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What can I say, HeadAmp has been my devotion since 2006! I think you should set up 5 dealers Justin, these Stereophile guys need to be exposed to some real headphone amps and then they'd be like this:

Yeah Stereophile wouldn't do a formal review of most of the amps that are popular on Head-Fi due to their 5-dealer rule - RSA, HeadAmp, Eddie Current, Singlepower, Meier Audio, even those dinky Chinese brands like Little Dot and DarkVoice. But that still leaves a nice chunk of headphone amps that they could review from the likes of: Creek, EAR Yoshino, Grado, Musical Fidelity, Naim, Pro-Ject, PS Audio, Rega, even Stax. Why Stereophile doesn't review those companies' headphone amps is a mystery...

The world would implode if anyone at Stereophile actually listened to headphones most of the time.

Oh I'll be fine, I have loads of patience unlike that guy at the other site (heh), especially when it comes to HeadAmp. HeadAmp is always quality worth waiting for.

Written in Sam Tellig's column in September 2008 issue of Stereophile. (The October issue just hit my mailbox so I'd say this is open to post now.) Musical Fidelity X-CAN V8 tube headphone amplifier...and line stage? If a local dealer has Musical Fidelity's new X-CAN V8 headphone amplifier ($550), by all means audition it. This is easy to do. All you need are your ears, the space between them (plenty in my case, according to David Janszen), and your headphones. There was never an X-CAN V4, V5, V6, or V7. The previous model was the V3. The implied improvement is as if the X-CAN has leapt five generations, from V3 to V8. It's easily the best X-CAN yet from Musical Fidelity, and one of the best headphone amps at any price. The X-CAN V8 measures 7" W by 3.5" H (including feet) by 9.5" D. The matching, optional X-PSU V8 power supply ($500) is the same size. Fit and finish are to a higher standard than previous X-CAN models. Like the V3, the X-CAN V8 has one pair each of RCA line-level inputs and outputs that simply receive the incoming signal and send it back out, replacing "lost" tape-monitor outs. It would have been better for many users had these line-outs gone through the V8's circuits and volume control. The X-CAN V8 adds a USB input on the rear panel, and a source toggle switch (USB/Line) on the front. And instead of just one, there are now two 1/4" headphone jacks. The Burr-Brown PCM2706 USB interface and DAC engage only when you use the USB input, which is said to work with Windows 98 or later, and Mac OS 9.1 and beyond. I had no problems with OSX 10.3.9. Features are lacking: No remote control. Just one pair of line-level inputs. The headphone jacks lack individual volume controls. When you use the standard wall-wart power supply, there's no on/off switch. (The optional X-PSU V8 power supply has a proper on/off switch.) But, as Musical Fidelity's Antony Michaelson points out, the whole idea behind the X-CAN V8 was to avoid "feature bloat," and keep the sound quality high and the price as low as possible. Like earlier X-CANs, the X-CAN V8 has a double-triode input stage: one ECC88 (aka 6922 or 6DJ8) tube per channel. However, this is followed by something new: a solid-state, class-A output buffer stage that "uses the same output transistors as our A-1 integrated" amplifier, according to Antony. "It won't produce dozens of watts, but the actual circuit topology is that of a power amp, and it has an output impedance of less than 1 ohm. Every headphone amp I've measured has an output impedance of well over 50 Ohms, while most headphones have an input impedance of well below 30 ohms. The result is, the heapdhone amp will not drive the headphone. The headphone cones don't flop around when you use the X-CAN V8; the cones do what the amplifier tells them." As Mr. Bagnet said in Charles Dicken's Bleak House, "Discipline must be maintained." The benefits of such discipline include a better ability to drive long lengths of cable, and according to Antony, flatter frequency response regardless of a headphone's impedance. He claims the X-CAN V8 can drive any dynamic headphone, including AKG's discontinued K1000 - but excluding Stax's electrostatic models. You could buy an X-CAN V8 and PSU V8 and put them in your office or bedroom. Plug in your laptop and play CDs on its disc drive, or rip them, lossless, to the hard drive. If you have WiFi, you can access Internet radio, too. I have neither laptop nor WiFi, but I do have a Mac mini in my office. I used the X-CAN V8 via a USB port on the Mac. Some CDs I simply played, others I ripped to my hard drive. I don't have much experience using a computer as a source, but I give the nod to a great CD player or external D/A converter. The sound via USB was quite acceptable, though, and I loved the X-CAN V8 with Internet radio. Most of the time, however, I listened in our living room, feeding a Cary CDP 1 CD player straight into the X-CAN V8's RCA line