Hey there. I'm glad to have found this website as I'm in the market to build a quality headphone amplifier for myself. I'm just having a little difficulty deciding which amp to choose from.
We offer three amplifier kits - Brig, Corvette, and Frigate. All three of them were designed without any compromise, all three of them use audiophile grade parts, and all three of them will provide a very high quality of sound.
If you do not want to deal with tubes and high voltages associated with them, you should go with Brig. Brig is a transistor based headphone amplifier and uses +/- 12 VDC to operate.
If you do not mind working with high voltages and want an amplifier with "tube sound", you have two choices - Corvette and Frigate. Corvette and Frigate are using the same parts but Corvette has one tube per channel (6922) and Frigate has two (6922 and 6H30Pi) tubes per channel. Corvette has a smaller footprint because it has one tube per channel, and also, Corvette's power supply is housed on the same PCB. Frigate, on the other hand, has a bigger footprint because it has two tubes per channel and Frigate's power supply is housed on a separate PCB. Additionally, Frigate's power supply has a separate filament voltage bus for the right and left channels. Corvette delivers a very high quality of sound. Frigate adds additional quality due to presence of 6H30Pi tubes that are highly regarded for their linearity and quality of sound. If you want an amplifier with the best sound quality - go with Frigate and you will not be disappointed.
Also confused about transformers and transformerless kits, it's about 100$ difference, I'm assuming this makes a big difference too? Do you need transformers to run the kit?
Yes, you need transformers to run Brig, Corvette, and Frigate. Brig by default comes with a transformer. With Corvette and Frigate, we provide our customers with choice to purchase them with transformers or without transformers.
The transformers, as well as power supplies and voltage they produce, either make it or brake it when it comes to audio amplification. That is the reason why we are using separate filament and power transformers in Corvette and Frigate. We are using Canadian made (Hammond Manufacturing) toroidal transformers. We offer kits with transformers and kits without transformers because we are leaving the final choice to our customers which may already have transformers in stock. However, we strongly encourage to use our transformers which have been tested with our kits and with which our amplifiers are delivering very high quality of sound. Do not skimp on right transformers - the difference in $100 will soon be forgotten and the quality of sound delivered by your amplifier will provide joy and pleasure for years to come.
One more thing, does this come with casing or do we have to source our own case.
Yes, you need to source your own case for Brig, Corvette, and Frigate.
Let us know if you have other questions.
Best,
http://www.Augustica.comStatistics: Posted by Augustica.com — 02 Nov 2013, 18:42
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