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Showing 1 of 29 conversations about:
elau
81
Jul 29, 2016
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I wish these desktop balanced amps have xlr outputs for speakers for those that switch back and forth--without dropping several grand for top line violectric or Bryston headphone amps.
Jul 29, 2016
micahjrose
126
Jul 29, 2016
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elauIf you get active speakers and a 4-pin XLR to 2 3-pin XLR, or 4-pin XLR to 2 RCA you are good to go. No need to drop several grand. Just spend a couple hundred on some active speakers. Adam speakers and Emotiva are well rated active speakers with A/B amplification in them with ribbon tweeters. I don't know why you'd want this product for your active speakers though, presumably you'll have a DAC with balanced output.
Jul 29, 2016
elau
81
Jul 29, 2016
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micahjroseI meant, I already have active speakers fed from the XLR outputs of my DAC. I would like to add this in between so that I can sometimes use headphones and others use speakers. The high end headphone amps have XLR in AND out so that you feed the DAC to the HPA to the speakers, staying full balanced throughout. I already have 12ft XLR cables going to my active speakers.
Jul 29, 2016
micahjrose
126
Jul 29, 2016
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elauIt doesn't appear to be designed as a pre-amp, but you can experiment with a cable adaptor, like I indicated. If you want to do that, be careful, because you'll have to max out output somewhere and use the other as the volume control, which can cause harmful power surges if you disconnect improperly.
I think it sounds like what you need is a balanced pre-amp. Questyle makes a DAC/HP Amp/Pre-amp that would probably meet your needs, the Questyle CMA600i. It will cost you $1300, and I wouldn't try it for an HE6 (I wouldn't do that with this one either), but if you are shopping in this price bracket for a balanced HP Amp, you could probably sell your DAC afterwards and have less boxes floating around your setup.
Jul 29, 2016
fjrabon
456
Jul 29, 2016
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micahjroseyeah, I definitely wouldn't build a HE6 setup around this amp. Best value for a HE6 setup right now is the Cayin iHA6.
Jul 29, 2016
EniGmA1987
607
Jul 29, 2016
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elauIf you have active speakers like that, you really dont want to be looking at this headphone amp though. What you want is a balanced output DAC, which is what would plug into this unit. This is just an amplifier, and active speakers dont need to have an amplifier before them since they have amps built into the speakers. You want to send line level audio into those active speakers, like from the output of a balanced DAC.
Technically, you could use this headphone amp to power passive speakers (not active) that are fairly sensitive. Just get two speaker wires that go from the end you need (sometimes bare wire, sometimes binding post, sometimes 1/4", sometimes speakon), then cut off the end you would normally attach to an amp, and solder each of the speaker wires into a 4-pin XLR. Then you can plug your passive speakers into this or any other balanced headphone amp. Just make sure the amp has sufficient power levels (looking for at least 4w usually at 32ohms) and that the amp has a proper output impedance, anything under 1ohm is fine.
Jul 29, 2016
elau
81
Jul 29, 2016
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EniGmA1987I don't think anyone gets what I'm talking about. I have a balanced DAC (Pulse Infinity) feeding XLR to my active speakers (JBL LSR305's) already. If I were to use a discrete headphone amp like this (because the Pulse HPA isn't the best), it would have to be either the speakers or HPA. The high end HPA's have a XLR output for the speakers, so I could use both without unplugging anything. See the back of the Violectric V281 HPA for reference of both in/out XLR on a HPA (except it's over 2 grand):
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Jul 29, 2016
RCaron
8
Jul 29, 2016
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micahjroseTry out Peavey XPR-10 at a music store.. They are balanced high fidelity with titanium tweeter and waveguide horns lots of power at 1/4 the cost. It's worth checking out if your going balanced.. Music store products are a good place to start since most of those components have been balanced since the begining.. The sound is almost always very good and more importantly they are durable can handle more abuse then your ears can tolerate.
Jul 29, 2016
AaronAAaronson
32
Jul 29, 2016
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elauJust use XLR splitters at your DAC so you can have XLR to both the speakers and your amp. Turn on either the speakers or the headphone amp, whichever one you're listening to.
Jul 29, 2016
elau
81
Jul 29, 2016
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AaronAAaronsonthat might be the ticket. so tempted now. I wish there was a return policy if I don't hear any improvement...
Jul 29, 2016
micahjrose
126
Jul 31, 2016
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elauThat's what I thought you meant. It just seems like you are trying to do too many things with one piece of gear. Chances are you won't hear a difference from running the headphone amp from the single ended output on your Pulse, and the Pulse is an excellent pre-amp. If you want a headphone amplifier that is also a pre-amp, they are out there. Personally, I wouldn't mess too much with trying to split signal out of the Pulse. It's a temperamental machine. I've got a Pulse Infinity in the old case and while it sounds beautiful, I'm on the line with support far to often. I would also not try to power single ended and balanced at the same time out of the Pulse. I still haven't gotten an answer from LH Labs as to whether this is safe on the Pulse Infinity. It doesn't say anything in the manual for the Pulse, but I think trying to run single ended and balanced at the same time may have fried my first board. It wouldn't be my fault, as nowhere does it say don't do it, and other sources are capable of doing this, but i'll not risk it, just in case.
