Thanks Mon I put an offer in on the Gilmore and reached out on the Auralic. Couldn’t find a v280 and the Lake People GS-08 just popped upon headfi but there are 3 people pm’d before me.
Out of the 3 if you could get the Gimore Lite Mk 2 $300 the Auralic for $750 or the GS-08 for $500 which would be your choice?
I would most likely go for either the auralic or the rs-08 if you can find one, otherwise the gilmore is very solid imo
All 3 offers on the Auralic, RS-08, and Gilmore were rejected. I guess CV19 isn’t putting the pinch on everybody. Oh well I’ll find something else in the near horizon or just buy a RebelAmp + E30/AuneX8 when it’s back in stock.
What were your offers? I think those were already somewhat fair, so I don’t think personally I would have lowballed them or anything
Auralic $750
RS-08 $450
Gilmore $275
Hmmm, on the auralic I think 800 would be fair, but 750 was a reasonable offer imo. For the rs-08 imo 500 was already really solid, so I wouldn’t expect them to go lower than that. The gilmore was a bit of a lowball, I think 300-325 would be more fair there
Alright back for another round, any of these good enough to push the LCD3, X, HP3s to the next level?
Audio-GD Phoenix ~ $500 obo
Oppo HA-1 amp/dac ~ $750 (would offer lower)
Beyerdynamic A20 - $250
LH Labs Geek Pulse Xfi + LPS4 power supply - $400
I haven’t heard the Phoenix so I can’t really comment there, but I can say that my experience with other audio gd can be summed up with power without finesse
For the oppo, it’s solid, but I think in that price range you could get more performance for your money
The a20 is a really high output impedance amp, really wouldn’t pair well with the headphones you have imo
The lh Labs gear is solid, but for the most part imo it’s kinda been beat out by more modern amps and dacs, it’s a decent price but imo I think in that range, stuff like the rebelamp or liquid platinum might make more sense imo
So I can get the Liquid platinum used for ~ $450 w/extra tubes
Brand new LP for $550
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=33305&gclid=CjwKCAjwqpP2BRBTEiwAfpiD-36qZQ_DQ1G7S1SNQW-1beGBYi3u1UanNY-9mx8Ib78TurzXdBt6TBoCfcAQAvD_BwE
or the rebelamp will be $499 when it comes back in stock.
Which would you tend to lean towards?
Hmmmmm. It’s hard to really say without hearing the rebelamp lol, but the liquid plat is really sick imo, would work pretty nicely with your current phones, it’s really awesome for that price (if you run it balanced that is)
I don’t currently have balanced so maybe the RA would make more sense from having to buy multiple sets of new cables.
Also just to confirm is the Liquid Platinum garbage or nowhere near as good when run single ended? Also when you said for that price is that the used one for $450 or new for $550?
It is not “garbage” out of the SE, just not as good as the balanced output. Most balanced amps are built for and meant to be used, balanced out.
The sale price of $550 is pretty damn good. For the five year warranty, I would spend the extra $100.00.
For new 550 aint bad, but 450 seems a bit more appealing with the included tubes. Both are solid prices
So I will just say that I wouldn’t pay that price if the amp was only as good as the SE. The SE is passable, but imo the balanced is a large improvement. It’s more important to use the balanced output of the amp, but also if you can use the balanced in as well
Well now you can consider the V280, available from that company that drops daily promotional emails, but its $1200 and a 5 week+ wait.
I’d jump on that if I didn’t already have a Vio.
Holy crap that might be the move to make… I was close to pulling the trigger on a used V281 from UsAudio for ~$1200 but the seller was sketch AF. This might be a great way to go to get something new. From what I’ve read the V280 is exactly the same as the 281 less a DAC and a smaller power supply but the amp section is the same.
Looks like you can add an optical or coax input if you really want the option, at an upcharge of $149.
I don’t know much about Violectric, but it seems like a pretty insane amp at 1.8 watts at 600 ohms…higher output than at 16 ohms (1.5 watts), but peaking at 5.3 watts at 100 ohms!
Are the dual 1/4 in outs both stereo, or is it for right left mono out for running balanced? If stereo, does the addage to run balanced when it’s an option hold, or is the single ended as good as the balanced for this implementation?
They are both stereo. Though the left 1/4 is out of phase, the right one is in-phase.
Single ended is very good, but in terms of power, balanced offers more. It has 4 internal amps, balanced uses all 4 of them, but single ended only uses 2.
Yes, one of those if you have balanced use it cases for sure
How would you compare it to something like the Cayin IHA-6 (since I happen to have just gotten one)? Obviously the V280 is a much higher price tier. Not sure I have the headphone collection to justify even considering it.
So the iha6 is going to be pretty dang impactful with the power it has on tap, but only by a tad over the violectric. The violectric is a clear winner in detail retrieval, timbre, spatial recreation, and overall control, but can get a bit harsh by design on some recordings, where the iha 6 is a slight smoother. Both are warmer leaning amps but the vio is only slightly warm leaning where the cayin is a bit more warm leaning. Single ended is good on the vio but kinda is meh on the cayin, but balanced is preferred on both.