Just received hot from the oven :). Connected with Topping D50. This is replacing my tube amp DarkVoice 336SE.
I then connected Hifiman HE560 with balanced cable. Here are initial impressions:
Powerwise, I am using highest gain (level 3) and volumn knob is around 1. The headphones are plenty loud.
No hint of noise anywhere from low end to high treble and no sibilance whatsoever. High frequencies are definitely more apparent compared to tube amp.
I am hearing more strong sub-base compared to DarkVoice, specificaly with Angel from Massive Attack.
Overall extremely smooth sounding but extremely detailed.
Bubbles from YosiHorikawa: wow!! immense sound stage. Definite improvement in detail retrieval. I am hearing lot of new things.
Overall, I am quite pleased. Will add more details as I test with more headphones and songs. 5 stars all the way!!
Just noticed that you used a Hifiman Balanced cable. Did you compare with TRS? I'm expecting a balanced cable tomorrow and I'm anxious to compare. I have the headphones HE400S
I did not compare 1:1 on balanced v/s XLR, but from other headphones I used (HD6XX, Audeze EL8 closed Monoprice m1060), the only difference I could perceive was in power. Nothing else.
- Powerwise, I am using highest gain (level 3) and volumn knob is around 1. The headphones are plenty loud.
- No hint of noise anywhere from low end to high treble and no sibilance whatsoever. High frequencies are definitely more apparent compared to tube amp.
- I am hearing more strong sub-base compared to DarkVoice, specificaly with Angel from Massive Attack.
- Overall extremely smooth sounding but extremely detailed.
- Bubbles from YosiHorikawa: wow!! immense sound stage. Definite improvement in detail retrieval. I am hearing lot of new things.
Overall, I am quite pleased. Will add more details as I test with more headphones and songs. 5 stars all the way!!