Looks like some people think that is a good idea.
I would just use the ground from the headphone jack, but others may have different views.
After I built mine, there was a common suggestion to put some resistors, from 20R to 50R, or even up to 100ohm (I remember? could be wrong!) resistors after the headphone jack to raise the output impedance and avoid problems.
I did not do it. Have not seen a problem that I can tell. But if you are starting fresh, perhaps follow that advice?
Also, you can overcome the 3 letter issue by using google. Searches like this work our reasonably well:
In there, you can find this post by a very reliable source!Code:whammy line rca output site:[URL]https://www.diyaudio.com[/URL]:
WHAMMY Pass DIY headphone amp guide
Thanks. I will probably give it a try with some resistors.
I wasn't thinking to do a site specific search. I have been using the advanced search for this thread. Good idea!
You can use lower voltage rating, but I've used these in mine:
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetai...KvrfqPBZQqBUI3tTSx0CRPTdrM/E51IydWCrgLTPeLw==
--Tom
Thanks Tom! There's an electronics parts store near me, I'll check to see if they have film caps tomorrow. If not, I'll get those from Mouser.
Hey guys, I guess my question got buried so I'll ask again.
When I shut WHAMMY off, D6 goes off almost immediately, D5 stays on for a while (a minute?). Is this normal or indicative of an issue (regulator maybe)?
The amp is in stock configuration. Volume is properly balanced. Right channel has higher noise floor.
Thanks!
When I shut WHAMMY off, D6 goes off almost immediately, D5 stays on for a while (a minute?). Is this normal or indicative of an issue (regulator maybe)?
The amp is in stock configuration. Volume is properly balanced. Right channel has higher noise floor.
Thanks!
Wasn’t there questions regarding if you have a led branched out from one channel and not the other? Also, is this happening with the headphones / amp connected or not?
If it is not hooked up, I think the psu has the capacity to keep the leds on for a few minutes. When I tested only the psu (without anything else soldered), I believe they were on for an hour.
If it is not hooked up, I think the psu has the capacity to keep the leds on for a few minutes. When I tested only the psu (without anything else soldered), I believe they were on for an hour.
No extra power LED - it's a stock build.
Seems like such a simple question lol. I don't remember. I'll check its behavior with and without cans...
Nope, nothing changed. I just shut it down for a few days and used a different amp. I'm really confused
Are they same same make/model? On my first build I burned out one of the LEDs as I put it in backwards, so I grabbed one from my LED pile that was red but had a different forward voltage drop from the one in the kit. I observed what you are. I'd surmise this is because one was drawing differently off the supply than the other.
Try two fresh LEDs that have the same make/model/spec.
--Tom
A little Burson action.
For you opamp rolling fiends (myself included)—
I recently had the opportunity to try out some Burson opamps and thought you all would be slightly entertained by some words/impressions about them. I didn’t know anything about these opamps, didn’t do any pre-research, haven't looked at Burson's website (I did later), didn’t read up on anyone else’s thoughts—other than what can’t be avoided if one reads this Whammy thread (Seems they are liked in general from what I remember).
I just made a playlist on Tidal and plugged them each in and went back and forth a few times to see/hear what's what. I'm perfectly capable of calling BS on some "overpriced stuff" if that's what I end up thinking. But....
The Burson’s in question are the dual V6 Classic and the V5i:
Burson Audio V6 Discrete Opamp – diyAudio Store
Burson Audio V5i Hybrid Opamp – diyAudio Store
Add the Whammy, build 2 of 4, LED ref, stock parts (mostly). Warmup for an hour or so before I jumped in with effort. Didn’t touch volume at all at any time during the eval. Incidentally, volume is also disabled on the phone with lighting to USB cable when plugged into Bifrost (so cool you can hear the clocks—relays? mechanically resetting when switching apps on the phone whenever audio is called for).
