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In the Forum: Melquiades Amplifier
In the Thread: Staxquiades project
Post Subject: In this case, try before you buy (or build)Posted by scooter on: 9/26/2012
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 N-set wrote:

 
I've been "forced" to listen on headphones due to real estate constraints and it
seems those constraints will stay for few more years. 
At the moment I'm using Stax Omega 2 MkI powered by a solid state amp Stax 717. I've always felt
it's barely up to the task of driving those little monsters and, apart from many other factors,
it sounds anemic. Adding Romy's EAR834 down the chain openned the whole new universe
(I could not listen to EMT155st for more than 10min...even after heroically changing Elko's to Elna's)
and 717 is now the weakest link.
I'm also mounting a second combo on my EMT930--SME3012R+whatever interesting cart I find,
which, if successfull, would too demandmore advanced amplification up the chain. Hence the need for a new amp. The most praised (at least by some groups on head-fi.org and head-case.com) amp comes from a certain Stax mafia and is called Blue Hawaii.
I've never heard it, but for $5000 and 2yrs waiting time I can cook something myself...apart from that
looking at BH's schematics makes my eyes bleed...so I tried to design myself.

N-Set, 

in Tokyo there are a virtually unlimited number of headphone combinations to try out here as you might know. I have read all the hype about those Headphones and expected something special. I have listened to them in at least a dozen places with that 717 amp. A few times with different amps. Incredibly the variation in sound quality went from quite terrible to quite good. In all cases I felt fatigued / bored (whatever the word is) of listening after a few minutes. 

I don't know what to attribute the variance to; key suspect is differing quality of electricity going into the 717. Could have been the source CD players I suppose. Like you, I also thought the headphones could do a lot more, although that may be biased from reading to much stuff. Fact is, after many listening sessions I never was satisfied with those headphones. 

Based on this experience, I would recommend you go to some headphone "meet" or "store" and listen to these things through a few sources to get a better view on if the project is worth pursuing. 

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