inputs. I used the AKG K701 headphones, which make it hard to listen to any others. (My budget faves, the Audio-Technica ATH AD700s, are pleasant and spacious, however. And so comfy. AKG's headband tends to chafe the top of my scull.) I tried other 'phones, which only confirmed that the AKG K701s are truly special. They set a reference standard for me, but they can't perform their best without a great headphone amp - which the X-CAN V8 is. Right from the get-go, with the standard wall-wart power supply, it was obvious to me that the X-CAN V8 is a great advance over the V3. Resolution through the AKGs was extraordinary. I could hear every detail of a recording, whether I was meant to or not, including edits and urban traffic noise (there is no traffic noise at our home). The midrange and high frequencies were exquisite. The AKG's midrange and treble were superb: smooth and sweet, and combined with utter clarity. Most other headphones sound dark and muffled by comparison. Driven b the Musical Fidelity, the AKG's bass had such depth, fullness, and authority that I could scarcely believe I was listening through headphones. My son, who also owns a pair of AKG K701s, at first was almost unnverved by the bass response through the X-CAN V8, wondering if it was for real or an exaggeration. It's no exaggeration, as it can be with certain bass-heavy headphones. It's for real. You'd have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for comparable sound from loudspeakers. But with an X-CAN V8, a great CD player or external DAC, and a great pair of headphones, who needs speakers? Soon, you might not need the CD player or the external DAC, either. Now, about the X-PSU V8 power supply: Earlier X-series supplies won't work with the V8 series, including the X-CAN V8. Is the X-PSU V8 worth the extra $500? Only you can say. On its own, with its supplied wall wart, the X-CAN V8 is a stellar performer. It's easily the finest headphone amplifier I have heard for under $1000 - and it goes for only $550. But maybe you should turn it into an $1050 headphone amp by adding the X-PSU V8 power supply. With the X-PSU V8, the bass tightened up. Dynamics improved slightly. The music emerged from an even more silent background - you know all that business about preamps and power supplies. In addition, the X-PSU V8 gives you an on/off switch, which is handy if you believe, as I do, in turning off equipment - particularly to prolong tube life. Experience with previous versions of the X-CAN has shown me that the tubes will need to be replaced in two or three years if the amp is left powered up all the time. So I don't. According to Antony, the X-CAN V8 is fussy about tubes, so you may want to buy your replacements from Musical Fidelity or its US distributor. Tube rolling is discouraged. That's tampering! The manual warns: "Remember, never open the case of the X-CAN V8, as this will invalidate the guarantee." Open the case? Who, me? I can confirm, from much past experience, that ECC88 tubes are inherently twitchy. The ones inside the X-CAN V8 have been selected and tested by MF. Don't replace them until you have to, which should be a long time if you don't leave the unit on all the time. I wish Antony had put an on/off switch on the X-CAN V8 itself. You can always buy a wall switch at an ironmonger's shop (Antony is British). I decided not to tamper, but to have some fun and do something else I wasn't supposed to do. Never mind that the X-CAN V8's line outputs simply pass through the input signal. There are two other line-outs: those two 1/4" headphone jacks. Using an adapter - 1/4" headphone jack to twin female RCA plugs - I connected the X-CAN to a Cary 120S tubed power amplifier, which turned the X-CAN V8 into a tubed line stage. Whereupon Antony performed some measurements to determine whether there was any reason I shouldn't do this. As it turns out, there was none - other than a somewhat awkward connection from the front as opposed to the rear panel. CAUTION: Be sure your power amp is off before you make any connections or disconnections and before you turn the X-CAN V8 on and off. The X-CAN has no protection delay circuitry. Be sure its volume control is set to a minimum. This is common sense with any line-stage preamp. I laugh my evil laugh. This headphone amp did a heckuva job, as President Bush said to disaster honcho Michael Brown. The sound was full, dynamic, and sweet and tubelike way, without cloying. I was enthralled - especially considering the price. It became obvious that the X-PSU V8 power supply enhanced the X-CAN V8's performance as a line stage as well - dynamic range, bass control, overall clarity. I don't want to overstress this point and tell you that the optional power supply is a must - or "mandatory," as Kal Rubinson likes to say. But how cheap can you get? With the X-PSU V8, the price is $1050 for a cracker-jack headphone amp with its own onboard USB DAC and a spiffy line-stage preamp.

