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Can we expect 300B/2A3 Bottlehead headphone amp someday?

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ipetruk:
Hi dear Bottlehead team,

Does it make sense to build a 300B/2A3 headphone amplifier? Have you ever considered this?

What niche, benefits or drawbacks will it have? Tube price is one drawback for sure, this . Or is it just an overkill to put a tube like that just for headphones?

Some manufacturers produce really luxury amps with 300B/2A3: Cayin HA-300 300B, Eddie Current – Studio, Manley Labs – Neo-Classic, Woo Audio WA5-LE and WA-33, Ampsandsound Agartha 2.0.

I can see traces of this discussion on other topics, but I cannot find a dedicated discussion.

Thanks,
Igor.

Paul Birkeland:
You can use a speaker to headphone adapter with either a Stereomour or a Kaiju provided you also install the DC filament upgrade.

Drilling a hole in the base of a Stereomour to add a headphone jack is a pretty simple process, so developing a separate kit to fill this niche doesn't seem necessary.  You may also find that the Mainline offers a bit more overall performance if you don't need the extra power from the big speaker amps.

ipetruk:
Thank you for a quick response!

As I understand Mainline is not SET. What would you say be the main reason Mainline beats SETs? I guess "better performance" is hard to quantify and are in tubes for something extra tubes provide. 300B/2A3 are described as very pleasant tubes to listen to.

Additional question, have you considered shipping Kaiju/Stereomour with that jack? From your side it is only extra hole, extra component, extra wire. It should not drive the cost meaningfully, probably extra $50 max. But it may boost sales as people will see higher value and versatility in the product. I mean people can search for the mod on the forums if they really seek it, but this feature is easier discoverable on the shop pages.

Paul Birkeland:

--- Quote from: ipetruk on October 15, 2021, 06:10:46 AM ---As I understand Mainline is not SET.

--- End quote ---
The Mainline definitely is a SET headphone amp.


--- Quote from: ipetruk on October 15, 2021, 06:10:46 AM ---What would you say be the main reason Mainline beats SETs? I guess "better performance" is hard to quantify and are in tubes for something extra tubes provide.

--- End quote ---
The Mainline offers a much simpler circuit with a single gain stage and has a power supply that's fully shunt regulated.  It's also very quiet. 



--- Quote from: ipetruk on October 15, 2021, 06:10:46 AM ---Additional question, have you considered shipping Kaiju/Stereomour with that jack

--- End quote ---
The extra hole means keeping another two different pieces of wood in our inventory.  We would have to use the kind of jacks on the Mainline to ensure that the wood thickness doesn't present an issue, then we'd need appropriate screws to go into the wood, then we'd need to write instructions for balanced vs. unbalanced HP jacks, etc. etc.  All of these extra instructions and customizations are unnecessary if a simple adapter cable is used instead and the resale value of the amplifier is maintained with this approach.   

ipetruk:

--- Quote ---The Mainline definitely is a SET headphone amp.
--- End quote ---

My facts were fake news, sorry. I did not realize those are triodes... You are right.


--- Quote ---The extra hole means keeping another two different pieces of wood in our inventory.
--- End quote ---

Ah, wait, I assumed the jack will be on metal chassis with the rest of the stuff, not on the wood. Your argument about more complex manual is valid, but I've also provided some advantages of this approach. Resale value would be fine if this was a part of a stock model

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