The All Purpose Advice Thread - Part 2

Maybe it isn't an opamp, but an operational amplifier

 

I thought they were the same thing.
OPerational AMPlifier. ?????

 

I just got the Linn lifestyle product, Kiko for a lifestyle installation

It has Speakon/NL4/Neutrik speaker cables which are both too long and too thick.

Anyone know of any technical reason why I can't use shorter/thinner cables? And, where to find them? (ty!)

 

They are the same thing. He is just messing with us

 

Use whatever cable that best fits your lifestyle (pun fully intended). Edit: max output 33w/channel so 24 gauge min required - or in other words get whatever you want.

 

Hi all, this is my first post over here
I have mainly 2 questions.
1- every one who is wearing headphones or iems talks about hearing the sound in front of him, for me I feel always that the sounds are coming from behind my head ! Is there anyone who have the same issue as me?
2- my main dac/amp was zendac v2 who have 230 mw of power in the single ended, I upgraded to a topping dx3 pro + who can deliver up to 2W in single ended, but I didn’t felt the difference of power between the two while driving my dt1990 pro or my hifiman edition xs even in high gain mode, to feel it I must go to the last 20% of the nob, is that normal?
Thanks, I’m here if any additional informations are needed.

 

this thread gets into why advertised power ratings may not translate to differences in volume:
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...mpedance-and-sensitivity-of-headphones.13795/

And most folks around here don’t consider Topping anything to be an “upgrade”.

 

If you own a Win PC then forget a streamer, Most dacs in the moderately priced ones are not so hot and what does it get you that your desktop cannot provide? I run JRiver for my files and Tidal for streaming. They both sound very good. And I can use plugins to use parametric EQ if I like, free too!

The ifi Zen dac is what I use on my daily desktop. It does great fronting my powered JBLs and IEMS. And the balanced output for IEMs is quite decent. Having had about half a dozen dacs in this role over the last decade, some more than triple the price, I have no reservations about recommending it.

 

Yes. I think it is because you can't see the source of the music, so your brain assumes that it must be hidden behind you. For me, looking at my speakers while listening to headphones or IEMs -- even though no music is playing through the speakers -- helps to pull the perceived source of the music forward.

Simply closing my eyes can help, too, although I then have to actively think about it to make the image move -- sort of like the way you can force yourself to see certain optical illusions one way or the other.

 

As fastfwd mentioned, a lot of it is really dependent on how your brain creates the localization. Not much you can do with iems, but with headphones you can experiment with shifting the headphones around a bit. Some people have success with moving the cups forwards.

If you're playing music off a computer, you can also try crossfeed or similar software. If you like the sound of iFi gear, many of their amps have crossfeed built in.

 

How do those with tube amps deal with the question of when a given set of fav tubes that reason tells you should be pretty long in the tooth need to be swapped out for a new pair/rolled? I’ve been running these “Cossor” Linlai WE300B’s pretty hard for almost a year now, am considering purchasing a new pair to at least have a backup pair. I remember there being a post from Marv where he described how “dying” tubes start to sound when they are still functional but not strong, but can’t find it. An obvious answer I guess would be to get an Amplitrex or something.

Thanks for any thoughts!

 

Unless you leave your amp on 24/7 I wouldn't worry about it for like 9 more years.

You can always buy a new set and replace the old ones and if they basically sound the same you are fine to keep using the old pair.

I had a very old pair of Shuguang Treasure that had many thousands of hours on them and replaced with a brand new set recently. They sounded identical.

I believe you would start losing the top end and bass would get a bit muddy with tubes that are on their way out.

 

Thanks. Tube nervosa is a helluva drug, always good to get a reality check from another owner.

 

Tubes will also start to make noise when they are going bad. It usually starts with intermittent static-y noises, sort of like the sound of turning an old dirty volume knob, and then it starts to happen more often as they get worse.
I learned recently that many tubes retain their conductance within 10% of the original value for their whole life until they degrade very rapidly and die.
I recently lost a 60's Telefunken power tube that was functioning perfectly with no signs of failure until it shorted out and red plated. It had been tested at a nice vintage tube establishment a month or so prior as a favor when I went to buy some other tubes there and it measured as good as new. It was part of a quad of the best tubes I'd heard in my amp and sounded that way up until the second the short caused a loud 60hz hum. So high readings from even the best tube testers aren't necessarily an indication of longevity and if a tube is bad it's likely that you'll see/hear it rather than have a barely perceptible loss of sound quality over a period of time. I don't know if that will help or hurt with nervosa, but the point is not to worry about it too much until something is very obviously wrong.

 

Totally agree. My experience is also that tube performance is more-or-less unchanged until the very end when there's a sudden very obvious degradation. This is as true for hi-fi amps today as it was for old TVs, radios, oscilloscopes, etc.

Also, depending on the tube and the circuit it's being used in, you might never actually need to replace it. I got 125,000+ hours out of a set of 6922s in my power amp before one of them started to develop a quiet hiss. My amp is on 24/7, so that was 15 years of tube life, but with lower usage -- even allowing for potential damage from on/off thermal shocks -- those tubes could have lasted my entire lifetime.

