Fosgate Signature Tube Headphone Amplifier. Beautiful. Natural. "a midband that is just gorgeous"

Beautiful Fosgate Signature headphone amp in like new condition. It has no scratches and sounds wonderful.
It has low hours and comes with two sets of tubes. This reference
headphone amp will ship in the original carton with manual. Read reviews
below for comments on the sound quality and special bass and spatial
qualities.. Paypal adds 3%. Checks welcome

Midwest Audio  574 329-1850

I am also an authorized dealer for Legacy Speakers, Oracle , Auralic, Resonessence Labs, and Triangle Art. Coincident, and NAT Audio. midwestaudiophile dot com

From Innerfidelity:

Fosgate Signature Tube Headphone Amplifier ($1499)

When famed audio designer Jim Fosgate first announced that he was going
to be making a tube headphone amp, I was definitely interested,
especially when I saw the first pictures of it—it's a beautiful product.
For a variety of reasons, it took quite a while for me to actually
hear one, which was at a Chicago headphone meet—and on that cursory
listen I thought it sounded good. So finally, a review unit arrived for
me to really put through the paces.

The $1,500 Fosgate Signature is billed as a vacuum tube amplifier, but
if I understand it correctly it is really a type of hybrid design, using
a pair of 12AX7 dual-triode tubes in the input/driver stage (described
by Fosgate as an "SRPP configuration"), and then "Video Buffers" as what
amounts to the output stage. The video buffers are said to have no
voltage gain, and as such, the Signature is a fairly low power
amplifier, delivering (according to the excellent owner's manual)
between 165 mW—250 mW depending on the impedance of the headphone. This
pretty much requires the use of a fairly efficient headphone. To that
end, I used the Audio-Technica W3000ANV for the review, primarily. I
did also briefly try the Audeze LCD-3, but as I expected, the Fosgate
did not deliver enough power to drive them what I think of as properly.
That said I was very impressed that there was absolutely no noticeable
background hum or noise when using the W3000ANV. This is obviously a
very good thing, and not always the case with amps using tubes combined
with the very efficient AT's.

The Signature has a couple of unique features—one is a patented bass EQ
circuit, and the other is a "surround sound" function the stated goal of
which designed to make the soundstage via headphones more natural. As I
often find to be the case, whether I preferred these functions to be on
or off depended on the music I was listening to at the time. Sometimes
they were terrific and enhanced the listening experience, and sometimes
they did not. Both functions are very, very subtle in effect. At the
max setting of "Surround", the soundstage does seem to be coming from
outside the headphones, and not in between them, but it doesn't put the
image in front of you, so I actually didn't personally care for it most
of the time. That said, on some jazz from the late 50's/early 60's, like
"Waltz Me Blues" from Art Peppers' "Meets the Rhythm Section", the
Surround feature helped to make what's a bit of a ping-pong stereo mix a
bit more enjoyable, although this a track that I don't think works all
that well with headphones outside of using the MONO switch on my vintage
Pioneer amp.

On the other hand, the two bass boost settings were often VERY useful,
and this is a great feature to have, given that the amount of boost is
very subtle even with "MAX". Good stuff. One thing to note: the use of
the Surround feature does actually reduce apparent bass weight (often
the case with crossfeed type circuits), and as such, the use of the bass
boost is almost mandatory if one chooses to use the Surround function.

There are some other niceties like a 35 second muting circuit to
eliminate turn on transients, and two inputs with a front panel selector
switch (note to manufacturers: rear panel selector switches SUCK, so
Fosgate gets credit for doing it right).

The signature of the Signature

The Fosgate Signature pulls the listener into the music with a natural,
engaging sound overall, with generally good detail and nuance, and a
midband that is just gorgeous. This isn't due to any overt
coloration—music sounds natural and dynamic (provided efficient
headphones are used). The presentation is smooth and silky, but also
very wideband and natural sounding. This is NOT an amp I would describe
as being "tubey" sounding. It's highly transparent, and essentially
neutral, with perhaps just a wee bit of overall warmth. For this
listener at least, that's about ideal.

Well recorded jazz, such as Sonny Rollins' "Way Out West", was very well
rendered by the Fosgate, and in a remarkably natural and engaging way,
as was "Jersey Girl" from Holly Cole Trio's "Temptation". Two very
different jazz records, those, but both of them have the potential to
sound astonishing, and that was delivered by the Fosgate. Indeed, the
manner in which these two different recordings both sounded very natural
and lifelike was impressive.

This is not to say that the Signature for jazz or classical music lovers
only. I am a rock and roller. I enjoyed greatly listening to Steven
Wilson's phenomenal "The Raven That Refused To Sing (and Other Stories)"
via the Fosgate. The first few minutes of "The Watchmaker" are filled
with spare, incredibly well recorded instrumentation and soaring vocal
harmonies, and these are incredibly well rendered by the Fosgate.
Toward the end of the song, the music becomes very heavy, dense, and
complex, and the Fosgate kept that well sorted out as well, not allowing
the music to become a puddle of mush, which is not an easy trick. But I
thought the presentation delivered by the signature on this reference
quality but challenging track was excellent.

