VEDA-AUDIO DYNAHI REVIEW
Reviewers Experience:
·Member of Head-Fi since December 2003
·Previously reviewed the Moth 2A3 amp
·Owned or had extended auditions with the Grado line up from the SR-225 through the PS-1, Sennheiser HD-650, Alessandro MS-1, MS-2 and MS-PRO and Sony CD3000 and SA5000
·Owned a Headsave Ultra and Go-Vibe, LaRocco PPA with Diamond Buffer, Eddie Current HD300, HD25 and Moth 2A3, Ray Samuels XP-7
·Music Hall CD-25 RAM Signature mods. Eastern Electric Minimax and Berendsen CDP-1
Equipment used for Review:
·Veda Audio Dynahi SA
·Berendsen CDP-1
·Sony MDR-SA5000
·Alessandro MS-PRO
·Straightwire Rhapsody IC
Music Selection:
·Victor Wooten – All Across America
·The Bad Plus - Give
·Dave Holland’s Big Band – Overtime
·Madeleine Peyroux – Careless Love
Introduction:
Writing reviews does not come naturally to me. Despite having been a pretty active part of this website for almost a year and a half I still find it difficult to describe what I hear in words. I probably put in at least 30 or 40 hours of listening time with the amp before I started thinking about the review. The Dynahi has a good 100 hours of burn time as of the time of writing the review.
Build Quality and Appearance:
My description of the build quality of this amp will be from the perspective of a consumer without any particular expertise in amp construction or design, as I have no such expertise. My test unit is black where my integrated and cdp are silver. Eliminating color as an issue, I love the look of this amp. I should take a moment to say that the pictures I've taken do not do the Dynahi justice. It is the biggest solid-state headamp I’ve come across. It is the size of my cdp, which is a pretty big unit. I don’t know the weight of the amp but it is substantial. Lifting the amp up you get the feel of a substantial piece of equipment. The case is attractive and the lettering on the front panel appears professionally done. Again, when lifting the amp, there is no flex in the case. It is as solid as any other equipment I’ve come across. The Veda-Audio Dynahi is available with up to 4 inputs. There are other options but I suggest you check out the website for that information.
Sound:
I will start the review, not by discussing sound, but rather the lack of sound. I tested the blackness of the amp with both the MS-PRO and SA5000. With my source paused I moved the volume dial from left to right. The amp has a stepped attenuator and at every position, with either headphone, there was dead silence. I threw in Madeleine Peyroux’s Careless Love. This is an album I only picked up recently after hearing “dance me to the end of love” a hundred times on Sirius Satellite Radio. While I enjoy Sirius, I have to say that the quality of sound is far from optimal. I have a pretty good system in my Touareg but it is not capable of reproducing her beautiful voice. Granted the sound all begins with the cdp (after the recording itself) but the amp does not get in the way. It lets the sound come though, good or bad. Her voice is articulate, meaning there is a certain sense of clarity. You can hear her lips touch as she pronounces certain words. There is a tremendous amount of delicacy with this recording. You can clearly hear her fingers gliding across the strings while she plays the acoustic guitar. Sometimes it seems you can make out the actual friction from the individual grooves in the strings. Another example of this is not only the sound of Dave Holland’s fingers moving up and down the neck of the double bass but also his fingers hitting the strings as he plays each note. On the song “Mental Images” there is a great example of this at the beginning of the song. Using the SA5000 it is remarkable how clearly this is portrayed. I don’t mean to the point of distraction, but rather, to where you feel as if the instrument is being played in your living room. This is a testament to the amps neutrality and accuracy as well as the SA5000 reproduction of that neutrality and accuracy.
Dave Holland Big Band also provides a fine example of the amps ability to image. The “Big Band” consists of 13 pieces. Using the MS-PRO’s you would expect a certain amount of congestion. Well, you would be correct, however, despite the congestion you still get a sense of the three dimensional nature of the song. You have trombones to the left, sax in the middle with drums behind. When I move to the SA5000 everything just opens up. Where there was congestion before there now is a generous amount of air between the instruments. Every instrument has its place. The soundstage stretches out past my ears on both sides with the drums in the back of my head, the vibes a little to the left of the drums and the brass instruments on either side and a bit more towards the front. Either headphone does a nice job with the Dynahi, but if I had to choose one it would be the SA5000 because of the very wide-open soundstage and beautiful imaging.
