Note: The product in photo is a prototype and subject to change. Interested in being updated about this launch? Enter your email in the field above.
Personally, I love seeing a product in this stage of development. Stoked about this one!
This is excellent and EXACTLY what I have been looking for. However, I am worried you guys might not learn from other companies mistakes. When making a transformer box for estats, and that is what this appears to be, companies always use tiny little transformers which leave a lot to be desired. If this is done properly it could be the best end game amp on the market for estat enthusiasts but I have been let down before. Hope its done correctly.
The amp will be using high quality transformers custom made for driving Estats. Another ES Labs product called the EHT-7 also uses the same transformers and has been gaining popularity as an alternative method for powering electrostatic headphones.
I’d love to see this one happen, but it needs to be reasonably priced. The estat world is in desperate need of someone to make the entry easier and a combo unit like this at a reasonable price would be a huge deal. I really like the fully separated direct headphone output and I’m assuming bypass is going to be a switch for the other outputs? Would that mean you could drive a hard to drive headphone from the direct path and attenuate another headphones volume with the knob and adjust their volume together with your preamp? And would that include estats in the mix? Cool idea. If you need any testers, I’d love to put it through its paces.
Note: The product in photo is a prototype and subject to change. Interested in being updated about this launch? Enter your email in the field above.
This an the SJY estat were supposed to launch in June, now its August. Status update?
Hydra (the amp) and Argos (the estat) will launch on August 18th.
SJY Horizon Closed Carbon has Impedance: 11Ω, Hydra lists Conventional headphone impedance range: 16Ω–300Ω. What do I expect if I wire Closed Carbon to Hydra? Although I have rme adi that works perfectly with both Carbon and Zeph but I’d like to know if I can listen all three SJY’s headphones on the Hydra amp. Thanks!
Edit: What’s its continuous power into 4 Ω loud speaker?
I spent a while testing the closed carbon with the hydra using both the Headphone output and direct outputs. While the Headphone outputs worked just fine I ended up preferring the direct output with the closed carbon. The direct connection gave it more headroom and authority with the low end base. Just be aware of the volume knob when using the direct output since it can get loud quickly.
What are some recommended speakers to pair with this amp?
That’s a or broad question, it would help to know more about what kind of speakers and placement you are looking for along with budget and genres of music you generally listen to.
They Hydra is around 20 watts into 8ohms so that should guide you towards medium to higher sensitivity speakers. 80-90dB or higher would do well in a smaller room.
Ive tested the Hydra with 3 different bookshelf speakers and it did well with each in a near field placement. The NHT Super Ones sounded great with most genres and are quite affordable.
The more context you can share the more we can narrow things down towards your needs.
Thanks a lot for the reply! Oh boy, I listen to a wide range of music. Perhaps let’s start with the technical stuff. The listening environment should be a small bedroom, carpeted but not acoustically treated. Regular listening distance will be ~1m. Could at times move to the livingroom where listening distance is ~3m. So I don’t want the maximal volume to be barely enough for 1m. My set up will be Hydra paied with RME ADI-2 Pro, although still need to experiment with the bypass mode on the Hydra. As for the price, I’m thinking of below $2000 for the speaker set. Of course, I would love to pay as little as possible for any marketing fluff. Had a look at Fyne F500SP. Maxing out the budget, definitely will lean towards something at a better price with similar performance. I will do some research on the NHT Super Ones you mentioned. In any case, I’m looking for bookshelf speakers.
Now genres. Usually listen to indie/alternative and classical music. Some examples are Harp 2 - Barrie; Hell 99 - Foxing; 5 - Three Trapped Tigers; Any random quartets, sonatas, concertos, symphonies out there.
Thanks again for your time.
