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Master
Headphone
Amplifier
.Separate
power supplier with special designed high quality toroid transformer,
filtering circuit, sealed aluminum enclosure and 5 pins gold plated
connector.
.Separate
right/left channel Class-AB amplification circuits.
.Wima and Nichicon Caps, two
NE5532 op-amps and mini ALPS rotary switch.
.Output Power: > 100mv (300ohm
load)
.Frequency Response: 5hz-20kHz
.Signal Noise ratio: 100db
.Distortion: <0.0015%
.Input Sensitivity: 1.45v (300
ohm load)
.Output Impedance:
32ohm-300ohm
Amplificatore per cuffie , con
alimentazione separata , dalla forma molto sottile , completamente nero
, con la parte superiore in plexiglass scuro e un controllo
volume posto al centro del pannello anteriore.
Dal Web:
Intro
I'm no review writer, but I am a music lover. Lately I've been adding to
my hif collection and have been reviewing the bits and pieces that I
have because some of it is good, some of it is not good, and some of it
is fairly uncommon. I've had a growing interest in Chinese hifi and
understandably a lot of people are a bit apprehensive about taking the
leap into buying hifi from a country known for their low cost/low
quality electronics. I hope to provide some actual information about
some of these products in particular so that people can consider the
products based on realities, not biases/expectations.
First Impressions/Build Quality
Wow. This thing may be Chinese to the core, but it looks like the
designer went to the same design school as the guy who designed the Ipod.
The Original Master comes in a minimalist sleek, shiny black enclosure,
with nothing more on the front than a small, elegant, unimposing red
LED, a solid-metal matte-silver volume knob, and a hole where the
headphone plug goes. In an attractive feint grey typeface, the word
“power” is silkscreened under the red LED. On the top of the enclosure
the words “Original” “Master” “phones amplifier” are embossed.
The Original Master's enclosure is beautiful, there's really no other
way to put it. Unfortunately, the amp enclosure isn't all on it's own.
Accompanying the Master is the world's largest power brick. The brick
isn't quite as ugly as a standard power brick, but certainly hasn't had
the same attention to detail as the amp itself. On the bright side, I'm
a believer that the power circuitry in an amp is of the utmost
importance, so I'm at least half glad that there's a big fat power
section, and it's nice that it's separate to the audio circuitry.
As mentioned above, the front of the Master has a LED, volume knob and
6.5mm phono socket. On the rear panel is a pair of RCA jacks, a power
switch, and a power cable jack. It's layout is almost identical to the
Grado RA-1, except that the Master has a power cable coming out rear,
unlike the battery powered RA-1 that I played with. Unlike the RA-1
however, the Master does not feel cheap. I remember that the RA-1 had a
volume knob which could rotate a small bit in each direction before “engaging”,
an off-axis power switch and non-parallel RCAs. By comparison, the
Master's build quality is top notch. The single complaint I have with
build quality is that the volume knob is so close to the body of the amp
that there's a small amount of friction between them occasionally. This
doesn't affect the usage of the unit, but I'm picky.
The Sound
Plugging my (modded) Alessandro MS-2 into the Original Master and
turning it on is greeted with a soft “pop”. I haven't heard a huge range
of commercial headphone amps so I'm not sure how normal this is, but i
can say for sure that it is significantly less noisy than the Grado
RA-1. A soft reassuring pop, almost.
I've been doing a lot of comparing lately between the Ming Da MC66-AE
and the Original Master, and my first impression when I switch between
them is the the Original Master sounds a bit thin in comparison to the
MC66-AE. Although the Master does not have an overly thin or clinical
sound, it's just not as lush as the MC66-AE.
Bass on the Master is deep and punchy. I dunno exactly how to judge bass
for a review, but it doesn't feel boomy or over the top, and doesn't
seem lacking either. For “Angel” by massive attack the bass seems well
balanced. It's possible that the lowest bass is a bit quiet, but I am
using Grados.
Treble is somewhat thin feeling. It's a solid state amplifier and has a
treble which I often associate with solid state amps. The treble goes
nice and high, and there's a lot of clarity in the treble, yet it
somehow feels as though something's missing. I cant quite put my finger
on it.
Detail is very good. I really didn't notice the amp to reveal anything
new at all because it's not very expensive and I've heard my music on
all types of gear. However, as I was writing this I noticed a new sound
that I'd never heard before on Abbey Road. Moving onto the White Album (which
is full of random noises left right and center, before you even get to
Revolution 9!), I heard a bunch of new details all over the place. The
Original Master seems to be very revealing, especially for it's price.
This amp has no background noise at all with my headphones
Final Thoughts/Conclusion
The Original Master is not a perfect amp, but it is certainly a very
nice one. The build quality really is great, and the amp is beautiful.
In general, the amp sounds good, but it is not without faults. However,
the Master is very affordable, and for this reason I recommend it.
Although it is not perfect, it is great for the price.
Value for money: 9/10
Il commento di Alberto:
Gentile Davide, ho
acquistato ieri l'oggetto in questione da te (assieme ad un egregio cavo
di alimentazione da te prodotto); devo dire che per me è il primo (ma
sicuramente non l'ultimo ) prodotto di provenienza orientale.
Il mio impianto:
Ampli Copland CTA
401 (valvole)
lettore Audio
Analogue Paganini
Diffusori Magnepan
MG1.4
l'Original è stato
collegato all'uscita tape out (a proposito, come mai funziona anche con
copland spento?!!!) nonostante la dimensione dell'oggetto (a volte
influenza) non riesco a staccarmi dalle mie vecchie Sennheiser da ieri,
nessuna fatica di ascolto con qualunque genere musicale (Jazz, rock,
classica), alte frequenze liquide e setose (mozart, concerto per Oboe,
dir C.Hogwood) medie presenti e bassi ben frenati.
Posso solo
ripetere che questo è un prodotto con un ottimo rapporto qualità prezzo.
cordialità
Alberto
e-mail
albertovelati@alice.it
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