Graham Slee Headphone Amps

[Southall-1998]

Anyone here using Graham Slee Headphone Amp?

S.

 

[3125b]

No, but seeing the advertised specs those things go more in the ... non-ASR-direction, shall we say.
68dB best case SINAD, -56dB crosstalk and max 4.24Vrms for a 750€ headphone amp is pretty bad, you can get that much, much cheaper.

 

[capetownwatches]

I'm listening to my Ultra Linear right now as I ponder the fact that it makes nonsense of the practice of judging gear by specs alone.
Had I done that I would have denied myself the privilege of experiencing a very special amplifier.

One that is significantly more than just the sum of its parts and specifications, rather one that represents years of real world audio engineering experience, designed and built by someone who actually remembers what analogue sounds like.

Yes, it's not cheap but I urge anyone who has the opportunity to listen to a Slee amp with an open mind.
As one should, without being unduly distracted by numbers.

 

[3125b]

„All lies and jest till the man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest“
Is that „what analogue sounds like“?

 

[A Surfer]

I have to admit, I had a Graham Slee Novo amp on hand and it did sound very nice. Mind you that was years ago, maybe I wouldn't be as impressed with it now.

 

[bboris77]

I do not own any of his amps, but I do have the Graham Slee Amp 2 SE phono stage that sounds amazing. It was actually very difficult for me to find a phono stage with high rejection of RFI. I live close to an airport and the Schiit Mani and the ART DJ PRE II both picked up a lot of radio noise. The Graham Slee Amp 2 SE is totally interference-free.

If you read Graham's message boards, you can see that he is actually a very knowledgeable audio engineer that does care about how his products measure and sound. As an example, he discusses AC vs DC coupling in amplifiers and the myths surrounding capacitors in the sound path at some length here: https://www.hifisystemcomponents.com/forum/ac-coupling-vs-dc-coupling_topic427.html

 

[JohnYang1997]

That's a very old amplifier. It does the job for the time.

 

[restorer-john]

If you read Graham's message boards, you can see that he is actually a very knowledgeable audio engineer that does care about how his products measure and sound. As an example, he discusses AC vs DC coupling in amplifiers and the myths surrounding capacitors in the sound path at some length here

Just had a quick read of his interaction in that thread you linked. Nothing like totally attempting to twist a narrative to suit his own vested interests.

 

[bboris77]

Just had a quick read of his interaction in that thread you linked. Nothing like totally attempting to twist a narrative to suit his own vested interests.

Could be...I am not an expert in the field by any imagination. But at least he opens himself up for that kind of debate. When you say vested interest, is it because his own preamp discussed in that form is capacitor-coupled?

 

[bahamot]

Borrowed Graham Slee Solo for a week about 15 years ago. From memory, it did not impress me.

 

[capetownwatches]

„All lies and jest till the man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest“
Is that „what analogue sounds like“?

Not sure if your comment is facetious but yes, the lyric certainly dates back to analogue times and is coincidentally a most lucid commentary on the entire hi-fi industry,,,

 

[3125b]

It is, I mean no offense.
These amps might do just fine with high(ish) impedance headphones, however with IEMs, it's not gonna be a fun time.
And by any reasonable standard, even the 99$ JDS Atom or Schiit Heresy blow them out of the water, hell, most 30$ random eBay China specials won't do much worse.
I see no point in them.

 

[JohnYang1997]

It is, I mean no offense.
These amps might do just fine with high(ish) impedance headphones, however with IEMs, it's not gonna be a fun time.
And by any reasonable standard, even the 99$ JDS Atom or Schiit Heresy blow them out of the water, hell, most 30$ random eBay China specials won't do much worse.
I see no point in them.

Honestly in 2020. This is really shit. Using hundreds of ohm in the feedback. Not even a DC coupled output. Noise is magnum. Distortion is also incredibly high. You can literally make a class A amp using one LM317 and better this.(Or my amp has lower distortion when it's literally broken) No shame saying this.

 

[bboris77]

Honestly in 2020. This is really shit. Using hundreds of ohm in the feedback. Not even a DC coupled output. Noise is magnum. Distortion is also incredibly high. You can literally make a class A amp using one LM317 and better this.(Or my amp has lower distortion when it's literally broken) No shame saying this.

Just to put things in perspective, their Solo is a 20-year old design. It has been tweaked but not really redesigned. At this point in time, it has become one of those boutique products that appears to audiophiles that like a bit of distortion, even thought it was not originally intended to be.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Just to put things in perspective, their Solo is a 20-year old design. It has been tweaked but not really redesigned. At this point in time, it has become one of those boutique products that appears to audiophiles that like a bit of distortion, even thought it was not originally intended to be.

Yeah. Mentioned that in my previous post.

 

[Jimbob54]

It is, I mean no offense.
These amps might do just fine with high(ish) impedance headphones, however with IEMs, it's not gonna be a fun time.
And by any reasonable standard, even the 99$ JDS Atom or Schiit Heresy blow them out of the water, hell, most 30$ random eBay China specials won't do much worse.
I see no point in them.

You have the Atom? I do too. I'd not tried IEMs on it until yesterday. Far from silent- very noticeable noise over 10/11 o clock on low gain with 104 dB/mw IEM. Does this reflect your experience? Or anyone elses?

EDIT- dialled back the DAC output so I could get the amp out of channel separation territory.

 

[JohnYang1997]

You have the Atom? I do too. I'd not tried IEMs on it until yesterday. Far from silent- very noticeable noise over 10/11 o clock on low gain with 104 dB/mw IEM. Does this reflect your experience? Or anyone elses?

EDIT- dialled back the DAC output so I could get the amp out of channel separation territory.

Try to short the input of atom. (I personally plug the two other ends of the rca cable directly together to do that) It should be pretty quiet in low gain. Though it doesn't mean it's dead silent for any iem at any volume position.
Solo will give you all kinds of loud weird noises even when volume at zero. yeah.....

 

[3125b]

You have the Atom?

Yes, but I don't have IEMs - don't really like 'em.
The most sensitive headphones I have are the AKG K371, wich are dead quiet on the Atom.
But if IEMs are noisy on the Atom, just imagine how terrible that must be on these amps.

Distortion (THD plus noise at 9 o'clock volume control setting (qtr power)): 10Hz-20kHz: better than 0.04%; 10Hz-1kHz: better than 0.02%
Output noise (22Hz-22kHz, quasi-peak/un-weighted): -95dB
Channel balance: better than 1dB
CrosstalkLeft to Right: -56dB; Input to Input -68dB

Plus they don't specify output impedance, but I imagine it will be very high.

 

[solderdude]

The solo is 120 Ohm out. This also explains why it sounds different.
120 Ohm was a standard back in the days.

 

[3125b]

Thats the old IEC 268-7 standard. Beyerdynamic still deliberately clings to that (more or less). In this case the distortion might also be very audbile.