Beyerdynamic A2 Chinese clone. FAO Dice.

[AlienALX]

OK so it came. lmao. Why am I laughing? well this is the Ebay pic.

And then it arrives and you struggle to lift it in one hand.

lmao it's massive Checked over the insides. Very well made, apart from the LED that was leaning. I straightened that. Put it back together and set it up.

OK initial impressions. Well firstly there are two sets of inputs. Each one goes to the headphone sockets. I would imagine on the real Beyer they basically use one input and it switches on the front. One output is just line. The volume control does nothing. The other set (input and output) are wired to the volume controller.

I've had Stormzy's "Shut Up" on loop for about ten minutes. Man this thing has some detail. You can hear every tut, breath and snap. Pretty amazing.

I will test it more later when delivery time ends ('cause I am waiting for stuff) and try some other headphones (currently got my Grado RS2E connected).

I dodged the import taxes too, so total cost was £80? IIRC plus £18 postage or something like that.

 

[AlienALX]

OK deliveries finished for the day about an hour ago. I've been sat here hooked ever since. I've still not got to the big boys yet but I've been listening to "The Sickness (album not song)" by Disturbed.

Imagery is incredible. Far better than any amp I have. It's also seemed to bring out bass from my Grados that I did not even know they had. I guess this is what a £1500 amp sounds like huh?

Will give it some welly later with my Hifiman PMs and let you know how much guts it's got. If it can do Quad Maximus by Bass Mekanik then it can do anything and drive any cans.

 

[AlienALX]

OK final conclusion. It is not powerful enough to drive my Hifiman headphones. They are enormous, and sluggish and completely insensitive and it simply can not produce the kind of volume and power needed for an enormous set of cans. So NBD you were correct about that part.

However, it is still the best headphone amp I have heard to date. I know why too. It's the power supply. With my other amps they come with feeble nasty DC power supplies. With my Graham Slee you can opt for what he calls the "Power Supply One" but it's about £150. It is supposed to improve the amp dramatically though and after listening to this A2 clone I can see why.

The A2 clone and my Grados are now connected, probably forever. I've finally found a way to make my RS2E sound even better than before.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Yeah it doesn't have enough power output to drive those phones which are very insensitive and require a high amount of power. But it was intended for Beyers which are pretty sensitive and don't require all that much. So it makes sense

I still think it's not a very good amp.. not worth more than $120 at most. Although getting a clone for so cheap is worth it if you really wanted the "beyer experience". And seeing as how dice has like 5 of them, makes sense

 

[AlienALX]

Yeah it doesn't have enough power output to drive those phones which are very insensitive and require a high amount of power. But it was intended for Beyers which are pretty sensitive and don't require all that much. So it makes sense

I still think it's not a very good amp.. not worth more than $120 at most. Although getting a clone for so cheap is worth it if you really wanted the "beyer experience". And seeing as how dice has like 5 of them, makes sense

I think the reviews of the A2 are putting it in a bracket. IE, it costs £1500 so it is automatically given a god like status and compared to other amps costing that much. Of course it's not worth it no, but I tell you what it easily swats my Graham Slee to one side and it's taken me a lot of time to do that. I've had several amps costing up to around £200 and none of them have touched it.

So yeah, for the money it's robbery. You will not find a cheap amp (well, for less than £200) with a power supply stage like this has.

If you have the spare cash then buy one and see how you think then. As I said, it's being compared to £1500 amps and at that part of the market there are others that will crap on it.

 

[Dicehunter]

Got the ebay page please bud ?

 

[AlienALX]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Finished-...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

You can spend more and get it with the DAC board. I opted out, as I am getting a Dragonfly next week.

Oh yeah couple of updates. I initially connected up one side of the RCAs on the back. That came out line volume only. If you connect up the other side both headphone outputs work at the same time with volume. I've not connected two sets of headphones to it though, no point. As you look at it you need to use the right side (so farthest right looking at it from the front).

I did some more testing last night with live music and some Barenakedladies and yeah, best amp I have heard to date by a mile. Especially on the live music it's just incredible. Again, I reckon it's mostly down to the power supply they have used. Most headphone amps use external poxy light little DC transformers. Not a mosfet full on supply that you would see in a regular house sized amp.

Edit.

Last night I was looking at an unboxing of the real one. I reckon I can make that top quite easily tbh. Will look into it when I have some time.

 

[Warchild]

OK deliveries finished for the day about an hour ago. I've been sat here hooked ever since. I've still not got to the big boys yet but I've been listening to "The Sickness (album not song)" by Disturbed.

Imagery is incredible. Far better than any amp I have. It's also seemed to bring out bass from my Grados that I did not even know they had. I guess this is what a £1500 amp sounds like huh?

Will give it some welly later with my Hifiman PMs and let you know how much guts it's got. If it can do Quad Maximus by Bass Mekanik then it can do anything and drive any cans.

Best album they did. Critics slammed it but they still went platinum. How's that for a middle finger to those who said they had no talent or creative thinking.