To evaluate the bass and body produced by the amp I picked The Bad Plus. In case you haven’t heard of them, the band consists of bass, drums and piano. From the first track on you get a tremendous sense of body in the music. The bass produced is nothing short of real. I mean, you can feel the strings of the bass being plucked and the sound of it reverberating. The sound produced is can only be described as tight. Not unrealistically tight. The bass is not boomy with the SA5000 and only slightly so with the MS-PRO. In fact, boomy is probably not the best description. A better description would be impact. I also used Victor Wooten’s “Miller Time” (I love the song, especially the bass) and the bass is incredibly tight with lots of impact. It just doesn’t beat you over the head with it. This is true with either headphone. This cd also demonstrates the speed produced by the Dynahi. When the music needs to move quickly, the Dynahi provides the horsepower necessary. I hear this especially with the piano and drums. When they get going you better move out of the way.
The vast majority of my headphone experience in the last year and a half has been with tube amps. The reason for this is that the solid-state amps I tried tended to be on the cool side. I only had the one experience with the PPA and I found it to be rather cold. I had similar experience with some of the other solid-state amps I owned and some I tried at meets. Then in walks in the Veda-Dynahi SA. This amp does not have the coolness I had previously experienced with other solid-state amps. In fact, when comparing it to the HD25 I found the Dynahi’s warmth to almost be on a par with that of the HD25. I do not find the HD25 to be the warmest of tube amps but certainly no one would confuse it for anything other than a tube amp. The big difference is in the Dynahi’s ability to be warm and at the same time portray such incredible detail. It also goes further at the extremes then the HD25. The bass is tighter and deeper and the treble is crisp and clean.
Another thing I notice about the amp is the tonal quality of the amp. I have to say that I learned what this means from Ryan’s (recstar24) review of the Raptor. The instruments sound like they are supposed to. Cymbal hits sound like cymbal hits with just the right amount of decay. The piano sounds like what I perceive a piano to sound like when I hear one live. I see a lot of live music of all different types and in different venues. I feel I have a sense of what live music should sound like and that is the impression I am left with when using the Dynahi. This brings me back to an earlier statement that I made. This amp is the most neutral amp I’ve heard. Whether something is neutral depends so much on ones perception of what they believe the original recording would have sounded like had they been listening in the studio. None of us really know but we all have our own ideas. The music that comes through the Dynahi sounds like what my idea of the original recording sounded like. Is this a bit of an exaggeration, of course. However, I am trying to convey my personal feeling of what this amp is capable of. The only color this amp has is the color brought by the headphones used. The SA5000 match the Dynahi’s neutrality, where the MS-PRO brings their own color to the table.
Conclusion:
I would hope that by now you would know my feelings about this amp. In case my possibly confusing use of audiophile terms has left some doubt, I love this amp. If the EC version sounds the same as this amp, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, then it is a bargain. These amps compete with the best I’ve heard. Are there amps that do certain things better, of course. I don’t pretend to think I’ve heard enough to call this or any amp “the best” but having said that, this amp is damn good. This amp has no trouble driving either the MS-PRO or the SA5000. I do not have any other headphones to try so you will have to rely on others for their opinions. The Dynahi SA I have comes with a gain switch. I use it some of the time, but it is not needed with either of these headphones. I do not have any real criticisms for the amp. I have enjoyed every minute of time I've spent with it over the last couple of weeks. If you are looking for an amp that is laid back, tubey sounding, this may not be the amp for you. I should emphasize "may" because with a different headphone, perhaps the HD-650, this still may be an amp to consider. Otherwise, this is the amp for you. It has speed, accuracy, neutrality and the bass is excellent. What more could you want?
