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Post by MartinT on May 7, 2020 7:03:29 GMT
Ok, you win!
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Post by jandl100 on May 7, 2020 13:32:34 GMT
My headphone family group photo. In no particular order ; Beyerdynamic T90, B&O H6, Stax SR3, Sony MDR CD1700, PSB M4U, Sennheiser HD700, Philips Fidelio X2. I love them all.
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Post by jandl100 on May 7, 2020 13:43:35 GMT
... and my Epiphany headphone amp, Sonneteer Headspace crossfeed widget (one of 7 ), and nifty little amp dongle thing for turning my phone into a rather fine headphone source.
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Post by Slinger on May 7, 2020 15:15:43 GMT
Seven Sonneteer Bard's Headspaces? Seven? They only come in six different colours for Gawd's sake. OK, if you've got seven I'm sure I can risk one, I do so love cheap experiments. So, which colour sounds best?
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Post by jandl100 on May 7, 2020 15:24:29 GMT
I'm generally looking kool in black, but today's arrival from the cloth-eared Jules is red.
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Post by Slinger on May 7, 2020 16:13:08 GMT
Good guess on my part then, I've ordered the cool black. Mind you, one of the very few advantages of living alone is that I don't need to use headphones these days. Still, lock down is boring, and the new guitar I rather fancy doesn't look like it's going to be available until July, now.
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Post by jandl100 on May 8, 2020 7:26:46 GMT
The choice of which cans to use is constrained by location. They tend to be scattered -
- there's a headphone listening post with my main hifi rig that has the Beyer T90 and PSB M4U powered by the Epiphany amp - in the conservatory are the Senn 700, Stax SR3 and Sony CD1700 driven by an Onkyo CD receiver whose power amp drives the Stax 'stats - and in the bedroom Philips X2 and another pair of PSB M4U driven by a Lepy LP-A1 amp - the B&O H6 are lightest and also most efficient [i.e. loudest], so they get used in the garden with my phone.
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Post by jandl100 on May 12, 2020 9:55:43 GMT
New toy! A Bantam Stealth class D 25wpc power amp from Temple Audio - proudly made in the NW of England. Input and ouput sockets on opposite sides is a bit of a pain. I've put a linear PSU on it rather than the SMPS it came with, and that nicely cleared up a bit of 'edge' to the treble, and generally helped the 3D-ness of it as well. I do love some of the lowish power class D amps. Just so transparent, tonally rich, dynamically nuanced, well focussed and fast as f*ck! .... higher powered ones I have tried tend to lose the hi-rez subtlety that I enjoy so much. This just edged out a TPA3116 chip amp I had been enjoying. The Stealth will probably do nicely for a while - a bit of an amp clearout is in the offing, I think!
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Post by MartinT on May 12, 2020 10:20:35 GMT
Input and ouput sockets on opposite sides is a bit of a pain. I often wonder why designs like this come about, it's an ergonomic disaster. Most likely the PCB flows from input to output in that direction and they didn't want to increase manufacturing costs by using panel mounted phonos rather than PCB mounted ones.
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Post by jandl100 on May 12, 2020 10:33:12 GMT
Yes, tucked away in a cupboard it would be fine, and if I was a bit more fastidious about appearances it would be a bit of a non-starter. It sounds very good, though - and they were building to a price, I think - 1p short of £100.
It wouldn't be too bad if I used thin and flexible interconnects, but as it is it's a bit of a fugly layout.
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Post by julesd68 on May 12, 2020 12:32:23 GMT
Jerry, you should hear John's Temple monos - really impressive.
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Post by jandl100 on May 12, 2020 12:37:21 GMT
You should hear my amp, that's really impressive, too! Are the monos class D?
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Post by jandl100 on May 12, 2020 12:41:02 GMT
Just had a look, yup, they're class D as well.
I'll withhold judgement, often enough class D loses its magic for me as the power increases.
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Post by John on May 12, 2020 12:48:49 GMT
The supercaps PSU really help with the Temple monos I think you would like them Jerry Cleaner treble than the 380 Black Tulip and give a free flowing mid with punch
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Post by jandl100 on May 12, 2020 13:07:14 GMT
It's the low level transparency and detail, along with subtle dynamic nuance and rich tonal colouring, and superbly focused imaging, that really gets my juices flowing with small class D amps - it's an almost unique blend of characteristics ime.
The bigger class D amps cruising along with 100s of Watts that I've heard invariably lose a lot of that. They generally sound smoothly effortless, which some folks love but doesn't appeal to me. The monos at 70wpc rather fall in the middle, so I've no idea if I'd like them or not!
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Post by julesd68 on May 12, 2020 13:14:47 GMT
Well one thing is for sure, the Temples are in a different league to the 380 Tulip, no comparison IMO!
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Post by jandl100 on May 12, 2020 13:26:58 GMT
Like most things hifi, it's all down to subjective preferences and what you want to get out of your system. You just have to try stuff with the music that's important to you and see what you think.
I'd love to have a go with the monos!
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Post by John on May 12, 2020 15:22:29 GMT
I suspect you would like them. But agree you can only find out in the context of your own system
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Post by julesd68 on May 12, 2020 15:49:43 GMT
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Post by jandl100 on May 12, 2020 17:03:40 GMT
Argh - curse you eBay - I've just bought another amp.
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