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Post by slovell on Dec 21, 2018 20:41:47 GMT -5
I've been debating about buying the A-100. I presently have a Matrix M-Stage with modded op amps and a Little Dot MKII. I have HiFiMan HE-400 and Denon AH-D2000 phones. Will the A-100 be a good match with these cans? Will the A-100 be an upgrade from these amps that I already have? I'd like to have one amp to handle everything that I have now and what I might get in the future. The A-100 appears to be a beast of a headphone amp and the price is more than reasonable. Any opinions, advice, recommendations good, bad, ugly, or indifferent will be appreciated. Regards, Sam
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Post by creimes on Dec 21, 2018 23:28:14 GMT -5
I've been debating about buying the A-100. I presently have a Matrix M-Stage with modded op amps and a Little Dot MKII. I have HiFiMan HE-400 and Denon AH-D2000 phones. Will the A-100 be a good match with these cans? Will the A-100 be an upgrade from these amps that I already have? I'd like to have one amp to handle everything that I have now and what I might get in the future. The A-100 appears to be a beast of a headphone amp and the price is more than reasonable. Any opinions, advice, recommendations good, bad, ugly, or indifferent will be appreciated. Regards, Sam I have owned the A-100 but the first gen so no headphone output, but I did own a Little Dot MKII and really likes it, the other amp I had for a bit was a Optoma HA-200 which IMO didn't mate well with my HE-400's I owned at the time. The MKII was great with my buddies HD6XX headphones I borrowed from him for a while. I'm also a firm believer of the best person to tell you the answer is you I say try it and if it doesn't appeal to you they have a 30 day trial and you can send it back within that time and your just out the return shipping. Cheers, Chad
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Post by slovell on Dec 21, 2018 23:58:13 GMT -5
Good point on the return policy. I think I'm going to order one and try it out. Regards, Sam
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Post by garbulky on Dec 22, 2018 10:16:08 GMT -5
Both those headphones are very low impedance. They may not be a good candidate for driving with the jumper engaged with the A-100 due to its output power being very high at that impedance and the increased noise floor may interfere. However you can drive it without the jumper engaged in default stock mode but keep in mind that here the output impedance is 220 ohms which is higher than the impedance of the headphones. This may causes some sound variations.
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Post by creimes on Dec 22, 2018 11:00:10 GMT -5
Both those headphones are very low impedance. They may not be a good candidate for driving with the jumper engaged with the A-100 due to its output power being very high at that impedance and the increased noise floor may interfere. However you can drive it without the jumper engaged in default stock mode but keep in mind that here the output impedance is 220 ohms which is higher than the impedance of the headphones. This may causes some sound variations. The HIFIMAN HE-400 even with the lower impedance are also harder to drive, when I owned mine I had to have my Optoma HA-200 at almost max volume to drive them properly. Chad
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Post by slovell on Dec 22, 2018 23:37:32 GMT -5
Both those headphones are very low impedance. They may not be a good candidate for driving with the jumper engaged with the A-100 due to its output power being very high at that impedance and the increased noise floor may interfere. However you can drive it without the jumper engaged in default stock mode but keep in mind that here the output impedance is 220 ohms which is higher than the impedance of the headphones. This may causes some sound variations. What would be some decent phones to match up with the A-100? New or used, budget $500 +-.
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Post by creimes on Dec 23, 2018 0:18:00 GMT -5
Both those headphones are very low impedance. They may not be a good candidate for driving with the jumper engaged with the A-100 due to its output power being very high at that impedance and the increased noise floor may interfere. However you can drive it without the jumper engaged in default stock mode but keep in mind that here the output impedance is 220 ohms which is higher than the impedance of the headphones. This may causes some sound variations. What would be some decent phones to match up with the A-100? New or used, budget $500 +-. Massdrop Sennheiser HD6XX is one and it sells for $199 US
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Post by garbulky on Dec 23, 2018 0:29:45 GMT -5
Both those headphones are very low impedance. They may not be a good candidate for driving with the jumper engaged with the A-100 due to its output power being very high at that impedance and the increased noise floor may interfere. However you can drive it without the jumper engaged in default stock mode but keep in mind that here the output impedance is 220 ohms which is higher than the impedance of the headphones. This may causes some sound variations. What would be some decent phones to match up with the A-100? New or used, budget $500 +-. Well honestly I think it'll sound pretty great with what you got. It's got two modes - the regular mode is low noise with resistors in the path while still providing good power. The jumper mode has resistors byassed with higher noise and a looot of power (read a LOT of power!). I don't know which mode would sound best to you. I use high impedance headphones with mine.Both the Sennheisser HD600 and the Massdrop HD6xx (aka the HD650) have sounded very nice. Since Emotiva has a 30 day trial, why not try it with what you got. The amp is light so you won't be out a whole lot for shipping if you don't like it.
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novisnick
EmoPhile
CEO Secret Monoblock Society
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Post by novisnick on Dec 23, 2018 1:00:59 GMT -5
What would be some decent phones to match up with the A-100? New or used, budget $500 +-. Well honestly I think it'll sound pretty great with what you got. It's got two modes - the regular mode is low noise with resistors in the path while still providing good power. The jumper mode has resistors byassed with higher noise and a looot of power (read a LOT of power!). I don't know which mode would sound best to you. I use high impedance headphones with mine.Both the Sennheisser HD600 and the Massdrop HD6xx (aka the HD650) have sounded very nice. Since Emotiva has a 30 day trial, why not try it with what you got. The amp is light so you won't be out a whole lot for shipping if you don't like it. What garbulky say! 👌
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novisnick
EmoPhile
CEO Secret Monoblock Society
Posts: 27,223
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Post by novisnick on Dec 23, 2018 1:08:49 GMT -5
What would be some decent phones to match up with the A-100? New or used, budget $500 +-. Massdrop Sennheiser HD6XX is one and it sells for $199 US Very hard to beat the value the HD6XX brings to you!
