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Post by PinkFloyd on May 7, 2007 17:03:03 GMT
I think the head-fi thread is coming to its natural conclusion. I guess the CanAmp is no longer flavour of the month. It had a damned good run over there though Nigel that Alpar guy sure must be rubbing his hands together with glee
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Post by Nigel on May 8, 2007 0:09:24 GMT
Yes, I think it's fair to say if you ever find yourself in the same public house he just might buy you a drink.
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Post by PinkFloyd on May 24, 2007 1:08:57 GMT
Yes, I think it's fair to say if you ever find yourself in the same public house he just might buy you a drink. Quite funny.... someone actually e-mailed me this link to "remind" me I posted about the Heed on Head-Fi (thanks by the way, I'd forgotten about it ) www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=187187
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Sol
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Post by Sol on May 24, 2007 22:21:06 GMT
Just had a read of the other threads ... including the review! What has to make me laugh was the sudden jump in sales - you should be on commission Mike
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Post by PinkFloyd on May 24, 2007 23:21:57 GMT
Quite flattering but also very embarrasing and one of the reasons I stopped posting about anything "audio" related on Head-Fi prior to my banishment to this rock. It was great when you could say something and people would argue their point with you but as soon as it turned into a flavour of the month joint with people piling on the bandwaggon like sheep it became quite tiring. You're right Sol...... it was "laughable" but also a tad embarrasing for me
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Post by gns on May 25, 2007 22:15:41 GMT
Thanks for giving me that sort of exposure guys (NOT!)
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Post by PinkFloyd on May 25, 2007 23:41:33 GMT
Thanks for giving me that sort of exposure guys (NOT!) Come on Graham that's not fair! Just do a search for "Graham Slee solo" and see how many times I posted extremely positive stuff. As I have always said to you in private the only thing that lets the Solo down is the price..... pitch it alongside the MF X-CAN v3 (£249) and it'll sell like hotcakes especially considering it's the better sounding amp. It also shits all over the Heed but @ £475 mainstream buyers won't even look at it....... to hell with "made in England", outsource to China with a "designed in England" badge and pitch the Solo alongside the MF X-CAN v3 pricewise and you'll sell them like hotcakes Graham. The Solo is the amp I always come back to after brief affairs with other amps and has always been my favourite but, in this day and age, people are reluctant to pay £475 for something like a headphone amp...... maybe time to shift production to China and retail her at £250? At that price the Solo would shift off the shelve like shit off a shovel....... "made in england" means nothing these days only that the price will be high........ If the Solo was pitched at the same price as the MF X-CAN v3 you'd be selling cartloads of them Graham. The Solo is the best sounding headphone amp from the UK, without a shadow of a doubt but more likely to sell more at the same price as your direct competitor... MF X-Can V3. I've been saying this for years Graham.... I'll shut up now, you know what needs to be done......................
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Post by Nigel on May 26, 2007 18:12:17 GMT
[Pink Floyd : It also shits all over the Heed but @ £475 mainstream buyers won't even look at it....... quote] Don't be saying that mate. We'll all have to fork out again for yet another headphone amp.
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Post by PinkFloyd on May 26, 2007 23:11:21 GMT
The last time we spoke Nigel I think we both agreed that quite a few amps were pretty similar sounding and the more you spend the more the law of diminishing returns tends to kick in.
The Heed is a lovely sounding amp @ £225 but the Solo does a better job of revealing the minutiae the Heed fails to let through. Let's make this clear, the minutiae is very "minute" but it's the little things, when combined, that can (and do) grab your attention..... "what's that? a bell??? a can't remember ever hearing a bell in that recording before!"
Little things that manifest themselves when you least expect it.... the Solo (as I have ALWAYS said) homes in like a microscope on the recording and pulls out stuff you didn't know was there. The Heed is a bloody good / toe tapping listen and what it does it does very well conveying the music to your ears in an extremely musical way.
The Solo (to me) is more of a tool and will allow everything that's on the recording through to your ears.... it doesn't cover up anything or varnish over things... if it's on the recording the Solo will transfer it to you ears.
Question is, is it worth the extra £250? Answer is YES, of course it is....... in the long run it's an extra £250 well spent as the insight into the performance is a lot greater.... it's an invaluable tool as far as I'm concerned and I will always refer to the Solo when comparing other amps.
I've been around a bit and know that the only thing holding the Solo back (as far as major sales are concerned) is the £475 price tag. It's priceless as far as I'm concerned (what price can you place on musical perfection?) but I realise most people would (and do) consider £475 quite a lot for a headphone amp.
