Koss Totem Mani-2 User Manual download pdf (Page 42)

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Listening Room

his headphone amp is from the

same German company that

makes the phono preamp

o f n e a r l y

the same name. It

is, as you will have

observed, neither

black nor a cube, but

oh well. The power

supply is built in, and so

it has a standard IEC cord.

The two sets of phono jacks

(the second set is an output, so

that the Lehmann can actually be

used as a simple preamp) are reasonable,

and were a tight ﬁt with our reference

interconnects.

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f the Lehmann amplifier had

seemed expensive, what to think

of this one? In fact it is only a little

more expensive than the Lehmann,

and that would be ﬁne…if its perfor-

mance turned out to be substantially

superior.

And the CEC is rather more versa-

tile than most headphone amps. On its

picture on page 42, you can make out

the output binding posts at the rear.

Why would a headphone amp need

binding posts? It’s because this is also

an ampliﬁer of not insubstantial power

(10 watts into 4 ohms according to the

specs, which we didn’t conﬁrm), and it

is actually possible to connect speakers

to it. More on this shortly.

This is an all-in-one amp, with

the power supply in the quite heavy

aluminum case, and with the usual IEC

plug for the cord of your choice. The

phono input jacks are — as on the CEC

integrated ampliﬁer reviewed in our last

issue — not inspiring. On the other hand

there are also XLR balanced jacks if you

have the appropriate source.

A small rear panel switch adjusts the

ampliﬁer’s gain so that you can have a

good range of volume. In our setup (we

were, you’ll recall, running it from the

output of the Benchmark converter)

we needed to select the +6 dB position

in order to avoid running the volume

control nearly all the way up. We could

hear a bit of hiss with that setting, but it

was so slight that it was inaudible with

even the softest musical passage.

But the front panel is where the inter-

esting stuff lies. There are two volume

controls, and at ﬁrst we thought they

controlled the left and right channels

respectively. Not so. The HD53 actually

has two independent headphone ampli-

ﬁer sections. It’s perfect for couples.

Each of you gets a headphone jack

(actually two headphone jacks, one for a

full-sized phone plug and the other for

a miniplug), and an independent volume

control. Compare that to what you get

with most headphone ampliﬁers, and it’s

clear that you’re getting something extra

for your money.

At least if the performance is ade-

quate, you are.

We began with Margie Gibson’s song

The Best Thing For You, and we were

pretty sure we had a winner. Gibson’s

voice was clearer than with either of the

other two ampliﬁers, but without even

a hint of strain. Her “S” sounds were

Lehmann Black Cube Linear

The CEC HD53-R

40 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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Koss Totem Mani-2 User Manual Page 42

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