Random Lunatic
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2017
- Posts
- 307
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- 200
Hey there, I've owned an ALO Rx Mk3b for 7 years now probably (Since release), and it was the trusty companion of my ipod classic for most of that time, until I got tired of such a big brick of gear in my pocket, and got an Astell & Kern AK240... However, ever since then, I've listened less and less to my favourite headphones - which has previously always been detail monsters with as big sound stages as I could get, like the HD800, Beyer T1 etc.
However, as most will attest to, those headphones can be rather bright and agressive on their own, not to mention most find the HD800 amp very picky with sources.
Going back to my ALO Mk3b i realised what I've been missing it that glorious bass boost circuit they built into it. It was considered rather subtle by most, compared to other implementations using a simple switch, as opposed to a knob here. The amp drives pretty much anything as well as many desktop amps due to its fully balanced construction and good amount of power (even drove the HE-6 reasonably), but with that added low end engaged, any of the aforementioned headphones would really shine, as it fills out the bottom octave such that the otherwise bright signature seizes to be an issue.
I found the listed specs for the bass boost:
Bass Boost Control Range (with maximum boost applied):
•<0.5 dB at frequencies above 360 Hz
•0.5 dB @ 360 Hz
•1 dB @ 260 Hz
•2 dB @ 160 Hz
•3 dB @ 80 Hz
•3.5 dB at frequencies below 40 Hz
And from there, you'd think it would be pretty straight forward, to just open up the EQ of the AK240 or any other device, and just input those values; however, I have so far been unable to get results anywhere near those of this little amp, even when turning the relative increase up to 5dB which is about the max for the Astell Kern eq.
Does anyone have any suggestions? This might bring back my enjoyment of audio, so I hope I can figure it out...
However, as most will attest to, those headphones can be rather bright and agressive on their own, not to mention most find the HD800 amp very picky with sources.
Going back to my ALO Mk3b i realised what I've been missing it that glorious bass boost circuit they built into it. It was considered rather subtle by most, compared to other implementations using a simple switch, as opposed to a knob here. The amp drives pretty much anything as well as many desktop amps due to its fully balanced construction and good amount of power (even drove the HE-6 reasonably), but with that added low end engaged, any of the aforementioned headphones would really shine, as it fills out the bottom octave such that the otherwise bright signature seizes to be an issue.
I found the listed specs for the bass boost:
Bass Boost Control Range (with maximum boost applied):
•<0.5 dB at frequencies above 360 Hz
•0.5 dB @ 360 Hz
•1 dB @ 260 Hz
•2 dB @ 160 Hz
•3 dB @ 80 Hz
•3.5 dB at frequencies below 40 Hz
And from there, you'd think it would be pretty straight forward, to just open up the EQ of the AK240 or any other device, and just input those values; however, I have so far been unable to get results anywhere near those of this little amp, even when turning the relative increase up to 5dB which is about the max for the Astell Kern eq.
Does anyone have any suggestions? This might bring back my enjoyment of audio, so I hope I can figure it out...
