- 1101 Blue Halo.jpg (141.95 KiB) Vist 24394 gange
BLUE HALO is a dedicated amp for high impedance headphones such as the Sennheiser HD600/650/800, ZMF Verite/Verite C, Beyerdynamic, etc. (anything with 200+ ohm impedance). It's a design that eliminates the need for 6AS7/6080/5998 power tubes for output power. It has two 6J5 sockets and a 6SN7 socket. You can plug in a pair or 6J5, a single 6SN7, or both at the same time. With the use of adapters (purchased separately), hundreds (even thousands) of other types of tubes can be used within the sockets as well (including C3G, 12AU7, 12BH7, and many many others). A 12V switch is also included at the back of the unit in order to use 12V tubes. It produces ~1 watt into 300ohms, more than enough for all high impedance headphones.
BLUE HALO is designed to have a clean, neutral, detailed and smooth sound with great bass. Tube rolling alters the tone of the amp at your preference (e.g. warmer tubes, more detailed tubes, more mids, etc.). The tubes get "supercharged" so that they can produce as much power as 6AS7/6080 power tubes, while fully determining the tone. Not having the 6AS7/6080 tubes means one less gain stage between the input and output = More clarity. The high voltage power supply uses only high quality wax/oil filled polypropylene film caps. Output capacitor are also high quality wax/oil filled polypropylene film capacitors. This means there are zero electrolytics within the signal path - something that no other OTL tube amp has!
BLUE HALO does not use tube rectification, it uses my own custom designed circuit using critically damped and resistively bounded HEXFRED rectification followed by a high voltage Maida style super regulator and utilizing a wax/oil polypropylene capacitor. This is a much better alternative to tube rectification as it leads to better overall tonal quality, better bass and cleaner overall tone. This also gives deeper blacks and bigger soundstage than tube rectification. It also uses regulated DC on the heaters for a very quiet background and zero hum.
BLUE HALO has a base build that includes Neutrik RCA & XLR inputs, Neutrik TRS and 4pin XLR outputs, CNC Engraving, QQQ sockets, Alps Blue velvet pot, and high quality copper internal wiring.
Potential upgrade options include: Lundahl power transformer, Stepped Attenuator (e.g. Acoustic Dimension, Goldpoint, Khozmo, etc.), Kiwame power resistor upgrade, Vishay/Dale RN55/RN60 signal resistor upgrade, Supercharger capacitor upgrades, vibration isolation feet, tube socket upgrades, 2% silver solder, and RCA/XLR connector upgrades. VU Meters are also possible.
See link HERE for explanation of what each of the upgrade options does for the Blue Halo.
https://1101audio.com/BlueHaloOTL.html
1101 Blue Halo+ (COMING SOON) (base build $2335)
- 1101 Blue Halo+.png (9.59 KiB) Vist 16630 gange
BLUE HALO+ shares many of the same traits as its brother, the Blue Halo. The Blue Halo+ is essentially the Blue Halo that you've seen on the forums, but also has 6 sockets for power tubes (from the family of 6AS7/6080/5998/6BL7/6BX7). It has a switch at the back that allows you to change between the regular Blue Halo output (using only the driver tube(s) to determine amp tone), or output from the power tube sockets (signal goes through driver tubes as well as power tubes for extra tube harmonics). This gives both the benefit of having the regular Blue Halo output, as well as the extra power tube stage with extra distortion when switched to it - kind of like two amps in one!Â
Similar to the Blue Halo, the Blue Halo+ is a dedicated amp for high impedance headphones such as the Sennheiser HD600/650/800, ZMF Verite/Verite C, Beyerdynamic, etc. (anything with 200+ ohm impedance). For driver tubes, it has two 6J5 sockets and a 6SN7 socket. You can plug in a pair or 6J5, a single 6SN7, or both at the same time. With the use of adapters (purchased separately), hundreds (even thousands) of other types of tubes can be used within the driver tube sockets as well (including C3G, 12AU7, 12BH7, and many many others). A 12V switch is also included at the back of the unit in order to use 12V tubes. In the power tube sockets, you can run 2 or 4 6080/6AS7/5998, or 6 6BL7/6BX7. If you'd like a Blue Halo+ with less power tube sockets (e.g. just 2 or just 4 power tubes sockets) that is possible as well.
BLUE HALO+ is designed to have a clean, neutral, detailed and smooth sound with great bass. Tube rolling alters the tone of the amp at your preference (e.g. warmer tubes, more detailed tubes, more mids, etc.). In Blue Halo mode, the driver tubes get "supercharged" so that they can produce as much power as 6AS7/6080 power tubes, while fully determining the tone. Not having the 6AS7/6080 tubes means one less gain stage between the input and output = More clarity. In Blue Halo+ mode, the signal goes through both the driver tubes and the power tubes, with each contributing to the tone and output harmonics. Using the power tubes in Blue Halo+ mode will naturally lead to increased harmonics and slightly more tube tone (Note: Still not a "tubey"/"lush" amp!).
