Eddie Current 2A3 MKII / Cavalli EHHA RevA comparison

I have been comparing the Eddie Current 2A3MKII with Cavalli EHHA RevA (with modified PSU). The main focus was on how these amps drive HD800s and HE-6.

This gear is a loaner.

The sound
Both of these amps are honest and resolving. First of i was surprised by the 2A3 on how uncolored/un-tube like it sounds. No added euphony from mids to highs. I think i picked up some added body compared to EHHA. More thick lead organ/Moog bass on Portishead - It's a Fire. I am not sure if this was a slight coloration, but i preferred 2A3 to EHHA in this regard. The EC amp removed a tiny bit of graininess/noise EHHA had with HD800, resulting in a more natural tone. Less unneeded air if you will. El. guitars were more focused and clearer. (These difference really were quite small, but noticeable) EC has darker background, no grain that i could detect. It seems to work very well with HD800. This was with Sovtek tubes, which some claim aren't the best sounding for this amp.

EHHA and HE-6 happened to be the first pairing i listened and my first impressions were: This thing hits like a freaking truck! Frequency response is really solid from 20Hz and up in the bass region. The most significant difference from EC amp was how impactful the lower notes were(which i basically don't hear that well on HD800) This is the closest i have been to a local night club with good sounding big speakers. They say that properly modded HE6 is even better in bass control and impact. Maybe closer to HD800 in dynamics.

To my surprise, EC 2A3 drives the HE-6 well.(the driving capability of EC 2A3 makes sense, it has big output transformers) It also gained from some of the better characteristics 2A3 had.


I think EHHA HE-6 is a really good pairing, HE-6 does not suffer from excessive air/graininess with EHHA.


First amp review, so this is to be taken with a grain of salt.

Edit. 15.12.2016. Having hours of listening with both amplifiers, EC 2A3 MK2 with Sylvania/EL mesh tubes is a clear winner in most if not all departments. Difference increase with better R2R source, better 2A3 tubes. I should update this review some day.

 

I did spend some time with that stuff too. The 2A3 is clearly better with HD800 80% of the time for me. The EC toob amp is my kind of sound for sure!
Worth noting, power toobz are Sovteks and PSU is BA's (or so i was told). Occasionaly the diy Cavalli is more fun as it has more beef down low and has slightly sharper bass envelopes. With HD800 it seems there is no way around some grain/haze from mosfets (not willing to generalize here), without that maybe these two could trade blows and could be considered equal. The 2A3 has much better microdynamics and 'inner' life from top to bottom, adding more natural and complete tone from bass to highs, while in general the macrodynamics or overal liveliness is comparable save for bass where the Ehha wins out slightly. This is much better amp than Pinnacle for my tastes. To be fair i favored the Ehha to Pinnacle.
It was my first time to hear HE-6 as well. Outer grilles were removed. Soft fabric bads (velour?). I quite liked these from both amps. Slightly soft from the 2A3. If HD800 did that kick drum .
LCD-3F, wtf, wtf!?! 10yo HD650 surpasses these in everything. Product variation got the best out of consumer i guess.
Scratch that, the output trannies of 2A3 singed better than LCD-3F

 

I would take HD650 (even a 10 year old model) over LCD3F any day. HD650 does some things really well. Even if LCD3F does something good, then i am overwhelmed by what is missing, detail, real punch, acurate imaging. LCD3F has muddy bass tone, so for me HD650 wins even in bass region. HD650 does bass very well, great tone. Portishead bass leads sound fantastic on 650s.

 

Tried to remove the outer grills/foam from the LCD-3Fs?

Imo it was better modifying them as the headphones are overdampened and they sound like that. Velour pads help too. Still they don't come very close to the level of performance of modded HE-6s and modded HD800s imo.

It's great to read the MK2 can drive the HE-6s. The MKIV surely does a very good job imo.

 

What 2A3 tubes would you suggest with this amp?

I will do a more indepth comparison with HE-6 and amps. 2A3 might have a thicker, more rich bass tone with 2A3 vs EHHA.

 

I use EML 2A3 solid plates. I preferred the EMLs to RCA NOS: better staging, clearer, more energetic, a bit less warm/lush.

I might like the EML mesh plates more, perhaps I should buy a pair to try.

 

Removin the grills and foam pad from LCD3F was easy.

Soundstage opened up, got some more control in bass. The main characteristics remain. Quite seriously lacking separation and detail. I am somewhat irritated by the 'smear' all over the place. In one word, this headphone has a confused sound for me. Maybe there are more mods one can do to their LCD3F. I am not going to try them. It is a loaner unit after all.

Anyway, thanks for the tip Negura.

When the HE-6 came here, the owner had dismantled them completely. Only drivers and headband intact. I put the stock pads back in it (non pleather pads) and was surprised how good they sound just with less stuff inside the cups.

What benefits did the fuzzor mod have again?

 

Yeah, the principal character of the headphones is what it is. Mods aren't going to change that. But they help. Vegan pads helped too - they reduce reflections and there's an airier sound. No night and day though. I sold my LCD-3Fs for a reason.

I use the velour pads on my HE-6s, but the Audeze vegans are very good too - just need slightly different mods imo. In particular covering the pleather on the interior of the pads. This could actually be a good mod for Audeze too.

 

deleted.

 

So what mods do you use? Dedamp, vegan pad, fuzzer?

 

Velours, stock foam quarters, blutack, hard wiring, no grills, no wool

 

Hi folks, If driving the HD650s, among EC 2A3 MKII/ZDS/ZDSE, is ZDS the best choice?

 

Hey Marv what's the difference b/w the original 2A3 and MK2?
I think we were misinformed early on (in OP) as it's probably not MK2 rather just 2A3.