Tidal on iPhone as source —> Lighting to USB cable (no extra DAC) —> Schitt Bifrost 2 —> Whammy —> Massdrop version Focal Elex. (I much prefer these to my Beyer 1990s. They seem more neutral to me and more like the room sounds with the main system when we aren’t working the HPA)
Track List/
Tracy Chapman / Tracy Chapman: Talkin’ Bout a Revolution (My daughter is learning this on the guitar w/ vocals and the 1988 vinyl is quite superb)
Ahmad Jamal Trio / Live at the Pershing: Poinciana
Dire Straits / Love Over Gold : Telegraph Road
The Dave Brubeck Quartet / Time Out : Take Five
Beck / Morning Phase : Waking Light
Thelonious Monk / Monk’s Dream : Five Spot Blues
I chose these tracks not only to represent a bit of a range but because I have all of them on vinyl as a reference and in all cases have original year pressings or known top quality represses or both. I feel I have a handle on when they sound the best, to me, and under what conditions—IMO, vinyl currently wins in A/B comparisons with Tidal/Denafrips Ares II (DAC). (This DAC BTW is the best sounding, to me, that I have heard to date, including the Bifrost, so perhaps this a factor to try out at a later date with Whammy and opamp rolling.)
Some tracks like the Ahmad Jamal song are live and maybe poorly recorded and basically un-listenable (IMO) in any kind of compressed digital format. The original vinyl on this is sensational, and sounds in our space like you are at the cafe where it was recorded—when I heard this for the first time I couldn’t believe the difference to the digital version which I thought I "knew". The Tidal version pales in comparison as a result. I purposely chose some stuff that seems to be a challenge in digital. (again, my opinion).
Okay— my reference opamp for Whammy after a lot of taste testing turned out to be the OPA1612, SMD, mounted to an adapter. Which BTW received some high degrees of blind tasting remarks from @advdesignguru when he submitted to Mark Johnson’s Awesome Opamp Test Fest (MJAOPATF) in the M2X thread.
Random brief detailed listening impressions are below—notes made in the flow. All insanely subjective, some notes by track—not for every track…I hadn’t listened to headphones in some months—and was reminded during this experiment how freaking awesome HPAs are—and specifically the Whammy (thank you Wayne!)—and opamp rolling is just too much fun. I was going to do a rating system but ended up going with an “overall vibe and feel” instinct approach—I felt that each of these opamps are actually really close to one another and you can’t really go wrong with any of the three—but I DO give the edge to the Burson’s, and in back to back listening—it’s real to me—whatever it is—and actually not that subtle—if we're being subtle.
The broad strokes are like this. I was totally surprised by these opamps. They are definitely worth trying out if anyone is sitting on the fence—price is kinda annoying—not sure what I really think about that. My favorite by far is the V5i. It’s my new reference. (Sucker gets hot BTW, 100 degrees on the laser temp, on its outer metal case, no clue if that is normal). BTW, it’s not my favorite because it happens to fit in my 1U-ified Whammy. When I saw the tall form factor of the V6, which I’d seen in this thread and elsewhere at times, I was quite prepared to cut a hole in the top panel of the 1U Galaxy to let it poke out—like a freak supercharger—if it had the ultimate goods. As it stands it will go in Whammy 4, in the fancy new 2U chassis, which I was able to help make a reality for all of us...
The V5i has all the dynamics and large soundstage of the V6 Classic, but I felt it was more honest to the music, less editorializing, and more neutral. By comparison the V6 felt a bit bloated at times—it’s really a song to song album to album thing. These are all subtleties. If someone told me the V6 Classic was the only opamp I was ever gonna have—I’d be totally happy (but there would be a hole in my top lid).
In contrast to OPA1612 both the Burson offerings had greater separation right and left in the ear cups which lead to a feeling of a much bigger soundstage, more air, more space, more separation between voices and instruments, blah blah typical stuff here—but nonetheless it’s my impression from a position of “why mess with a good thing?” especially if it's gonna cost $100. This really surprised me—and the feeling of space was immediate. Also, each track is different in this regard, and I’m certain based on my vinyl experience that the recording is a factor in and of itself. To be clear—we are talking about subtleties here—so much so that the differences could likely come down to headphone style and technology. I really can’t say.
