[Andrew Rieger]

  I've just ordered this amp to try it out.  fingers crossed it a good one!!

I would love to hear your impressions when it arrives. 

 

[Andrew Rieger]

  I've just ordered this amp to try it out.  fingers crossed it a good one!!

EDIT: Opps double post my bad

 

[chry5alis]

First thoughts are this is a very, very good amp.  But it also seems to ask as many questions as it provides answers.  On the box the label reads 'precision reference amp', and after some time to break in, I'm starting to get a real feel for what this means.  Using the Rupert Neve headphone amp is like putting your music under an electron microscope - it is brutally honest, and fiercely critical of your source and material.
 
So resolving is the RNHP, that I am finding a new perspective on my music library.  Previous favourites like my 24bit Ziggy Stardust flac, now crackle and hiss between tracks like never before.  Yet modern, studio-produced tracks like daft punks 'get lucky' are now making me stop and take pause to a previously unseen brilliance.  The amp is lively, tight, and accurate.  Perhaps.. a little too accurate for home use.  There is a track I love on the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack that I sometimes use for reference, Elvin Bishops 'Fooled around and fell in love'.   At the first few bars of the intro, there is some faintly audible distortion in the left ear cup (could be my source, could be the recording) that in the past Ive been able to pick up on a good day, give or take.  But listening through the RNHP, this comes through clear as a bell, plain as day. 
 
Is this good or bad?  Ultimate fidelity for the purists, or warts and all for the hobbyist?  I must say, coming from tube amps, that I am enjoying this change of view.  The amp is driving my low impedence 'phones with ease - my grado GS1000e and eMu teaks are sounding fast and hot and big.  I would love to hear this amp with the Sennheiser hd600, which I think would be a perfect fit for this neutral studio monitor.
 
Will continue to break in and looking forward to hear any others impressions.

 

[Arsis]

First thoughts are this is a very, very good amp.  But it also seems to ask as many questions as it provides answers.  On the box the label reads 'precision reference amp', and after some time to break in, I'm starting to get a real feel for what this means.  Using the Rupert Neve headphone amp is like putting your music under an electron microscope - it is brutally honest, and fiercely critical of your source and material.

So resolving is the RNHP, that I am finding a new perspective on my music library.  Previous favourites like my 24bit Ziggy Stardust flac, now crackle and hiss between tracks like never before.  Yet modern, studio-produced tracks like daft punks 'get lucky' are now making me stop and take pause to a previously unseen brilliance.  The amp is lively, tight, and accurate.  Perhaps.. a little too accurate for home use.  There is a track I love on the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack that I sometimes use for reference, Elvin Bishops 'Fooled around and fell in love'.   At the first few bars of the intro, there is some faintly audible distortion in the left ear cup (could be my source, could be the recording) that in the past Ive been able to pick up on a good day, give or take.  But listening through the RNHP, this comes through clear as a bell, plain as day. 

Is this good or bad?  Ultimate fidelity for the purists, or warts and all for the hobbyist?  I must say, coming from tube amps, that I am enjoying this change of view.  The amp is driving my low impedence 'phones with ease - my grado GS1000e and eMu teaks are sounding fast and hot and big.  I would love to hear this amp with the Sennheiser hd600, which I think would be a perfect fit for this neutral studio monitor.

Will continue to break in and looking forward to hear any others impressions.

For me, a retired studio engineer, that brutal honesty is the name of the game. I'm jealous. That's going on the top of my wish list. It may be a while as I just got a new projector and screen.

 

[chry5alis]

For me, a retired studio engineer, that brutal honesty is the name of the game. I'm jealous. That's going on the top of my wish list. It may be a while as I just got a new projector and screen.

Glad to hear it, Im eager to see what others think of the amp. For anyone who is UK based, sxpro.co.uk are doing nice deals on open box units atm.

 

[chry5alis]

Earlier I asked jude head-fi admin on another thread what they thought of the RNHP and it was very encouraging to read the response :
 

  Regarding the Rupert Neve Design RNHP: With my travel schedule since its arrival, I haven't had as much time to listen to it as I'd like, but early impressions are that it's excellent at its price. It found its way into our measurement system (which I'll talk about in greater detail soon) when I noticed that the RNHP's channel matching (and it has an analog potentiometer for volume) was superb throughout its range--perhaps the best I'd seen from a headphone amp with an analog pot. (In this regard, it measured tighter than even my Benchmark DAC 2 HGC fed through its analog inputs.) The RNHP's other measurements were also fantastic, and I'll post them in an appropriate place soon.
 
Simply put, @chry5alis, subjective impressions of the RNHP will have to wait a bit (from me anyway), but, at its price, I feel confident saying it's worth the risk to pick up (even if the measurements don't mean anything to you, perhaps on Mr. Neve's reputation alone). Since the first RNHP we received ended up married to the Audio Precision APx555 to drive headphones (at least until our production Audio Precision APx1701 Transducer Test Interface arrives), we picked up two more RNHP's to use for actual music listening.
 

 
I'm really enjoying my RNHP now, it seems to be fleshing out with daily use.  Perhaps its just my ears getting used to it, but I feel the amp is much less analytical now, but still retains plenty of brightness and oodles of detail.  It's a joy to use and anything that makes me listen to more music is a good thing.  Very happy owner here!!

 

[Arsis]

Earlier I asked jude head-fi admin on another thread what they thought of the RNHP and it was very encouraging to read the response :


I'm really enjoying my RNHP now, it seems to be fleshing out with daily use.  Perhaps its just my ears getting used to it, but I feel the amp is much less analytical now, but still retains plenty of brightness and oodles of detail.  It's a joy to use and anything that makes me listen to more music is a good thing.  Very happy owner here!!

In the studio world, Neve consoles are universally known for being very musical sounding whereas their biggest competitor, Solid-State Logic, are known to be more analytical sounding. I worked on a 70's era Neve console (about $250K) for a number of years. I'm pretty familier with the Neve sound and quite eager to get my hands on RNHP. Glad to hear you are enjoying it.

 

[XERO1]

Hey chry5alis, thanks for sharing that info from Jude.  Looks like the RNHP might be something special.

 

[NewEinstein]

It seems we might have a demo unit of the RNHP at the Head-Fi meet in Denver on the 27th of August if anyone is interested and able to attend.
 
->  http://www.head-fi.org/t/809950/denver-summer-meet-2016-august-27

 

[Mediahound]

Jude talks about this amp in his CanJam London preview video published today here:
 

 

[Seth Warshavsky]

How does it compare to the Bakoon HPA 21?

 

[mungbean66]

   
Sounds great. It's better than my UD503 (using single end) driving HD650. 

 
@HiFan, Whats the level of detail retrieval like with the HD650 and the RNHP?
 
Going to be picking the RNHP up for my TH-X00 and a future Focal Elear (when available in Oz) but using a HD650 until I can get my hand on an Elear. 
 
Thanks for your observations by the way.

 

[Mediahound]

I'm curious about this amp too. I guess my only concern is the max power output is only 350mW. Is that enough?

 

[Edric Li]

Questions for users:
 
Do you think this amp is bass-light?
Can it drive HD800/HD800S to decent loudness?

 

[shutterbox]

Is the amp's adaptor good for 220-240VAC?