 

It looked like this http://www.head-fi.org/t/624533/eddie-current-2a3-new-updated-version-new-look-with-polished-top.

Owner claimed it was MK2 (i assume it exists).

 

Heard this amp with Sylvania NOS tubes (short 2h session). Way better sound than via Sovtek tubes. All in all this amp is ultimately a winner for me. Wish i had the $ to buy it. It sounds freaking amazing. Has everything, slam, detail, imaging, seemingly endless inner detail.. Massive difference with Sylvania vs Sovtek tubes.

 

This one drove HE-6 well with Sylvania tubes. Do get decant loudness you had to crank it up (like 75% or more), but everything sounded as dynamic as it gets with stock HE-6.

To make it clear about the HE-6. Over-damping and useless crap was removed by the owner, because he didn't like the original HE-6 sound signature compared to his HD800. Basically driver and stock pads sounded quite neutral to my ears. Had some high frequency peak that did not hurt. Probably around 9kHz.

 

Spectral means Spectrol?

I read the CH EC445 thread, for cans, EC445 > 2A3 MK4. (I assume 445 is the second best EC amp just a liitle behind the Studio series. (Maybe Levi is a little better than 445.))

 

This seems to be the only SBAF related to the Eddie Current 2A3 MKII (or any version) I could find, so I figure I’d post my impressions here. The only other headphone amps I have experience with are the HeadRoom Ultra Desktop Amp, Hugo 1, Cayin IHA-6, Mjolnir 2, and Vali 2, so I don’t have much to compare against.

I’m doing all my listening with either an HE1000v2 or a Focal Utopia. An Aries Mini, powered by a linear power supply, streams FLAC files to a Gungir MB. I’m using the Gungnir Multibit RCA output now. Im not sure if using the balanced out to a transformer to SE would be worth it.

I just bought a dealer demo unit, serial number 2 so should be one of the older MKII designs. It came with Shuguang 2A3 and Russian 6C45 and 6D22 tubes. Both the 2A3 looked funny where the pins appear to have their tips snipped (plus didn’t fit snuggly in the amp socket) and the pair of 6C45 looked very different.

Right off the bat with the above iffy tubes, it had nowhere the slam or impact of Mjolnir 2, but wow the microdynamics even with iffy tubes. The sound was off, with frequency dependent channel imbalance. Issue moved L to R most obviously with switching the 6C45 tubes, and subtlety with 2A3.

So, after promising myself not to tube roll the EC amp versus trying out all sorts of tubes with Mjolnir 2 and Vali 2 (luckily they both are 6922/396A), I got a pair of PSVane WE275 replica and WE417A w/ adapter. The 6D22 looked in good shape so I didn’t swap it out (plus coincidentally couldn’t find a seller in stock right now).

Wow, now this amp lives up to all the positive reviews EC gets; any slight regret is gone. Pitting the EC against Mjolnir 2’s best quality, the macrodynamics/slam is arguably equal (maybe with HEK the Mjolnir 2 ever so slightly edges out). Mjolnir 2 is obviously warmer with more bass quantity the lower down the octave scale you go, especially with WE396A tubes, so it can give the false impression of more bass slam. But the EC can kick just as hard, with absolute crisp control of the bass. The IHA-6 is neutral sounding to me (maybe too neutral) but could pack a strong punch similar to EC and Mjolnir 2.

The EC leaves both Mjolnir 2 and IHA-6 in the dust in clarity/lack of veil. I felt the Mjolnir 2 could really improve in this area, losing even to IHA-6. The Telefunken E188CC really helped here but still too little too late (and too expensive a tube). The EC is able to provide very clean sharp sounds without extra harshness. Compared to EC, the IHA-6 has in certain areas a slight veil but simultaneously some treble harshness, while Mjolnir 2 has slightly even more veil but none of the extra harshness.

In my opinion, when it comes to microdynamics, both the Mjolnir 2 and IHA-6 are not in the same league as the EC. Not that those 2 are bad at it; until the EC, I was very satisfied with this part of Mjolnir 2, but the IHA-6 was a slight letdown here. For example, Dr Chesky’s Sensational Fantastic Binaural Sound Show on Sukoon’s Sami Bayyati at the beginning when the sitar is playing solo to the right. With the Mjolnir 2, on the left side I’ve always felt I heard what appears to be static like noise and what sounds a grunt. With the EC, I hear the distinct sound of the lute player chair creaking (stupid metal folding chair), then he quietly clears his throat (hmm), then lots of more chair creaking, then the percussionist and lute player starts playing. Note, this is not simply playing a track louder (I don’t try and listen for background noise in live recording). I’m listening to the solo sitar at about the same volume on both amps, it’s just the quiet background noise is clearer (not louder) sounding.

As far as sound stage is concerned, I’m personally still missing speakers. I use AstralStorm’s HRTF to help give a more speaker like sensation, except for binaural recorded materials. IMHO all other HRTF I’ve tried screw up the sound too much. So, my impressions here may not be applicable to normal headphone listeners. But that said, there is something the EC is presenting to me that’s very different than Mjolnir 2 and IHA-6. I instinctively feel I can pinpoint the location of each instrument slightly better, and a little more front/back, particularly with Utopia. I think I need more time listening to get a better feel.

Anyways this is my best attempt at giving a review. Overall, this was a very good upgrade from Mjolnir 2, which in turn was an upgrade IMHO from IHA-6 (though IHA-6 to Mjolnir 2 was less improvements). At used prices for EC 2A3 MKII vs new price for Mjolnir 2, the EC easily wins out for value. Back to listening to music now. Peace out.