The Beresford Capella Headphone Amplifier

My Capella arrived today (thanks Stan!),initially i tried to run both the Capella and Caiman off my old APC-20000
All i got was weak low quality sound from right ear cup and nothing from the left.
Then i connected the Capella to the supplied PSU and the Caiman to the battery and that solved the problem. Shame really, the battery ran my previous Bushmaster 2 and the present Caiman 2 without a glitch, the old Ankar battery i owned had the dreaded 'power down' because the Bushmaster draws so little power. It seems the Caiman 2 combined with the Capella is a little too much for this battery.


Great product, running the Hifiman HE-400 phones from the Caiman MK2 i had to turn the volume to between 12 o'clock and 1 o'clock position to get a decent level of volume, now i'm running them around the 10 o'clock to 11 o'clock position and they sound clearer and more focussed, and it seems i have gained a little extra bass definition.(Gain set approx 2 o'clock).
From what i've read, planar magnet headphones really gain from a headphone amp that has 2 watts or more of power output, the Capella has 4 watts?

I'd like a battery pack that has enough output to run the Caiman MK2 and Capella together, what do you guys recommend?

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Originally Posted by mkrzych

Does the Balance control have fixed center position? I mean kind of position that you can feel that's central moving the pot?

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Yes it has.:)

This should cover your battery needs.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...SIN=B00GSLRKJO

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Originally Posted by StanleyB

You can connect the Caiman output to the Capella, and then the Capella output to the preamp. Or you can try a RCA splitter to connect the Caiman to the Capella or to the preamp, etc. I use the TC-7240 to do that sort of inter connectivity. One of its outputs goes to me amp, one goes to the Capella. The Caiman goes to one of its inputs. So I can connect the Caiman to the Capella or the amp.

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Thank you Stan. TC-7240 looks nice .In this option I need extra rca cables.
cable 1 from caiman to TC-7240 input
cable 2 from TC-7240 out to pre amp
cable 3 from TC-7240 out to capella

Should I choose the same rca for cable 1 and 2 . Or it doesn't matter.

For the first option you mentioned , if I connect the Caiman output to the Capella input and capella out to my pre amp, soundwise does it make any difference than using TC-7240.

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Originally Posted by Kit1cat

This should cover your battery needs.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...SIN=B00GSLRKJO

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Thanks Barry, odd that this is 20000mAh same as my old Ankaka, but the Ankaka not capable of powering both?

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Originally Posted by Old George

Thanks Barry, odd that this is 20000mAh same as my old Ankaka, but the Ankaka not capable of powering both?

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I don't know about the Ankaka, I would think the Anker 2 would power both with no problem, the manuals for both say they support a 12v battery pack, any users confirm? I have used mine to power my Bushmaster and Touch at the same time with no problems, now using it with a Raspberry Pi and dac combination.

For almost a year I have been listening from time to time to the Capella with the Philips Fidelio X2. Very happy. No problem. Great sound, coming from: Notebook + M2Tech Evo Power Supply + M2Tech Evo Clock High End Word-Clock-Generator + M2Tech HiFace Evo 24Bit/192kHz USB-Interface + Advance Acoustic MDA-503 + Capella + Philips Fidelio X2 (I am only referring to the headphone section of the setup). However, in the winter I live in another place where, because of my work duties, I am in front of a PC all day long. Here I use the following (slightly funny) combination: PC + M2Tech HiFace Evo 24Bit/192kHz USB-Interface + Philips CDR775 + Capella + Philips Fidelio X2, where the Philips CDR775 is used as a DAC feeding the Capella. No loudspeakers - until today. Today I decided I would also need loudspeakers. So I got a Tannoy Mercury VRi pair. I hooked them up to an old fine receiver just to check their sound. I was pleasantly surprised. So these days the Tannoy Mercury VRis will be hung over the two monitors of the PC - accompanied by a subwoofer, dug out from an old setup. I also dug out an old Cambridge Audio P500 power amp from another old setup and I will use it to fire the Tannoy Mercury VRis, whereby the Capella will feed sound to the Cambridge Audio P500. It's good to have a nice sound when working on the PC all day long - coming from BOTH loudspeakers and headphones. It is boring to uses only headphones.
To cut the long story short, in about a couple of days I hope to get settled in front of the PC with both the loudspeakers and the Capella in its capacity as both headphone amp and a pre-amp. And I will report the results.

I have a 1st Gen silver Anker battery which powers my Capella and Bushmaster MKII at the same time. It does power off though after 20 mins (so I added a grain of wheat bulb on a Y-Cable to cure this problem).

In fact my single Anker battery powers the Capella, Bushmaster plus Squeezebox Touch on 5v USB outlet !

BTW I believe the black 2nd Gen Anker linked to above can also have the 20 minute power off problem too.

It does appear that the problem is the Caiman (I only have BM so cannot test).

I think if I was you I would use your 2 batteries one for the Capella and one for the Caiman (I think I read previously that someone found separate batteries for each piece of kit sounds better).

I believe the gen2 one doesnt put out as much current on the 12 volt line as the gen1 which was about 4 amps, so if current is arequirement then the gen1 is the one to go for although its dearer

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Originally Posted by struth

I believe the gen2 one doesnt put out as much current on the 12 volt line as the gen1 which was about 4 amps, so if current is arequirement then the gen1 is the one to go for although its dearer

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The Beresford products have a particularly low current draw, hence why the original one powers down and one has to artificially increase the current draw.