 

I have the headphone itch. My current setup is HD800Ss and HD600s with a lyr+ and depending on the day a LIM, MOTU Ultralite or Geshelli J2 AKM with the Sparkos Op Amps. I run the Lry+ with a NOS Ken RAD v231 clear glass. It's pretty great all round and I've had some spectacular listening session - particularly with the J2 in DSDD mode and HQPlayer tweaks.

Anyways, I've been through Focal ELEXs (too thin) and OG CLEARSs (too RMA-worthy delicate, but otherwise great sounding), LCD-Xs (kind of plastic sounding and weird) and a bunch of grado clones (just an all round freak show...but fun). I have a pair of DT770s I use when i occasionally go to group work-spaces. I tweaked them with Lamb ORI pads and the Custom Cans mass loading ring. They're actually a lot of fun to listen to and get a lot of headtime during office hours, though the bass can be a bit much and I miss some of the technicalities and mids of the 800Ss and 600s.

My itch is this: is there something reasonably priced that would give me the fun of the DT770s with light mods but with better technicalities? I put in an order on the Aeolus but cancelled (in the end I think they may not be my taste - they're at the very edge of my 'resonable' budget and would want to listen to them before ordering). Looking at the RS2X or the 325Xs, the aforementioned Aeolus, ETA Mini C.

Technical and fun for daily listening is what I am looking for, closed or open is fine. Playing with light mods and pads is all good. Other tastes notes: looking for quality bass, a bit v shaped is ok, i'm sensitive-ish to shitty treble. I listen to lots of Steve Albini esque produced alt rock, some electronic, some acoustic, occasional jazz and classical. I can audition the Grados at Bay Bloor here in Toronto, but not the others.

I look forward to any ideas about headphones I could investigate you friends might have.

 

If you want to try ZMF with less of an investment the Atticus doesn't get talked about much anymore, but it's a really fun headphone that responds well to pad rolling. Or Eikon for that matter, they can both probably be had relatively cheap compared to the Aeolus on the used market now that they're not the hot new thing.
Hard to find, but the ESX900 is exactly what you're looking for, or maybe the ETAs are close enough, I have no personal experience with those though.

 

Apologies for spamming the advice thread lately, but I need some am I the asshole?-style feedback with a HF sale gone wrong as a buyer.

Tl;Dr: Received a defective Freya+ from a HF seller, seller requested I RA it for him with Schiit at his expense, FedEx lost the package to Schiit and they don’t want to pay me the full value, I’m done and want to just get a refund out of him.

Full version:

I bought a Freya+ from a HF seller at the end of August, arrived with a dead tube stage, buffer and passive stage worked fine. I informed seller that I didn’t feel like I had time to deal with trying to troubleshoot the unit, would like to send it back to him - he says he is hesitant as he is abroad and can’t “inspect” the unit if I send it back to him. He asks for a video demonstrating the issue, I provide one. He then requests that I send it in to RA with Schiit. I agreed in good faith as I’m only 50 miles away. Schiit takes about a week to get back to me with an RA#. I ship via a FedEx Office location on the 11th of September. FedEx then picks up the package from the FedEx Office, and it disappears. Three weeks later, they declare it lost, claim I did not declare a higher value (I did, the kid at FedEx Office either screwed up when he created the label or they are inept), FedEx reps tell me I will need to appeal the claim or I will only receive the bog standard $100 back. I ask him for a refund. So far he is just asking me why they aren’t paying out the full insurance amount, I basically replied I feel like I’ve spent more than enough time dealing with trying to get this resolved, don’t want to spend another month plus fighting with FedEx, etc.

At this point I’m through with what feels like essentially helping this guy get his defective Freya+ fixed for him. Still, I can see where he would think FedEx losing the package/FedEx claiming it isn’t insured isn’t his problem. As far as I can tell, since I paid him via PayPal and not F&F, I could still pull the “did not receive item as described” card and try and get a full refund though PayPal. I could be wrong there.

Anyway, AITA?

 

Oof. This is a tough one. In your shoes I would look at this as "not as described". You recieved a defective unit, and showed good faith is trying to remedy the situation. A PP claim might get complex depending on his counter. The whole RA/FedEx thing will make it weird. In any event, your call, but a PP claim would likely go in your favour if you have all the documentation.

 

Yeah, it’s a mess. I feel lucky, really - dozens of used HiFi transactions both as a seller and buyer, and this is the first where I’ve had the shipping company lose something, and only I think the third where there has been a defect, so maybe I just had it coming.

When I put myself in his shoes, I can sort of see feeling like FedEx losing the shipment isn’t his fault, but I also think I would have a) dealt with getting an RA# myself, and b) issued a label from FedEx for the buyer rather than having the buyer do all the legwork. This is if you put aside that I would have just had them send it back to me/refunded after being shown a video clearly demonstrating the unit I sold them was defective. None of that is 100% required from these kinds of transactions, but it just feels like bad form to put the buyer through an ordeal.