colinharding

Great choice for your first build!! I did one of those myself a while ago. A couple words of advice, try to keep all the old iron. Power transformer is a little less of a concern as it doesn't effect the sound that much. But as always, your amp is only as good as your output transformers. KEEP THE OLD ONES!! That is very important. Replace all power caps with whatever you want, you could always stay kinda vintage with sprague atoms if you can find them in the correct values. The last key is not to put any electrolytics in the signal path. I'm not sure what your amp came with (if they are still on there) but probably some wax paper or mylar type cap. Probably pyramid or something, but source some period "greenies" or Aerovox V161 capacitors and put those back in as the output caps. I have an entire stock if you would like some, but that is the key to voicing this amp properly. If you can find some use Tobe but they are extremely hard to source. Hey, have fun with the build and good luck!

@autoformer your note on live music couldn't be more exact! Most live bands in huge areans are hard to listen to due to the fact of the sheer amount of volume. The intimate venues being much more tolerable and infinitely more enjoyable. You mentioned you were from Seattle, I used to live there quite a while ago and would frequent Pioneer Square for live music. Great spaces there that used to tickle my ears with jazz and local performers, not sure if it's the same anymore though. Long story short it just seems that all to ofter people get carried away with the "official" reviewers advice. You need more power, less of a noise floor, more psu isolation, more frequency range, and we seem to forget where music comes from. It's these live venues that we must try to replicate, not the delicate audiophile sound that seems to come leaping out of a vacuum of dead space. These artists are using cheap Peavey equipment and long runs of copper core cables with amps plugged right into an outlet, minus any surge protection. Their noise floor is noticeable, frequency range limited, but the experience is euphonic. I want all my music to sound like this, heavy, warm, euphoric, "tubey" if you like. I shouldn't ever have to turn my music off to give my ears a rest. For me, I like the top rolled off, a large breadth of bandwidth (not frequency), and a liquid smooth midrange. Gets my toes tapping with or without the good scotch haha. But I digress, when you are done listening to find the minute details of every song and examining equipment for their tonal technicalities and just want to listen to pure music; pick up an old 60's piece of gear. Eico, Acrosound, Leak, Brook, etc. And if you really want to hit the jackpot, try Western Electric (WE). Right now my main system consists uses a pair of 124b Silver WE amplifiers (pre WWII), which power WE 753c speakers. 713b driver for a 32a horn and Jensen ks12004 for the woofer. They are as original as original can be and the experience is beyond amazing. I do like your listening position with the Harbeths, that is definitely where they are best. Above all the imaging with those speakers is just exquisite. You should try some paper cones, there's an Italian company called SAP that make wonderful speakers. After my set of Harbeths I moved up to a pair called the Quartets I think. They have a terrible website, but it's worth a look at sapaudio.com I think. Your hitting the nail on the head with the type of equipment for the Zu's. They need that vintage equipment to roll them off a bit and smooth them out. SET amps are also nice, but I think I ran mine with an Amber Series 70 amplifier with the best results. Didn't have them for long though. They worked quite well with a paire of Eico HF-30 amps I have (el84 with EZ81 rectification). Anyway I'm terribly sorry to hijack this thread and I hope we can get this back on track for the original poster.

Just trying to help, but remember, especially when choosing a DAC. Bits are cheap, it doesn't cost much for a manufacturer to through a 32bit chip in there and herald the DAC as the newest technology. That doesn't make the DAC sound any better it just allows it more flexibility. Generally the highest reviewed units are in direct correlation with the amount of advertising they receive in the reviewers blog or magazine. Long in short is that you need to use your ears before making a purchase.

And they are nice for what they are. His reference is a Harbeth speaker, if you cannot honestly tell the difference between the Zu's limp overly bright sound and that of the Harbeth's then it's time for you to go a concert and train your ears again. And honestly what you're hearing between the jolida and your "home-brew" amp is exactly what I like. Rolled off highs, smooth, warm with a correct tonal balance. I'm sure your other amp has a boosted top end and when you loose that you loose "detail." Detail that is simply not present in live music. That is what we are all trying to reach is it not? Audio nirvana equals what is heard in a concert and I can tell you with 100% accuracy that there is no frequency reaching over 16000hz, so why have a speaker that hits 20000hz, and pumps those frequencies beyond tolerable levels. You've got an iphone or android device, download the app that measures hz and go to a concert. But hey, don't take my advice. Use your ears, if that's what you like then fine, the point it moot. I've no right to change your opinion as you have no right to force a change in mine. But I implore you to go to a concert and really listen.... Anyway to each his own and I'd love to hear your opinions, if you love your gear than enjoy it and don't let me tell you any different. In the long run you'll all circle back are realize that the prewar equipment still reigns supreme. Slow drawn time annealed metals, no electrolytic capacitors, paper cones.