I am working on a DAC (last thing in my system I haven’t built myself) And will definitely be trying out these opamps in that project (need 2x single's though! OUCH). Their roles in that circuit are different from Whammy, but still, can’t hurt!
Enjoy!
Some more deets:
Reference: OPA1612
Burson V6 (gets warm!)/
Chapman/ Bigger soundstage deeper bass than OPA1612 (Which already had great bass after all my other opamps rollings-on comparisons). Might be too bass forward? Is that even possible? Ha!
Poinciana/ Closer to vinyl in terms of room feel as compared to OPA1612. Feeling of more details. Glasses clinking—voices in background.
Telegraph Road/ Huge big sound. Crisp and rich. Atmosphere. Punch. Greater separation in dynamics. Vocals in this track perhaps farther way. Pretty big difference from OPA1612, surprising.
Take Five/ Much more breath in the horn. More right and left separation instruments going back and forth. Keys on right, drums on left.
Monk/ More soundstage separation again. Clearer presentation. Natural.
Overall/ More “colored” in comparison to V5i. Very dynamic, but perhaps too much influence/color??
Burson V5i (gets hot!, metal case 100F, other parts in Whammy are similar temps—I don’t think I’m concerned. Time will tell. Apparently these Burson's have a lifetime warranty?)
Chapman/ More color (weird right? see note about track to track album to album differences—in this case the color in what's really a simple song is good IMO), a pleasant chime-y-ness (V6 a bit bloated by comparison?). Voice forward—in a good way—even more like vinyl reference—though cart on the deck is real factor here with this type of observation when A/B-ing cartridges—not sure that’s evidence of anything opamp specific.
Poinciana/ Closest to vinyl compared to V6 and 1612, balanced. REALLY good. Atmospheric. Background elements of percussion a tad fatiguing in some places? (this recording is problematic on digital—all the opamps had weirdness during this passage of the piece.)
Beck/ No clue what’s up here, LOL. This track sounds HUGE compared to V6 Classic and 1612, almost like volume was messed with (it wasn't).
Overall/ Neutral, not lacking in excitement. Natural presentation. Great dynamic range. I prefer it to the what seems to be the more colored presentation of the V6 Classic. Also seems to exhibit more separation between musical elements (instruments etc) that might make the soundstage feel a tad larger.
Has the edge over OPA1612 and V6 as well for me. (Later I did look at the Burson website to see how they classify these 2 opamps and that was interesting to see as the V5i is half the cost—and kinda half as good by their charts! Cool!)
Oh and specs on the current reference vinyl-centric system from cart to speaks:
AT-OC9XSL (Also HanaML and AT33PTGII all awesome, if you cornered me and made me choose I'd pick the Hana.) SP10MKII --> Salas UFSP --> Salas DCG3 (+ Muses) --> M2X/Cedarburg --> OSMC
There are so many insanely good projects on this forum—one really needs more than one system. Preferably each with its own room.
For you opamp rolling fiends (myself included)—
I recently had the opportunity to try out some Burson opamps and thought you all would be slightly entertained by some words/impressions about them. I didn’t know anything about these opamps, didn’t do any pre-research, haven't looked at Burson's website (I did later), didn’t read up on anyone else’s thoughts—other than what can’t be avoided if one reads this Whammy thread (Seems they are liked in general from what I remember).
I just made a playlist on Tidal and plugged them each in and went back and forth a few times to see/hear what's what. I'm perfectly capable of calling BS on some "overpriced stuff" if that's what I end up thinking. But....
The Burson’s in question are the dual V6 Classic and the V5i:
Burson Audio V6 Discrete Opamp – diyAudio Store
Burson Audio V5i Hybrid Opamp – diyAudio Store
Add the Whammy, build 2 of 4, LED ref, stock parts (mostly). Warmup for an hour or so before I jumped in with effort. Didn’t touch volume at all at any time during the eval. Incidentally, volume is also disabled on the phone with lighting to USB cable when plugged into Bifrost (so cool you can hear the clocks—relays? mechanically resetting when switching apps on the phone whenever audio is called for).