Jul 31, 2016
EniGmA1987
607
Aug 1, 2016
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elauLucky you. I have been waiting on my Pulse Infinity for a LONG time...
Aug 1, 2016
elau
81
Aug 1, 2016
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EniGmA1987It's really strange how they have a shortage -- I actually had a Pulse X (not infinity) previously, and needed to be sent in for repair. They said it would take months (obviously) but if I want to upgrade to the Infinity for an extra few hundred they could ship one out within 2 weeks. This was probably a year ago, so I'm surprised if you still don't have yours...
Aug 1, 2016
EniGmA1987
607
Aug 1, 2016
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elauI know it is more expensive than this, but Audio-GD has the NFB-1AMP that costs $520 that is a balanced amp that has both balanced and unbalanced inputs+outputs. That is about a third of the cost of the Violectric V220. I do not know what the NFB-1AMP sounds like, but the other two Audio-GD products I have had sound pretty good and have been of very good build quality and have lasted me many, many years without problems. I even accidentally spilled a can of coke on my FUN dac+amp and it still works perfect other than a button on the front "sticks". lol. http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphoneamp/NFB1AMP/NFB1AMPEN.htm I am considering buying one of these myself. Kingwa is well known for making great products.
Aug 1, 2016
EniGmA1987
607
Aug 1, 2016
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elauYa every time I or anyone asks now they just keep saying 3 weeks from whatever the current date is, been like that for 7-8 months now :/ I hope I get my DAC soon but I am really worried about all these reliability problems I keep hearing about. In hindsight it was a bad decision on my part to back their products on Indiegogo. I am probably going to try and sell my Infinity within a few months after I receive it for a nice chunk of change on Ebay and then buy a new DAC from a more reputable company that is based off the new DAC chip from ESS that just came out (ES9038).
Aug 1, 2016
elau
81
Aug 1, 2016
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EniGmA1987Thanks for the suggestion on the NFB-1AMP - that seems pretty great value! Have you also thought about their DAC's to pair with it as a stack?
Aug 1, 2016
EniGmA1987
607
Aug 2, 2016
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elauI bet it would sound pretty good with the USB upgrade that DAC has for someone who either only has an average DAC unit, or some older ones, but I would think the Pulse Infinity should sound better. Though the Infinity also costs 3x as much money, so they arent exactly comparable price point products either. The Infinity has the naked resistors and femto clocks and all that stuff, so THD and S/N are far lower, and it also uses a slightly newer version of the DAC chip too. So Id say keep the Infinity of course, but for anyone with older stuff or just average DACs, I think the Audio-GD NFB-1 stack could be a very nice setup for moving into the higher end and balanced cans for "cheap" (cheap compared to other companies balanced product lines anyway). Look at Schiit, who is a crowd favorite right now, even their lowest end balanced DAC is $850. Lowest end balanced amp is also $850. Many companies are around that price point, so a quality product at the $550 range is pretty good. That is the reason I like this M-Stage HPA-3B a lot, it is the cheapest, quality design balanced amp I have seen yet. It lacks some features to hit that price point though.
Aug 2, 2016
elau
81
Aug 2, 2016
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EniGmA1987I'm even debating whether it's worth getting another amp. I like the simplicity and look of all in one or a stack. It's just that curiosity of what it would sound like with another amp.
Aug 2, 2016
EniGmA1987
607
Aug 2, 2016
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elauAs I am still waiting on my Infinity I cant say for sure, but my estimate would be that the Infinity may sound a little better as it seems to be a higher end design in the headphone section. The only thing is, the Infinity has a 3000mw max output at 32 ohms right? So I guess it kinda depends how power hungry your headphones are. If they are pulling too much power that it is raising the distortion levels in the Infinity then this or other HPA might work better with a higher output power. But it really just depends on your headphones I would think.
Aug 2, 2016
Tsar_Bomba
228
Aug 2, 2016
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EniGmA1987Holy shit... you people waiting on amps that long. It's SinglePower Audio all over again.
Aug 2, 2016
pwnerman
453
Aug 4, 2016
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EniGmA1987I bought the Geek Pulse Infinity off of a guy on Head-Fi and wasn't impressed. The screen was cheap and dim and the knob was crappy as well. I also hated how it took forever to change the volume.
Sold it and wen't and bought a Oppo HA-1. It is such a beautiful device and it sounds amazing.
Aug 4, 2016
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