[poorimpulsectrl]

AD843 Op-Amp
Line Regulated 24v Wall Wart
Vishay Resistors
Elna Cerafine PS Caps
Double Stacked EL2001 Buffers
nickel minijack input
gold plated RCA inputs
nickel 1/4" output
Alps Blue Potentiometer
Hammond 1455 Clear Aluminum Case

Headphones : Beyerdynamic DT770-250
Cables : Markertek Mini
Source : Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

I'm sure if someone were to go looking for a meta42 review they wouldn't have too much trouble finding one. So I'll try and keep my commentary to things that I myself was unsure of despite having made the search button my bitch, or things that are personally relevant to me.

I had reservations about the AD843 being too good and showing me the flaws of the mp3's that I primarily listen to. Tangent disagreed that it would render anything unlistenable. Try not to be too surprised here, but it seems expertise and experience won out

No "OMG WT-BLOODY-F HAVE I BEEN LISTENING TO" moments experienced as of yet.

The amp is still being burned in, so I'll reserve any elaborate commentary on sound until later (or maybe not at all, as many more travelled listeners have already given their two cents on the meta42 sound). Immediately noticeable to me was the impact of the bass and spaciousness of the sound. Contrary to the Creek OBH-11 I was using before in my setup, the positioning of sounds across channels is much more discrete. When reconfiguring my Sensaura Virtual Ear profile, there was no longer any real question of where sounds were being placed. Before it was a bit of a toss up.

Detail and 'texture' (i.e. how sounds are layered) are great in the electronic music I primarily listen to. Bass coming out of the DT770's is not overwhelming as some fear when a meta42 and Beyer are paired. Nothing seems shortchanged across the spectrum of sounds that can be heard. I'm somewhat sensitive to crashing, sharp highs but they seem palatably liquid in this setup. Interestingly enough, this sometimes results in the exact opposite effect I feared in the 2nd paragraph - it's made some recordings that were too bright for my tastes perfectly listenable now. Everything sounds balanced, smooth and musical to my ears. Just the way I wanted it. Enjoyable.

Workmanship is without surprise gorgeous. A lot of people have reservations about going DIY as opposed to 'professional' products, myself being one of them when I first stumbled across the meta42. I don't have such a reservation now. I like minimalist, clean designs so this looks great to me. Plus the sole fact that you get much more for what you pay for with DIY is reason enough for any fan of music to go this route.

Rather than finding something else to say here, I'm going to go back to enjoying my new (and wholly satisfying) setup.

 

[tangent]

Thanks for the kind words!

The Creek OBH-11 is indeed rather bright, in my experience. I've used it with the also-bright Sennheiser HD-570s and the combo is unlistenable. Now I'm using the Grado SR-60s with that amp which I find somewhat muffled, which helps. That setup is on my gaming PC, simply because of the pass-through feature of that amp. So it sounds like I should make a META42 with pass-through and replace the Creek! Ah, too bad...I was happy that I'd found a home for the Creek, since I'm loathe to sell it (who knows, I may need it for comparison some day) and I also don't like stuff gathering dust. But, since it's a gaming PC and I'm not thrilled with the positional sound I'm currently getting, it might be time to replace it anyway.

It's also good to hear that bass is under control with the Beyer DT-770s. I wonder if the stacked buffers have something to do with this. Perhaps with only one buffer per channel the bass gets sloppy with these headphones. Just a guess....

 

[HappymaN]

Any chance of some pictures of the Hammond case? Sounds interesting.

 

[mlchang]

Quote:

Originally posted by HappymaN Any chance of some pictures of the Hammond case? Sounds interesting.

Should be the same one that tangent used on his own amp, and the same one as voodoochile. I don't think "clear aluminum" means see-through aluminum. It means clear anodized, so that the case is the natural silver color of aluminum.

 

[stevesolo]

What is the burn in period and the best way to accopmplish it.

 

[tangent]

Yes, PIC's amp is in the same case as the one I built for myself that I posted about on the DIY forum a month or two ago. As he said, it's a pretty minimalist design: volume, basic 1/4" output, power switch and LED on the front, power jack and RCAs on the rear.

 

[poorimpulsectrl]

It looks pretty much identical to this :

 

[poorimpulsectrl]

Quote:

Originally posted by tangent It's also good to hear that bass is under control with the Beyer DT-770s. I wonder if the stacked buffers have something to do with this. Perhaps with only one buffer per channel the bass gets sloppy with these headphones. Just a guess....

Yesterday I was noticing that on some recordings the bass didn't seem as tight as it did on others - I just chalked this up to the amp only being burned in for 24 hours or the recording itself.