Of course………………. duh. :) So, WHAT IF? What if what, say you? What if I told you that I just had an epiphany, and that possibly the ONLY way to enjoy EVERY genre of recorded music is possible through………, get this, headphones………. BAH! you scream, I HATE HEADPHONES! No venue, no air, no imaging, no, no, blah, blah, blah…………………

Guess what? Me too………….., I’ve always been “that guy”. Despite designing and building headphone amplifiers for the past decade, I’ve never believed it either. Mostly, at least to me, a pair of headphones and the associative headphone amplifier was the necessary evil required for “after hours” listening……, you know, when the significant “other” says it’s time to stop pissing off the neighbors…. (hehe, I just had to stick a little bit O’ Paul in there for ya).

Well, since yesterday, ya, you read that right……………….. since yesterday, I don’t believe that’s true. Like I said, an epiphany. You see, yesterday I flipped the power switch on this guy……………

Philippe’s bespoke Tanoshi DHT Headphone Amplifier

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I better strap on a diaper! No, really…., I had no clue what to expect other than another “great?” sounding headphone amplifier. Notice the question mark after the word “great”, yeah, that was the other “me”. The one that built them but didn’t think they were a “viable” system choice. The kind that could be an alternative to real speakers. ;)

This is something completely different, completely I don’t know what to call it………… in fact, I was stunned. I didn’t know what to make of what I was hearing (and NOT hearing), both, equally compelling. First, what I was NOT hearing freaked me out. You see, when that first track ended I thought the amp died…., like no power, like, off………. nope. The next track started……, far out. A plucked guitar string out of the abyss nearly knocked my eye out. Jeez……………………….., and I thought I knew what was possible to achieve as the noise-floor of a completely tube (including rectifier) headphone amplifier. Not. This was stupid, I was stupid, whatever, I stood there, agog, just looking at it. I hadn’t even adjusted the regulated DC heater supply voltage on the 45’s yet……, I was just pumping about 110v or so mains voltage into it with my trusty Variac and so it wasn’t even operating that the correct operating points yet either…. it’ll even get better.

It has an exceptional power supply…, designed as bullet points on a grocery store sales flyer during a Midnight snack.

The power supply was just the beginning………., this headphone amplifier build was actually initiated to field-test the most insane Nano-crystalline core, Hi-Nickel Silicon lamination, single-cast “Ono” copper wound input transformers and refine some already in-use noise reduction techniques that will both be implemented in the “SE” version of the Iron-Coupled Line-Preamplifier. I knew the transformers were “good”, I just had no idea they would be a new paradigm in performance………

The circuit………….., fairly “off-the-shelf” ToolShed Amps here, nothing really that hasn’t been thunk-and-tried over the last 100yrs. or so…..aside from the few tidbits that technological innovation and materials science has improved over said century. ;)…………. that, and the ability to understand what makes what sound like.

The Circuit, easily adaptable to the 71a, PX4 or 205D tube types.

Engineering in space……….,and a massive cause for anxiety. Getting everything to fit in this chassis was an exercise in itself. Usually I like to have a bit of elbowroom to work. This had less than none. Every layout decision was critical, no room for error. If this were to ever be replicated I think I’d have to go to a larger chassis than what the “Tanoshi” has to offer. It just caused too much stress…

Sorry, not to be a “Debbie-downer”, all is right in the end…………., here is the finished “gut-shot”.

The 7F7 driver stage is LED biased….., SEE, the LED’s are lit. :)

So here we are a couple days after the initial “smoke-test” and am listening to this beast as I type……, the typing is going poorly compared to the listening. I’ve got to wrap this one up so I can get more of the listening done before I run out of my “100hrs. of bliss” and am forced to box her up.

Besides……………….., I’m still trying to find a track to make her stumble….. and so far I’m failing. So you tell me, is a pair of headphones and an amp like this, music agnostic? Cheers! Matt.

MUSING #3, Are music choices system dependent?.......