Reviewers Experience:
·Member of Head-Fi since December 2003
·Previously reviewed the Moth 2A3 amp
·Owned or had extended auditions with the Grado line up from the SR-225 through the PS-1, Sennheiser HD-650, Alessandro MS-1, MS-2 and MS-PRO and Sony CD3000 and SA5000
·Owned a Headsave Ultra and Go-Vibe, LaRocco PPA with Diamond Buffer, Eddie Current HD300, HD25 and Moth 2A3, Ray Samuels XP-7
·Music Hall CD-25 RAM Signature mods. Eastern Electric Minimax and Berendsen CDP-1
Equipment used for Review:
·Veda Audio Dynahi SA
·Berendsen CDP-1
·Sony MDR-SA5000
·Alessandro MS-PRO
·Straightwire Rhapsody IC
Music Selection:
·Victor Wooten – All Across America
·The Bad Plus - Give
·Dave Holland’s Big Band – Overtime
·Madeleine Peyroux – Careless Love
Introduction:
Writing reviews does not come naturally to me. Despite having been a pretty active part of this website for almost a year and a half I still find it difficult to describe what I hear in words. I probably put in at least 30 or 40 hours of listening time with the amp before I started thinking about the review. The Dynahi has a good 100 hours of burn time as of the time of writing the review.
Build Quality and Appearance:
My description of the build quality of this amp will be from the perspective of a consumer without any particular expertise in amp construction or design, as I have no such expertise. My test unit is black where my integrated and cdp are silver. Eliminating color as an issue, I love the look of this amp. I should take a moment to say that the pictures I've taken do not do the Dynahi justice. It is the biggest solid-state headamp I’ve come across. It is the size of my cdp, which is a pretty big unit. I don’t know the weight of the amp but it is substantial. Lifting the amp up you get the feel of a substantial piece of equipment. The case is attractive and the lettering on the front panel appears professionally done. Again, when lifting the amp, there is no flex in the case. It is as solid as any other equipment I’ve come across. The Veda-Audio Dynahi is available with up to 4 inputs. There are other options but I suggest you check out the website for that information.
Sound:
I will start the review, not by discussing sound, but rather the lack of sound. I tested the blackness of the amp with both the MS-PRO and SA5000. With my source paused I moved the volume dial from left to right. The amp has a stepped attenuator and at every position, with either headphone, there was dead silence. I threw in Madeleine Peyroux’s Careless Love. This is an album I only picked up recently after hearing “dance me to the end of love” a hundred times on Sirius Satellite Radio. While I enjoy Sirius, I have to say that the quality of sound is far from optimal. I have a pretty good system in my Touareg but it is not capable of reproducing her beautiful voice. Granted the sound all begins with the cdp (after the recording itself) but the amp does not get in the way. It lets the sound come though, good or bad. Her voice is articulate, meaning there is a certain sense of clarity. You can hear her lips touch as she pronounces certain words. There is a tremendous amount of delicacy with this recording. You can clearly hear her fingers gliding across the strings while she plays the acoustic guitar. Sometimes it seems you can make out the actual friction from the individual grooves in the strings. Another example of this is not only the sound of Dave Holland’s fingers moving up and down the neck of the double bass but also his fingers hitting the strings as he plays each note. On the song “Mental Images” there is a great example of this at the beginning of the song. Using the SA5000 it is remarkable how clearly this is portrayed. I don’t mean to the point of distraction, but rather, to where you feel as if the instrument is being played in your living room. This is a testament to the amps neutrality and accuracy as well as the SA5000 reproduction of that neutrality and accuracy.
Dave Holland Big Band also provides a fine example of the amps ability to image. The “Big Band” consists of 13 pieces. Using the MS-PRO’s you would expect a certain amount of congestion. Well, you would be correct, however, despite the congestion you still get a sense of the three dimensional nature of the song. You have trombones to the left, sax in the middle with drums behind. When I move to the SA5000 everything just opens up. Where there was congestion before there now is a generous amount of air between the instruments. Every instrument has its place. The soundstage stretches out past my ears on both sides with the drums in the back of my head, the vibes a little to the left of the drums and the brass instruments on either side and a bit more towards the front. Either headphone does a nice job with the Dynahi, but if I had to choose one it would be the SA5000 because of the very wide-open soundstage and beautiful imaging.