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Post by slovell on Jan 5, 2019 17:35:10 GMT -5
Massdrop Sennheiser HD6XX is one and it sells for $199 US Very hard to beat the value the HD6XX brings to you! I bought the Massdrop HDXXX phones and I'm very impressed with them. They sound better than my HiFiMan HE-400's with my Matrix M-Stage amp. I've bought the A-100 but the shipment is hung up in customs and I'm undecided whether to wait for delivery or just continue using the Matrix.
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novisnick
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CEO Secret Monoblock Society
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Post by novisnick on Jan 5, 2019 18:31:39 GMT -5
The HE4XX will sound much better with some more power behind them! OH, just read that you have the 400’s, I haven’t heard them. Enjoy! I knew you’d like the 6XX ! Especially for their price .
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Post by RichGuy on Jan 5, 2019 19:42:33 GMT -5
I used a Little Dot MKIII with Sennhieser HD 650's and really enjoyed the combo.
Now I use a Woo Audio WA6 Headphone Tube Amplifier and Klipsch Heritage HP-3 Headphones.
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Post by hondaman01 on Jan 12, 2019 19:41:22 GMT -5
I own a100 also. My cans are AKG K240. 600ohms, monitor. Made in Austria. This amp works just fine. Plenty of power for these headfons.
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Post by slovell on Jan 21, 2019 19:05:30 GMT -5
I received my A-100 today, put in the jumpers and fired it up. With the Massdrop HDXXX's it sounds like it's overloading them a little bit, maybe 300 ohms isn't the right match and the 600 ohms would've been better. Probably should take the jumpers out with them? With the HiFiMan HE400's it brought them to life and they sound much better. Very good match with the HE400 cans using the jumpers. Also could be that the amp needs to break in for a while. I can also hear the low volume channel imbalance that I've read about.
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Post by pallpoul on Jan 21, 2019 19:11:54 GMT -5
I received my A-100 today, put in the jumpers and fired it up. With the Massdrop HDXXX's it sounds like it's overloading them a little bit, maybe 300 ohms isn't the right match and the 600 ohms would've been better. Probably should take the jumpers out with them? With the HiFiMan HE400's it brought them to life and they sound much better. Very good match with the HE400 cans using the jumpers. Also could be that the amp needs to break in for a while. I can also hear the low volume channel imbalance that I've read about. Be a bit patient, and give it time to break in. I use my HD650 with it, jumpers on, sounds fantastic.
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Post by garbulky on Jan 21, 2019 19:49:05 GMT -5
I received my A-100 today, put in the jumpers and fired it up. With the Massdrop HDXXX's it sounds like it's overloading them a little bit, maybe 300 ohms isn't the right match and the 600 ohms would've been better. Probably should take the jumpers out with them? With the HiFiMan HE400's it brought them to life and they sound much better. Very good match with the HE400 cans using the jumpers. Also could be that the amp needs to break in for a while. I can also hear the low volume channel imbalance that I've read about. Yeah I've used it that way. It sounds great to me. A little mid range heavy though. Okay one thing. Turn down your volume knob to say about 11 o clock on the A-100. Then increase your source output (from zero) to the loudest you want to listen to. Then use your source output to control the volume. Leave the A-100 volume knob alone. If your volume knob on the a-100 was at full, this will likely improve your experience. You also shouldn't experience ANY channel imbalance this way.
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Post by slovell on Jan 22, 2019 13:16:35 GMT -5
I think I can use my Matrix M-Stage as a preamp with the A-100 using its volume control. It has pre outs and ins. Not sure I really want to do that. I've got the A-100 hooked up to my Marantz AV7005's Zone 3 output right now. The 7005 doesn't have a tape out. I can't control the output to the A-100 with the Zone output as it's a flat signal.
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Post by slovell on Jan 22, 2019 19:19:57 GMT -5
Much to my surprise my Denon AH-D2000 closed backs sound better than either the Sennheisers or the HiFiMan 400s. I plugged them in this afternoon and was pleasantly shocked. The Denon's have the tightest, fullest bass, best detail of all of them. The HiFiMan's have the edge on midrange but not by much. I thought the 25 ohm Denon's would be way overdriven by the A-100 but that's not the case. You can't raise the volume control much past 10 o'clock but it's high enough to get past the channel imbalance. The 2000's just plain sound wonderful with this amp, they really came alive with it.
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Post by creimes on Jan 22, 2019 22:35:19 GMT -5
Much to my surprise my Denon AH-D2000 closed backs sound better than either the Sennheisers or the HiFiMan 400s. I plugged them in this afternoon and was pleasantly shocked. The Denon's have the tightest, fullest bass, best detail of all of them. The HiFiMan's have the edge on midrange but not by much. I thought the 25 ohm Denon's would be way overdriven by the A-100 but that's not the case. You can't raise the volume control much past 10 o'clock but it's high enough to get past the channel imbalance. The 2000's just plain sound wonderful with this amp, they really came alive with it. If bass is your thing closed back is better for sure from what I have had the pleasure of listening to, my Shure SRH-440 headphones are great for dynamics, best part was they cost me $99 CAD 7 years ago.
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