[khaos974]

Indeed, El_Doug, myself and probably a lot of people on Head-Fi simply want a well engineered amp that measures well in every aspect, with good design and excellent engineering. There's no reason for such an amp not to exist.

 

[kwkarth]

The main issue at hand here is that it is still very unclear to most people which "measurements" are true figures of merit, and which of them are meaningless, misleading, or simply unimportant.
 
Having "measurements" that actually correlate with what most perceive as genuinely good sound, is, I think, what we are all after.
 
Compromise?  Yes, life itself is a compromise, it's even terminal.  Recognizing that life is full of compromises, let's move beyond that and enjoy life a little, eh?

 

[Steve Eddy]

 
Quote:

As you can see it is a pair of transformers. There is nothing in the signal path except for a couple switches, a few bits of random wire, and the wire in the transformers.

What's the battery for? Just to power the LED? If so, what's the LED indicate?
 
se

 

[El_Doug]

Ari is a trickster DIY'er - and indeed, the battery only powers the LED.  The LED only indicates that the switch has been flipped, iirc  
 
You should listen to his Grado RS-1's  
 
Quote:

What's the battery for? Just to power the LED? If so, what's the LED indicate?
 
se

 

[Steve Eddy]

Quote:

Ari is a trickster DIY'er - and indeed, the battery only powers the LED.  The LED only indicates that the switch has been flipped, iirc

Ah, a smartass. I like it.

 
 
Quote:

You should listen to his Grado RS-1's

 
Sure. Just so long as they're not the headphone equivalent of the exploding cigar gag.

 
se
 
 

 

[chesebert]

well it was late at night
 
I presumed since you made this thread just for fun, I can have a little fun with you.  I didn't think you would take that comment seriously.
 
I am also looking for perfection: please find me a car that can
 
1. go from 0-60mph in nearly 0sec
2. stop from 60-0mph in nearly 0sec
3. make a 90degree turn (almost sharp)
4. can tow a camping trailer that's at least 1 ton
5. uses almost no fossil fuel or any external energy (must be self-generated)
6. clear coat and paint that last almost forever and almost never chip
7. maintain the majority of aforementioned performance at 0ft altitude and at 5000ft.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Quote:

Why would I want to quit head-fi, just because I cannot achieve some theoretical "perfection"?  Am I not allowed to enjoy what is available, while at the same time utilize a discussion thread to learn about other options that I have never experienced or considered? 
 
Someone musta woken up on the wrong side of the bed
 

 

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

well it was late at night
 
I presumed since you made this thread just for fun, I can have a little fun with you.  I didn't think you would take that comment seriously.
 
I am also looking for perfection: please find me a car that can
 
1. go from 0-60mph in nearly 0sec
2. stop from 60-0mph in nearly 0sec
3. make a 90degree turn (almost sharp)
4. can tow a camping trailer that's at least 1 ton
5. uses almost no fossil fuel or any external energy (must be self-generated)
6. clear coat and paint that last almost forever and almost never chip
7. maintain the majority of aforementioned performance at 0ft altitude and at 5000ft.

Well, if you're willing to compromise a little, the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S will pretty much meet the criteria you've listed.

 

[El_Doug]

I probably should have realized you were joking - no harm done  
 
You do make a point about these ideals never being achievable, however I guarantee that the porche 911 outperforms my 1995 corolla in every single one of those measures   By extension, surely there must be amps that outmeasure others in nearly every way... at least I'd guess so.  my lack of knowledge on the subject is what inspired the thread in the first place
 
Quote:

well it was late at night
 
I presumed since you made this thread just for fun, I can have a little fun with you.  I didn't think you would take that comment seriously.
 
I am also looking for perfection: please find me a car that can
 
1. go from 0-60mph in nearly 0sec
2. stop from 60-0mph in nearly 0sec
3. make a 90degree turn (almost sharp)
4. can tow a camping trailer that's at least 1 ton
5. uses almost no fossil fuel or any external energy (must be self-generated)
6. clear coat and paint that last almost forever and almost never chip
7. maintain the majority of aforementioned performance at 0ft altitude and at 5000ft.

 

[chesebert]

Porche 911 will not outperform your 1995 Corolla on every level.  For example: 911's clear coat and paint is much more likely to chip than Corolla's. This is because most high-end German car makers, including Proche, have switched to use water-based paint as it's environmentally friendlier. One down side of using water-based paint is that it chips easily when compared to the cheaper oil-based paint.  Corolla, being one of the cheapest cars on the market, most likely will use the cheaper oil-based paint.  So as you can see, 911 does not beat Corolla on every level
 
I also question whether 911 can function properly at 5000ft - I expect the turbocharger to choke pretty badly.
 
 
 

 
Quote:

I probably should have realized you were joking - no harm done  
 
You do make a point about these ideals never being achievable, however I guarantee that the porche 911 outperforms my 1995 corolla in every single one of those measures   By extension, surely there must be amps that outmeasure others in nearly every way... at least I'd guess so.  my lack of knowledge on the subject is what inspired the thread in the first place
 

 

 

[khaos974]

An amp that
 
- Reproduce a nearly perfect square wave at all frequencies
- Has minimal phase issues
- Minimizes distortion
- Has no rolloff or other frequency response anomalies
- Maximizes channel separation
 
shouldn't be hard to find, the amps I posted above should satisfy those criteria, especially since they are essentially objective and measurable data.
 
