I thought that some of you chaps might be interested in a few goings on.
The first being that I finally got around to adding the first valve amp into my system. It’s something I’ve thought about on an off for a number of years, but have mainly avoided because my system needs to be wife and child friendly. So unfortunately a big and potentially dangerous thing like a valve amp that would need to turned on by the missus to use, was never really going to be on the cards.
So instead I’ve gone down plan B, i.e. a headphone amp. I don’t remember my wife ever using my cans, so something that is less user friendly is fine. More to the point, it can be kept out of the way from prying fingers and left off unless used.
What I ended up looks like one of these:
It’s a Little Dot iv (not an SE as shown) that I found at a good price on a forum that I regularly visit. New they’re around £300. I believe that they’re Chinese by origin.
It’s pretty hard to tell the size from the photo, and I certainly didn’t expect it to be quite as big. The base is roughly the size of a Cyrus integrated amp and it certainly feels well built, with a lovely smooth volume control.
It’s connected via single ended RCA phonos from the backend of my Meridian 568.2 processor, which is acting as a stereo DAC, as driven from my Squeezebox Touch.
And the most important element? Well it sounds lovely. Infact it’s the closest I’ve come across to making a pair of headphones sound like my normal amp/speaker combination. My reference point was a Meier HA2se, which is a well thought of solid state class A design and is certainly no slouch. The Meier does have a slight edge in perceived detail, but once the LD is warmed up (around 15-20 mins), it’s simply lush. For the money, it’s ace.
Yesterday I hosted a chap who fancied having a listen to my speakers, along with comparing them to a pair of Snells that he owns. I’ve wanted to listen to some Snells with my own system for years, so this was a great opportunity to scratch that itch. I’ve read many many comments of Snells putting forward a “magical” style of presentation, so I was very much looking forward to it.
Unfortunately, the Snells more than had their work cut out for them, though being fair, they’re probably worth less than half of my existing Impulse Ta’us speakers (assuming the typical s/h value of each). In short, wasn’t even close. The Snells had nothing like the bass depth, constrained things with their image depth and suffered from minor levels of both sibilance and cabinet colouration (not huge amounts, but enough to annoy). So it was definitely a useful comparison, even if the results were even more one sided than I’d expected.
What was also interesting was to talk with the owner about his experiences in the valve arena. He’s a vinyl/valve user and on the previous day had been listening to a 300b Kondo valve amp driving a pair of bigger Living Voice speakers, as fronted by a good record deck.
Apparently when comparing my system to the Kondo system, his view was that both were very good, although massively different. The valve system had a stunning smooth and silky mid-range, whilst mine countered with a big full range sound stage. I have to say that it did make me wonder about how to smooth out some of the harshness that digital seems to have, even what the kit is known to be smooth. So I can see myself playing with the idea of introducing a valve pre-amp between by existing processor and power amp. It will clearly result in a “manipulation” of the sound, though hopefully in a good way and without too many compromises.
I have talked to a friend about the use of a valve buffer, and we did talk about the MF x10. Unfortunately his experiences were less than positive, so it looks like it’ll need to be a more expensive solution (typical).
The first being that I finally got around to adding the first valve amp into my system. It’s something I’ve thought about on an off for a number of years, but have mainly avoided because my system needs to be wife and child friendly. So unfortunately a big and potentially dangerous thing like a valve amp that would need to turned on by the missus to use, was never really going to be on the cards.
So instead I’ve gone down plan B, i.e. a headphone amp. I don’t remember my wife ever using my cans, so something that is less user friendly is fine. More to the point, it can be kept out of the way from prying fingers and left off unless used.
What I ended up looks like one of these:
It’s a Little Dot iv (not an SE as shown) that I found at a good price on a forum that I regularly visit. New they’re around £300. I believe that they’re Chinese by origin.
It’s pretty hard to tell the size from the photo, and I certainly didn’t expect it to be quite as big. The base is roughly the size of a Cyrus integrated amp and it certainly feels well built, with a lovely smooth volume control.
It’s connected via single ended RCA phonos from the backend of my Meridian 568.2 processor, which is acting as a stereo DAC, as driven from my Squeezebox Touch.
And the most important element? Well it sounds lovely. Infact it’s the closest I’ve come across to making a pair of headphones sound like my normal amp/speaker combination. My reference point was a Meier HA2se, which is a well thought of solid state class A design and is certainly no slouch. The Meier does have a slight edge in perceived detail, but once the LD is warmed up (around 15-20 mins), it’s simply lush. For the money, it’s ace.
Yesterday I hosted a chap who fancied having a listen to my speakers, along with comparing them to a pair of Snells that he owns. I’ve wanted to listen to some Snells with my own system for years, so this was a great opportunity to scratch that itch. I’ve read many many comments of Snells putting forward a “magical” style of presentation, so I was very much looking forward to it.
Unfortunately, the Snells more than had their work cut out for them, though being fair, they’re probably worth less than half of my existing Impulse Ta’us speakers (assuming the typical s/h value of each). In short, wasn’t even close. The Snells had nothing like the bass depth, constrained things with their image depth and suffered from minor levels of both sibilance and cabinet colouration (not huge amounts, but enough to annoy). So it was definitely a useful comparison, even if the results were even more one sided than I’d expected.
What was also interesting was to talk with the owner about his experiences in the valve arena. He’s a vinyl/valve user and on the previous day had been listening to a 300b Kondo valve amp driving a pair of bigger Living Voice speakers, as fronted by a good record deck.
Apparently when comparing my system to the Kondo system, his view was that both were very good, although massively different. The valve system had a stunning smooth and silky mid-range, whilst mine countered with a big full range sound stage. I have to say that it did make me wonder about how to smooth out some of the harshness that digital seems to have, even what the kit is known to be smooth. So I can see myself playing with the idea of introducing a valve pre-amp between by existing processor and power amp. It will clearly result in a “manipulation” of the sound, though hopefully in a good way and without too many compromises.
I have talked to a friend about the use of a valve buffer, and we did talk about the MF x10. Unfortunately his experiences were less than positive, so it looks like it’ll need to be a more expensive solution (typical).