To evaluate the bass and body produced by the amp I picked The Bad Plus. In case you haven’t heard of them, the band consists of bass, drums and piano. From the first track on you get a tremendous sense of body in the music. The bass produced is nothing short of real. I mean, you can feel the strings of the bass being plucked and the sound of it reverberating. The sound produced is can only be described as tight. Not unrealistically tight. The bass is not boomy with the SA5000 and only slightly so with the MS-PRO. In fact, boomy is probably not the best description. A better description would be impact. I also used Victor Wooten’s “Miller Time” (I love the song, especially the bass) and the bass is incredibly tight with lots of impact. It just doesn’t beat you over the head with it. This is true with either headphone. This cd also demonstrates the speed produced by the Dynahi. When the music needs to move quickly, the Dynahi provides the horsepower necessary. I hear this especially with the piano and drums. When they get going you better move out of the way.
The vast majority of my headphone experience in the last year and a half has been with tube amps. The reason for this is that the solid-state amps I tried tended to be on the cool side. I only had the one experience with the PPA and I found it to be rather cold. I had similar experience with some of the other solid-state amps I owned and some I tried at meets. Then in walks in the Veda-Dynahi SA. This amp does not have the coolness I had previously experienced with other solid-state amps. In fact, when comparing it to the HD25 I found the Dynahi’s warmth to almost be on a par with that of the HD25. I do not find the HD25 to be the warmest of tube amps but certainly no one would confuse it for anything other than a tube amp. The big difference is in the Dynahi’s ability to be warm and at the same time portray such incredible detail. It also goes further at the extremes then the HD25. The bass is tighter and deeper and the treble is crisp and clean.
Another thing I notice about the amp is the tonal quality of the amp. I have to say that I learned what this means from Ryan’s (recstar24) review of the Raptor. The instruments sound like they are supposed to. Cymbal hits sound like cymbal hits with just the right amount of decay. The piano sounds like what I perceive a piano to sound like when I hear one live. I see a lot of live music of all different types and in different venues. I feel I have a sense of what live music should sound like and that is the impression I am left with when using the Dynahi. This brings me back to an earlier statement that I made. This amp is the most neutral amp I’ve heard. Whether something is neutral depends so much on ones perception of what they believe the original recording would have sounded like had they been listening in the studio. None of us really know but we all have our own ideas. The music that comes through the Dynahi sounds like what my idea of the original recording sounded like. Is this a bit of an exaggeration, of course. However, I am trying to convey my personal feeling of what this amp is capable of. The only color this amp has is the color brought by the headphones used. The SA5000 match the Dynahi’s neutrality, where the MS-PRO brings their own color to the table.
Conclusion:
I would hope that by now you would know my feelings about this amp. In case my possibly confusing use of audiophile terms has left some doubt, I love this amp. If the EC version sounds the same as this amp, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, then it is a bargain. These amps compete with the best I’ve heard. Are there amps that do certain things better, of course. I don’t pretend to think I’ve heard enough to call this or any amp “the best” but having said that, this amp is damn good. This amp has no trouble driving either the MS-PRO or the SA5000. I do not have any other headphones to try so you will have to rely on others for their opinions. The Dynahi SA I have comes with a gain switch. I use it some of the time, but it is not needed with either of these headphones. I do not have any real criticisms for the amp. I have enjoyed every minute of time I've spent with it over the last couple of weeks. If you are looking for an amp that is laid back, tubey sounding, this may not be the amp for you. I should emphasize "may" because with a different headphone, perhaps the HD-650, this still may be an amp to consider. Otherwise, this is the amp for you. It has speed, accuracy, neutrality and the bass is excellent. What more could you want?
I can't wait to here one. We know who the maker is and wish him much success in amp building. 
