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Author Topic: SYNERGISTIC SYSTEM: An awesome setup for the HE500  (Read 8850 times)

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Marvey

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SYNERGISTIC SYSTEM: An awesome setup for the HE500
« on: January 10, 2013, 04:28:59 AM »
Finally got my setup for the HE500 tonight. Been meaning to do this for a long time - just soldered together the adapter cable.
  • Dynamic
  • Spacious
  • Vice like control of the bass
  • Neutral
  • Very involving!
CD player -> Modified Behringer DCX2496 -> Schiit Mjolnir (Preamp) -> Crest CA2 (Power Amp) -> HE-500.
  • The Mjolnir is an awesome preamp. The few shortcomings which were mentioned (dogmatically vigilant, lack of depth in stage) while driving headphones were not noted at all. It sounds cleaner driving the amp than driving the headphones directly, despite 20 feet of XLR patch cord. The beauty of balanced drive! I would presume that driving the power amp is a much easier load than driving headphones. The HE-500 sounds extremely open and spacious from the Crest CA2 (it's a characteristic of the amp.)
  • Don't laugh at the Crest CA2. While most pro amps are shit, the Crest CA series is very good. There's a reason why it isn't $299 at Musicians Friend. (It use to cost MUCH less than it does now, just a few years ago.) It will kick the ass of the majority of so called audiophile amplifiers. I actually called around the Bay Area (when I lived there) various venues to ask a few professionals what amps they liked and felt were the best. Most of these sound reinforcement systems are active systems, and I noted that the CA2 was used a lot for tweeter applications (at least at the good venues). That told me something. Besides, I've gone through a few audiophile brand power amps, and the CA2s (I own several of them) have managed to stay.
  • What I like about pro amps is that you can usually select gain and attenuation. Gain has been reduced from x40 to x20 via a DIP inside the amp. The attention at the front panel is rather nice for headphone use.
  • I've always felt orthos needed massive power (and good quality power) to shine. Particularly with control of the driver. I've never heard the HE-500 sound so tight in the bass. The Mjolnir and Dynahi do a great job, but this is on a another level. No more blurry or muddy bass.
  • The HE-500 isn't all that resolving, so adding extra stages did not seem to impact plankton retrieval. It should be noted that the modded DCX2496 is nowhere near the PWD2 though.
  • Note minor EQ on DCX2496 to level off the 10kHz peak. The settings have since been adjusted to 10.1kHz -2.5db with a Q of 4. A combination EQ/DAC is awesome. I've noted the HiFiMan's tend to respond very well to EQ.
  • Don't go out and buy any random power amp thinking you will get the same results. I've heard plenty of crappy sound from high powered amps / receivers driving headphones.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2013, 04:58:24 AM by purrin »
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lmswjm

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Re: SYNERGISTIC SYSTEM: An awesome setup for the HE500
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2013, 05:58:21 AM »
Love this rig. If I still had my HE6, I would have picked up that Crest amp for sure. There's one on ebay for $250.

I fed the HE6 7 watts @ its 50 ohm rating and though it sounded good, I thought there was probably more to be had.

Those cooling fans look noisy though...
« Last Edit: January 10, 2013, 06:05:59 AM by lmswjm »
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rhythmdevils

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Re: SYNERGISTIC SYSTEM: An awesome setup for the HE500
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2013, 06:02:53 AM »
Before the neo-orthos a lot of people in the ortho thread AFAIK, used to say that orthos were an easy load for amps to drive because they're dipoles I think.  Maybe dBel can chime in.  I remember Wualta mentioning it a few times, though I don't want to put words in his mouth. 

Maybe they need a lot of certain kinds of power? 

I'm just curious, I've always wondered how to reconcile the differing opinions on this one. 
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Marvey

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Re: SYNERGISTIC SYSTEM: An awesome setup for the HE500
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2013, 06:13:30 AM »
Quote from: lmswjm on January 10, 2013, 05:58:21 AM
Love this rig. If I still had my HE6, I would have picked up that Crest amp for sure. There's one on ebay for $250.

I fed the HE6 7 watts @ its 50 ohm rating and though it sounded good, I thought there was probably more to be had.

Those cooling fans look noisy though...

Downside to pro-amps = cooling fans. I replaced the stock cooling fans with a similar model running at lower RPM :-) You can do this if you are running pro amps at home!

With this setup, I could compare between the Mjolnir output and CA2 output. I much preferred the CA2 output, at least with this headphone. At least we know the Mjolnir is a very good preamp.

The modern orthos need a ton of current. I don't know anything about the old ones.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2013, 06:21:31 AM by purrin »
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Maxvla

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Re: SYNERGISTIC SYSTEM: An awesome setup for the HE500
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2013, 06:15:40 AM »
I had intentions to do something like this with the HE-6, but couldn't stand them long enough to try.
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Marvey

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Re: SYNERGISTIC SYSTEM: An awesome setup for the HE500
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2013, 06:16:59 AM »
Neither could I
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gurubhai

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Re: SYNERGISTIC SYSTEM: An awesome setup for the HE500
« Reply #6 on: January 10, 2013, 08:57:27 AM »
Quote from: rhythmdevils on January 10, 2013, 06:02:53 AM
Before the neo-orthos a lot of people in the ortho thread AFAIK, used to say that orthos were an easy load for amps to drive because they're dipoles I think. 

Orthos were considered an easy load for amplifiers because their load is almost entirely 'resistive' (constant impedance at all frequencies) unlike the dynamic drivers.It was assumed that since the orthos didn't have any change in impedance with the frequency so they won't be generating any back EMF( so no electrical dampng) & the amps would find it much easier to drive.

This ofc has nothing to do with the power/current requirements of the driver. That has to do with the very low impedance/low sensitivity of neo-orthos which means that they would require huge amounts of currently to be driven adequately.(It still doesn't explain the need for gazillion watts power amplifiers though.)
« Last Edit: January 10, 2013, 09:04:53 AM by gurubhai »
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rhythmdevils

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Re: SYNERGISTIC SYSTEM: An awesome setup for the HE500
« Reply #7 on: January 10, 2013, 09:00:03 AM »
 :)p5
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Solderdude

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Re: SYNERGISTIC SYSTEM: An awesome setup for the HE500
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2013, 11:39:55 AM »
Quote from: gurubhai on January 10, 2013, 08:57:27 AM
It still doesn't explain the need for gazillion watts power amplifiers though.

That part is very easily explained though.
Speaker amps are designed to deliver in 4 to 8 Ohms and mostly rated (to give highest figures) in Watts at the lowest impedance.
Ortho's are generally between 32 and 50 Ohm.

Simple calc says 100W into 4 Ohm = 20V
20V over 50 Ohm = 8W

So you need a 100W speaker amp to feed a 50 ohm ortho with 8W
The amplifier in that case is not delivering 100W but simply 8W

The current is NO problemo for any power amp.
It is for most headphone amps.
Just like delivering the voltage is no problem for most speaker amps (depends on the power rating)
It is for most headphone amps that in general do not exceed 10V output voltages under 50 Ohm loads (2W)
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Use your ears to enjoy music, not as an analyser.

gurubhai

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Re: SYNERGISTIC SYSTEM: An awesome setup for the HE500
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2013, 04:41:25 PM »
^Ya but shouldn't 8W be an overkill even for hifiman orthos?
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