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Headphones, Personal Listening Gear Personal Listening at its Best |
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#1
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Headphone Amp - Balanced or Not?
Am shopping for a dedicated headphone amp that will be running Audeze LCD-3, Focal Clear & Sennheiser HD 650 headphones and am wondering how important 'balanced' outputs might be?
Am considering amps such as the Woo WA6, WA6-SE & WA22, Audeze Deckard, and Bryston BHA-1. Of these, only the WA22 & BHA-1 are balanced and priced accordingly. Prefer not to have an amp with a built-in DAC, though that is not a deal killer.
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Glenn... Canton Reference 9 Clearaudio SM Pro Focal Bathys JLA 10" Dominion Kuzma Stabi S w/MC & MM Magnepan 1,7i McIntosh MA8950 & MR88 Oppo 203 Roon Nucleus Rose Hifi RS150B Shunyata Gemini-4 Sony ST-A6B, TA-F6B, ST-J75 & PS-X75 Sorane SA1.2 & TA-1L Stillpoints LP1v2 WW Pt, Au & Ag |
#2
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Enter the Woo!
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Wilson Audio Alexia + Mezzo | Dan D'Agostino Momentum PRE & S250 | Esoteric P02x & D02x | Torus AVR2-16 | Marantz AV8805 | Panasonic UB9000 | Bryston 7B3 & 9BSST2 | ScreenTechnics 125" 2.37 Screen | JVC X7900 | Krix A20 (4) | JL Audio F113 (2) |
#3
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Well I have the WA6-SE with all the upgrades best tubes etc. Love it with all 3 of my cans, but if you want balanced I lean to the WA22 with the upgrades of course!
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#4
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Quote:
I've owned the BHA-1 and have experience with the WA22 and both are very good headphone amps with maybe different signatures. I would recommend an amp with lots of power specifically for the LCD-3 and HD650. So maybe consider more so the amp output power and signature over the features, unless you have balanced source gear that you want to take full advantage of.
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- Dan Headphone rig: Gustard X16, Topping A90, Hifiman HE6se, Audeze LCD2 2-Channel setup: Okto Research DAC8 Stereo, Bryston 4B³, Philharmonic Audio BMR Towers, Dual PSA S152 subs |
#5
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My suggestion would be the Audeze Deckard. First, the synergy is very strong between the Audeze LCD series and the Deckard that has a “warmish” Class A sonic signature for a solid state amp but a very authoritative drive in the bass region without sounding cold or clinical as many amps in that price range can be. Second, the Deckard has a very smooth usb DAC already built in so can be used as a stand alone solution if you want to plug in to a computer and use Tidal, Roon or anything else really that you can listen to on the computer. Third, it has a variable out line so in the future if you still want to add a Woo or any other tube amp, you can use the Deckard for the DAC section and have a “pre-gain” through the variable out on your Deckard.
I find the pre-gain to be a big plus when feeding tube amps and myself am using a Deckard DAC which in turn feeds the Woo. This allows you to find a sweet spot of where the tube amp sounds it’s best. This is another topic in itself and not easy to explain in a short post but think of a car transmission and an engine and you get the idea. It puts the tube amp at a favorable operating zone for best sonic performance. The Deckard also has 3 gain settings so headphones of all variable sensitivities including ultra sensitive IEM can be used. Since it has been discontinued you may have to do some hunting for a Deckard but I was able to find a store demo at a discounted price. I love the Deckard. From the Audeze website: Cutting-edge industrial design by BMW’s i8 team! You’ll not only be proud of how the Deckard sounds, it also looks striking on the desktop with beautifully machined heatsinks down each side. Our strategic partner Designworks, a BMW group subsidiary, provided the industrial design for the Deckard. Audeze combined their cutting-edge designs with our own circuit technologies to create an astonishingly accurate sounding headphone amplifier. Last edited by PHC1; 09-18-2018 at 10:38 AM. |
#6
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Oops, forgot to answer your question as to balanced or not. I've experimented with quite a few headphone amps as you know and quite a few headphones I would not be so concerned about going balanced since the topology and implementation of balanced varies from amp to amp. Some amps that offer both will sound significantly better, some not so much. Some Single Ended will blow other balanced out of the water so it all depends. No, I would not be looking for balanced specifically unless the amp is clearly known to perform better in balanced mode, such as the Bryston and Violectric for example. The SPL Phonitor on the other hand only offered single ended but with 60v rails, you'd be hard pressed to ever hear a difference in the drive and overall grip on ANY headphone of any impedance between those amps.
