ok. He said he was driving them with stock cable. Just a guess, but perhaps he hadn't re-terminated them to operate as balanced. I think the WA22 has one single ended ouput but that is not really the intention of that amp. It is designed to be run balanced and re-terminating a T1 is very easy as the stock cable is really balanced cable terminated SE. If Seamaster was really running that system fully balanced, 700mw output is far above the 300mw max input on the T1. I just bought a WA2 for my T1's but if I could have afforded it I would have gotten the WA22 for sure.

 
Yea, you get the same problem with the HDVD800. Sounds ok when using T1 on a 1/4 inch jack input but improves significantly when configured full balanced. If the WA22 uses the typical "one half of the balanced amp electronics" only for the unbalanced output, you are only getting 1/4 the potential power output as well (likely the reason they had to go past 2 o'clock position for volume)
 
BTW, I would like to hear someone who's done a comparison of the WA2 and WA22 for the T1. If I remember correctly the WA2 is OTL but the WA22 is not so I wonder how that might affect things.

 

[brunk]

Quote:

 
Yea, you get the same problem with the HDVD800. Sounds ok when using T1 on a 1/4 inch jack input but improves significantly when configured full balanced. If the WA22 uses the typical "one half of the balanced amp electronics" only for the unbalanced output, you are only getting 1/4 the potential power output as well (likely the reason they had to go past 2 o'clock position for volume)
 
BTW, I would like to hear someone who's done a comparison of the WA2 and WA22 for the T1. If I remember correctly the WA2 is OTL but the WA22 is not so I wonder how that might affect things.

I think Dubstep Girl and Skylab have compared them, but im not 100% sure. I do know the T1 really likes clean, simple power. I don't think the WA22 would be the best choice in that price range. 
The Eddie Current Super 7, Decware CSP2+, Bottlehead Mainline is what i would consider before WA22.

 

[Krolik]

why not consider beyerdynamic's own A1 amp??

 

[brunk]

Quote:

why not consider beyerdynamic's own A1 amp??

Yep thats another good option too