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Review and Measurements of Klipsch Heritage DAC & HP Amp

Tks

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Nice to see pretty good measurements from a mainstream company. With the high-end long established brands having devices that get pommeled by devices with nearly no pedigree as of late (thanks to kind memebers, and Amir for his revelatory explorations, they have pedigree's now that make those long established brands look like scams for the price).
 
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amirm

amirm

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For the simpletons like me what does this mean
It is another reason to not use a sensitive IEM. It says that one channel will get louder than the other if you reduce the volume much. Analog volume controls tend to have these issues and will vary from sample to sample.
 

HammerSandwich

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@amirm, mind doing a check sanity check of analog in? You never know when they're going to use a lousy ADC there, ruining its performance...
 

restorer-john

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@amirm, mind doing a check sanity check of analog in? You never know when they're going to use a lousy ADC there, ruining its performance...

It's a line input. Why would they use an ADC? Line-Amp-Headphones, all analog.
 

restorer-john

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Power is provided through an external 5 volt supply that clocks at 4 amps. So don't be tempted to use your phone charger.

So where is that 20 Watts going, Amir? Unless it's running a Class A amplifier stage and getting awfully hot, I can't see it being a real number. What was it pulling when attached through your BK PSU?
 
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amirm

amirm

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@amirm, mind doing a check sanity check of analog in? You never know when they're going to use a lousy ADC there, ruining its performance...
Here you go. Looks pretty good:

Klipsch Heritage DAC and Headphone Amplifier Analog In Audio Measurements.png
 
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amirm

amirm

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So where is that 20 Watts going, Amir?
At full volume into 300 ohm clipping, it only uses 5.3 watts (as measured on the AC input). Maybe they got a special on these 4 amp units. :)
 

Percheron

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Topping D50s doesn't have headphone output so not a competitor to this.

Good point, but I don’t use headphones so that’s not an issue. I’m sure I’ll probably choose the Topping out of the three as it seems it tested well and the company is well regarded, but this Klipsch unit is really cool.
 

Hunter_TJ

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So, this or the THX 789 with a DAC(not decided on one)? I know 789 is "better", but is it worth having multiple items on my desk? I would be using balanced either way.
 

Veri

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So, this or the THX 789 with a DAC(not decided on one)? I know 789 is "better", but is it worth having multiple items on my desk? I would be using balanced either way.
If you like the look of the Klipsch it is quite good using balanced if that's what you'll use.
 

bogart

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Just picked one of these up to bring together my living room system. This looks like it is a good mate for my Outlaw M200 amps' capability, and I love that the look and feel of this unit will blend well into shared space. I hope my kiddo won't get too fascinated with the flippy switches, though :)

@amirm - donated in recognition of the help your review gave me!
 

sjeesjie

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Does anyone know what input impedance this beauty has? For my integrated amp I need at least 47kOhm or else it will produce distortion in the integrated amp.
 

bogart

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Does anyone know what input impedance this beauty has? For my integrated amp I need at least 47kOhm or else it will produce distortion in the integrated amp.

Not helpful of me, but I went through my manual this morning and it has zero specs!
 

sjeesjie

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Thanks @bogart . The input impedance is probably something that’s not very important to a lot of people?
 
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PSA: I wouldn't buy one of these again. had one for about a month and it started distorting through the right rca out, got a replacement and two months out of warranty its suffered the same fault. seems to be an intermittent failure of some component in the rca out section as the headphone output is fine, sucks to relegate it to headphone only usage but such is life.
 
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