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#7
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+1 to what Serge said.
More important to find an amp you like than choose based on balanced or unbalanced. BTW, headphone driver elements are already balanced devices. Having one common return for both left and right in the unbalanced case is the only real difference between the two, and headphone drivers themselves can’t divine the difference. Tom
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Main System: Amati Futura Mains Amati Homage VOX Center, Proac Response 1sc Rears, Three MC2301's for L,C,R MC 602 for the rears C 1100, MX 151, MCD 1100, MR 80 Nottingham Dais with Wave Mechanic Sumiko Palo Santos Presentation SurfacePro 3, RPi 4, ROON, WW Starlight Platinum USB, Schiit Yggdrasil, Benchmark DAC3 HGC MX 151, OppO BDP-95, JVC RS-500 DILA projector, 106" diagonal Stewart Luxus Screenwall Deluxe with Studiotek 130 G3 material. Lake House: Ohm F, MC 275V, C2300, MR 77, Rega P3 OnDeck: McIntosh MAC 4300v |
#8
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Of course, you must consider both the amp and headphones. Classic Sennheisers (HD600, 650, 800) tend to benefit much more from balanced more than other headphones. In general, headphones with a large soundstage benefit more from balanced drive. The Focal Utopias, Grados and closed/wood Audio Technicas (e.g. ATH-L3000), all headphones with fairly small (if not claustrophobic) soundstages, didn't benefit much from balanced drive to my ears. In some cases, e.g. with planar dynamics, you may actually require the extra power (up to 4x) and/or gain (up to 6dB) provided by balanced drive. But for most dynamic moving coil headphones, the extra power/gain by itself is far from necessary.
With amps in my experience, the old balanced amp topologies that used opamps seemed to suffer greatly downwards from their maximum performance in SE mode - e.g. RSA Apache, Headphone Balanced Home/Max. Whereas the all discrete Head-Amp Gilmore designs (GS-X, etc) all do fantastic in either balanced or SE modes - but then power supply has a very strong impact on sound quality there. I've also heard tube amps and hybrid circuits do superbly in "just" SE mode. |
#9
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After searching around for an Audeze Deckard and finding none at the moment, I decided to take the Woo-line and boarded with a WA6 Gen 1. Comes with the tube adapters for 6SN7s and a Sophia 274B. Was going to go with a Gen 2, but I've got a dozen flavors of 6SN7s and 5U4Gs on the shelf, so tube rolling will be simple enough. All ready shipped and should be here Thurs. If need be, can always send it back to LI and have it "Gen'd up" to current spec's. Thanks for all the input.
BTW - you other Wooline riders might be interest in these: https://www.sophiaelectric.com/pages/se/New_6SN7.htm to match your Sophia 274B rectifier tube.
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Glenn... Canton Reference 9 Clearaudio SM Pro Focal Bathys JLA 10" Dominion Kuzma Stabi S w/MC & MM Magnepan 1,7i McIntosh MA8950 & MR88 Oppo 203 Roon Nucleus Rose Hifi RS150B Shunyata Gemini-4 Sony ST-A6B, TA-F6B, ST-J75 & PS-X75 Sorane SA1.2 & TA-1L Stillpoints LP1v2 WW Pt, Au & Ag Last edited by Formerly YB-2; 09-18-2018 at 06:33 PM. |
#10
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BTW; I am a Woo Audio Dealer also.