And more straightforward rock and roll was also great sounding. "Since I
Held You" from the recent Mobile Fidelity re-issue of The Cars
masterpiece "Candy-O" was also fantastic, with great delineation of the
very dense musical soundscape that this record presents. The treble was
not the most extended I have ever heard, but it didn't ever feel clearly
rolled off, and it was NEVER aggressive or annoying on tracks that it
shouldn't have been. Not every headphone amp I have heard gets that
right. On tracks where the treble IS aggressive, the Fosgate still
presented this, but at least it wasn't adding to the problem. That's
what you want from your amplifier. And with well recorded music, like
"Waiting" from Porcupine Tree's "Signify", the Fosgate delivered a
combination of detail and smoothness in the treble that was very easy to
like.

The bass...well, the bass control gives you a lot of flexibility, and so
it's a bit hard to describe the bass weight of the amp in one sentence,
but the tautness is always good. Depth is very good, again being
somewhat short of the very best, but still excellent. Nothing ever
really felt like it was missing. Tracks with powerful bass sounded
powerful, and again, if you felt the need for a bit more kick, it's
available at the press of a button, and in a way that doesn't muck up
the rest of the sound. The very present bass in Nightwish's "Ocean
Soul" from "Century Child" is hard to keep clean and defined, but the
Signature did manage that trick.

The soundstage is very well defined, and images were well fleshed out.
The soundstage is, however, not very deep. Some other high-end
headphone amps do seem to dig more depth out of the soundstage than the
Fosgate does. I'm not an imaging freak, so this was pretty
inconsequential for me, but something a prospective buyer should be
aware of. And again, the soundstage was very clean and well defined, it
just wasn't the most holographic I have ever heard, and as also
mentioned above, I don't think the "Surround" feature really changes
that. It just widens the soundstage; it doesn't deepen it.

I listen at fairly low volumes with headphones, and with the W3000ANV
there was definitely more power than I required even for a very loud
listen. I actually wouldn't have minded a bit MORE play on the volume
control, actually. I tried a pair of the slightly lower gain 5751 tubes
in place of the stock ones, and while I preferred these (Sylvania Gold
Brand black plate 5751's) versus the stock tubes generally, they didn't
really change the gain structure much. The Fosgate will change its
sound signature slightly in response to tube rolling, and tube rolling
is VERY easy on this amp, so it's worth trying.

Finally, the Fosgate

The
Fosgate signature is a very good looking headphone amplifier, with a
lot of very nice features, that also sounds terrific. It is not a good
match for power hungry planar headphones, but for high-efficiency
headphones of a very high quality, the Fosgate Signature is a good
example of how you can create a headphone listening experience that will
rival ultra-expensive speaker-based stereos in many ways. The
combination of the AT W3000ANV and the Fosgate Signature was an
incredibly enjoyable music listening experience that I will miss when I
have to send it back. And honestly, I will also miss looking at it on my
desk. I also think that the asking price of $1,500 is reasonable for
the sound and build quality you get, and the Signature competes very
favorably with several of the other amps I have reviewed that are around
that same price range this past year. Definitely recommended for
owners of high end, efficient headphones, the Fosgate Signature made
great music for me.

From CNET:

The Fosgate Signature Headphone Amplifier
Musical Surroundings

The Fosgate Signature Headphone Amplifier is
one of the very best-sounding amps I've ever used. It was designed by
one of the greats, Jim Fosgate, a man who earned 18 audio related
patents, founded a number of successful electronics companies -- oh, and
he pioneered high-power car
audio systems. He was also a big supporter of the very first home
surround format -- quadraphonic -- in the early 1970s, and so committed
to the format that even as quad was winding down, he designed the
Fosgate Tate 101, arguably the finest quad processor of the era. Fosgate
also created the best-selling matrix surround codec of all time, Dolby
Pro Logic II, and in 2003 he won an Emmy for Development of Surround Sound for Television.

When I asked Fosgate why his new headphone
amp uses tube and solid-state electronics, he said, "I'm not trying to
make an old-fashioned sound, but the tubes make it sound better than an
all-solid-state circuit." The amp has a patented bass boost equalizer
circuit that improves low-frequency bass impact without adding bass boom
or muddiness. There are three positions on the bass control: Min, Max,
and Off. I didn't use the bass boost all the time, but it really helped
improve the sound of some headphones, including my Sennheiser HD 700s.

The other unique feature, also patented by Fosgate, is the Panorama
Control that adds spaciousness to stereo headphone sound. At first
panorama seemed a little unnatural, but after I left it on for a while I
preferred it. When I turned it off and returned to regular stereo,
stereo seemed claustrophobic and small. You don't have to use it, but
I'm glad it's there.

During my listening tests, I compared the Fosgate with two of my favorite solid-state headphone amps, the
Burson Audio HA-160
(now discontinued) and the
Hifiman EF-6
($1,599) with my Grado RS-1,
Sennheiser HD 700
, and
Audeze LCD 2
and LCD 3 headphones. The Fosgate amp had a slightly
warmer tonal balance, but it sounded more transparent and clear than
the two solid-state amps. Bass definition was ahead of the other two
amps. The tubes definitely didn't smear or soften the sound, and even
with the panorama control turned off, the Fosgate amp produced a more
expansive and open sound than either the Burson or Hifiman amps.

David Bowie's new high-resolution album, "The Next Day," showcased
the amp's ability to unravel dense mixes, so I could more clearly hear
each sound and instrument. I especially enjoyed the Fosgate with movies,
"A Late Quartet," a film about a classical string quartet dealing with
change sounded wonderful. The string instruments' tone was perfect, and
when the musicians practice at home, I could hear the sound of the
instruments filling their room. It was like being there. When it was
time to pack up the amp and send it back, I was truly sorry to see it
go.