The moon 430HA
 
http://www.simaudio.com/moonneo430HA.htm

Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that this will be:

1). Mind-meltingly awesome, and
2). Way, way, WAY more expensive than I could ever even conceive of paying?

theogenes said:

Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that this will be:

1). Mind-meltingly awesome, and
2). Way, way, WAY more expensive than I could ever even conceive of paying?

Click to expand...

 
1- Probably
2- Yep. 3.5k MSRP
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/719100/moon-n-o-430ha-reference-headphone-amplifier#post_10552531

$3500. Ouch. Not as bad as I'd anticipated, but still pretty bad. And for everything they did right on this, it's insane that they didn't have an XLR passthrough, only RCA. Don't know if they're afraid of it taking some business from their preamps, but even a line-level XLR out would've been cool by me. Still, due to my innate gear whoredom, I'm still interested to see what the consensus is on this, especially given how incredibly well the higher-end Simaudio integrateds (i600, i700) have apparently paired with the HE-6. 
 
Wonder if there's a discount of poor headphile gear whores...

I'm also interested in this - heard about it yesterday from my local guy. Hopefully he will get one in for me to check out. If I do, I'll give a very novice impression statement.

afghan vet said:

I'm also interested in this - heard about it yesterday from my local guy. Hopefully he will get one in for me to check out. If I do, I'll give a very novice impression statement.

Click to expand...

Would LOVE to hear your impressions, man!!

I saw this while nosing around....help me understand a couple things about this unit.
 
Probably the most exploding category in audio electronics right now is one that barely existed 10 years ago: dedicated headphone amps. The latest models have all the build quality, features and over-the-top engineering of the finest conventional amps. Plus prices to match: Simaudio just announced a new model for $3,500 -- plus another $700 if you want the USB digital-to analog converter option. And Beyerdynamic's new A2 comes pretty close, at $1,699. Both represent very serious efforts at state-of-the-art headphone sound.
 
 
The Simaudio Moon Nēo 430HA (shown above) is a fully balanced design rated at a whopping 8 watts into 50 ohms, probably enough to drive any headphone ever made. An optional digital-to-analog convertor (DAC) board handles PCM signals up to 32 bit/384 kilohertz, and DSD signals up to DSD256 (quad DSD) resolution. The analog version has RCA and XLR inputs, and balanced 4-pin XLR, 3-pin XLR, and 1/4-inch outputs. The version with the DAC adds USB, coaxial and Toslink optical digital inputs. The Nēo 430HA's slated to ship in Q3 of this year.
 
http://stereos.about.com/b/2014/05/18/new-high-end-headphone-amps-beyerdynamic-a2-and-simaudio-no-430ha.htm
 
What do you all think about the 2 versions (Amp only and Amp + DAC). I think it is pretty smart........

afghan vet said:

I saw this while nosing around....help me understand a couple things about this unit.

Probably the most exploding category in audio electronics right now is one that barely existed 10 years ago: dedicated headphone amps. The latest models have all the build quality, features and over-the-top engineering of the finest conventional amps. Plus prices to match: Simaudio just announced a new model for $3,500 -- plus another $700 if you want the USB digital-to analog converter option. And Beyerdynamic's new A2 comes pretty close, at $1,699. Both represent very serious efforts at state-of-the-art headphone sound.


The Simaudio Moon Nēo 430HA (shown above) is a fully balanced design rated at a whopping 8 watts into 50 ohms, probably enough to drive any headphone ever made. An optional digital-to-analog convertor (DAC) board handles PCM signals up to 32 bit/384 kilohertz, and DSD signals up to DSD256 (quad DSD) resolution. The analog version has RCA and XLR inputs, and balanced 4-pin XLR, 3-pin XLR, and 1/4-inch outputs. The version with the DAC adds USB, coaxial and Toslink optical digital inputs. The Nēo 430HA's slated to ship in Q3 of this year.

http://stereos.about.com/b/2014/05/18/new-high-end-headphone-amps-beyerdynamic-a2-and-simaudio-no-430ha.htm

What do you all think about the 2 versions (Amp only and Amp + DAC). I think it is pretty smart........

Click to expand...

I'm glad they're offering a version without the DAC, but I do wish it was less wallet-rapingly expensive, as I'd love to try one someday .

Only thing that I really dislike about the unit on paper (other than the Scrooge McDuck pricing, obviously) is that it doesn't have XLR preamp outputs. I fully understand why they did it, but in my case at least, $3.5k is about the absolute limit of what I could save up and spend on a headphone amp without feeling like a cash-hemorrhaging gear whore, and not having the XLR preamp (or even just passthrough really, which is what I need) makes my particular line of self-rationalization even more difficult. But hey, YMMV and whatnot.

It's ever so much more obvious to me know that I just need to win a couple of lotteries, and THEN I can get the system(s) of my dreams...

theogenes said:

I'm glad they're offering a version without the DAC, but I do wish it was less wallet-rapingly expensive, as I'd love to try one someday

.

Only thing that I really dislike about the unit on paper (other than the Scrooge McDuck pricing, obviously) is that it doesn't have XLR preamp outputs. I fully understand why they did it, but in my case at least, $3.5k is about the absolute limit of what I could save up and spend on a headphone amp without feeling like a cash-hemorrhaging gear whore, and not having the XLR preamp (or even just passthrough really, which is what I need) makes my particular line of self-rationalization even more difficult. But hey, YMMV and whatnot.

It's ever so much more obvious to me know that I just need to win a couple of lotteries, and THEN I can get the system(s) of my dreams...

Click to expand...

 
I hear ya there. On another I think it was a thread on another forum, someone stated 'another over-priced headphone amp'......and someone else stated - overpriced=no, expensive=yes.......pretty distinct difference. The ones I'm looking at go from mid $2k (Naim V1 amp/DAC), $4200 (Simaudio amp/DAC), $5500 (Auralic Vega/Taurus or Eddie Current 2A3/Metrum Octave), $7k (Auralic Vega/Cavalli Liquid Glass). I'm looking for a one time purchase - end game - so I don't go on the treadmill of buying / selling that I have done with mobile audio. The Auralic combo is what I am dreaming about currently, but the closest retailer is Atlanta - would rather purchase from my local guy (Naim/Simaudio). I may be able to listen to the Naim gear, this Simaudio piece, and the Auralic combo in the next several months. I'm hoping the sound of one of the systems just truly grabs me......I'm afraid that they will all sound amazing (but one doesn't 'blow away' the others), and then it will be something other than the sound / experience that will tip the decision.