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Ivan FLORIDA MX136, MC1.2KW(10) MC2KW(2), MCD1100, MS750(2) MVP881, C1000C/P/T, MPC1500, HT-2 SUBS(2) HT3F(2) WS350(2) XRT2K, XCS2K, XR27(2) XCS350(2) JL GOTHAM v2 SUBS(2) SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, LUMAGEN RADIANCE SCALER, SONY VPH-G90U 4K PROJECTOR, STEWART 120" MOTORIZED SCREEN, CINEMA-TECH SEATING, WW PLATINUM CABLES Reference System: ACCUPHASE A300 AMPS, C3900 PRE-AMP, DP1000 CD/SACD TRANSPORT, DC1000 DIGITAL PROCESSOR, DG-68 DIGITAL EQUALIZER, T1200 FM STEREO TUNER, PS1230 POWER SUPPLY, HRS-SXR CUSTOM RACK w/ M3X SHELVES, TAD REFERENCE ONE MK2 LOUDSPEAKERS, WW PLATINUM CABLES CAPE COD MX150, MC501(2) MC1.2KW(10) MC2301(2) MR88, MVP881, MCD1100, MDA1000, C1000C/P/T, MPC1500, ESOTERIC K-01X 30th ANNIVERSARY (BLACK) SACD/CD PLAYER, G02-X CLOCK, HT3F(2) XRT2K, XCS2K, XR27(2) JL GOTHAM v2 SUBS(2) JL FATHOM F113v2 SUBS(4) SOUND ANCHOR STANDS(2) KALEIDESCAPE STRATO & TERRA SERVERS 80-TB, LUMAGEN RADIANCE SCALER, SONY VPH-G90U 4K PROJECTOR, STEWART 120" SCREEN, SONUS FABER STRADIVARI, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, FORTRESS SEATING, WW PLATINUM CABLES Analog Rig: CLEARAUDIO INNOVATION WOOD, UNIVERSAL ARM w/ Da VINCI' CART, 2nd UNIVERSAL ARM w/ GOLDFINGER STATEMENT CART, HRS-MXR REFERENCE RACK-GLOSS BLACK w/ M3X SHELVES, AESTHETIX RHEA SIG PHONO-PRE, BRYSTON BHA-1 HEADPHONE AMP, WW PLATINUM CABLES Reference System: BURMESTER 911MK3 AMP(3), 088 PRE-AMP, 089 CD PLAYER, 100 PHONO PRE-AMP, 948 POWER CONDITIONER, ACCUPHASE DG-68 VOICING EQUALIZER, AVID ACUTUS REFERENCE SP TT, GRAHAM PHANTOM II SUPREME ARM, BENZ MICRO LP-S CART, GRANDIOSO P1X/D1X STACK, G1X RUBIDIUM MASTER CLOCK, N05 NETWORK PLAYER, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, HRS-SXR CUSTOM RACK w/ M3X SHELVES, SONUS FABER AIDA SPEAKERS, JL FATHOM F113v2 SUBS(2) SOUND ANCHOR STANDS(2) WW PLATINUM CABLES Library System: GRANDIOSO M1 MONOBLOCK AMPS, C1 LINESTAGE PRE-AMP, K1X CD/SACD PLAYER, G1 MASTER RUBIDIUM CLOCK, E02 PHONO-PRE, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, AERIAL ACOUSTICS 20T V2, AERIAL SW12 SUBS(2), CANTON REF K1’s, VPI HRX TT w/ SDS POWER SUPPLY, ORTOFON CADENZA BLACK CART, KLAUDIO RCM, SHUNYATA DENALI 6000/S v2, SHUNYATA OMEGA QR’s, WW PLATINUM CABLES Esoteric/Bryston System: ESOTERIC C02-X PRE-AMP, P-02X TRANSPORT, D02-X DAC, G02-X CLOCK, BRYSTON 28B3 CUBED MONOBLOCK AMPS(4), BRYSTON BHA-1 HEADPHONE AMP, SHUNYATA DENALI 6000/S v2(2) EVEREST 8000 POWER CONDITIONER(2) ALTAIRA CG & SG HUBS, AMR-DP777-SE DAC, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, TAD REFERENCE ONE MK2 LOUDSPEAKERS, QUADRASPIRE RACK, WW PLATINUM CABLES Accuphase/Canton System: ACCUPHASE E800 INTEGRATED, DP570 CD/SACD PLAYER, T1200 FM STEREO TUNER, DG-68 VOICING EQUALIZER, PS530 POWER SUPPLY, CANTON REF K3’s, CANTON REF K5’s, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, HRS MXR REFERENCE MAHOGHANY RACK w/ M3X2 SHELVES, WW GOLD CABLES |
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