Meier Audio CORDA PREHEAD-1

Ian, for once wrong

 

I've only ever had one TT, many years ago, and managed to permanently mute that with a football, after one poorly executed curling shot around the bed went askew and bust the needle :cry:

I'd stick with a remote

 

It's been known to happen. Not often, obviously.

-- Ian

 

Really? The Corda HA-1 is VERY highly spoken of on www.headfi.org

However, as I have mentioned Mike, I didnt find it ANY better than my speaker amp. Although Rory heard it and *thought* it was much better, I failed to see how or why he came to this conclusion.

There are a number of reasons why a dedicated amplifier *should* be better than the headphone jack of an integrated amplifier.

First of all, the quality of the headphone circuitry of integrated amplifiers varies greatly. For example, I have rarely heard particularly great things about the quality of Arcam jacks for example, most people saying they suffer noise, and also very poor sound quality. On the other hand, NAD and Rotel are very well known for having very high quality headphone circuitry in their amps. So in the case of an amp with poor headphone circuitry then this is one potential area where a headphone amp can offer improvements.

The second reason is that a headphone amplifier will offer an output impedance of close to 0 ohms. Generally, the headphone jack on integrated equipment will not offer such a low output impedance. If the output impedance is too high, it can affect the sound negatively. As a rule of thumb, the lower the output impedance, the "cleaner" the output will be, the higher it is, the "warmer" it will sound. Many amps offer a couple of jacks, one with a higher impedance and one with the low impedance, and which the user chooses will be a matter of taste. Integrated amps nearly always have a slightly higher output impedance.

Another thing that output impedance can affect is the frequency response. If the output impedance is higher, then it can exagerrate the frequency in a certain area. Lets take a look at this graph.... (hope this works)

http://www.headphone.com/graphCompa...0020110931&buttonSelection=Compare+Headphones

As you can see here, the Grado SR-325 has a very flat impedance response through the frequencies. The Grado should therefore should not be affected by bumps in the frequency range due to increased impedance of the output. The Beyer DT931 on the other hand, has a very severe increase in impedance in the bass. This not only means that the cans will have a bump in the frequency response in the bass when fed with increased output impedance (actually DEFINITELY NOT a bad thing in the case of this particular can), but the high impedance means that it can draw a lot of current from the amplifier.

So is it as simple as looking at impedance response? Not always. For example, a low impedance phone can in many respects be driven better by a dedicated amplifier than a high impedance one. For reasons I cannot quite explain, if the output impedance of the headphone jack is higher than the impedance of the headphones, it *CAN* (but not always) mess the sound up. Therefore, higher impedance cans, which take more current, can sound better out of integrated amps than low impedance phones, which on paper, should not take a lot of power and their impedance is a lot closer to that of speakers, which in theory should make them easier for integrateds.

As much as I've had many cans, I have not had enough to conclusively prove whether high impedance phones are better for integrated than low impedance phones, the only way to know it to experiment.

For example, I have had 3 low impedance cans in my collection - Grado SR-80s, Sennheiser HD497s and AKG K271s. The K271s (55 ohm) were dreadfully closed in. Not so out of the Corda. The SR-80's (32 ohm) were too bright (but check out their frequency response). The Sennheisers sounded just fine. So I feel it may be the exception rather than the rule. The Corda actually struggled to drive some of the more demanding headphones in my collection - did it really have the current capability I ask myself, or did it naturally just sound a bit lean? Probably the latter....

So, a good headphone amplifier like the Prehead should be noticably better than the lower cost amplifiers, and also those on low cost integrated amps, but I think the differences between GOOD low cost headphone amps and integrateds and the higher end stuff such as the pre-heads are smaller than many headphone fanatics would have you believe, and that good low cost solutions, as with many things in audio, are already into the laws of dimishing returns. Sure there will be improvements, but only you can decide whether the dramatic increase in cost is worth the relatively small potential increase in performance. All these things are, of course, subjective. I had thought about going for a Pre-head myself, but given my disappointment with the Corda, I will be sticking with my Rotel for some time yet (until I get a very substantial payrise at least).

If you think I am just saying this, then I'd like to refer you to this thread on the HA-2, which is VERY, VERY close to the performance of the Prehead, where this dude, is left somewhat disappointed with his HA-2. Keep this in mind - an amplifier is just that, an amplifier, it increases the strength of a signal - in theory it should not change the sound, and a good solid state solution should not colour it. If you want colouration, go valves (I am thinking RKV Audiovalve amplifier for you )

Here is that thread....

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30717&highlight=HA2

 

BTW, here is a picture of the Audiovalve RKV Mk 2



I have heard some VERY good things about this amp.... it even delivers 2-watts per channel

http://home.t-online.de/home/meier-audio/rkv.htm

 

I'm sure i saw somewhere that the RKV MK2 is Octobers sale item from Meier for headfi'ers. Can't seem to find the details though.....

 

http://home.t-online.de/home/meier-audio/headfi.htm

 

cheers

seems to be barely any cheaper than normal price

Doesn't have the flexibility of a preamp that i am after though PB, unlike the Prehead

Talking of integrateds, i believe a lot of the old vintage stuff is particulalry well regarded in terms of their headphone socketry.
Even more reason to buy a tasty Marantz receiver :MILD:

 

The old NAD 3020 actually had a PROPER dedicated headphone amplifier built inside. Whether its any better than a C370 which uses the main amp stage into step down transistors is another matter though.....

Heard good stuff about Denon amps' headphone sockets too

PS. One thing I could never figure out about Meier's site... Why when he is based in Europe, do we Europeans have to pay CONSIDERABLY more than Americans? Doesnt seem fair to me...

 

Weird - don't you remember when RDD was selling a Corda HA-1 and a pair of headphones (Senns of some kind I think)? I searched on headfi.org for reviews and only found one by a guy who though it was basically a load of cr@p and then a bunch of other people agreeing with him.

What about that "cross talk" feature (or whatever it's called) that Corda's have - does it work or is it just a gimmick?

Michael.

 

No no no, that was the Project Headbox, I remember you asking me about it.... I believe I am the first person on HFC or Zerogain to own a Corda.

Crossfeed can be useful especially where recordings have extreme stereo seperation, which made some older recordings sound fatiguing. personally I get by fine without it.

 

Yes, of course it was - oops :shame: Clearly got the two completely mixed up.

Michael.

 

And a pair of SONY V6's

Another widely raved about product that I bought blind, never really did much for me at all TBH. As soon as I got my 580's I just stopped using them dead, horses for courses I suppose.

Now very happy indeed with my 580/OBH-11SE set-up, but will soon be getting some DT231's as an inexpensive closed back solution (so I can watch TV and listen to music whilst allowing others to listen to just the TV!!), I suspect they will sound pretty good through my Creek amp.

That Audiovalve RKV Mk 2 looks fantastic - a possibility when I've got my house sorted out....

Cheers,
Rick