I use a clear in my rotation commonly lol, it’s pretty great for that
Damn, and I just bought the LS amp for my aiva. But now I want the Elex again. Was off that train for a while but after this Im back on it lol
The Elex is known for it’s dynamic capabilities. The Elex is every bit as fast with better bass. Don’t get me wrong though, the Elex bass isn’t bloated, it’s very well balanced.
Ok im sold, who is selling a Elex
It’s got almost a w shaped sound but also fairly flat at the same time lol (the elex)
Flat but not boring?
Correct pretty much. The clear is more flat with a good amp though, the elex is a bit more w shaped in that regard
I consider the Elex and the Clear very close with the Clear having ever so slightly even more enjoyable low end. I can’t recommend it though because at almost double the price of the Elex, it’s just not worth it, but at the end of the day, both are phenomenal headphones. LOVE FOCAL!
If you have a pretty good amp though it does surpass the elex imo by a decent bit. But some people prefer the elex anyways so
Oh I agree, I prefer the Clear, but not at double the price.
This has been fun chatting with you guys!
Has anyone compared the Elex with the Aeon Open X? They’re about the same price. I would’ve said the Aeon 2 but it’s $300 more.
I would personally easily take the elex, as it’s way more dynamic, better spatial recreation, better detail I would say, and also a more enjoyable signature to me. I am not the biggest fan of the aeon flow open and the massdrop one is close to that. I think it still has compression issues, and uninspired tuning, and also average soundstage and imaging. I do think the aeon 2 closed though is more competitive
Whats the differences between the magni 3+ and the heresy?
The heresy is op amp based feed forward amp and going for best measurements/most transparency, sounds like the atom. The 3+ is the more traditional schiit topology (current feedback I think) which is a bit more fun sounding and more colored sound with the schiit house sound (but less compression and more refinement)
Thanx MON, i would have goigled it but they would have directed me to you anyhow lol. What is feed forward and feedback/backwards?
To do a bad job summing up feed forward, it essentially compares the input with it’s output to correct differences and make the signal more like the input, which yields a very clean sound with great measurements, basically minimizing distortion. This is good but has it’s flaws in actual listening has kinda been discussed in the atom vs sp200 thread lol (although that’s not exactly the same as we are talking about thx)
Current feedback is essentially an amp reacting on current difference at the input stage where the feedback loop of an amp creates an output voltage of the same size to the current fed back to the input (this one is hard to explain correctly and I don’t trust that I can explain it already, so I will let polygonhell or someone else handle this one lol)
I think that’s a pretty good description.
Feed forwards is just a method of applying feedback to an amplifier.
Amplifiers have different circuits to amplify Current and Voltage, depending on the design feedback can be present locally on a particular gain stage or global across gain stages. Short of some esoteric expensive high end stuff, most amplifiers have some degree of both local and global feedback.
Feedback lets a designer reduce THD, or to decrease output impedance.
Feedback is sometimes considered to be a bad thing in audio ampilfiers, i.e. it makes the amp sound worse. Some feedback can make an amp less picky about output loads and reduce THD, so usually some degree of pragmatism is applied.
The design philosophy of the THX and a lot of the other “cheap” SS amplifiers was very clearly around excellent measurements, particularly on frequency sweeps and THD+N, because it’s a focus of some internet sites. So they have a lot of feedback in the design.
If you compare just the measurements of the THX stuff or the Atom or Schiit Heresy to say Pass Labs SS stuff or PS Audio’s solid state stuff. They’ll measure much better, but that doesn’t make them better amps.
I don’t know enough about the Schiit Magni 3+ to know if it’s current/voltage feedback or a combination of both.
At some level it doesn’t really matter, you really just want to listen to the amp and decide if you like it.
Exactly lol, that’s what I’ve always operated on, I’m no electronic designer lol
I think its discrete differential current feedback
Wow guys your knowledge about audio gear is next level. I see the LS doesnt use OPAMPS at att, what is it using then instead? Thanx for the great explanations. MON and Polygonhell
I think the liquid spark is a fully discrete direct coupled amp I think, which means the output is coupled to the input stage directly with no op amps or capacitors, it’s a more direct approach design that is simple with a lower amount of components (but that doesn’t mean they are easy to design a good sounding one)