You’ve got some great gear. Was it you that had a Phonitor X? I’ve been eyeing that. I’m also planning on cutting back on the $200-$500 headphones as well. As much as I love breaking in a new set of headphones, the plan is to save up that money for some higher end headphones like ZMF, Arya, and maybe an LCD4 or Utopia somewhere down the road. Right now my go to’s are Empyreans and Clears, and they are miles ahead of my other gear. I use Andromedas and Aivas at work, and the rest are slowly collecting dust
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Phonitor sound, so that wasn’t me. I don’t know if someone on here has a Phonitor (from memory). I do have a GSX MK2 DACT instead, as I was looking at the Phonitor but went with the gsx instead
A friend of mine has a GSX Mini and that sounds great. I haven’t personally heard the Phonitor yet
The gsx mk2 is nice albeit a bit bright at some times. I actually use most of all my gear daily (believe it or not) with different setups that work really well together, because sometimes I might prefer different amps for different headphones. But the 6se stays next to the speakers lol because I need that amp
I love the idea of the 6SE, but the Sprout is fine for my near-field setup with LS50s. If I wanted to push them for room scale, I would consider upgrading the amp and then potentially consider the 6SE, but I’d rather use the $1600 on Aryas if I had to choose right now
I also like my aryas because of their unique presentation, but I do think the actual capabilities of the he6se are better imo. But it doesn’t make sense imo without a very powerful speaker amp. Running them with the parasound halo a21+ and they sound excellent
I’ve heard the 6se may be the best headphone you can buy if you power it properly, but I am hesitant to drop the cash on Hifiman headphones due to quality control. That applies to the Aryas too. That’s why I think my next purchase will be one of the ZMF line-built like tanks and a lifetime guarantee. If I can get the $100 coupon code to work, I’ll be picking up the ESP/95x this week just to have a pair of estats, but that’s it for the rest of the year for me
I don’t know if I would agree about the best headphone you can buy lol, but it is pretty good. It really depends on preference
Would this be a good starter all-in-one for someone new to hifi?
I was looking for something to put on my desk to power a pair of Micca RB42 speakers as well as serving as a headphone amp for either a pair of Fidelio X2HR’s, HD6XX’s, or HD58X’s.
I was going to go with a stack consisting of a JDS Atom, Topping D10 and PA3 but this piqued my interest because it has every feature I was looking for as well as some additional ones for only 100$ more.
Will this sound better than the stack above or is it not a discernible difference for 100$ more?
So, I think if you were to prioritize speakers this is a great option. But I think the atom and d10 stack would be better if you prioritize headphones, as the headphone out is just ok
Thanks for the reply.
I was planning on using both equally so I guess I’ll wait for Black Friday and see what’s what.
If you wanted to spend a bit more, if you got this amp and the atom, you could run the line out from this amp to the atom and use it as a dac, then you would get the best of both worlds imo. I would assume that would kinda be what you are looking for
hmmm if I wanted to get this to power my left/right channels and my sub would I still be able to use this with my Yamaha RX-V381 which has my center channel and possibly added surrounds in the future?
basically can I use this with my AV receiver, and how would I wire it? I want something a little better quality for music listening but still would like to use my 3.1 for movies.
Hmm, so to use this you would have to convert the speaker outs into a usable signal with a high level to a low level rca converter. You would also want to look for something like a pure power amp tbh over an integrated like this amp
okay any suggestions for a power amp? I’m running a pair of KEF Q100 atm and might be looking to upgrade in the future, possibly to a pair of svs ultra bookshelfs. also would I still need a rca converter if went with a power amp instead?
I really like my ultra bookshelfs, nice speakers but a bit more amp dependent than some. You need a rca converter if you want to use the other amp. I’m a bit worried that it will be a determent to the quality imo, as its not going to be that clean of a signal. I just wouldn’t recommend getting a nice amp and then using the output of your avr. I think the parasound newclassic 275 v.2 is a great amp at a great price. Of course there is also the parasound newclassic 2125 v.2 which is pretty sweet as well
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Okay so I’ve been doing a little reading on the subject, and it seems like my problem is that my AV receiver doesn’t have pre-outs… which makes it hard to accomplish what I’m going for. Seems like I will need to upgrade my receiver as well.
So I need an AV receiver that has pre-outs for the left and right channels that bypass the units amplification and output a analogue signal. Then I need to get a power amplifier that has a dedicated RCA input for AV receivers, this way I can bypass the units volume control and control everything from the receiver instead.
sounds like a lot of spending on my part lol. Am i missing anything here? Also this might be worth mentioning but I’m currently running everything out of a 12’x12’ room, so it’s not a huge space and it’s pretty packed full as well. Is it worth getting the stereo amp with this small of a room to work with?
Don’t really plan on implementing any of this until next year, but figured why not start planning now.
Well I’m not super knowledgeable on av receivers, but depending on how much you would like to spend, you could get a preamp/processor and power amp setup. That way the preamp/processor decodes the signal and outputs via rca or xlr to the power amps. That way you can prioritize the poweramps of the front lr and get a cheaper workhorse poweramp for the surrounds. You can sometimes find good refurb deals or used deals
ah I didn’t even think of that as a solution, just cut out the AV receiver. So I would need a surround preamp/processor and either a surround power amp or separate poweramps for different speakers…
yeah looking at some prices on some of the options and this is getting pricey haha.
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Try the used markets if you can as there can be better deals had over there imo. The preamp/processor might be more expensive for a modern one, but finding good poweramps for cheap isn’t as hard. This setup is just way more flexible and cheaper in the long run imo