In regards to my most recent post, here is a link to my older post, talking about synergy/and or coloration/wire with gain. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/centrance-ampersand-balanced-portable-headphone-amplifier.961161/post-16800379

It’s pretty much wire with gain. But an impedance mismatch with a headphone might color the sound. So far that doesn’t seem to be the case with me. But, vs something like the Palab M1 mini with using balanced HD600 and HD650, the Ampersand is my favorite with HD600, and the Palab is my...

Mine is pretty silent with my very sensitive custom IEM and Westone universal IEM, and my NXears as well. It pairs well with just about every headphone and IEM I have tried with it as well.

I have a Moon Audio Black Dragon 2.5 mm balanced cable, going to 4-pin at the earpieces, and it sounds marvelous with the Roxanne and my CEntrance balanced BlueDAC and balanced HiFiM8 V2. I also have a black dragon cable adapter/pigtail to use them with a 3.5mm single ended amplifier. But the...

Try a UPS on the PC and Ampersand, and see if that cleans up the power. You may find that it isolates the PC from the Ampersand better, or maybe use a UPS that also has it's own USB ports and plug it into the UPS USB port. In my case, I don't get any noise from my MacBook Pro 16" when charging...

I never asked or checked yet, but does the Ampersand have an auto shut off feature when it’s been idle for a while?

I posted the case I use in the HiFiM8 V2 thread, and I have two for my M8 V2 and Ampersand. The elastic band is starting to stretch out and loosen though - it still works unless I try to put something much smaller in the case and then it's too loose. I'm going to look for something that can hold...

I agree that you sometimes lose interest when you have the perfect system, but getting to try new things also can rekindle a lost interest in listening to music in the first place. I think you meant planar magnetic instead of electrostatic?

My gaming PC with ESS DAC on front panel feeding Ampersand.

If the DacPort Pro amplifier is similar to that of the HiFiM8 V2 then I can absolutely believe that. It’s a wonderfully transparent amp. If I had the DACPort Pro I’d still want to try the XLR output as my source if I could, but I’m sure the headphone output is also good. I am still going to...

DACport Pro has dual 3-pin XLR balanced line-out in this form factor, so it would need a bulky adapter to take the line-out down to a 4.4mm balanced plug - maybe they'll do a version with a 4.4mm output? I do think that connecting to a true line-out would be beneficial in many cases, rather...

I don’t use my desktop DAC and amps much either. I just tend to carry my BlueDAC or my HiFiM8 V2 around the house with me to where it is needed. I was more often using my MacBook laptop than I was a using desktop computer, but last summer I built a gaming PC and I keep my HiFiM8 V1 connected...

I think you meant to respond to ChrisLN, as I was saying something very similar.

Yes, those LEDs are definitely very helpful in tuning the input level that we feed it, so that we don’t overdrive the input. I find that it can accept fairly high input levels before the meters go red and you hear distortion.

I didn’t know they were going to be shipping this soon. Nice. ChrisLN mentioned a change in sound between medium and high gain, sounding less full. But I did not spend a lot of time listening for changes, because I typically stayed in hi-gain most of the time with harder to drive headphones...

So, it seems that I don't have any headphones that this Ampersand cannot drive well, with more than enough power for even the Original HiFiMan HE-6. However, as a "wire with gain" it sounds just like whatever source I use. So, if you pick the wrong source then the ampersand can sound as bright...

D2 with Wi-Fi has lossless transmission for hi-res music. But AAC, and even apt-x HD, are lossy transmission codecs. I believe that there is still some form of conversion of the audio into the apt-x codec, But a USB receiver chip sending signal to the DAC is not converting the ones and zeros...

I had to go out of town for a few days, and should be back home tomorrow night, and then I can finish trying all those other headphones I mentioned with the Ampersand. I really don’t expect to find any surprises.

So I’m pretty sure that I have a dual 3-pin to four pin adapter, but I would need gender changers, because it lets me plug a headphone cable with dual 3-pins into a 4-pin headphone amp.

I certainly will not forget all the late night sessions we spent chatting on the phone and in messenger, to make sure that this product was perfect when completed. I have to tell you it’s a job well done and I can’t think of any way to make it better. Well, except maybe if it also had tone...

So I caught a typo in what you quoted from me that I’m not gonna go back and fix. But I also caught where I mistakenly said dual 3-pin into single 4-pin, and I actually meant to say dual 3-pin into 4.4 mm male, which is the input into the Ampersand. I have adapters to let me use 4-pin XLR...

I would like to add that the sound signature does not seem to change, to my ears, when switching between high gain, medium gain, or low gain. I have experienced sonic changes with some amps in the past when changing to a different gain level, but not this one. The only amp to come to mind right...

I just received a sample of the Ampersand today. I and my son HeadFanatic are both extremely impressed with it! All of our listening today was via the 4.4mm and 4-pin balanced outputs. I listened to an Alpha version last year and prefer to forget about that one, LOL. I’m using it with a...

This is what I’m saying! It’s freaking awesome with HD800/800s. It’s great with everything I own. The only reason it’s not my primary 24/7 DAC on my Windows PC rig feeding a speaker amp and for headphones is just because I don’t want to destroy the battery leaving it plugged in 24/7 because I...