Icarium

I'm secretly hoping Kevin Gilmore/Aerius or some other figure that really knows this shit will elaborate. Hrm okay good to know about the efficiency thing. Do you think I'd be stupid to get my custom power amp made hella powerful versus more fitting to my current and near-future needs? I guess it will be potentially hell on the electric bill but... shrug.

I'd try and get Craig to release the balanced redtop/el34 or whatever it is now amp. Those should be in a pretty competitive price range though there might be a wait and I guess given their status they essentially might be custom. The HD2 is pretty sweet but that essentially is custom as well. Unsure. Still build times might not be too bad. Always the beta22. GS-X is also a simple convenient option. Then there's singlepower but I'm not sure what the current status on the squarewave or even really how it might sound. I think if you want to minimize wait time... gs-x and beta22 from a reliable builder is your best bet given the budget you can swing. If I were you and want to stick to under 5k I'd probably get the Eddie Current HD2 (~2.2K I think was the last price I heard if you go with Electraprint transformers and nothing too esoteric). I haven't heard it yet but it should be really sick... will hear it weekend after the coming one. If you want to go over 5k well everything there is essentially custom and will take awhile.

Jesus SACD is flawed in that fashion? I probably can't even hear it, but I had no idea. I have some decent sounding SACDs.

Well I do have a decent budget but I think I'd like to keep it under 10k. Can you elaborate on the various topologies and the pluses and minuses. And if you can.. which components are the key ones to maximize (I would guess its transformers all the cases). Also important to me... what are the benefits of inefficient speakers versus efficient ones. I want this amp to scale with any sort of speakers I throw at it... so I am thinking about getting it to be pretty powerful (Potentially 500 watts per channel). Is that stupid? I am really into soundstage/clarity/details/midrange/bass tied with highs. I tend toward a clinical sound rather than a musical sound but nice tone and body is certainly appreciated as long as I get my soundstage and my details. Do efficient or inefficient speakers fit me better? Or does it not work that way... inefficiency/efficiency really has no affect on sound and its really up to the individual models of each type.

Er I meant Set versus Push Pull. Also what other topologies are there?

Looking at push pull design versus a DHT design. I was told that DHT will not be able to result in as powerful an amp as push pull. Also what sound differences will I hear between a sick implemented DHT versus a push pull?

Alright that's fair. Basically my view on scaling is based on the constant need to upgrade that most people have Very few genuinely have 0 desire to step out of the entry level-low end and most of the people that are actually satisfied are at least at the mid-upper-mid range. So if you plan to upgrade or on some level know that you are (Even if you can't afford it) I think buying gear that scales will always pay off and I think that constitutes a large portion, possibly the majority, of the vocal population on head-fi/head-case. So maybe it's not as general as I made it out to be I admit that. I'd like to think having gear that scales is a burden to very few people.

I don't think the fact that the HD6X0 scales well has anything to do with poor performance when used in conjunction with a cheap mp3 player with a miserable headphone out. Would the Denon D5000 (Which me and purk at the very least feel does not scale well) sound good out of that mp3 player? I don't think so. I don't think any full sized headphone will sound very good out of there. In fact even highly efficient IEMs probably will probably sound pretty lousy. You call that correlation between poor performance with inadequate power scaling? I guess you can. Imo there is a difference between something that scales well and headphones that simply need a little bit more power than some things provide. Will Denons sound better out of an amp than a mp3 players headphone out. Yes. Does that mean that it scales? Well semantically you can call that scaling, but I wouldn't. Well compare performance between a largely well-considered higher end amp and the amp that simply feeds it enough power and if you feel "Hrm not much difference." Then imo it does not scale well. I feel the HD6X0 are a little bit more transparent in the regard that they will convey the step up in amps and hence I say they scale well.

Oh. Okay, I'll amend my statement to "I think the ability to scale well is always a good thing."

Lots of headphones scale well. I doubt I've ever considered it a negative that a headphone will sound better with a better amp regardless of whether or not that it is "inferior to itself" or whatever.

From didlwgh or someone else ? ;p

Man I didn't really realize it was that Vitriolic.

Ayumi Hamasaki sucks ;p Plus she looks like a freaky alien with those gigantor eyes and her weirdly proportioned rest of the face/body.

Ah he didnt like the Denon I guess ;p

I can't tell if his review of the APL player is positive or sarcastically negative. Interesting that he thought it sounded that smooth since I and others I've talked to have said that it is so detailed that to some who are used to a smoother more forgiving sound it can sound grainy. Meh I guess its dependent on revision perhaps.

He did prefer the bass light ones since they scaled better and were just more representative of the intent of Sony with the r10 (The Japanese sound i.e. bass light but emphasis on airiness soundstage mids etc). However he finds that the HE90/HEV90 pairing is very similar to the the bass light R10 sound and I think he thinks it does it better than the bass light r10 no matter what amp is backing it. The bass heavy r10 is sufficiently different from the he90/hev90 to justify keeping etc. I thinkkk that's the reasoning. Or else the buyer demanded the bass light rather than the bass heavy ;p

Yeah. I can't ever agree with Markl fully (Though I mean he said the R10s are very good for a long time and I agree with that) since dude hates the Qualias. I am skeptical of anyone that polarizes that hard to anything without at least including the disclaimer that he/she can understand how other people can like it or... another issue might be at play (Fit etc in the case of Qualias). I don't see how the mods can bring the d2k/5k to the level of R10s because my problem with the Denons is 2 pronged. 1. Muddled sound signature regardless of which amp was used with it (Mods may fix the muddledness) 2. The fact that the sound doesn't change with the swap of components (Doesn't scale... how do the mods change that?). Unless there's some specific element between removed/swapped that was actually the factor that causes the headphone to impose a sound signature so heavy handedly on a set up... i don't see how the mods can fix that.

Oh man that teaches me to come into threads mid way (Or tail end really). I thought the wattage was used for some sort of audio/ht set up. Pfft fucking crazy ass Christmasphiles.

I equate dry to thin sounding. Which if any of you have listened to Meier's products they all are. I wouldn't say they are accurate at all. It is like you take music and drain all the juicy out of it til it is thin and stale. It is in stark contrast to RSA products which is overly juicy to the point where you can't find the meat/bone (I.e. reality). Obviously accurate sound varies from person to person, but Meier amps and RSA are the polar opposites for me.

Huh... what's the guy doing what that wattage? Got a link I'm very curious.

Pfft only 3. And no blue pair

Death to speakers.

I've found the Xhadow for 100 which is why I quoted a 50 dollar difference.

Ah so things have changed a lot. That's good. I still think you are crazy. But then again I am as well. SE stack?

That's a decent collection ;p But you should check out ayt999s he has every wooden AT ever made. At least 3 pairs of L3000s and some of the non wooden ATs as well ;p