I really like your suggestions for the poster!! Great job of summing it up but I have to ask, why they Zu audio??? They are the worst speaker on the market today hands down! Have you heard them? Listen to them and you will find that they have a concave curve, there is no midrange at all. Oooph I just cannot stand those speakers, yes they look great but they are thin as anything and incredibly harsh sounding. It's mostly top end screech with not warm, but oh well listen to what you like i guess. I cannot agree more with your Audio Note and Transmission Audio. Great gear, Audio Note can be a bit tough to deal with as Peter is a little slow at responding but they are wonderful products and all voiced with capacitors which are easy to replace/mod. Ten grand is a good budget, I'd almost recommend going old school if you can hack it. Get an Altec 757 driver with an 802b horn driver or if you manage some extra cash go for the Western Electric 713 and you will be blown away by the sound.

Go for a Jolida FX 10 I think it is called. Great sounding little amp, although it has those blue leds for god knows what reason. Uses four el84's and two 12ax7's up front. The el84's are a warm sweet sounding tube that will provide you with enough power with speakers as low as 88db efficient (proac's). Stay away from the Zu's whatever you do. I'm not trying to step on any toes here but they are the worst possibly speaker available today. Yeah they look great but that's the whole point, they have absolutely NO midrange just look at a graph. Get a pair of quad's. 22l's are going out of production and they were 1900 for floor standing so you might be able to score a deal there for a great sounding speaker.

I would really recommend a TBI sub, I have the magellan series and absolutely love it. Very fast and goes down quite a ways. Also has an internal crossover.

Bel Canto has a great product line that works very well with headphones. The DAC section is very nice as well. Now, Bel Canto is not your typical "audiophile" product to if you're looking for the overly thin and harsh sound of a Benchmark, for example, that is not what you are going to get. Bel Canto is very smooth and warm, much more tube like in this regard. They are wonderful sounding, I had the top of the line DAC and loved it, though I recently replaced it with a Synthesis Matrix. As for the headphone out it does a good job as well. It had plenty of power for my Grados and could have used a tad more for my AKG k340s. Looking at your equipment lineup it will sound most like your Theta, I had a theta dsp pro generation iii at one time and loved it. So as with your headphones and your system it will retain that weighty warm non-fatiguing sound. Haven't heard the headphones you mention but it works well with my Eytomotic Er4s models, which should be about the same power requirement. Hope this helps, colin

I cannot recommend the Synthesis Matrix Dac enough, if musical with a warm overtone and nice three dimensional soundstage is what your looking for this dac is it. Though I am not a rep for the company and this is not an advertisement of any kind I know Luigi personally (creator of the Matrix) and have had a hand in tweaking the sound. It is a 24bit dual mono (two 12ax7's per channel) and uses a capacitor output if you want to change the flavor of its sound. 2mf at 600 volts I believe. It is unquestionably the best DAC under 10,000, the next contender being the Audio Note 3x DAC. My biggest piece of advice is not to trouble yourself with bits. 24, 32, 16, upsampling, bits are cheap and don't make anything sound better or worse, it's just a selling point. The 90,000 Audio Note DAC 5 signature blows everything out of the water and its only 18bit for crying out loud. Let your ears tell you what sounds good, not some sabre 32 bit dac advertisement. Treat yourself to some concerts as it's the only way you will learn what music actually sounds like, as that's what we are trying to reproduce....right? Not some 24bit 192hz vacuum sealed sealed presentation with no noise floor and extension past 20000hz. NOTHING in a live performance goes past 15000hz, nothing. So why have some 32 bit dac that pumps those high frequencies??? Use your ears, not the statistics. Anyway my two cents.

