Marsh headphone amp from Linear Audio

It sounds wonderful and effortless. It whispers and then kicks like a horse.

Hello Richard,

You ask all the time, How does the amplifier sound?

It sounds wonderful and effortless. It whispers and then kicks like a horse.

I have posted here several times. Thanks to Jack in NJ, I bought his PCB and matched parts kit.

I also have built your amplifier on perf board with my matched parts. Matched with a Keysight Source Measurement Unit, B2902A, with EASYExpert software. The better the parts are matched the better the amplifier measures.

This amplifier easily tests below 0.005% distortion on the APx555. I have built and tested many headphone amplifiers. This one tests better than all the rest.

Thanks DT
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2012
The idea was to use the fewest number of transistors possible and at the same time have very, very low distortion driving headphones of various load Z. But, using low - mid mount of FB.

Second, was to be direct-coupled, complimentary push-pull topology operating in current feedback mode; Producing wide open loop BW and have high slew rate. (SR = 145v/usec).


THx-RNMarsh
 
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I'm in the process of building one of these fine amps. I'm in a bit of a pickle though. I bought 30 each of the MJE200 and MJE210, but I can't get good matches. The MJE200s all measure between 176 and 202, whereas the MJE210s are between 210 and 300.

Do I need to buy more, or should I just stick with the closest I can get from my current stock?
 
Richard, feel free to jump in here if you like. Especially if I go south.

The MJE200 and MJE210 work together as a Sziklai transistor pair. The current gain for the pair is the product of the individual gains of the MJE200 and the MJE210 that make up the pair.

If you match 2 MJE200’s to each other and also 2 MJE210’s to each other the resulting two MJE200/ MJE210 Sziklia pairs should match each other.

See this link.

https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/transistor/darlington-transistor.html

Sziklai Darlington Transistor Configuration


This approach to matching is on my list to test. The plan is to test the transistors for likely pairs then test the pairs in a jig to confirm current gain matching Sziklia pairs prior to soldering everything together. I have not tried it yet.

I ended up buying several batches of transistors to get matching pairs.

Thanks DT
 
I built this a couple of years ago, tore it down to use some parts and it sat for around 2 years. Rebuilt yesterday and have been letting the caps form. Excellent sound. Very good depth and width, dynamics are superb and very good layering.

This is with a EX9028 dual dac, Focal Utopia, iBasso SR1 and Pioneer SE-Master1 headphones. Right up there with the best amps! And superb transparency.
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2012
I built this a couple of years ago, tore it down to use some parts and it sat for around 2 years. Rebuilt yesterday and have been letting the caps form. Excellent sound. Very good depth and width, dynamics are superb and very good layering.

This is with a EX9028 dual dac, Focal Utopia, iBasso SR1 and Pioneer SE-Master1 headphones. Right up there with the best amps! And superb transparency.

:) :cool:


THx for the review/comments on the sound.


Enjoy the music.


-Richard
 
The Diamond Circuit

I found this conclusion interesting, continuing the discussion from 2012:

I think that was from the same generation.

Cheers
 

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