BLUE HALO+ does not use tube rectification, it uses my own custom designed circuit using critically damped and resistively bounded HEXFRED rectification followed by a high voltage Maida style super regulator and utilizing a wax/oil polypropylene capacitor. This is a much better alternative to tube rectification as it leads to better overall tonal quality, better bass and cleaner overall tone. This also gives lower noise floor and bigger soundstage than tube rectification. It also uses regulated DC on the heaters for a very quiet background and zero hum. The high voltage power supply uses only high quality wax/oil filled polypropylene film caps. Output capacitor are also high quality wax/oil filled polypropylene film capacitors. This means there are zero electrolytics within the signal path - something that no other OTL tube amp has!
In Blue Halo mode it produces ~1 watt into 300ohms, more than enough for all high impedance headphones. In Blue Halo+ mode it produces ~2 watt.
BLUE HALO+ has a base build that comes standard with the upgraded Lundahl power transformer. The base build also includes Neutrik RCA & XLR inputs, Neutrik TRS and 4pin XLR outputs, CNC Engraving, QQQ sockets, Alps Blue velvet pot, and high quality copper internal wiring.
Potential upgrade options include: Stepped Attenuator (e.g. Acoustic Dimension, Goldpoint, Khozmo, etc.), Kiwame power resistor upgrade, Vishay/Dale RN55/RN60 signal resistor upgrade, Supercharger capacitor upgrades, vibration isolation feet, tube socket upgrades, 2% silver solder, and RCA/XLR connector upgrades. VU Meters are also possible.
See link HERE for explanation of what each of the upgrade options does for the Blue Halo+Â
https://1101audio.com/BlueHalo+OTL.html
1101 White Dwarf (base build $1920)
- 1101 White Dwarf.jpg (481.04 KiB) Vist 16872 gange
White Dwarf is a tube-hybrid amplifier designed to meet the needs of driving any impedance headphone currently available on the market, from planars to dynamics. In the White Dwarf, the tube does the amplification and the tone of the amp is dictated by which tube is rolled in to the amp. There is a "source-follower" that follows the output from the tube and acts as a "buffer" to increase the amount of power the amp can put out, all while imparting very little solid state tone. This gives an amp with the smoothness of tubes, combined with the raw output power of solid-state. White Dwarf has the power to work with any headphone on the market, including the HE-6, and can even be used to run high efficiency speakers. It has two 6J5 sockets and a 6SN7 socket. You can plug in a pair of 6J5, a single 6SN7, or both at the same time. With the use of adapters (purchased separately), hundreds (even thousands) of other types of tubes can be used within the sockets as well (including C3G, 12AU7, 12BH7, and many many others).
White Dwarf is designed to retain most of the transparency found within the Blue Halo amplifier, but with a slight added touch of increased distortion/warmth. Tube rolling alters the tone of the amp at your preference (e.g. warmer tubes, more detailed tubes, more mids, etc.). The high voltage power supply uses only high quality oil filled polypropylene film caps. The amp is always Class A biased with very heavy bias current for a headphone amp - something that smaller chassis tube-hybrid amplifiers just can't handle. Because it is pure class A biased, it also has none of the non-linear crossover distortion found in class AB amplifiers. The White Dwarf is zero feedback. It produces approximately 10W into 8ohm, 5.5W into 30 ohm, 2.5W into 80ohm, 0.6W into 300ohm.
White Dwarf has a base build that includes Neutrik RCA & XLR inputs, Neutrik TRS and 4pin XLR outputs, gold-plated brass speaker binding posts at the rear, CNC Engraving, QQQ sockets, Alps Blue velvet pot, and high quality copper internal wiring.
Potential upgrade options include: Lundahl power transformer, Stepped Attenuator (e.g. Acoustic Dimension, Goldpoint, Khozmo, etc.), 6/12V Voltage Switch, Anode Resistor/Constant Current Source Tube Bias Switch, Kiwame power resistor upgrade, Vishay/Dale RN55/RN60 signal resistor upgrade, Coupling capacitor upgrades, Vibration isolation feet, Tube socket upgrades, 2% silver solder, and RCA/XLR connector upgrades. VU Meters are also possible.
See link HERE for explanation of what each of the upgrade options does for the White Dwarf.
https://1101audio.com/White-Dwarf-Tube-Hybrid.html
Other 1101 offerings
1101 Custom OTL
1101 Custom transformer-coupled SET
User thread on head-fi.org
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/1101-au ... mps.919425