Well the October '08 issue of Stereophile arrived today, so I'd say it's ok for me to post what Sam Tellig wrote now. Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline The Predator headphone amplifier For a cool, calm guy who's just shy of being a hi-fi geezer like me, Ray Samuels sure goes in for violent names. The Raptor headphone amp. The Hornet. The Apache. The Tomahawk. What does Ray do? Scalp his customers? Nah, he scalps competitors. Ray's no hi-fi predator, although you may wonder why Emmeline The Predator - a little box measuring just 2" W by 0.8" H by 2.9" D - could fetch $475 plus shipping. Well, it's got mil-spec printed circuit boards and Vishay resistors, and it's hand-built and hand-tweaked. Ray sells direct, with a money-back guarantee. You'll have to try it on my recommendation, or someone else's. I roar my evil laugh. The Predator is the same width as depth as Ray's Hornet heapdhone amp, but the Hornet is 1" high, making it look (heh-heh) big. My 40-something son, who put me on to Ray Samuels, almost peed in his pants when he saw and heard the the Predator. He almost had a tantrum, like when he was two. This is fun: having cool stuff the kids don't. A switch at the left of the Predator's front panel toggles between the line input (a stereo miniplug on the front panel) and the rear-panel USB input. A three-position (Hi/Lo/Med) gain switch on the rear panel accommodates fussy headphones, even the AKG K701. The Predator comes in your choice of six colors: chrome, green, gold, black, red, blue. Go to raysamuelsaudio.com and eat your heart out. The Predator's tiny lithium-ion battery can be charged more than 500 times, according to Ray, who claims that a charge is good for seven days of playing eight hours a day - which I confirm. A full charge takes about two hours. The Predator cries out to be used with a laptop, which I don't have. But through the Mac mini in my office I now listen mainly to KCSM, the Bay Area's jazz station, and Cleveland's classical station, WCLV. I couldn't listen before - not through the Mac's built-in soundcard. The Predator's USB input changed all that, allowed me to bypass the Mac's card, and showed me that Internet radio can be quite acceptable. Moreover, for the first time, my 20-year-old powered Advent speakers (same as the powered AR model of the same era) came into their own. The sound was crisp, clean, and clear, causing me to predict that Netcasting - not HD Radio or satellite radio - is radio's future. Just wait till there's Internet radio in cars, and on Amtrak and commuter trains. Meanwhile, think of what you can do now with a Predator. You can take it on the bus, train, or plane: listen with your laptop. When you get to work, plug it into your desktop system and bypass your computer's soundcard. USB rules! People at the office will hardly notice your stealthy Predator - it takes up hardly any desk space (it's perfect with my Mac mini). When you're away from your desk, lock it in a drawer or slide it into your shirt pocket. "Sam, turn down the sound. Cha-choo spat! I want to sleep!" As I finished this column, Marina came into my office to scold me. I was blasting KCSM past her bedtime. The sound was smokin'. I couldn't believe KCSM (one of the announcers is Clifford Brown, Jr.): crisp, clean, clear transients. Smooth sound. I almost have to pinch myself: I have KCSM in my office. WBGO in stereo. WFMT Chicago. WCLV Cleveland. France Musique. Nostalgie. FIP. Bartok Radio from Budapest, which concerts from all over Europe at 2pm, when it's 8pm in Magyar country. Content rules! I asked Ray how he did it - the Predator's size, and all. "It's the lithium-ion battery, so thin and small it allows me to add one more board, compared to the Hornet. You can do amazing things once the battery goes smaller in size." Ray said the Predator delivers 250 milliamps driving capability, same as the Hornet. The USB DAC inside is a Burr-Brown chip. Ray's cagey about which one. "Not so long ago, USB DAC chips sounded horrible and weren't a good option. Nowadays that's all changed. USB is now very respected. You can pull the digital information from the computer, put it through a good chip, and serve up sound that is warm and nice." Ray likes the sound of a particular high-end CD player, and whispered the make and model. Yes, indeed, the Predator does sound similar. "Remember the situation with op-amps? They were considered a joke in high-end circles, compare to discrete components. But op-amps have come a long way and are used by some of the most respected hi-fi companies in the world," Ray declared. Ditto USB DACs. How long before CD players and external DACs become obsolete and folks rely mainly on laptops and music servers? We've already seen the demise of the high-quality portable CD player. How long before Apple Computer shakes up hi-fi? It's easy to go overboard about the Ray Samuels Audio Predator. For me, in my main system, it doesn't surpass a larger heapdhone amp like Musical Fidelity's X-CAN V8...or one of Ray's own bigger headphone amps. I'd love to hear his Apache! (Samuels on the warpath. Maybe he'll come out with a loudspeaker: the Little Big Horn.) The Predator lacks the wide dynamics, the bass authority, the astonishing low-level detail, of something like the X-CAN V8 - and, I assume, the Apache, which looks like like a heapdhone-amp powerhouse. It's not a big, bad-boy headphone amp like the Benchmark DAC1 Pre or the Grace Design m902, both of which I'll get to next month. Those, too, I highly recommend. Meanwhile, for its size and for what it is, for convenience, for Internet radio and CDs on the run, Ray Samuels' Emmeline The Predator is amazing. Road warriors with their laptops will be in heaven - many good hotels now offer WiFi. It's all about size, convenience, portability - without sacrificing great sound.

