wow, the Micro Amp crossfeed does really improve the enjoyment of material.

[warpdriver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RnB180 Oh My! I decided to connect it to my normal portable music player as a standard headphone amp, and began some listening, flipped the crossfeed on, this is the best damn portable headphone amp Ive ever listened too. It was as if these were made to excell my sennheisers to another level. The desktop micro amp WOW!!, sounds so freakin good, rich vocals, smooth, oh so smooth, I feel like im enveloped in the performance, out of all the portable headphone amps I have had the pleasure of owning'(including pricier ones), this is by far the best sounding amplifer that has complimented my senns. Im just so freakin impressed at how the micro amp takes my senns up to a level that I can say I am very happy with. I have never had the pleasure of owning an amp that stunned me this much right off the bat. I have found the definitive amplifier for my sennheisers.

Ok, dude. Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel!

 

[RnB180]

Im sure ill be more impressed once I get gapless music and dac use.

 

[EdipisReks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo You will love the sound and battery life on the AE-1. I used the AE-1 to burn in a Senn HD600 and it ran for over 6 whole days (150 hours) before it needed to be recharged.

well, i had an AE-1 for nearly two months as a review sample, so i know all about it

 

[mkozlows]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RnB180 I was playing around with the features, and I noticed a dramatic improvement with crossfeed on. The bass presence seems to be more enhanced and a spaciousness it expanded. The only drawback seems to be image precision is blurred a bit. The bass seems more present when the crossfeed is on, Its like the music comes alive when the crossfeed switch flips on.

Ironically enough, that's precisely why I leave the crossfeed off, except when I'm listening to heavily processed music -- I don't want an artificial bass boost from the amp.

But then, I have HD-650 headphones; if I still used my HD-580 phones, a bit of extra bass would probably not be unwelcome.

 

[Pete7]

I originally had an Airhead, then upgraded to a Total Airhead- liked them both with Shure E4's then upgraded them to UM2's and there was too much hiss with that combo so I returned both of those amps and got an AE-1 that I'm pretty happy with. HeadRoom hasn't reimbursed me yet. I'm incredibly tempted to call up HeadRoom and see if I can get them to send me a Micro Amp w/ Desktop Module instead. Screw the battery life. Sound is always the bottom line. Anyone have any experience with a Micro and UM2's?

 

[nspindel]

RnB180 -

I'm right there with you. I got the Micro Amp with the Desktop module, and the Micro Dac as well.

Just as a previous post mentioned, I just purchased 8 Powerex (NiHh) rechargeables with the MaHa charger from thomasdistributing.com. HeadRoom sells the same batteries/charger (so presumably this is their preferred rechargeable battery), but you'll find them cheaper at thomas. Make sure you take note (as Sloth pointed out to me on another thread) that when you use the rechargeables, you should tuck the little rubber flaps in on top of the battery, since the rechargeables are slightly longer than alkalines - the manual talks about this.

Agree 100% - I have Senn 650's, they sound awesome with this little amp!!!!

 

[RnB180]

yea, I was thinking about purchasing the the batteries from headroom, as contributors get a 10% discount, I think headroom offers free shipping also so the price between both sites are the same, I believer thomas ditributing charges for shipping?

anyhow, Tyll, or any headroom fellas, can you guys comfirm the mahas are the best for the micro stack?

 

[ken36]

Cross feed is a good idea and it works wonders for some music. Good for you Headroom

 

[nspindel]

One thing about the rechargeables....

The instructions say that in order to properly condition the batteries so that they can achieve maximum charge throughout their lifetime, they should be completely charged and then completely drained about 5 times.

What I noticed was that the MicroStack does a funny job of draining down batteries. If you put two fresh 9volt batteries in either unit, they both seem to drain one faster than the other. So in order to make sure that I'm completely draining down these Powerex's down before charging them back up again, I went to Radio Shack and spent about 6 bucks on a few 9 volt battery mounts, a few 7.6v flashlight bulbs, and a few small flashlight bulb mounts. A little soldering, and I now have these little 9v flashlight bulb rigs so I can completely kill the batteries after they come out of the Micro components.

So now that I'm done burning in my headphones, I get to burn in my batteries. Hoo-ray... I'm on my third cycle through both sets now, two more to go....

 

[RnB180]

nspindel, LOL I think youre the first Ive ever seen that burned in batteries.

 

[nspindel]

I need to get a life....

It must make a difference though, because as I am running through the drain/charge cycles, I am noticing that the battery life is getting longer. So there is some sort of conditioning of the battery that's taking place, so I may as well do it right. Granted the radio shack light bulb gizmo is probably taking it to extremes, but after spending ~$125 on batteries, I want to make sure to get the most out of them.

 

[boodi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EdipisReks i agree, the desktop module sounds really nice. hell, i really like the standard micro module too, but the desktop takes it up a level. if it had a longer battery life, i might consider getting it over the AE-1, but i really love the AE-1, so Headamp is going to get my money

which one pairs the hp2 better to your taste ( sourcewise ) ?

 

[Tyll Hertsens]

The Micro Amp will drain batteries symetrically, but the Micro DAC drains the positive (on the right looking from the back) battery about 3 times faster than the negative battery. We debated about putting this in the manual, but in an effort not to confuse people I think it was left out. The prefered way to use batteries is to:

1) put in a fresh set.

2) drain the positive side with use.

3) change batteries by removing the positive side, and moving the negative battery to the plus side.

4)drain, and return to step 3

 

[RnB180]

Tyll,

Would you recommend the Maha 9.6v batteries the best ones to use with the micro stack?

 

[nspindel]

Tyll's information is spot on. The batteries coming out of the amp are both dead. When I pull the batteries from the dac after it has stopped doing it's thing, one is dead, the other still has plenty of life. At this point, though, I'm using my little light bulb rig to drain them down the rest of the way as I've described, but thanks for the tip Tyll.