Tidal on iPhone as source —> Lighting to USB cable (no extra DAC) —> Schitt Bifrost 2 —> Whammy —> Massdrop version Focal Elex. (I much prefer these to my Beyer 1990s. They seem more neutral to me and more like the room sounds with the main system when we aren’t working the HPA)
Track List/
Tracy Chapman / Tracy Chapman: Talkin’ Bout a Revolution (My daughter is learning this on the guitar w/ vocals and the 1988 vinyl is quite superb)
Ahmad Jamal Trio / Live at the Pershing: Poinciana
Dire Straits / Love Over Gold : Telegraph Road
The Dave Brubeck Quartet / Time Out : Take Five
Beck / Morning Phase : Waking Light
Thelonious Monk / Monk’s Dream : Five Spot Blues
I chose these tracks not only to represent a bit of a range but because I have all of them on vinyl as a reference and in all cases have original year pressings or known top quality represses or both. I feel I have a handle on when they sound the best, to me, and under what conditions—IMO, vinyl currently wins in A/B comparisons with Tidal/Denafrips Ares II (DAC). (This DAC BTW is the best sounding, to me, that I have heard to date, including the Bifrost, so perhaps this a factor to try out at a later date with Whammy and opamp rolling.)
Some tracks like the Ahmad Jamal song are live and maybe poorly recorded and basically un-listenable (IMO) in any kind of compressed digital format. The original vinyl on this is sensational, and sounds in our space like you are at the cafe where it was recorded—when I heard this for the first time I couldn’t believe the difference to the digital version which I thought I "knew". The Tidal version pales in comparison as a result. I purposely chose some stuff that seems to be a challenge in digital. (again, my opinion).
Okay— my reference opamp for Whammy after a lot of taste testing turned out to be the OPA1612, SMD, mounted to an adapter. Which BTW received some high degrees of blind tasting remarks from @advdesignguru when he submitted to Mark Johnson’s Awesome Opamp Test Fest (MJAOPATF)
in the M2X thread.Random brief detailed listening impressions are below—notes made in the flow. All insanely subjective, some notes by track—not for every track…I hadn’t listened to headphones in some months—and was reminded during this experiment how freaking awesome HPAs are—and specifically the Whammy (thank you Wayne!)—and opamp rolling is just too much fun. I was going to do a rating system but ended up going with an “overall vibe and feel” instinct approach—I felt that each of these opamps are actually really close to one another and you can’t really go wrong with any of the three—but I DO give the edge to the Burson’s, and in back to back listening—it’s real to me—whatever it is—and actually not that subtle—if we're being subtle
.The broad strokes are like this. I was totally surprised by these opamps. They are definitely worth trying out if anyone is sitting on the fence—price is kinda annoying—not sure what I really think about that. My favorite by far is the V5i. It’s my new reference. (Sucker gets hot BTW, 100 degrees on the laser temp, on its outer metal case, no clue if that is normal). BTW, it’s not my favorite because it happens to fit in my 1U-ified Whammy. When I saw the tall form factor of the V6, which I’d seen in this thread and elsewhere at times, I was quite prepared to cut a hole in the top panel of the 1U Galaxy to let it poke out—like a freak supercharger—if it had the ultimate goods. As it stands it will go in Whammy 4, in the fancy new 2U chassis, which I was able to help make a reality for all of us...
The V5i has all the dynamics and large soundstage of the V6 Classic, but I felt it was more honest to the music, less editorializing, and more neutral. By comparison the V6 felt a bit bloated at times—it’s really a song to song album to album thing. These are all subtleties. If someone told me the V6 Classic was the only opamp I was ever gonna have—I’d be totally happy (but there would be a hole in my top lid).
