Yay! Balanced headphone rig is working.

[MikeHunt79]

Head-fi is down right now (I know there are a few head-fi'ers on here tho), so I wasn't really sure which section would be best out of this or home cinema and hifi, but I had to post it somewhere:

Finally got my E-mu 1212m installed today - stock (at the moment)...

I'm using the balanced outs going to 2 x single ended headphone amps (one for each channel), then on to my Sennheiser HD580's (with re-terminated balanced Sennheiser HD650 cable)... It took lots of cutting and soldering, but it was worth it.

It sounds very good (noticeably crisper then when I was running single ended), but this is my first balanced rig... My headphone amps are portable, so I'm powering them from a 12v SLA battery.

Piccy of the amps and battery:

My friend thought it was a bomb!

I'm tempted to get a 4 pole Alps pot for volume control (so I can have patchmix volume set to 100%)... Would this give better quality than using patchmix for volume control? I only have my hedphone amps turned up 1/4 of the way, and I most listen to patchmix with the mixer -30db to -20db.

 

[MikeHunt79]

Thats the strangest thing ive ever seen lol did you create that yourself?! And what is it lol?! enlighten me please!

Well, it's a small 12v battery (like a miniture car battery), with 2 x headphone amps velcro'ed to the sides... It does look a little crazy but it works. I didn't build the amps, but made all the wiring myself...

EDIT: Basically, it a fancy way of getting better sound out of high-end headphones... There are more conventional ways of doing this, but I've found they are far more expensive...

Hahahahhaa that is amazing!!!!!!

Looks like x2 CMOYs strapped to a car battery with a boost gauge taped ontop. Does that do anything or is it just for aesthetics ????

Enjoy the emu, i have a modded 0404 and it's great, but i haven't had the pleasure of trying a balanced setup yet. Bit of a bummer that head-fi is down, well realllllly down.

I know, I've been having head-fi withdrawal... What mods did you do to you 0404? I was tempted to get the 0404 USB, but I managed to get a real good deal on the 1212m so went for that... The next thing on my list is to break out the soldering iron and start modding the 1212m.

You are right when you say it is 2 x CMOY's, I was going to build them myself, but I got them from penguinamp in the end as I'm inpatient...

The boost gauge is actually a car dash 52mm voltmeter... I had it lying around so I wired it up (why not). It actually does something, it lets me know when the voltage gets a little low, so I can then put the battery on charge.

Is that a motorbike battery you've got rigged up there?

All you need now is some solar panels and an alternator, and you've got a high-end eco-friendly audio system lol

It's a battery from a UPS, but it could just as easily be used on a motorbike. It's around 7aH which means it will run the amps for ages as they don't use very much power... The solar panels isn't a bad idea, but there isn't exactly much sunlight at this time of year. I just use a normal car battery charger to keep it topped up.