It's more than worth it as far as I'm concerned but £475 is a lot to shell out and can appreciate why the Solo is seen as more of a connoisseur purchase than a mainstream best buy.... Graham wonders "why" it's not the biggest selling headphone amp on the planet even though it's certainly one of the best.... as Miguel said GBP to dollar rate is doing it no favours at the moment and when you've got the likes of the Heed and MF X-CAN v3 at £225 / £250 the Solo is definitely classed as "expensive"
Horses for courses though.... if you want the best of British, then £475 for the Graham Slee Solo will get you it and you have to ask yourself if the extra £250 over the competition is worth it? I'd say YES, every penny (I do like hearing all there is to hear in a recording) and consistency is guaranteed from amp to amp as each amp is extensively tested before despatch. Graham did wonder why the Solo wasn't selling like hotcakes and I hope I have answered that. In my opinion it's worth every penny and you're buying a sonic gem that will still sound better than the competition many years down the line... quality has never come cheap and one thing you can be assured of the Solo exudes quality.
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Post by PinkFloyd on May 27, 2007 0:12:47 GMT
Seems Heed have started throwing whatever they can into the CanAmp to meet demand www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=194441&page=108 Probably very good parts and all they can source but not exactly confidence inspiring for the end user when each amp differs in construction. 6VA / 7VA transformers are pretty much a joke in those amps anyways! I have about 20 x 30VA 9V Clairtronics transformers I'll gladly sell cheaply to Heed owners who know one end of a soldering iron from the other, far superior to those paltry 6VA efforts.............. Sad to see things going this way as the sample I had was a superb sounding amp.... as soon as a manufacturer starts throwing anything into the design just to meet demand and turn a profit then possible the sound is also different from sample to sample. Way too many reports of frankensteins coming out of Heed for my liking.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2007 0:47:05 GMT
6VA/7VA transformers ! Yahoo Serious ? SandyK
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Post by gns on May 27, 2007 2:40:19 GMT
I get Mike's point about the Heed being more affordable than the Solo, and that at twice the price, many can't stretch that far.
It's not £475 because it's made in Britain. I've been having quite a few conversations with Chinese contacts, especially Yiruo, my distributor. As he explained, unless you're going for all-out mass production, you're going to end up going to a small specialist Chinese hand-builder. And if you specify high quality branded components with consistency and individual specification testing, like we do here, it will be slightly cheaper because the Chinese guy will work for less pay than in the UK (at time of writing). But, the cost of shipping in small quantities, plus import duties, takes the price right back where you started.
The Solo, built in Britain under my complete control, is at least consistent in its build quality. The £475 version comes with the outboard PSU1 power supply. It contains a specially made transformer - yes - specially made to a very strict and demanding specification - that of the IEC and Canadian Standards Association (Including Underwriters Laboratories), and every single one has to be identical. They're all built by transformer specialist Trans-Tronic in Chesterfield, UK. We pay £2,000 a year for inspections by NEMKO and our licensing fees, and remember that's just for the PSU1 which makes up £163 of the £475.
You can get the Solo Intro version with plug-top PSU (the T48 made for us in China by ENG) for £333.49, just over a hundred quid more than the Heed, and you do have the option of using any single sided supply in the range 24-35 volts (regulated) with it, and many tweakers do just that. Can anybody compare the Solo Intro with the Heed? That would be a good test - is the Solo Intro worth the extra hundred?
The Solo 2007 (PSU1 or Intro) is very consistent and component substitution is not made lightly. We'd rather loose a bit of money and loose an order than upset a customer by fitting any old replacement part. We do "tag" a couple of resistors below the board as this is a tuning tweak of the 2007 version, and it is possible that we may have to do some track cuts and hard wiring to comply with the use of switched mode power supplies demanded by the EU Eco-design directive, and if we do this, it is only to make the Solo compatible with all power supply options. Ultimately, when politicians finally make their minds up, we can finalise on a PCB with all the mods in place. At least we're able to do things like this at an engineering level, unlike some who buy in generic populated PCBs from China and simply brand them in a posh case.
So what benefits are you getting from the "buy cheap in China - sell dear here" brigade? I have nothing against Chinese goods, but I don't buy re-branded, I buy their own brands for my own use - they're far better! By the way, this isn't a slur on Heed - I know nothing about them apart from what Mike said.
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Post by Nigel on May 27, 2007 9:39:49 GMT
I'd love to hear the Solo. I have Mike's old modified Heed & mighty fine it sounds too. Personally, I wouldn't want to write a comparison review. I'd feel bad about upsetting people but hey, I'm a nice guy.
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Post by Nigel on May 27, 2007 9:56:04 GMT
Can the intro Solo be upgraded to the top version via some trade in scheme? Might not be so bad if you could upgrade later when funds allow.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2007 10:21:17 GMT
Is it worth selling on ebay, then putting towards a new Solo ? You could always say "modified by the maestro himself, Pink Floyd! " Perhaps Mike could then use your new Solo for upgrade potential. Free of charge , of course ! SandyK (with tongue firmly in cheek)
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Post by Nigel on May 27, 2007 17:33:05 GMT
I'd need proof with my own lugholes first though SandyK.