I'm sorry I didn't mean to bolster or in any way advertise for AudioGD, its simply the only company I know of currently that employs this technology. IMHO it is currently the best way to go about totally reducing your jitter when using an out board dac. Additionally the company is based in China where these chips are manufactured putting them in an opportune place to test and employ them before any overseas (from their perspective) manufactures can get obtain them. I'm am a long time customer and fan of their work, but I'm sorry to make my post sound a bit like an ad as it was not my intention. I put the link in my last post, it proves what I have told you, but again their is totally the possibility of some other company employing a different or same technique that accomplishes the same goal. Consequently I am just not privy to their doing so and would love to hear of any alternative techniques. Just throwing my two cents down. colin

Technically the best way to achieve a near zero jitter state is to use a DSP-1 processor instead of the typical PMD-100, DF1704 data input chip. In this sense the data runs in a two-channel Digital Interpolation Filter and data in-phase processor state for digital audio. Meaning that the data entered into the dac will run parallel instead of straight in and out. Jitter in commercial or high grade devices can be very high, as much as 200PS which is not very good even though thats a relatively low jitter value, however with the information running parallel within the processing unit Jitter is invariably zero. Its just intrinsic to the implementation that the jitter is that low, which is astronomical. This impementation also lowers the jitter of other respective devices to a near zero state even when using cheap mass-produced equipment. The only company that I know of that is capable of this technology is AudioGD and it exists in their DAC Reference 1 which retails for 1550. But don't let the price lower your expectations, it is recommended that you have VERY high end equipment rack to back it up because of its transparency and neutral characterstics. colin http://www.audio-gd.com/enweb/DACRE1.htm

Hey I just purchased a darkvoice 337 and recently auditioned it against my friends singlepower extreme and we both agreed that it definitely had better sound quality. The bass had much more presence with a punch than the singlepower, the mids were liquid in quality and because the darkvoice is a dual mono i am able to use each of the volume pots to perfectly position the soundstage. I was using AKG 701's for the audition which sounded amazing through both but the darkvoice truly widened the soundstage and gave much more bass presence to these bass light cans. As the extreme costs a little over a grand where as the darkvoice is only 730 with shipping from china. Just figured I'd put my two cents in for those of you looking for high end audio without giving your entire wallet over. This forum explains it all as the darkvoice has been compared to almost every amp available, http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/darkvoice-337-review-219504/ Check it out!

Hey I have been on this forum for a while now, not posting just learning, and finally feel its time to post my own question. I want to make the first leap into the real hifi but only have $400 currently available, i know thats not enough for what a lot of people consider "real" hifi but for a starving college student I'm doing the best i can. My question is should I purchase headphones, I'm stuck between the beyerdynamic DT 880 or Denon AH-D5000, first or a DAC. I currently own a pair of Eytomotic Er-4s's but am not sure if buying a DAC will pump better sound out of them then just buying one of the above listed headphones and using my bithead from headroom. So I leave the question up to you, should I stick with my Ety's and buy a new DAC or some new headphones? For either opinion could you please list some DAC's that would work or headphones that you find particularly sonically astounding that I could find for a street price of 400.

Yes as Chris said they do work fine without an amp. HeadRoom sells the cord cheaper at about 50 http://www.headphone.com/guide/by-manufacturer/etymotic-research/etymotic-er-4p-to-er-4s-adapter.php and gives you a brief description of what it does and how it works. I have read a couple of reviews that directly compare the 4s to the 4p and then the 4p to the 4s with the conversion cord. Apparently the 4p with the conversion sound exactly the same as the 4s so the cord does work. hope this helps, colin

I just bought a pair of the etymotic er4-p. They are really nice in the midrange to high, but if your looking for a pair of bass bellowing headphones these might be a little weak for you. I know shure has a pair (SE530) that have two woofers in them that are supposed to be womderful but also come with a wonderful price tag of about 500 if you can stomach it. Some people say that their clear dynamics get a little muddy with all the extra bass though so its something to think about if your mp3 player doesn't have an eq. With the etymotics, though, you can switch between the 4-p and 4-s models with just one wire priced at about fifty. The wire just raises the impedence of the headphones to a stiff 100 ohms gain a more neutral response, yeah the sound better but you need the extra cord and a headphone amp to properly drive them. I went with the etymotics just becuase I could get two of their products in one. Anyway enjoy your search for new in ear headphones. -colin