【功放推耳机之三】first watt j2, 黄金第一瓦还原黄金时代的声音

esoteric

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本人总结玩耳机有三重境界，第一重，耳放推耳机，第二重，功放推耳机，第三重，还是耳放推耳机（如wa234下的kk，rp1000下的gsk）。本人实力有限，水平有限，自去年起一直在功放推耳机的道路上摸索前行。
之前发表过两篇功放推耳机的心得，都是后级直推耳机，今天将带来一个特殊的小玩具，那就是拉菲尔阻抗匹配器。
买这个适配器实属机缘巧合。本人最近研究古董箱子，发现某大神做的1969功放推古董箱子不错，于是对小功率极简电路功放产生了兴趣。所谓大道至简，一些到了极致的器材往往是简单的，比如价值十几万的singlepower耳放。简单的电路很难做出好声音，但是一旦做好了，那就是无敌的，而first watt恰恰是这种极致的体现。
第一瓦的产品很多，做了些功课，觉得j2的声音比较好听，于是搬了台回来。这种小功率的功放为何不拿来试下推耳机呢？但是据我了解，j2是类似otl胆机的电路，OTL是没有所谓的阻抗匹配的，这个后级的标准功率是8欧25瓦，如果阻抗不匹配，功率会减少，而且声音会有很大的失真。不过，这并不是什么难题，因为有种叫做阻抗匹配器的玩具。firstwatt j2如果加上拉斐尔阻抗匹配器，是否能给耳机带来惊喜呢？
今天要上场的耳机是一只其貌不扬的老古董：德律风根th600。对这只耳机，网上评论基本上是不屑一顾的。我试过拿manley300b等耳放推过这个耳机，声音有特点，通透细腻，但不完整，主要是低频量少，声音偏薄，有山洞音，动态欠佳。后来试过拿格莱美proprius后级和谷津xp100推，改善很大，低频出来了，但声音还是有些薄，底盘不够稳，像没有推好的lambda sig，但声音已经很不错了，解析好，味道足，素质也不弱。所以，我认为这是一只潜力很大的耳机。上回我也说过，不是所有的耳机都适合功放推的，只有三类：低敏，如kk，平板和某些古董老耳机（这些耳机本身就带有din转功放线，说白了，就是让你拿功放玩的）。
我手里这辆老爷车状态非常好，基本和全新差不多。为了还原黄金年代的声音，音源特地使用了创梦的大作：双陶封1540解码，不要小看1540芯片，虽然是第一代解码芯片，但实力不俗，那个时代的设计师是听黑胶和开盘过来的，所以第一代解码必须有接近黑胶的密度和量感，当年80万日元的lhh2000就是1540下的杰作。而创梦的1540解码，是目前国内做的最好的，在某论坛名气很大。经过比较，我认为一点都不比现在的万元级r2r解码差，素质相当好，特别是空间层次感和定位是我听过解码里面最好的之一。
这套系统下的th600真是太毒了，让我领略到了黄金时代的黄金hifi声。透明度和解析超强，连009都比不上，听过的朋友说和009比起来，009反而不像是静电耳机。泛音丰富，乐感极佳，空气感好，人声悠扬，余韵袅袅，乐器仿佛有层金灿灿的光泽，瞬态也不弱，低频气势都上来了，声场异常宽大，没有任何封闭感，而且定位非常好，无论大小编制，听着都过瘾。这套系统完成度相当高，让我和几个烧友感慨万分: 原来二手价几百块的耳机能出来价值上万元的声音！
有感而发，不一定符合权威的hifi标准，仅代表个人听感和观点，欢迎吐槽。

esoteric

上两张解码和功放的拆机图，顺便求一对最适合第一瓦j2的音箱，目前正考虑杰士凯旋，如果有更适合的，麻烦大家推荐一下，不胜感激！

Phase

J2的声音风格：有如泉水一般，洗净了染色一样的流动声音。很多后级可以做到更结实和丰满，但是换回J2，仿佛去除了酱油和安赛蜜之类的劣质调料，那种纯粹的声音令人陷入沉思。只有2A3在品味上更胜一筹。

J2推耳机：我只用过转接线推森海、歌德之类的，声音还不错。和静电系统比起来，当然不是动圈耳机真的能比007快了，而是stax耳放（乃至大部分静电系统）那种黏糊糊的声音比起J2的流动和直接实在是风格差异太大了。

J2推音箱：考虑到推力，还是搭配全频（Zu Audio，Voxativ，Lowther，Phy hp，Cube Audio），号角（Altec），高灵敏度动圈（Devore） 比较合适，我用来搭配Phy Hp 钴磁银圈，极其深邃流动的声音。搭配Voxativ（我在出）的话，起伏非常迅速开扬，不过要用主动前级。对了，二手区那对Cube Audio，应该是非常非常好的搭配。Nelson Pass本人就是用Cube Audio的单元做障板玩的。慕尼黑等展会上一般也是Cube Audio和First Watt的演出。

