Whammy - Head Phone amp build

[rajan-]

I finally had to build a Headphone amp. Its been a long time coming.

Chewed over this one for a while. finally the urge to make one won over buying an off the shelf product.
Although I seriously contemplated a burson audio (being local to Melbourne) head phone amp before going for this.
The plan was, if I didnt like, it, there are always 2 other eager users at home who will happily take it to their desk.

WHAMMY Headphone Amplifier Full Kit

DIY headphone amp WHAMMY Class-A headphone amplifier Wayne Colburn Pass Labs hifi hi-fi amplifiers make build fun high-performance Class-A DIY headphone amp firstwatt PCB Circuit board

diyaudiostore.com

Did some minor additions:
1) Installed a set of Pre amp outs, with a simple protection circuit.

"WHAMMY" Pass DIY headphone amp guide

Hi Mike, I'm not worried because I've measured worse for expensive commercial products. Of course also with cheap ones :D. I just want to have a perfect symmetrical as possible voltage at the OP Amp and the amplifier to produce also no unnecessary DC offset. It is a mixture of pedantry and fun...

www.diyaudio.com

The connection to the pre-outs are from the head phone connector.

2) tweaked the power on LED brightness to my liking. its 20K resistor in between LED and last capacitor on the filter bank.

Other than these, no other mods (not yet)


My current head phone is, ... well, I dont have one.

So looked around the house, and thought I will give my sons Audio Technica ATH M20X.
He has played this for over several hundred hours, as this does electronics drum duty for his daily practice. its well and truly burned-in.

I didn't have any clue to whats coming. the BASS. phew. not the crappy bass, real, good bass.
and that body you didn't realise the same songs had in them, which was let loose.

the control / body and be there atmosphere is staggering. I cant wait to try some decent phones, May a focal or planar magnetic.

Bonus: It works very very good as a pre-amp.


the next upgrade for this will be a Burson Audio discreet Opamp.


Anyone here has any experience on Whammy ?

what they liked on Whammy ?
what kind of Opamp suggestions ?
Headphones that are known to work very well.



This Amp is a keeper.

 

[rajan-]

I have been quietly enjoying this on my work desk for the last few months.

time to upgrade.

A burson Audio V6 Classic, discreet opamp is in the mail. This is a blind buy, never had a chance to listen to a discreet opamp.
This is a very popular mod for cheap headphone amps like the douk to make it sound much better.

 

[Subbu68]

Post your build

 

[spirovious]

A burson Audio V6 Classic, discreet opamp is in the mail. This is a blind buy, never had a chance to listen to a discreet opamp.

Congratulations .

I have Burson V5 taller opamp and it sounds much better as pre. Also have earlier version which sounds little bigger and laid back.

Just want to know which is that Blue Transformer?

 

[rajan-]

Congratulations .

I have Burson V5 taller opamp and it sounds much better as pre. Also have earlier version which sounds little bigger and laid back.

Just want to know which is that Blue Transformer?

This HP Amp is already a pretty good Pre-amp for my system.
I slide this in once in a while, just for a change.

which pre-amp are you using for the Burson V5 ?

The transformer is a talema 70064k

 

[spirovious]

which pre-amp are you using for the Burson V5 ?

I made SSP(Simple super preamp) on raw PCB with some changes in layout which uses opamp.

 

[rajan-]

Installed the Burson Audio Classic V6, discreet op amp.

Supreme Sound Opamp V6 - Burson Audio

Burson V6 Vivid and V6 Classic fully discrete audio opamps Both designs evolved from the Burson V5. But just as evolution is never linear, two V6 circuitries emerged to compete for the hearts and minds of music enthusiasts. Designed to optimise

www.bursonaudio.com

this is a pricey upgrade from the original JRC4580 Op amp that came along with the kit.

Initial first 30 Mins observations, Bass is yet to be opened up, but when the source material is good, its much more engaging. Its not tube sound, there is not such warm and fuzzy like a tube.

it clearly not masking any bad recordings. its not un listenable, but it shows the difference between a good and bad recording much more than the 4580 did.


Question: to have a good burn-in for the opamp, do I need to keep playing any material or, just keep the amp switched on ?



another observation was that with the 4580 the Headphone was dead silent, but with this, I could hear some noise. Initially I thought I got a bad Op-amp. this is not the grounding issue. after working through to find the culprit, it turns out that the issue is only there with the ATH-M20x head phone. if I use any other earphone or head phone, its simply not there.
Learning is that don't always suspect the amp. check it with more than one type of head phones.


Also took the opportunity of opening the chassis to sort out some other humming. The kind of humming that occurs when you touch the Volume knob. I could hear some radio station when touching the volume knob. The anodised front plate was not allowing the Volume Pot body to make an earth. a small wire to a chassis ground solved that issue.

 

[mbhangui]

Question: to have a good burn-in for the opamp, do I need to keep playing any material or, just keep the amp switched on ?

Nothing will be flowing through the op-amp without music. If you have dummy 8 ohms load, one can use that instead of the speakers.

 

[rajan-]

I have been playing long whiskey blues playlists from youtube and drinking some matching bourbon...

 

[rajan-]

close to 24 hour burn-in, and big difference in Sound levels, especially bass. Loving this...
I never used to listen to music on my desk, while working/browsing. Now I can understand why some people setup personal listening systems for work desk.

I am not able to go back to ear phones ... just impossible.


Didn't yet get a chance to try this on my main system, as a preamp feeding the pair of ACAs. as the house is undergoing Reno, the main system is all dismantled.

This Whammy will most likely end up on my daughter's desk, as a surprise birthday gift.