Project Polaris

tunke - you're English is excellent so don't mind me. Most folk, myself included (you'll notice I use edit a lot!), would have written it the same way and 'ownership' of the child would have been implied

Do you have a favourite headphone pairing with the Polaris?

Well... I only have two pairs of cans: HE400i (at the office) and D2000 (at home). I mostly use the former, the latter get used mostly at night (like now), but I never felt they scaled as good as the HE400i with the Polaris/Ember. Legendary cans that never engaged me as much as the HE400i.

With my HE400i the Polaris sounds terrific! The sound has great authority, and compared to the Ember there is slightly more definition in the sub-bass frequencies (not the strongest point of the HE400i). But the Ember excels in the mids compared to the Polaris. I have now the routine of listening to the Ember in the morning (in the office) and to (Frans') Polaris after lunch to make my subjective comparisons :-P

After 12 days on Tenerife listening to the modded Philips with my ipod, coming back to the Polaris and Ember has blown me away (again)!

What a difference. I usually don't notice these things on a daily basis. The sound is so much more lively ;-)

I decided to take the plunge, it's a Polaris next for me
Of course my Ember II is not going anywhere. I think tube rolling is fun. What do you guys do with the tubes you don't like as much? Hmmm, going to have to figure that one out...
Anyway, I want to play with them both.
Funny story (here is how to get a better deal) I was originally attracted to the Garage 1217 amps because I wanted to build them. I used to love Heathkits as a kid. But both times when I tried to order kits Jeremy had none and so offered me built ones instead for irresistible prices. Based on my hourly pay rate at work (airline guy) that means he is building them in 3-5 minutes, wow. Good for you J Dog! Thanks again for taking such good care of me!
I have some very low impedance phones with great bass so they should pair well with the Polaris. And I should finally get some real insight into the different sound signatures of tubes VS not tubes. I am also hoping I can put together a compact road rig with it taking center stage in whatever hotel room I find myself, and keeping me out of the bars, um, thanks for that too J. I promise to report my findings here but I expect to end up like Rabbit, using both and occasionally swapping a tube in the other, just for fun.

Same as me. Low impedance works better with the Polaris.

On first listen, the Ember is more colourful. The Polaris is slightly more restrained but for me, it seems more accurate.

As far as tubes go, I use anything that looks like a tube and don't worry about it. However, I try to get something that might 'enhance' one headphone. My Ember has been used with the hd650 quite a lot. I'm using just a Jan Philips which is fine.

It means you can order 2 'versions' with each 3 settings.
The 'mellow' one has BW settings as determined by me.
The 'agressive' one has 3 settings as determined by Jeremy.

In both versions the 'wide' bandwidth setting is exactly the same.

The medium setting on the mild version doesn't have a roll-off in the audible band but does limit the BW so nasties from DAC's can not cause 'problems'.
On the 'aggressive' version it just starts to roll-off in the audible band.

The low bandwidth setting in the 'mellow' version has just audible roll-off.
Very similar to that of NOS DAC's and that of the 'Indeed' alike tube amps.
This gives the amp a 'fuller' sound without being obviously rolled-off.

The low bandwidth setting in the 'agressive' version has a considerable roll-off that starts well within the audible band and is quite noticeable as reduced treble.

ok cheers.
do these adjustments affect the Polaris when used as a pre-amp too?