Phase

https://www.audiostream.com/content/problem-loudspeakers-page-2
Stereophile 和Audiostream的编辑 Herb Reichert ：

After studying headphones for a year, I began to think that the headphone amps I was using were the weak link: that they were limiting headphone dynamics, vividness, and transparency. I wondered about the issues I alluded to above. I began to ask the designers of the best headphones what amps they used to evaluate their creations. To my surprise, several were using low-powered single-ended directly heated triode amps. To my greater surprise, the amps they said they were using were just regular loudspeaker amplifiers; with no special provisions for protecting delicate headphone diaphragms. Naturally, I was forced to make up a set of balanced-to-banana headphone cables and connect my JPS Labs Abyss AB-1266 Phi headphones directly to the output jacks of my First Watt J2. And WOW!

That was it folks.

That was the moment I first experienced the complete full potential of two-channel audio. Every audio experience before that fell into the category of a messy constricted boom-box thing. This was the moment I realized I needed a whole new vocabulary to describe what I was experiencing. Reproduction was clear and vivid beyond words.

The first words that jumped into my head were: direct, explicit, descriptive, un-impeded, immediate, essence, true, graspable, and some new word that means more transparent than the old word transparent.

I played Todd Garfinkle’s spaced-omni two microphone pure DSD2x recording of Puente Celeste’s Nama (M-A recordings MA030) through a Holo Audio Spring Level 3 Katsune Edition DAC feeding a line-level input of the Pass Labs HPA-1 headphone amp/line-level preamplifier driving the 25W First Watt J2.

With this setup, it was easy to compare the output of the J2 power amplifier to the output of the headphone jack on the HPA-1 headphone amplifier that proceeded the J2 in the audio chain. But surprisingly, there was no comparison; and I have still not recovered from how the output of the basic power amplifier could be so much more intense and real. When I closed my eyes, the performers and their instruments occupied an utterly life-like three-dimensional space with a reach out and touch it crystalline presence. I had never experienced anything like this.

I was so excited I called my headphone buddy Steve Guttenberg and literally screamed into the phone, “I found it! The Holy Grail/the Dead Sea Scrolls/the Secret of the Pyramids… of Two-Channel Audio!” The next day, I brought him my DIY cables and we tried it together. It was so amazing we both laughed.

Over the weeks and months that followed, I connected the Abyss AB-1266 Phi, the Audeze LCD-4, and the HiFiMan Susvara headphones to a variety of basic tube and solid-state power amplifiers including the Line Magnetic LM-518, the Pass Labs XA25, and the PrimaLuna Prologue Premium. The only “headphone amp” that equaled any of these amplifiers was HiFiMan’s own $15,000 USD EF-1000; which outputs 20 watts class-A (with high gain and high voltage) into a 35-ohm headphone load.

The easy, obvious answer as to why these three world-class headphones sounded more real and transparent than any audio reproduction I’ve known is: these basic power amplifier’s connected via a line-level preamp offered more gain and more clean watts than any of the headphone amps I used. But! Don’t forget…

These headphones are all full-range transducers with high ruler-flat impedances and near zero phase rotation. They are pretty much pure resistance. They are also, compared to box speakers, extremely sensitive: the Abyss requires only 320mV to reach 90dB SPL. Most importantly, there were no crossovers, voltage dividers, or filter networks. Nothing was gumming up the combustion chamber or messing with the compression ratio. There was no time-smearing energy-robbing mishegas in some black hole between the amp and the quivering cones.

I am explaining all this because I strongly believe the full-range, crossover-less, benign impedance, high sensitivity, and direct connective-ness, that headphones offer should – and could – be a model for floor-standing audiophile speakers. I believe I have experienced our audio future and it is simple, sensitive, resistive, and direct.

esoteric

Phase 发表于 2019-7-11 16:40
J2的声音风格：有如泉水一般，洗净了染色一样的流动声音。很多后级可以做到更结实和丰满，但是换回J2，仿佛 ...

谢谢高人指点

schpeltor

Phase 发表于 2019-7-11 16:40
J2的声音风格：有如泉水一般，洗净了染色一样的流动声音。很多后级可以做到更结实和丰满，但是换回J2，仿佛 ...

J2最让我头疼的问题还是4欧功率减半的蛋疼故事…………

esoteric

schpeltor 发表于 2019-7-12 08:17
J2最让我头疼的问题还是4欧功率减半的蛋疼故事…………

有利有弊，对耳机系统来说是好事，我拿j2接适配器4-6欧的输入，这样功率减了，推耳机反而更安逸了。

三俗的好人

这耳机和解码，我还以为PKshan又复活了……

esoteric

三俗的好人 发表于 2019-7-12 09:59
这耳机和解码，我还以为PKshan又复活了……

除了耳机是大厂德律风根出品，其余的都是小作坊diy的手工产物，创梦1540解码，听风6pro前级，第一瓦后级，拉菲尔适配器。