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Gofa_Kirselph t1_iy7aok1 wrote

Reply to comment by Fatality_strykes in Sundara with Topping DX3 Pro+ compared to Soundblaster G6: No improvement? by Metageul

I honestly have no idea if a preamp would help, hopefully someone smarter than me can chime in. I believe a preamp’s job is to boost a low or quiet signal to line level by increasing the voltage. It will make the headphones or speakers louder but they won’t sound as good since they won’t have the required current to drive them properly. That is my understanding but I could be totally wrong. (I’m not a scientician)

That issue can be solved by using the Elekit as a preamp instead, then hooking it up to some monoblock amps to have more than enough current. EDIT: It doesn’t have to be monoblocks, a stereo or multi-channel power amp works too. Unfortunately, the Elekit TU-8200 doesn’t have pre outs. The TU-8500 is an actual preamp so it does. Something like this might work to convert the banana plugs into pre outs. But… I’ve never used it so I’m not sure if the Elekit’s noise floor is too high. That could be solved by adding a passive volume control but now there’s hella crap in the signal chain lol!

But the Elekit by itself is a great amp. Really fun and easy to understand. My older brother did the soldering and I assembled it. It took a total of 8 hours to build, but we went slow lol. It sounds fantastic! Definitely rivals some $2000+ tube amps I’ve heard. I highly, highly recommend it.

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Fatality_strykes t1_iy7b8av wrote

I contacted the support on Elekit (Japan) and their response is below.

>We checked your headphone in the internet and found thatHE6 se v2 requires very high power to an amp.As all of our tube amps are not so high powered,we do not recommend TU-8200R or any of our tube amp to use with your HE6 se V2

I'm honestly torn.

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Gofa_Kirselph t1_iy7iimq wrote

Yeah… I’m only using it since I already have it lol! In your case, it’s better to just get a powerful amp. Maybe even a speaker amp since the HE6se need lots of current.

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Fatality_strykes t1_iy7iu6p wrote

Thanks so much for your responses. I will look into speaker amps as well.

I did receive confirmation from Viktor at vkmusic.ca and he confirms that it will work. I'll make a decision by the end of the week since there's no ongoing sale at the moment.

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Gofa_Kirselph t1_iy7lhd7 wrote

Lol you’re welcome! 😇

Honestly, I don’t think the Elekit struggles with the HE6se. I just can’t say for sure since I have no other reference point. Emotiva has some awesome looking amps spec wise. I mean, 8.5w @ 47ohms????? That’s ridiculous! And it’s cheap lol

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Fatality_strykes t1_iy7rc7w wrote

Ok youre killing me with options. I'm nearly convinced with the Elekit. Hopefully the DIY part wont scare me.

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Gofa_Kirselph t1_iy7un3h wrote

My bad, having more options doesn’t make it any easier lol! Man, I’m super tempted to see if I can turn my Elekit into a preamp and get a pair of monoblocks to power some crazy speakers.

And building the amp was fun and easy to me! I didn’t really have much experience either, it’s just that well designed. My amp was damaged by a brownout recently so all I had to do was change the damaged FETs. Victor actually helped me out with that. I got the replacement parts from him as well. He replied quickly, very pleasant to deal with. Here’s a look at the insides when my older brother and I repaired it back in April this year.

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Fatality_strykes t1_iy7zcbe wrote

Yup I've been getting pretty good responses from Victor as well. He suggest to go with the Lundahl upgrade for better sound. Sadly the shipping itself is over 250USD. I'm currently looking into shipping from Japan itself. Im also checking out Soldering irons on Aliexpress lol.

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