HD3S - your thoughts please!

[Lyndon Johnson]

A change in home-life circumstances means I am now needing to take refuge in the spare bedroom and listen through headphones. Currently I use an old pair of Sennheiser HD560 Ovation plugged into a Marantz CD6003 headphone socket. It's okay but I am considering breaking open the piggy-bank for an upgrade.

My thinking is a nice headphone amp first, then to take that along to a good dealer and audition some 'phones in the £400-£800 range.
I am keen to build a HD3S and feel confident with this, having built a K5881, KLP1 and KLPP2 in the past.

I have some questions that you may be able to help me with....

1) £560+ is quite a lot of money - does anyone have any experience of HD3S compared with similarly priced built units sound-quality wise?
2) I can't find any information on the website on what components are upgraded with the 'plus' model and what effect they have on the sound quality. Can anyone help me on this ?

Many thanks!
Lyndon

[Matthew Snell]

The XL version includes, in no particular order: Gold plated valve bases; Soniqs silver plated stranded copper PTFE insulated signal wiring; upgraded capacitors (Soniqs SAX for coupling, Starget ROD for cathode bypass, Elna Silmic for the frequency modifier and Long-life Vishay for HT smoothing) and metal film resistors throughout. It also includes a dummy load on the output socket.

Upgrade diodes can be added but they aren't included in the XL "bundle" price.

HD3S has very positive reviews - but I would say that, wouldn't I? I'll leave it for others to chip in.

Matthew

[bob orbell]

I second Matthew's post I built one for a chum in standard form, he is still happy with it, me, I have Stax ear speakers, if you can part with just under £3000 for a mid way set up , then give Stax a listen, but be warned, the sound they give you is addictive. . Bob

[davebms]

hello all , I have the shoe box HD83, a few upgrades (or possibly just changing parts) its a very good amp !! from what I can tell its the same circuit
as HD3S I've had mine for a LONG time so they are built to last

dave

[Lyndon Johnson]

Thanks everyone for your replies, much appreciated. I am still keen to hear from anyone who has auditioned the HD3S alongside other units.
Regards,
Lyndon.