Nice review ! I am surprised by the power output you have posted. I thought I read in your thread, comments made by a Nuprime employee that these had extreme power. I am a little confused, I need to go back and read that later today. I am considering this and the Heron amp. I get the impression you prefer the Nuprime ? Thanks
Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org
lugnut
grizzlybeast
I like both but the Heron has a lot of design issues whereas this has none. The Heron sounds more open and clear but the attack is smoothed over and it is not punchy at all.
This does have a lot of power and thus why I said in the review that the mW are not to be used for power requirements with this amp. It has plenty of current. A different design that is very unusual. For the all arounder Id go for the nuprime. For vocals id go for the Heron.
This does have a lot of power and thus why I said in the review that the mW are not to be used for power requirements with this amp. It has plenty of current. A different design that is very unusual. For the all arounder Id go for the nuprime. For vocals id go for the Heron.
jasonl
Thanks for the validation. Our design engineer has been adamant about not posting the output impedance of the HPA-9 due to misunderstanding of how it is being used and also the power rating. Even though it is a compact unit, it has the same amount of capacitor storage as the $7600 a pair Reference 20 mono amp. The unique design also allow HPA-9 to drive just about anything power hungry headphones out there and yet able to work with sensitive in-ears. This is very difficult to do. For the NuPrime DAC-10H, it uses a different design with two level of gain settings. This design has a different advantage because the DAC-10H can be to gain-match any amplifier too, not just headphone amp. For HPA-9 we want to do something different.
knowhatimean
I'm not so sure you can call not having more ""airiness" a "Con". That sense of "airiness" really doesn't work to enhance how all recorded music sounds.. If you listen to a lot of "Live" listening perspective, Acoustic music recordings, the added "envelope of air" being placed around the players already exists.
I guess it depends on how much studio recorded music how much "Value" (if any) you place on how "airy" an amp sounds. I always tends to crack me up how people will spend a hefty premium for amps that add this coloration to the music they listen to.
I may have to place this headphone amp on my short list of amps to try, knowing that it doesn't have this coloration.
I guess it depends on how much studio recorded music how much "Value" (if any) you place on how "airy" an amp sounds. I always tends to crack me up how people will spend a hefty premium for amps that add this coloration to the music they listen to.
I may have to place this headphone amp on my short list of amps to try, knowing that it doesn't have this coloration.
grizzlybeast
@knowhatimean to keep it simple I am not talking about a coloration. It sounds slightly tinted to me which may work well with brighter or harsher gear. Between the studio camp, and the audiophile camp I am of the studio camp and actually find my HD800S to still be colored in the treble.
"I guess it depends on how much studio recorded music how much "Value" (if any) you place on how "airy" an amp sounds. I always tends to crack me up how people will spend a hefty premium for amps that add this coloration to the music they listen to."
Hopefully when people spend a premium on gear they aren't looking for this feature alone. Someone who has been around as much gear as I have, studio and audiophile certainly is not doing what you say.
"I guess it depends on how much studio recorded music how much "Value" (if any) you place on how "airy" an amp sounds. I always tends to crack me up how people will spend a hefty premium for amps that add this coloration to the music they listen to."
Hopefully when people spend a premium on gear they aren't looking for this feature alone. Someone who has been around as much gear as I have, studio and audiophile certainly is not doing what you say.
knowhatimean
@grizzlybeast, I've been at this hobby & buying a good bit of higher priced equipment for sometime myself , would beg to differ . A substantial amount of "high end" (mostly tube design) amps are very popular specifically for the way they will present music in an "airrier" manner then how the recording technique will dictate the sound to actually be. It's nothing more than a personal preference as to how
listeners prefer their music to sound. (There is even a headphone that "frequency contours" the sound of
recordings; & it happens to be the one you've named).
I'm only saying that what appears to be an overwhelming popular preference isn't necessarily the "pinnacle" of what headphone amps "should aspire" to sound like. I think a lot of listeners strive for airiness to their sound as a sonic bandaid to cover up some playback system deficiencies that exist in their systems ( & if you don't consider all the seperate parts of your playback in a system approach you basically have to add "colorations" to what you listen to for the results you want.)
"Bravo" to the amp designer who doesn't feel the need to follow the mold of how other amps present their sound ! (Sorry for my wordiness)
listeners prefer their music to sound. (There is even a headphone that "frequency contours" the sound of
recordings; & it happens to be the one you've named).
I'm only saying that what appears to be an overwhelming popular preference isn't necessarily the "pinnacle" of what headphone amps "should aspire" to sound like. I think a lot of listeners strive for airiness to their sound as a sonic bandaid to cover up some playback system deficiencies that exist in their systems ( & if you don't consider all the seperate parts of your playback in a system approach you basically have to add "colorations" to what you listen to for the results you want.)
"Bravo" to the amp designer who doesn't feel the need to follow the mold of how other amps present their sound ! (Sorry for my wordiness)
grizzlybeast
Word up. We do not understand each other. Go and buy this awesome amp, hear it for yourself and enjoy! Highly recommended.
reddog
A sweet review, seems like a versatile power house.
jasonl
Most dealers and certainly online stores offer free shipping and 100% refund within 30 days. www.sonicunity.com, Amazon, Audio Advisor, to name a few.