As for
 
- Will provide all the current and voltage I need
- Will do so into any varying load
- Has a power supply which will provide everything the amp wants, lickety split
 
I don't exactly know what measures should be taken, but everything should be measurable. You'd have to know the output power (more exactly both voltage swing and current limit) of the headamp all impedance, at all frequencies, I don,t know a single manufacturer that provides this kind of data.
 
- Have lightning fast transient response
 
I would say there's no means to know except for listening.
 
Though specs don't tell everything about sound, complete specs tell how much care was involved in the product design and how well engineered it is.
 
PS: Just take a look at the specs of the products on the official site of the ICE power website (class D power amps), that would be the kind of specs I hope (dream) that all manufacturers should provide.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Porche 911 will not outperform your 1995 Corolla on every level.  For example: 911's clear coat and paint is much more likely to chip than Corolla's. This is because most high-end German car makers, including Proche, have switched to use water-based paint as it's environmentally friendlier. One down side of using water-based paint is that it chips easily when compared to the cheaper oil-based paint.  Corolla, being one of the cheapest cars on the market, most likely will use the cheaper oil-based paint.  So as you can see, 911 does not beat Corolla on every level
 
I also question whether 911 can function properly at 5000ft - I expect the turbocharger to choke pretty badly.

I'm not sure where the 911 came from because I was talking about the Cayenne Turbo S, not any model of the 911 series.
 
A completely different monster, and at 5000ft the Cayenne Turbo works just fine.
 
 
http://www.porsche.com/usa/models/cayenne/cayenne-turbo/

 

[nikongod]

Quote:

What's the battery for? Just to power the LED? If so, what's the LED indicate?
 
se

Dsavistik mentioned the idea of a passive headphone amp in one of his amplifier design&build articles: running a transformer or autoformer directly off of the output of a source to drive medium or low impedance headphones. I was intrigued by the idea, and built this amp to test it out. The transformers are little 1K/500ohm:8ohm units from Radio-shack. Radio-shack has since discontinued them, which is a bummer: they work better than I had hoped for ~$3 each and I think the amp sounds great.
 
I wanted to get a few other peoples opinions of the amp, and to do that I realized I needed to disguise the true nature of the device to overcome peoples preconceived notions about needing positive voltage gain and perhaps transformers in general. I guess I could have DBT'd it too, but this is much more accessible. I didn't think the amp would be given a fair listen if I told people it was 2 transformers in a tin, and that the gain was 1/11. 
 
The switch on the side of the case, LED, and battery are purely for deceptive purposes: to create an illusion to satisfy peoples preconceived notions
 
I wanted to switch the signal so that when people listened to the amp they could switch it on and off, and signal would go on and off like any other portable to complete the illusion I thought was necessary for my amp to be listened to fairly. I figured it should have a LED to indicate that the power was on and truly complete the illusion. The battery also adds a nice bit of heft to the case. A certain "quality feel" if you will. Its a little bit silly but I think people perceive something that is slightly heavier as being of better quality.
 
I'm pretty sure everyone who has listened to the amp liked it. This is not surprising, as the amp is awesome. I'm also quite sure I made a few people a bit angry when I told them what the amp really is. This is not surprising either.
 
 
 
I have 2 pairs of RS-1.
One is a stock RS-1. The other is an RS-1 shell with SR-60 drivers. 
Someone bought the tweaked RS-1 second hand, blew them up, and returned them to the seller (scumbag...) I bought them for parts, and did the switcheroo. At the time, someone was pretty big on the whole "all grados use the same drivers" line. I wanted to test it out, and am now quite confident that the drivers are not the same.

 

[chesebert]

Quote:

I'm not sure where the 911 came from because I was talking about the Cayenne Turbo S, not any model of the 911 series.
 
A completely different monster, and at 5000ft the Cayenne Turbo works just fine.
 
 
http://www.porsche.com/usa/models/cayenne/cayenne-turbo/

A 4.8L V8 is a gas guzzler. I expect the MPG to come around 10-15 in the city and 15-18 on the highway. I still think Prosche SUV is just wrong on every level, after all these years.

 

[Shahrose]

To the OP: the Dynahi/Dynamite would be the closest to your criteria, but it's very hard to find parts for them these days. I tried to commission a Dynahi build from atleast a couple builders and both couldn't collect the required parts.
 
The next best thing would be to find a good Dynalo design. GS-X, Gilmore Reference, GS-1 or a DIY. I would suggest buying used for the Headamp amps unless you don't mind waiting several months to a year for the amp to arrive from Justin.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

A 4.8L V8 is a gas guzzler. I expect the MPG to come around 10-15 in the city and 15-18 on the highway. I still think Prosche SUV is just wrong on every level, after all these years.

It is, but it was so much fun! 

 
Actually the gas mileage wasn't too bad.  I got 10-14 in town mostly, and up to 22-24 on the highway at 55.  At 140mph, the mileage dropped a bit to around 10-12 mpg.  Not bad considering.  What sort of mileage would a corolla get at 140mph?  Or towing a 5000lb trailer?  Or wading through a 21" deep stream?  Or climbing 45deg hill of rocks?  Or lapping a dozen 911s going 140mph around a corner @ PIR?