NuPrime HPA-9 ™​

"HPA-9 is the ultimate headphone amp capable of competing with any headphone amp at any price."
- from Nuprime website. 
 

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MSRP $649 (USD)​

So this is a new amplifier from NuPrime that is crying out from the dark to be brought into the light. With bold statements out in the wild like "I am tempted to offer a 6 month full return guarantee if user ended up buying something better (price from $400 to $5000)" or "Today I had the chance to discuss with the engineer about HPA-9 and what he has told me made me believe that HPA-9 is the best headphone amp on the market, at any price. He said that he can show plots of HPA-9 against a $30,000 single ended pure class A headphone amp.We have been too busy getting these new products out the door, now we have time to provide more technical info."  I have to say I am curious to say the least. I have to hear it for myself  however anything is possible. So I have one coming soon and will post impressions of the amp against the Liquid carbon and maybe another (don't know what else it should be compared to). 

 

Here are some specs:

• Headphone output: Max 450mW @ 32 ohm / 100mW @ 600 ohm • Dynamic range > 100dB • THD+N: 0.03% • S/N ratio > 100 dB • Frequency Response: 0 Hz to 200KHz (-3dB) • Crosstalk attenuation: min. 80 dB @ 1 kHz • Dimensions: (W x H x D): 235 mm x 55 mm x 281 mm • Weight: 5.5 pounds ( 2.5 kg ) • Worldwide AC voltage: (90VAC~130VAC // 210VAC~ 250VAC) With Voltage Select Switch • AC Fuse: Slow-blow,T1A, 250VAC

DO NOT LET THE SPECS FOOL YOU .....THE HEADPHONE AMP IS DESIGNED DIFFERENTLY THAN OTHERS... PLENTY OF CURRENT FOR ORTHOS.... VERY UNIQUE. 

No balanced headphone outs? Why?

rcoleman1 said:

  No balanced headphone outs? Why?

Click to expand...

I know ... no balanced inputs either. I am hoping to test it se with headphones that are a bit less demanding in terms of power to see how it fairs. hopefully it does well. However there are plenty of awesome sounding SE amps out there that blow away some high end balanced hp amps. 
 
Also it could be to cut back costs and maximize profit. 

True. Those are some bold claims they're making though...I can't wait to get your hands-on impressions of this $30K amp slayer. 

I'd try it but balanced in & out are important to me, sure looks cool though, I already own the Nuprime DAC-10 Wow it is simply an awesome sounding dac..

Judging by my previous experiences with Nuforce, I'd take everything they say with a grain of salt. They like to over-exaggerate things in their marketing. Also just because of the relatively low output power and no balanced option, it already fails to be the best headphone amp on the market.

I would agree that sometimes marketing can be almost dishonest in what they claim to be true, their is no way this amp is that great. But my past experience with Nuforce has been very good I've owned the dac-80 and thought it was very nice for the price point and enjoyed that dac, that's the reason I got the Nuprime dac-10 which is sooo sweet sounding, I think the dac-10 is a must try..

I completely overlooked the fact that this has a phono stage. I am desiring to get into vinyl and was shopping for a turntable so I guess that means I need to keep it if I do not like it more than the Liquid Carbon. Chances are I will end up selling the liquid carbon regardless and keeping this one even if it is not better. 
 
maybe someone can compare it to the schiit mani one day.

Well, so far the reviews of DAC-10H headphone amp confirmed our statement that it is exceptionally good and you can read the review by John Grandberg from InnerFidelity
"…I could talk about the DAC and preamp capabilities of the DAC-10H all day—they're that good. But what I really want to focus on most is the headphone amplifier. It's really something special…NuPrime's is the real deal—fully balanced design, with gobs of power, all routed through that sweet lossless volume control system. This headphone stage was clearly taken very seriously...Maximum output is 4,000mW per channel into 32 ohm loads via the balanced output. It will do 3,200mW into 50 ohms and 1,600mW into 100 ohms, meaning every variety of planar magnetic headphone should theoretically be well served. And that's exactly how it played out in my testing."
 
HPA-9 is the standalone version of DAC-10H. The balanced I/O was removed to save cost and keep the dimension of the case compatible with DAC-9 and STA-9 in the family.
But the design has been upgraded. This is a serious beast at $649.  May be we should have priced it at $2000 and nobody will question it .

jasonl said:

Well, so far the reviews of DAC-10H headphone amp confirmed our statement that it is exceptionally good and you can read the review by John Grandberg from InnerFidelity
[COLOR=808080]"…I could talk about the DAC and preamp capabilities of the DAC-10H all day—they're that good. But what I really want to focus on most is the headphone amplifier. It's really something special…NuPrime's is the real deal—fully balanced design, with gobs of power, all routed through that sweet lossless volume control system. This headphone stage was clearly taken very seriously...Maximum output is 4,000mW per channel into 32 ohm loads via the balanced output. It will do 3,200mW into 50 ohms and 1,600mW into 100 ohms, meaning every variety of planar magnetic headphone should theoretically be well served. And that's exactly how it played out in my testing."[/COLOR]

HPA-9 is the standalone version of DAC-10H. The balanced I/O was removed to save cost and keep the dimension of the case compatible with DAC-9 and STA-9 in the family.
But the design has been upgraded. This is a serious beast at $649.  May be we should have priced it at $2000 and nobody will question it .

Click to expand...

What I am curious about most is the output power. 450 mw into 32 ohms is not that strong. At least 1 watt would be good. However I will use it without orthodynamics to be fair. I am excited to say the least. Hopefully it makes me sell my liquid carbon.

I think the manual is wrong. We were rushing to get this product out. Please remove that part from the thread until we have time to update the website.
The numbers in the manual is most likely the low gain number, or could be wrong too.
You can see the DAC-10H output power can even drive the speakers (32 ohm with XLR it has 16W max if set to HH gains)
HPA-9 should have half the power of DAC-10H because DAC-10H has two stage gains (LL, HL, HH) and HPA-9 has one stage (H/L)
 
I will get this updated.  I also have a bunch of technical doc to update for HPA-9.  

So the unit I receive will be updated? If that thing has power I am freaking stoked!!!!

Reserved

Hmmm... Knowing that this isn't that powerful in comparison to many other HP amps peaks my interest in
It even a bit more.!

I'm listening to music containing densely wide dynamic instrumentation more often than not through my "tamed" HD800 headphones. I can't say I'm that thrilled about having to attentuate the gain from my Metrum Hex DAC into the Fosgate Sig Headphone amp I'm using so that my volume isn't loud by the time it's moved up to an 8:30 or 9 o'clock setting. (It's not my fault a lot of people don't listen to the amount of wide dynamic contrast music that I do) I find it a bit ridiculous that I have no use for the other 75% of volume that's available because the increments of volume gain are'nt small enough..

Not everyone is using a power hungry planar magnetic headphone, (I must have missed the memo telling me I had to use this type of headphone.)

I can also live without having a Balanced input. I think the Equitech 1.5Q BPT line conditioning that I have sitting in front of my entire playback system more than compensates for any need to worry about running my headphones single ended. My playback signal is nothing less than exceptional at any given time.

Now if the Micro Zotl 2.0 headphone amp were'nt about 2x the price of this amp , I most likely wouldn't hesitate to pick that amp up in a NY minute (even though I'm from Jersey)

^Please see the above post. It is supposed to be half the power of the dac 10H wich means it is pretty darn powerful for an SE amp. 
THe spects are wrong says Jason. 
So it should be  2 W maximum into 50 ohms. should be we will see the final results soon I am sure. Also that could be the low gain setting for which you are in luck anyway.