 

[AlienALX]

Best album they did. Critics slammed it but they still went platinum. How's that for a middle finger to those who said they had no talent or creative thinking.

Yeah, fantastic album. It's not often that I put a whole album on to play but it's one of those where every song is as good as the one you bought it for tbh.

 

[Dicehunter]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Finished-...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

You can spend more and get it with the DAC board. I opted out, as I am getting a Dragonfly next week.

Oh yeah couple of updates. I initially connected up one side of the RCAs on the back. That came out line volume only. If you connect up the other side both headphone outputs work at the same time with volume. I've not connected two sets of headphones to it though, no point. As you look at it you need to use the right side (so farthest right looking at it from the front).

I did some more testing last night with live music and some Barenakedladies and yeah, best amp I have heard to date by a mile. Especially on the live music it's just incredible. Again, I reckon it's mostly down to the power supply they have used. Most headphone amps use external poxy light little DC transformers. Not a mosfet full on supply that you would see in a regular house sized amp.

Edit.

Last night I was looking at an unboxing of the real one. I reckon I can make that top quite easily tbh. Will look into it when I have some time.

Nice 1 dude, I opted for the one with the "Beyerdynamic DAC"

Should be here in a few days

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HIFI-A2-P...92b9227&pid=100623&rk=4&rkt=6&sd=122119124371

Thanks for all the input !

 

[AlienALX]

No worries. I didn't want the DAC because they are ever evolving and getting better. That's why I am getting the Dragonfly, because it's USB and I can swap it out if I want to. But yeah, deffo less hassle and wires to buy it with a DAC in

 

[NeverBackDown]

No worries. I didn't want the DAC because they are ever evolving and getting better. That's why I am getting the Firefly, because it's USB and I can swap it out if I want to. But yeah, deffo less hassle and wires to buy it with a DAC in

This is the reason I love the Schiit DACs. They are upgradeable

 

[AlienALX]

This is the reason I love the Schiit DACs. They are upgradeable

Probably more expensive than £70 though I guess?

 

[NeverBackDown]

Probably more expensive than £70 though I guess?

What you referring too? The dac itself or the upgradable module? Idk what the prices are for upgrades in the UK. I know it's only $75 here to do it yourself. There Multibit upgrades however are not user upgradable. It requires custom in house firmware which only certified sellers and Schiit themselves have. But upgrades like USB or a new DAC chip are easily replaced

 

[AlienALX]

What you referring too? The dac itself or the upgradable module? Idk what the prices are for upgrades in the UK. I know it's only $75 here to do it yourself. There Multibit upgrades however are not user upgradable. It requires custom in house firmware which only certified sellers and Schiit themselves have. But upgrades like USB or a new DAC chip are easily replaced

DAC itself matey, not the upgrade chips.

Ed had a think. If the upgrade to DIY is $75 I may as well just get this, no?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...7-43f4-4536-9b10-cb18621e00e6&pf_rd_i=desktop

Bucking fastards it's gone up £8. FFS. Any way, even at that price I may as well just get it and then get a newer version if and when they make one. I can use it on anything easily, and it's also portable etc.

 

[SPS]

DAC itself matey, not the upgrade chips.

Ed had a think. If the upgrade to DIY is $75 I may as well just get this, no?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...7-43f4-4536-9b10-cb18621e00e6&pf_rd_i=desktop

Bucking fastards it's gone up £8. FFS. Any way, even at that price I may as well just get it and then get a newer version if and when they make one. I can use it on anything easily, and it's also portable etc.

Cheapest one you can from original distributor is £110 though I got mine for around £80 a fair few years back,
https://schiit.eu.com/dacs/modi-2-usb-dac

 

[AlienALX]

Cheapest one you can from original distributor is £110 though I got mine for around £80 a fair few years back,
https://schiit.eu.com/dacs/modi-2-usb-dac

Yeah not worth it then sadly. I think I will stick with the Dragonfly idea, and if I wait an extra three days I will get this one instead.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...7-43f4-4536-9b10-cb18621e00e6&pf_rd_i=desktop

 

[NeverBackDown]

Yeah not worth it then sadly. I think I will stick with the Dragonfly idea, and if I wait an extra three days I will get this one instead.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...7-43f4-4536-9b10-cb18621e00e6&pf_rd_i=desktop

It is worth it. You buy the DAC and then few years later instead of buying another you can just simply upgrade it to a newer version and get improved performance. No DAC at the 80BP mark will come close to the Schiit upgrade. It's to keep up with the times.

 

[MadShadow]

I've had Stormzy's "Shut Up" on loop for about ten minutes.

Oh my, why would you subject yourself to that?

 

[AlienALX]

Oh my, why would you subject yourself to that?

Because I used to live down in that area and that's how it was.

I left that area in 2000 to better my life and I've done that but I guess it's a case of "you can take the boy out of Brixton but you can't take Brixton out of the boy"