Bottlehead Single Ended eXperimenter's Kit 2.1 Discussions | Drop

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Bottlehead Single Ended eXperimenter's Kit 2.1

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Bottlehead Single Ended eXperimenter's Kit 2.1

edward.bechtold

Oct 12, 2013

How would these work with the HE-500s?

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AB01

Oct 13, 2013

edward.bechtold @edward.bechtoldAt least one person has posted a positive review about the pairing: http://www.bottlehead.com/smf/index.php/topic,2520.msg21113.html#msg21113 2watts of low-impedance output off of the speaker taps means you would easily clear the optimum power requirements of the HE-500 -- in that sense alone, a great match. It's kind of a grey area trying to understand how well they pair up based on impedance & gain, as some say that planars aren't so affected (like dynamics) by the output impendance 8-to-1 rule, others say that it still partially matters for the lower damping factor regardless. That said, I plan on finding some kind of DIY recipe for a speaker-to-balanced adapter (i.e. cheaper version of the 'HE-Adapter') and using those speaker outs to run either the Alpha Dog or HE-500, then running high-impedance dynamics off of the headphone jack. Two HP amps for the price of one, with balanced output as a bonus.
@JosephDuffy Don't look at the speaker outs as a feature that requires you to buy speakers (though it'll sure come in handy then, too) but rather as something that'll save you the cost of another amp when you inevitably add a power-hungry set of planar-magnetic headphones to your collection, or when you decide you want to go balanced. Voila, you've already got something high-grade that can fully drive them into their optimum range, & you just saved $400.