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Post by PinkFloyd on May 27, 2007 21:24:20 GMT
You can strap on some serious linear regulated power supplies which really do take the Solo to another level and you don't have to spend a fortune doing it either I use an open frame Calex (housed in an enclosure) and she cost me about £80 to build. Regulated bench supplies are also seriously nice sounding and as cheap as chips in the scheme of things (plus you can use them with other amps with different voltages) A good one for use with the Solo would be this one at £89.90 all you'd have to do is run a power cord from the PSU to the Solo and terminate it with a 2.1mm DC plug (of course ensuring polarity is correct) nothing wrong with these power supplies and they're the type of thing manufacturers use all the time I think they look quite cool too and have features like Overload and reverse polarity protection which stock PSU's don't..... 0.01% regulation, you can't argue with that either
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Post by dexdexter on Jun 13, 2007 10:27:52 GMT
Seems Heed have started throwing whatever they can into the CanAmp to meet demand www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=194441&page=108 Probably very good parts and all they can source but not exactly confidence inspiring for the end user when each amp differs in construction. 6VA / 7VA transformers are pretty much a joke in those amps anyways! I have about 20 x 30VA 9V Clairtronics transformers I'll gladly sell cheaply to Heed owners who know one end of a soldering iron from the other, far superior to those paltry 6VA efforts.............. Sad to see things going this way as the sample I had was a superb sounding amp.... as soon as a manufacturer starts throwing anything into the design just to meet demand and turn a profit then possible the sound is also different from sample to sample. Way too many reports of frankensteins coming out of Heed for my liking. Quick update time. Heed have once again responded directly to allegations raised about their QC on the Goat, which I'm sad to note also have unfortunately managed to seep over here: www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=194441&page=110
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Post by Nigel on Aug 9, 2007 0:33:28 GMT
Just had an enjoyable evening courtesy Heed with AD843's (thanks Mike, super solderer) & six bottles of Timothy Taylor's finest. Numerous records played but I really enjoyed side two of Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" best of all tonight.
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Post by leo on Aug 9, 2007 1:03:44 GMT
So you like the AD843's Nigel? I have soldered the sockets and intend on trying the 843's probably tomorrow
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Post by Nigel on Aug 9, 2007 10:57:27 GMT
Yes, they sound kinda like a mixture of the DY2000 & the OPA 627's. I'll have to give it a few days before I comment though because I usually find it takes me that long to draw any conclusions. I like to listen to as many recordings as possible before making up my mind! They are replacing the AD823.
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Post by leo on Aug 9, 2007 15:13:58 GMT
Mines now fitted too Nigel will also comment later once they have had chance to settle down.
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Post by PinkFloyd on Aug 9, 2007 16:01:49 GMT
Cor blimey they're getting a bit worked up over there LOL He makes a good point though! Some of these manufacturers must be shocked when they see their circuits exposed on the internet and even more so when they've been bastardised beyond recognition... gone are the days of people worrying about removing the tamper proof seals, these days the first thing they do is rip the bloomin' thing apart and take photos of it Heed reckon that people who swap out the capacitors no longer have a "Heed" as the caps alter the sound.... so when I see one stock Heed with one set of parts in it and another stock Heed with a different set of parts in it I reach the same conclusion..... they both will not sound the same, the sonic signatures will be "slightly" different. I believe Miguel listened to two of them back to back and found a slight difference..... What Heed says is fair enough, modding the amp will make it sound different but for them to turn around and say the different components they have used in some of their amps perform exactly the same......... erm
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Post by PinkFloyd on Aug 9, 2007 16:09:29 GMT
Yes, they sound kinda like a mixture of the DY2000 & the OPA 627's. I'll have to give it a few days before I comment though because I usually find it takes me that long to draw any conclusions. I like to listen to as many recordings as possible before making up my mind! They are replacing the AD823. Beautiful sounding opamps in my opinion, they have all the characteristics of the OPA627 but with some added soul..... give them a good few days to cook Nigel and you'll find they really open up nicely. Are they running warm? In the WNA they ran as hot as toast. Another opamp you may want to try is the OPA602 Nigel (on brown dog) I have a feeling they'll sound excellent in the Heed..... Fritz seems to be enjoying them in his WNA mkll. Thanks for the compliment on my soldering, the most skillful part was desoldering the OPA627.... right little buggers these through hole jobs..... soldering the dil8 on was a walk in the park
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Post by leo on Aug 9, 2007 16:27:33 GMT
Cor blimey they're getting a bit worked up over there * Another reason why I prefer it over here I don't understand why folks get so worked up over such small things
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