Audio-Technica AT-HA5000 vs. Higher Fidelity HA-01 (photos) - Page 8

That sucks, i had a slight hope that the new board would fix the noise. And its not like the amp needs any more gain, i can hardly touch the volume knob as it is. Hopefully they have some advice on how to lower the gain.

I`m starting to believe this amp would be better for hight-impedance phones.

But i really dont understand this, the company 100% stands behind the point that the amp is designed for both low and high impedance phones and that there shouldnt be any background noise with either. Otherwise they wouldnt have bothered to send a new board. And the designer has tested it more then once for sure too

OR its a language barrier problem and the service center didnt really understand what we were saying with the background noise/gain problem.
On the other hand the review being done with the L3000 would have mentioned such a problem for sure too.

I'm really clueless about this amp now

Yeah, theres something strange going on. Also in the manual, they talk about how everyone can make a dead-silent amp these days, that it`s no longer a problem to overcome . They then go on about the details of the 3stage design.

Well lets wait and see what the service will give as instructions. If that doesnt help ill try to get some info on setting it to lowgain manually.

Besides a resistor and 2 transistors there are some smd mounted things under the "dont remove" plates, and there is a jumper to skip the circuit.

The exchange board only differs in one thing from the stock board, the 2 outer trim pot are a different brand, but same rating.

Oh and amp burn in was definately there, my new board doesnt sound as dynamic as the old one which had around 200h. Also bass is a little loose, subtle, but it´s there.

I really hope this will work out sooner or later, no matter how much i try but i really dont like the idea of using the HA5000 with a voltage transformer.
I also dont like tubes so there is not much left

Thanks for the Info elephas.

I found out something very interesting. I removed the 2 jumpers and background noise was alot higher skipping the circuit, the gain must have doubled. I didnt try any music because i dont want my ears killed on even the lowest volume setting So it seems the hidden circuit is indeed for adjusting the gain, very interesting. And it does seem to work, but it doesnt lower the gain enough to kill background noise.

Oh, and even the K81 bass becomes tight, controlled and detailed on the HA01, nice Also there is no harsh highs even at extremly loud levels, its always 100% controlled, better than the AT cans. Underamped out of a portable this headphone has a few problems.

Very fortunate to have found this thread as I was just about to take the plunge with the purchase of this amp (HD-HA01) from KingSound. Is the background noise very noticable? Does it interfere with your listening enjoyment?

Thanks!

Just found another 1-2 threads on a chinese forum, the user tested it with a DT880 and grado if i remember right:

"I already had said, HA01 works excellent, surpasses all I has seen the domestically produced ear to put, regardless of commodity machine or DIY."
(babelfish)

Also he says the sound is "american" and high end, whatever that means

the forum is bbs.headphoneclub.com

I hate to bump up this moderately old thread, but have you resolved your HA-01 problem yet? I really want to order one, but if there's hiss, it's an absolute no-go for me.

Nope i still didnt hear back, will probably email them again soon. I was too busy with other things meanwhile.
Anyway i got my HA5000 now, havent listened to it yet (waiting for my stepdown transformer) but i'll have to sell the HA01 to pay my rent next month
BTW I could try it with an DT880 meanwhile and there was absolutely no hiss with that headphone.

So finally an update to this thread

I sold my HA-01 by now since got myself an HA5000.
The comparison between these 2 amps is summed up quickly. Technically the HA5000 is a little advanced paired with the W5000, its soundstage goes slightly deeper and wider, it has more airy sound and a better matched timbre, also it brings a little more weight to the W5000. Nothing fundamentally though, it wont transform the W5000 and the HA-01 is very close behind except its tuned for neutrality. Anyway if you dont like it out of other amps, the HA5000 wont change that for you probably.
I remember the HA-01 to have better dynamics though, not sure about it without doing a direct comparison. Anyway that came out after about 50-60hours running the amp and the HA5000 is still on its first hour.
Oh and the HA5000 is completely silent ofcourse. Also it seems to get hotter than the HA-01, i hope this is not a problem of my transformer

my crappy picture of my setup:






The buyer of my HA-01 bought it for his K701, its perfectly silent with that headphone and to quote the buyer:

"Betrachte das mit den 7 Tagen Rückgabemöglichkeit auch als erledigt ... ich bin zwar meist nicht so schnell mit meiner Meinung, da der erste Eindruck sehr täuschen kann (hab vielleicht 5 Lieder gehört bisher), aber diesen Verstärker wirst du von mir auch mit viel Betteln nicht wiederkriegen"

("Even if you beg me you wont get it back") - I offered him to send it back withhin 1 week incase he doesnt like it

Pic of the new owners place:



Like i thought this headphone amp is a killer with higher impedance headphones.

Hi bizkid,

Interesting! Could you please elaborate on your understanding of 'dynamics'? This term seems to be widely misused/misunderstood, I just want to ensure we are on a same page here.

As for low/high impedance phones with HA-01 - well, K701 is still a pretty low-impedance phone, with only marginally higher impedance than W5000 (40 vs. 62 Ohm). It's very inefficient though.

I wouldn't be concerned about HA5000 getting hot. It's class A amp and dissipates most of the energy into heat. As long as you do not burn yourself by touching it - that's ok.

-Alex

"DYNAMICS: Way of describing the relative levels within a piece of music. "

But dont take my word for it, maybe i should even remove the sentence again since i have no way to double check it anymore.

ok, then your understanding of 'dynamics' is the same as mine

Neverhteless, given the technical specs of the amp, I can't imagine that it's compressing dynamics. Maybe this was just a wrong impression indeed.

How does AD2000 sound powered by this amp?

-Alex

Now i tried serveral classical and jazz recordings, my first impression came from an average pop recording. It seems the HA5000 is showing compression existing in a recording even more than the HA-01. The dynamic range seems to be bigger than the HA-01s with classical, but i didnt really listen to much classical music on the HA-01.

I also really like what the HA5000 does to the low end of both the W5000 and AD2000. You would say "bis tief in den Keller" in german

The AD2000 improves just as the W5000 but most noticably in bass and soundstage. However when you see the W5000 amped through the HA5000 as a 100% rating, the W5000 is 60% on my CDP, the AD2000 80-85% through the CDP.

EDIT: As some other users wrote about his combo before, the soundstage is really amazing. With the right recording the HA5000 places all instruments just where they belong to make it an believable presentation. I think this is unqiue to this combination as the HA-01 lacked this, though it had a great wide and deep soundstage nonetheless.