Pm sent
Location: Near Newcastle upon Tyne
Posts: 110
I'm Mandeep.
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Location: London/Durham
Posts: 6,878
I'm Lawrence.
I've been thinking about selling my Iota Audio Reference two box headphone amp. The two boxes combined are probably as heavy (and nearly as big) as a typical UK entry level integrated amp and it has the most natural sublime sound of any headphone amp I've used.
It's balanced inputs only. I tried phono to xlr converters but there was a quiet background hum and I decided not to risk it and use one of my balanced DACs instead.
Strangely it's single ended out though, although this balanced headphone thing seems to relate to a separate ground per channel, not genuine hot/cold so I'm not sure it's not all a scam to get people to buy new cables (arguably like biwiring).
Very rare and made to order, there's mention of its existence on their website, but they concentrate on phono stages where they are (slightly) better known.
Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk
Did a fair bit of research when I got my Dan Clark cans mate, was leaning towards SMSL or Burson, who get a lot of good reviews. In the end I went for driving them directly from my OTL amp. All you need are resistors in series and parallel, sounds great and far more drive than any headphone amp. Much cheaper too, just the cost of a small box, connectors and four resistors.
“Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel. Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is fuel. I have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio”
Hunter S Thompson
Location: london
Posts: 15
I'm steve.
There’s a lovely NJC reference for sale on eBay. Lovely sound and beautifully made. Absolute bargain
Thanks Chaps,
I'll have a think.
AC POWER
Hardwired 10kVA balanced mains powering entire system
AMPS
Meridian 557 power Amp (Modded) / PS Audio BHK Preamp (Modded)
SPEAKERS
Wharfedale Evo 4.4
DAC
PS Audio Directstream (Modded)
TURNTABLE
Pro-Ject X8 balanced output via XLR / Ortofon Quintet Blue cartridge
PHONOSTAGE
Pro-Ject DS3 B balanced Input (TT and Phonostage powered by Pro-Ject Power box RS2 linear psu)
DIGITAL
OPPO 203 (Modded: Linear PSU, i2s output to Dac) - Roon Endpoint, HDMI input used for all things Streaming/ PS5 /AppleTV ... also good for movies apparently?
MUSIC PLAYBACK
Tweaked AP-Linux based Roon Server into Oppo 203 as Roon endpoint
Ipad Roon Remote.
Apple Music/ YouTube via AppleTV, fed to Dac via Oppo HDMI input/i2s output to Dac.
SPEAKER CABLES
Biwired: Duelund DCA10GA (Bass) Duelund DCA16GA (mid & treble) Duelund 12DCA used as jumpers (On "Blackcat Cable" Chris Sommivigo's advice - yup, even with biwire it sounds better - and it does)
INTERCONNECTS
All Balanced: Ghost+ recording studio XLR cables
Location: KY - Scotland
Posts: 5,470
I'm Mike.
THX 789 is one I've been looking at, £300 or so. No idea if that's any good for you but worth a look going by reviews.
Location: Chesterfield
Posts: 143
I'm Robert.
The one that is on for £300?
Had the mk1 version for a few years now and recently pulled the trigger on the mk2 as I have been so happy with it. Have a Jds Atom to compare it to and the NJC seems to winning. Considering the mk1 cost about 260 and the atom 115, I think that is win for the NJC considering its case/components/sound/power is better.
NJC customer service is excellent to. I had a channel issue about 5 years after I bought it and they fixed it and returned for the cost of postage.
Kinda curious how their dacs compare to the more modern stuff..
Sent from my JSN-L21 using Tapatalk
Rob
I have an NJC headphone amp and it really is very special, lovely handmade item.
As above, their customer service is second to none. Richard and Nick always reply to questions with detailed unbiased answers.
I'm also very interested in their DAC and although it's older technology, they say it uses very high quality components and sounds great for it.
I do wish they had some demo units to try at home.
Chord Mojo / Sennheiser HD600
Thanks all for the replies.
To close the thread off, I went back to my PS Audio preamp, which has a great headphone stage built in, so panic over.
After upgrading my AC again, the BHK amp is really strutting it’s stuff now now, thanks God it never sold!
AC POWER
Hardwired 10kVA balanced mains powering entire system
AMPS
Meridian 557 power Amp (Modded) / PS Audio BHK Preamp (Modded)
SPEAKERS
Wharfedale Evo 4.4
DAC
PS Audio Directstream (Modded)
TURNTABLE
Pro-Ject X8 balanced output via XLR / Ortofon Quintet Blue cartridge
PHONOSTAGE
Pro-Ject DS3 B balanced Input (TT and Phonostage powered by Pro-Ject Power box RS2 linear psu)
DIGITAL
OPPO 203 (Modded: Linear PSU, i2s output to Dac) - Roon Endpoint, HDMI input used for all things Streaming/ PS5 /AppleTV ... also good for movies apparently?
MUSIC PLAYBACK
Tweaked AP-Linux based Roon Server into Oppo 203 as Roon endpoint
Ipad Roon Remote.
Apple Music/ YouTube via AppleTV, fed to Dac via Oppo HDMI input/i2s output to Dac.
SPEAKER CABLES
Biwired: Duelund DCA10GA (Bass) Duelund DCA16GA (mid & treble) Duelund 12DCA used as jumpers (On "Blackcat Cable" Chris Sommivigo's advice - yup, even with biwire it sounds better - and it does)
INTERCONNECTS
All Balanced: Ghost+ recording studio XLR cables