Which Headphone Amp to ?

[lgreen]

I'm looking to make a headphone amp. I am thinking class-A discrete but am open to ideas (have already made a CMoy).

Any ideas on which one to build. I am aware of the HeadWize amps, including Szekeres, Gilmore, Zen/ Pellerano. I have Grado's with low impedance.

Have I missed something good? Ideas?

 

[lgreen]

bump!

bump!

 

[Lumba Ogir]

lgreen,
this is a much better version.

 

[lgreen]

finally

Is that circuit any different from
Kumisa III on Headwize?

I see your circuit values are slightly different, why is that?

Here is the original (I think).

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

thanks for the link but things like this (similar circuits with different values) make me wonder which variant I should attempt?

 

[Lumba Ogir]

lgreen,

thanks for the link but things like this make me wonder which variant I should attempt?

Don`t wonder, just trust me.

 

[lgreen]

of courst

of course I trust you over someone on headwise!! (no offense to them, its not a bad site!)

How about some transistor part numbers and sufficient detail to help one build your version of this?

 

[Lumba Ogir]

lgreen,
please note, it`s not my circuit, but probably the same author`s. I could suggest some transistor types if you are seriously interested.

 

[nelsonvandal]

It's not just some resistor values that differs. One has JFET input transistors and CFP output stage and the other bipolar input transistors and darlington output stage.

The one with JFET input is a newer version by Alex Cavalli/Ti Kan, and it's supported with building instructions, measurements, PCB and some of the parts at http://www.amb.org/audio/.. You'll also find two other class A amps there.

I think (unlike others here ) there's a distinct JFET vs bibolar sound, and it's a matter of taste which one you like. I haven't built this exact amp, but some similar to them and used both JFET and bipolar as input stage.

If you're deep into DIY'ing there's a world of possibilities. All amps can be downsized to a headphone amp.

 

[lgreen]

It's not just some resistor values that differs. One has JFET input transistors and CFP output stage and the other bipolar input transistors and darlington output stage.

Right, I didn't look at it closely late last night, just enough to see that they looked similar and had some different values throughout.

This looks like a good project, the board is a little big for my case but I bet I could slice off the power supply section to make it fit.

I have not seen that web site before so thanks for the link.