Heya,
Some did seem a little more to my liking on the Emotiva than normal headphone amps. The HE500 for sure. The LCD2 for sure. The HE400/MadDog were a little better, but it's not quite as noticeable as with the more insensitive orthos. The Denon was different sounding, it was kind of eerie actually. And the DT770's sound stage was improved. But I can't say that it was performing better necessarily. All I can say at this point without measurements is that I liked the sound better. Mostly the big over-riding theme I'm finding is that separation and sound stages and the low end control and response has been better compared to the headphone amps. Probably a great portion of it all is mostly preference. But I'm pretty sure at least with the HE500/LCD2 that it's performing better, even at a technical level perhaps. The D5000/HE400/MadDog were all a little too sensitive for the Emotiva, so they were not performing better at first, the noise floor was there. But with my 500ohm adapter, that no longer was an issue and they're dead silent now.
On another note, my HE500 just took a trip to Brian to be re-modded. He's come up with a really great new Hifiman mod that he has been successful with. He's changing out those ridiculous screw-in hifiman inputs for flush mini-XLR (like on the LCD's) and re-terminating my balanced cable to suit it. Going to be so much more nicer for the long term.
Very best,