HeadAmp Blue Hawaii SE Yeah the first batch isn't done yet, but I'm 100% paid up now, rawr! Every day that passes is a day closer to electrostatic audio nirvana!

Sweet, guess I'll be bringing both my AD2000 and W5000 then.

Trashing a PIMETA board? Everyone getting a chance to solder? Sounds like fun. Given that I've never soldered in my life, I'm sure I'd just leave a twisted mess of metal and plastic...

909, any chance you can get On A Higher Note to either bring or loan the Luxman P-1? I'd be really interested in hearing the amp to see how it fares with my AT headphones in particular.

Oh sweet, I guess you get to work with Bluefire? NCAR's Computational and Information Systems Laboratory: bluefire That system is a monster! A monster! 76 teraflops, geez...

It's a cool place, has a great view of Boulder. And they do some cool stuff, I've been inside a few times. The main attraction for the locals is the network of hiking trails behind it tho.

All pics below from hiking trails behind NCAR in Boulder, CO View of Boulder at 17mm focal length... ...and at 50mm

Dell 1908FP 19" LCD. I was using a 17" CRT that went on the fritz and I figured it was time to finally go for an LCD, so I got this model that I use at work (it's a nice monitor IMO). Height & tilt adjustment, rotatable, and VGA+DVI. $180 off eBay.

If you're talking about what I think you're talking about: the WM8740 is a stereo DAC (not all DACs are stereo so it's possible to get by with only 2 in its case), CA's specs page shows 2.1V on RCA and 4.2V on XLR, and they mention "2-Pole Dual Differential Bessel Double Virtual Earth Balanced", so it's probably dual-differential.

I predict NE5532s in the analog output stage...

Dual WM8740s, mmmm I like this DAC already! Now where's Filburt?

As long as we're putting in requests, I want an IEC inlet! I hate wall-warts! And what's this about: "Low impedance, high sensitivity headphones [iEM's] may pick up very minor background hiss in when no music is playing." I've said it before and I'll say it again, a well-designed amp should be silent at all volume levels!

Was just looking at the Late Night TV listings on interbridge.com and would have never caught this otherwise. Had no idea Tricky had a new album coming out next week. Could be cool I guess. For the unitiated, this is the Tricky that was with Massive Attack on Blue Lines and Protection.

You and me both Dreamer, I had a great opportunity to do one of those too over the weekend but no tripod made me sad. At the Cave of the Winds near Colorado Springs Fun with shutter speed near the CotW entrance Inside Cave of the Winds Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs Dead specimen permanently poised for the ages

I'll add a subwoofer when I live in a place where neighbors can't hear through the walls. It's one of the reasons I've been into headphones as much as I have. And of course 6.5" bass drivers are preferrable.

I'm planning on building a 2.0 speaker system for music and movies for a home-theater setup within the next 3-4 months, so I recently started researching speakers, receivers, DVD players, and HDTVs (I'm still creaking by with an analog TV so I'll have to get an HDTV before February next year anyway). Have never really listened to speakers much, but I've been reading various audio mags for a while now so I at least have a general idea & direction. However, I could probably use some general speaker-buying tips, as far as dealers, auditions, and decisions go. As in, would it be acceptable form if I took my Plinius CDP around with me and asked dealers to unseat their sources so I can plug mine in? What do you listen for in a speaker versus a headphone? On average how long does it take to get a good listening impression of a speaker? Et al. So if anyone has any tips, including the newbish ones, throw 'em at me. I already know of course that speakers all sound different which is why I'm not going to ask for a recommendation of any one model or brand - I'm sure I'll be auditioning speakers a lot throughout the next few months. But I am putting together a shortlist of models from Athena, Klipsch, Monitor Audio, Paradigm, and PSB - any suggestions of other brands I'm missing? And my requirements: - <$1K budget - floorstanders or mini-monitors, no higher than 5' - bass driver(s) must be at least 5.25" (let's just say I know what kind of bass comes from smaller drivers) - must sound good to discerning ears

HeadAmp Pico w/ DAC Most other <$1K DAC units will be relative side-grades from the Pico. You'd need to spend far more than $1K to seriously better the Pico.

So I read on Head-Fi that the Woo GES isn't ideal for the OII. So I take it it'd be a waste of time & money to try with my MKII anyway? I was considering trying out the GES until I read that. Would the Raytheon 12BZ7s help any? What would be the best Stax amps to pair up with the MKII instead? SRM-727tII? 007tII?

Well not really, it is only $15, but the idea of paying $15 for 1 checked bag gets under my skin and I don't want to support The Man. This is airway robbery!!! And technically these airlines are charging $15 for each way so that's $30 for a round-trip which just plain sucks! It's one bag! $30 to take one bag for a round-trip flight!