In contrast to OPA1612 both the Burson offerings had greater separation right and left in the ear cups which lead to a feeling of a much bigger soundstage, more air, more space, more separation between voices and instruments, blah blah typical stuff here—but nonetheless it’s my impression from a position of “why mess with a good thing?” especially if it's gonna cost $100. This really surprised me—and the feeling of space was immediate. Also, each track is different in this regard, and I’m certain based on my vinyl experience that the recording is a factor in and of itself. To be clear—we are talking about subtleties here—so much so that the differences could likely come down to headphone style and technology. I really can’t say.
I am working on a DAC (last thing in my system I haven’t built myself) And will definitely be trying out these opamps in that project (need 2x single's though! OUCH). Their roles in that circuit are different from Whammy, but still, can’t hurt!
Enjoy!
Some more deets:
Reference: OPA1612
Burson V6 (gets warm!)/
Chapman/ Bigger soundstage deeper bass than OPA1612 (Which already had great bass after all my other opamps rollings-on comparisons). Might be too bass forward? Is that even possible? Ha!
Poinciana/ Closer to vinyl in terms of room feel as compared to OPA1612. Feeling of more details. Glasses clinking—voices in background.
Telegraph Road/ Huge big sound. Crisp and rich. Atmosphere. Punch. Greater separation in dynamics. Vocals in this track perhaps farther way. Pretty big difference from OPA1612, surprising.
Take Five/ Much more breath in the horn. More right and left separation instruments going back and forth. Keys on right, drums on left.
Monk/ More soundstage separation again. Clearer presentation. Natural.
Overall/ More “colored” in comparison to V5i. Very dynamic, but perhaps too much influence/color??
Burson V5i (gets hot!, metal case 100F, other parts in Whammy are similar temps—I don’t think I’m concerned. Time will tell. Apparently these Burson's have a lifetime warranty?)
Chapman/ More color (weird right? see note about track to track album to album differences—in this case the color in what's really a simple song is good IMO), a pleasant chime-y-ness (V6 a bit bloated by comparison?). Voice forward—in a good way—even more like vinyl reference—though cart on the deck is real factor here with this type of observation when A/B-ing cartridges—not sure that’s evidence of anything opamp specific.
Poinciana/ Closest to vinyl compared to V6 and 1612, balanced. REALLY good. Atmospheric. Background elements of percussion a tad fatiguing in some places? (this recording is problematic on digital—all the opamps had weirdness during this passage of the piece.)
Beck/ No clue what’s up here, LOL. This track sounds HUGE compared to V6 Classic and 1612, almost like volume was messed with (it wasn't).
Overall/ Neutral, not lacking in excitement. Natural presentation. Great dynamic range. I prefer it to the what seems to be the more colored presentation of the V6 Classic. Also seems to exhibit more separation between musical elements (instruments etc) that might make the soundstage feel a tad larger.
Has the edge over OPA1612 and V6 as well for me. (Later I did look at the Burson website to see how they classify these 2 opamps and that was interesting to see as the V5i is half the cost—and kinda half as good by their charts! Cool!)
Oh and specs on the current reference vinyl-centric system from cart to speaks:
AT-OC9XSL (Also HanaML and AT33PTGII all awesome, if you cornered me and made me choose I'd pick the Hana.) SP10MKII --> Salas UFSP --> Salas DCG3 (+ Muses) --> M2X/Cedarburg --> OSMC
There are so many insanely good projects on this forum—one really needs more than one system. Preferably each with its own room.
Attachments
Let them run continuously for at least a week - the 'sound' improves dramatically.
If you haven't added the small caps directly to the chip's socket pins, suggest you do this.
For rails of +/-18V, you can add a simple transistor cap multiplier type circuit and drop a couple of volts or add a low dropout regulator in place of the series resistors to pull rails down to about +/- 15v.
If you haven't added the small caps directly to the chip's socket pins, suggest you do this.
For rails of +/-18V, you can add a simple transistor cap multiplier type circuit and drop a couple of volts or add a low dropout regulator in place of the series resistors to pull rails down to about +/- 15v.