The Beresford Capella Headphone Amplifier

[wee tee cee]

Received the Capella this morning. Plumbed it in as a pre amp just to give it a whirl. My system is battery powered -two Temple audio monoblocks and a battery optimised BM2. I utilised the DC jumper lead supplied by Stan to power the BM2 from the Capella.

Initial impressions are quite a shock, as a pre amp it is outstanding in my set up. I was running a Tisbury audio passive pre which I regard very highly but the Capella has surpassed it sonically by some margin. Its active as opposed to passive so a quick change to the monoblocks impedance settings was required to match up the output.

Most noticeable was the level of detail it extracts and the placement of instruments. Tracks I know really well-John Martyn Solid Air (pre noise war CD) made me sit up and replay it WTF reaction.

Im late shift today so will have a listen on the cans in the early hours when I finish.

As a pre amp this is excellent in its own right!!!

[StanleyB]

The preamp section is an updated version of the legendary Gator discrete amplification circuit. I use it with the Caiman MKII even. On one of the CaimanII prototypes I even had a plug in Gator add-on PCB because it sounded so good. Now I use the Caiman with the Capella preamp section as a feed for my power amp. It's a dream team so to speak.

[wee tee cee]

I got home and set up my cans rig with Senn 650s. The Capella has a bamboozling variety of different parameters but to be honest optimising for the 650s was pretty straight forward. I set the volume at 12 o clock and then adjusted the gain to my preferred listening level. The damping for the senns seems quite low. the depth and HF seem to benefit from being high up. Just my personal taste!!!!

As a headphone amp my BM2 superseded a MF M1HPA, the Capella moves the game on from the BM2. It is very good at Rock tracks that I thought were a bit shitty recording wise-Oh Yeah/chickenfoot......MAJIK!!!

I am a self confessed John Martyn fan boy but Nick Drake is starting to sound great!!!

I haven't considered spending more money on cans BUT I'm seriously thinking my life needs a pair of 800s.

[StanleyB]

The HD800 sounds absolutely divine through the Capella. My D7000 hardly gets listened to these days.

[wee tee cee]

The 650s sound really good with the Capella.....they can come across as a bit "MEH !!" sometimes with other amps but with a bit of fine tuning they have really come alive. The variable gain and treble really let them sing without any added nasties.
The most noticeable attribute it possess is the ability to really separate out different instruments and place them accurately, The treble finesse is palpable, hi hats and cymbals sound gorgeous. My bigbear is sibilance on voices, the Capella is excellent in this respect both as a pre and on cans.

I will endeavour to listen to my other cans, just to see what it can do.

[wee tee cee]

The Capella works really well with my superlux hd 660/akg velvet pads/foams removed. Totally different setting to the senn 650s-hf backed right off-far higher gain setting-damping to half way-depth to half way.
Budget set of cans but with the ability to match the Capella to each headphone they are sounding rather splendid.
I have 330s and 440s and a battle scarred pair of 668bs it will be interesting to try open/semi/closed just to see how much optimisation the capella can extract form the different configurations.

[Theadmans]

Tony glad you are liking the Capella. I am thinking of getting one to use with my HD650s as a wee Xmas to myself !

As at matter of interest what settings have you settled on for your HD650s with the various dials etc on the Capella. It will provide a useful starting point for my experiments when I finally get the Capella - thanks.

[wee tee cee]

My starting point is getting the main volume to 12 o clock, then set the gain to your listening level-that will alter as you experiment. I find the 650s dont need much damping so 1 or 2 seems fine. The HF is IMHO set towards the max setting. 650s can be a little warm....my preference/tunes of course.I reckon the depth about 11 o clock is just about right.The balance is spot on.

[TAD12]

Tony, I got my cappella last week. I use HD 650's too. Thanks for sharing your settings. Mine are almost the same, just a subtle difference in the HF . I've listened now for a good number of hours and can honestly say that I don't need as much volume as earlier this week.
Perhaps this shows just how high the quality of the output is compared to the Caiman II, which I also use.
Happy listening.
Kind regards,
T12

[Werner Berghofer]

Tad,

Perhaps this shows just how high the quality of the output is compared to the Caiman II, which I also use.

finally it is possible to assert publicly that there probably might exist better headphone amplifiers. In the past, a statement like this was considered heresy. ;-)

I’m glad to see that the “Capella” is very much appreciated.

Werner.