Good VFM? The PANDA headphone amp. I'll say so!

[mrslim]

The vendor might be able to tell you when more are going to be up for sale: [e-mail]

Otherwise, if you don't want to wait, HifiDIY themselves have them for sale, albeit at a about a $17 higher price (including shipping).. cgi.ebay.com/Panda-amp-kit-headphone-amp-/320619139104?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item4aa663d020

I just got shipping confirmed on one last night.. (sorry..)

[yellowjeep]

Huh, I searched for Panda on ebay last night and got nothing. Could have missed it as it was about 3am... Thanks for the heads up.

[joethearachnid]

Literally just signed up. Like the others, I've just read this entire thread after being sent here from the forum that must not be mentioned.

I've pulled the trigger on a Panda bought from cgi.ebay.com/HLLY-Headphone-Amplifier-PCB-KIT-NEW-Version-/400165442193
The seller seems reputable and with free shipping the price is still about £50, so it's not all bad.
I've also ordered a box from the original seller, a new soldering iron and a bunch of transformers, resistors and crap from Rapid. I hope it all comes together - if not I'll be on here to shout at you about how my DC offset won't keep straight etcetera.

I'm picking and choosing somewhat from the tweaks on here I'm actually going to do (trying to be cost effective - you people don't make it easy), but all in all this thread was incredibly informative and helpful, with plenty of good ideas to try. I'll try and post some pictures when I'm done if I think it's worth it. 'cause that's what we need, right? MORE pictures of the Panda in the default case?

[Deleted]

I've just read this entire thread after being sent here from the forum that must not be mentioned.

What? Voldemort?

Was that the advert I put there?

The Panda is sheer genius with a K701 as long as the power is turned up a bit!!

Welcome to RG. It's good here!!!!

[joethearachnid]

DON'T SAY THE NAME!

But yeah, it is good here. I can say cuss words and not get banned for it.

I'll be using the Panda with a pair of 50ohm HD 595 - kind of overkill I know, but I have £250 of scholarship money to spend on 'practical projects' and £0 to spend on new headphones, so I figured I'd get my source up to scratch while I can. And the 595s do seem to respond pretty nicely to amping, especially in the bass department. I've built a very simple tube amp before, but this'll be my first big project. After this I'm going to build a DAC, thinking of a gamma1 right now since I can get all the parts for under £70.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

[fault151]

If you are going to build a amb labs dac, I'd go with the y2 over the y1. I have the y1 and its not bad as a little portable dac. The newer version is meant to be a lot better though. I don't think there is a bi difference in price either.

Having said that, If you are after a dac for your home set up, you could try a beresford. For the price they ain't bad.

I have just built a panda and it is sounding really nice. Working on my panels designs now.

[joethearachnid]

The idea is that I can build a γ1 next with the funds I have (I'm already over budget after buying a nice soldering iron, sigh) and then upgrade it to a γ2 later on if I'm so inclined. Plus this'll be my first venture into SMD soldering, so I want to ease myself in a bit.
And if it doesn't work, I've always got me mum's old dependable Marantz CD-50 SE.

[Deleted]

And if it doesn't work, I've always got me mum's old dependable Marantz CD-50 SE.

Crikey! An antique. (Very good though)

[mrslim]

Nov 28, 2010 12:44:16 GMT fault151 said:

If you are going to build a amb labs dac, I'd go with the y2 over the y1. I have the y1 and its not bad as a little portable dac. The newer version is meant to be a lot better though. I don't think there is a bi difference in price either.

Just to clarify, the y2 is not a replacement or a newer version of the y1. The y1 still exists on its own, and is a required part of the y2(the y2 uses the inputs and usb-s/pdif converter of the y1). The Y2 builds on that by adding a higher performance DAC.

[joethearachnid]

All my bits arrived from Rapid - ordered on Saturday, got here on Monday! Free shipping on orders over £30 and all. My soldering iron, ordered on Friday from PCB-Soldering.co.uk with a whopping £9 delivery charge is nowhere to be seen. I think I'll be dealing with Rapid again.
I am missing two 220nf caps I ordered to build a crossfeed with (not on the list in the box but definitely ordered, maybe delivered separately?), but I got an extra RCA socket worth £1.10 slipped in, which makes me ahead of the two lacking 6p caps.
I'm getting very excited about this build now - got toroidals and headphone jacks and stuff everywhere. I've also got 20 metres of that Evoloution OFC two pair that was recommended so I knocked together an interconnect that sounds rather nice. Or exactly the same, but I made it so it seems better.

Ah, solder fumes...

[PinkFloyd]

Hi Joe,

Rapid are very GOOD. I've got plenty of 220nF caps and will be happy to send you a few.... PM me your details and I'll get them in the post.

Mike.

[fault151]

"Just to clarify, the y2 is not a replacement or a newer version of the y1. The y1 still exists on its own, and is a required part of the y2(the y2 uses the inputs and usb-s/pdif converter of the y1). The Y2 builds on that by adding a higher performance DAC."

Correct. What I meant to say was the added dac makes it better improvement (apparently) over the existing y1. I just didn't explain it that well :0)

[UzminiNu]

Hello everyone:!

I hear and see a lot of good words about the Panda amp.
Is it OK and suitable for connection to a PC?

Next month i will go for the AKG K701 and think about a more powerful bedtime amp.

I use the Neco portable V2 and think the Panda will be a big step up.

