PPA - 1st Impressions

[Rameish 0]

It's raining, it's pouring, the lightning is flashing. Looks like if Ablaze is picking up the amp today there will be no comparison bec. of the lightning activity not to mention the rumble of the thunder. However, I would still like to use my Kimber KS-1030 to compare as it is an almost neutral interconnect.

 

 

[Rameish 0]

A brief history of the Blues man:

 

Actually the member formerly known as Guyferd became Cookie, for a brief period, before turning blue. So it's the same body but I strongly suspect his taste has changed somewhat. He used to love the Marantz CD6000 OSE with Creek OBH11 and Beyer DT-770 Pro. After seeing the light (from toobs i guess), he switched to a Corda HA-1 and moved to the Beyer DT-880 (a lettle less dark). He has since got a Musical Fidelity CDP (ie added some rez) and combined it with a Sony CD-3000 and is currently looking for an amp. The candidates are: EMP, Zotl, HA-2, PPA.

 

Editor's Note: Blues man also wakes up for meets nowadays LOL. (I'm sure I'm gonna get the hammer for this.)

 

This is very OT but I can't help myself. Getting back to the topic....it's still rainning. What a grey day. Someone post some jokes.

Edited September 25, 2003 by Rameish

[N@Z 0]

Amusing little distraction. Coincidently it is raining here as well. Jokes comin up soon.

 

Nice write up as usual Rameish. PPA on hold till headphonescrazy gets back with the Cayin power buy status!

[Q00 0]

i wonder how much a maxed out ppa will cost...

 

seems like i might just stay off getting the meta42 for this baby...

 

the bass boost feature will defnitely appeal to bassheads like me...

[Rameish 0]

You can add more buffers. And maybe the bass boost as well. Just ask Ablaze if he's willing to do it (for a price of course). Otherwise contact firefox - but he's in the army so don't expect a reply till the weekend.

 

 

[Blues 0]

rameish...

now I must hide already lol.. everyone knows about my 'history'

[member 0]

ablaze didn't drop by today, so please do post a comparison tonight ok?

[Q00 0]

i wonder if ablaze does requests?

[ablaze 0]

if you're buying my PPA at my price, of course I'd entertain requests. eg. change LED to blue instead of red!

 

Rameish, here's what tangent had to say about stacking buffers:

quote:

STACKING the buffers eg. 2 per socket, total 24. is this possible?

Yes, but due to the low output resistance, you should match the offset of your buffers so they don't get warm fighting against each other. Put them in a socket, measure the voltage drop from IN to OUT on each buffer and sort them by that drop. Then pair them up so that each pair is close to each other.

[ablaze 0]

btw, I'm most likely gonna pick up the PPA from you tomorrow late afternoon, so be done by then!

[Rameish 0]

1st the equipment.

Rotel RCD971: (a somewhat neutral to slightly bright sounding CDP with a slight veil in it's presentation). Can sound mechanical at times (less legato if you like).

 

Joe Grado Signature IC: (a slightly warm interconnect with slight roll-off at the top end and a bit bloated bottom)

 

Sennheiser HD-600 - stock cable: (nice rich sounding headphone that's gives a rear seat prespective - moderately (ie greater than slightly) veiled presentation while having a occational glitch in the top end. Bass can be stange as well but very acceptable at the price.

 

Corda HA-1 uses the LM6171 chips (4 of them). at 0 ohm crossfeed off

The Corda HA-1 is getting a bit long in the tooth - no surprise then that the designer Jan Meier introduced the MkII version. However its traits are all there. Slightly warm sounding (gets warmer still in the 120 ohm setting). It has a bit better bass than the PPA. Detailswise both PPA and Corda exhibited high level of rez (well at least whatever rez that came thru the HD-600). However the PPA nugged the HA-1 in one dept - namely legato or smoothness. The HA-1 sounded a bit mechanical by comparison. However switching to the DT-931 the grainy feel returned on the PPA while the grain was recessed on the HA-1.

 

If you're wondering how my Rotel can be slightly bright yet veiled here's the answer: There is an occational loss of top end control that makes it sound edgy. Veiled: the mid bass is a little muddy.

 

All in all I stick by my earlier conclusions in this thread with one caveat: I don't have either of my Kimber Select cables so feel a little disabled. The KS cables allow me to disect things much better as I know this is an almost neutral cable. It can sound dark or bright depending on the CDP and Amp.

 

 

That's it - please don't twist my arm any further - I need time, a more extensive range of music, and my favourite IC to do a proper job. But hey, these are first impressions right.

 

Cheers

Edited September 26, 2003 by Rameish

[Rameish 0]

Oh, accorcing to Morsel (the only girl involved in Project PPA), 4 buffers per channel (ie 12 in total) is stock.

[ablaze 0]

thanks for offering your ears Rameish.

keep us updated, when you build your own premium-part version

[Rameish 0]

The thing about building is this, you need to know how the choice of part is gonna affect the final voice - esp in designs like META 42, PPA etc where the combination is mind boggling.

 

 

[Barradio 0]

The thing about building is this, you need to know how the choice of part is gonna affect the final voice - esp in designs like META 42, PPA etc where the combination is mind boggling.

And don't forget add the corda cross-feed too.