The problem is, i have no clue what kind of additional parts do i need, to the Panda KIT:?

I havn't bought the Kit for now.And actually didnt know how much the panda project will cost in the end:?

My soldering skills are very bad at least to say.
Im waiting the delivery of my "decent" soldering iron (for learning purposes)...already a week.I was searching a month for a cheap solution.
...and bought a bit solder wire...thats all.
Im a bit underpowered with the tools and know-how for this size of a project:].

Mayby someone can bring me enlightment in this 47 page long thread

[toad]

You could do a lot worse than the Aune Amp/DAC

cgi.ebay.co.uk/AUNE-HIFIDIY-NET-Mini-USB-DAC-Headphone-Amp-MK2-/260464075448

It's not far behind the Panda for SQ and is a good match for the K701s. It's built like a tank and it also has the advantage of being pre built and can connect straight to your PC via USB. It's great value.

There's a thread about the Aune in the Amp section of the forum.

[Deleted]

Really good with the K701 and great from a computer. Toad is absolutely spot on.

[gommer]

Hi chaps,

New here and another one send over by MrSlim on Head-Fi. It's funny, i'm also on another forum where there's rivality and attitude disliking between an American and UK forum (mp3car and digital-car, for what it's worth).

Anyhow, I'v just received my Panda amp and i do hope its everything you guys rave about. A little about my background:

I'm a would-be audiophile (not fool). Would-be, because untill now, i've not had decent gear to reproduce music with, i'm still om 20 year old mid-fi gear and the best i've owned recently, with regard to reproduction, is a iRiver H140 combined with Sure E2 in-ear headphones. With this combination, there have been some aha moments. The thing is, that in a past life (untill 10 years ago), i was immersed into live music. My dad plays piano, my ex-wife played flute, upright bass and piano. I have played sax and violin myself. Friends have played in bands and so i have heard drums, violin, viola, upright bass, flute, sax, oboe, clarinet and e few other instyruments live and up-close many times; So i know what music should sound like. In my experience, piano is the hardest instrument to redproduce faithfully.

Anyway, i decided to get a decent sound system the cheap way, with headphones. I already have a dddac mK2 almost finished, the Panda amp and some AKG K701's are on order. I choose the DDDAC and AKG K701 because they are both very fast and have a tight, fast and non exagerated bass. Both also have magnificent mids. I'm a strong believer that music reproduction is best served with time accuracy, and this is where the DDDAC should excel at (it's a non oversampling DAC without output filter, my version with 24 paralleled TDA1543's). The Panda amp should complement this nicely.

I'm also very interested to understand the details about the Panda amp schematics. Would it be OK if i start a new thread on this subject?

Anyhow, i seem to have found a nice bunch of people here, to share my experiences with.

Kind regards,
Marc (from Belgium)

[toad]

Welcome to the forum Marc. You're in for a bit of a treat with the Panda. It a great amp, especially good value for money.

Ian

[Deleted]

Hi Marc,

The guys here are great and we tend to have a bit of a laugh occasionally!!

The Panda is a super amp. Mike put one together for me and it is my favourite with the K701. You suddenly get bass from a headphone that is so often accused of having none. It goes far deeper than I ever thought on the end of the Panda.

One thing Mike did was to change some resistors to up the gain since I was getting near the top on orchestral music in particular. All that this does is to change where the amp becomes loud and gives a little more gain at the top end to drive the K701's which do need a lot of power to push them properly.

I had never realised how important this was until I heard them on the Panda.

Somewhere amongst all of the ramblings is a section where Mike suggests a simple resistor change in order to do this. It's well worth it too.

[gommer]

Cheers guys,

I do intend to increase the gain by 6db (changing the feeback resistor from 300 to 150 ohm) and i've also read the suggetsions on trimming the bias on the input pair to the max of about 1mA (1,5V across the 1k5 resistors).

Marc

[PinkFloyd]

Would it be OK if i start a new thread on this subject?

Hi Marc,

Welcome to the forum Please do start a new thread on the subject, it will be very interesting.

All the best,

Mike.

[XTRProf]

Have no fear here, Marc! Most of us are for free speech and fun here .......... Welcome, welcome ..........

[gommer]

Thanks and thanks. Now hurry up and go reply in my brand new schematics thread

Cheers, Marc

[PinkFloyd]

My fourth Panda build.... much the same as the other three (without the mental bypassing on Panda three).... upped the power caps from 3300uF to 4700uf on this one (and bypassed with 470nF metallised polyester and 22N polystyrene)...... fitted 22N polystyrene instead of the stock 22n ceramics.... also fitted a couple of "database" (Yup?) "boutique" caps (cerafine and silmic)..... 1N4001 replaced with UF4001 and shunted with silvered Mica 33pF....

ALL transistors "matched"..... I'll fire her up in the next few days and report back.

[PinkFloyd]

By the way.... those 4700uF Nichicon caps measured 0.00 ESR on my Atlas tester.... the ONLY caps that have ever measured zero ohm on my meter! All four were a perfect 0.00

[gommer]

Hi Mike,

Would you care to elaborate on what you mean by matching ALL tranny's?

I can imagine the input FET's making a difference and also the current mirror in the voltage stage. But other than that?

Also, has it already been mentioned that when working with through hole and small value caps, you should take care that they do not become too large(physically), or else the inductive component (wires making a loop relatively far from the PCB) might become more important than the cap's value.