[kazsud]

This popped up on my facebook feed this morning.
Sounds interesting to me since I like the nuforce sound a lot but thought the HAP-100 needed more balls.


*From their website*
The NuForce HA-200 is a high performance, Single Ended, Class-A Headphone Amplifier engineered to satisfy the requirements of the most devout headphone enthusiast.

As personal music listening and headphone use has become an ever-greater part of the audio market, the desire for uncompromised headphone amplification among devout enthusiasts has increased accordingly. The HA-200 was developed to specifically meet this need by uniting the most musically accurate technology available along with renowned NuForce value.

As an ultimate high-performance headphone amplifier, the HA-200 starts out with Class-A design and then combines that with a constant current output topology. Furthermore, when it is operated in classic Stereo Mode it also offers true Single-Ended (SE) output performance. As a valuable plus, two units can easily be combined to provide true Balanced Headphone Mode operation, which quadruples the available output power (2X voltage = 4X power) while increasing transient speed and dynamic control over the music.

https://nuforce.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=678:ha-200&Itemid=2710

 

[Calypso]

The current drive is getting popular for driving headphones. But as opposed to the Questyle CMA800R or the Bakoon HPA-21 the pricing is very low. I am mildly intrigued/interested 

.

 

[Armaegis]

Yet the funny thing is I don't think Nuforce currently has any plans to release a balanced dac in the same price family

 

[jackwess]

Never been attracted to Nuforce offerings but this could be decent. 

 

[Calypso]

Sounds interesting to me since I like the nuforce sound a lot but thought the HAP-100 needed more balls.

 
Here´s the inside of the Hap-100. A nice PSU on the right, and the actual sound board on the left.
 

 
The Hap-100 is $595 and the HA-200 is $349. I´m a bit worried about, how much amplifier you can actually get nowadays for $349?

 

[fabio-fi]

They are wasting too much space on the internals IMO. A more compact unit would be better

 

[Armaegis]

Space isn't a bad thing. It's good to have distance between the power supply and amp circuitry. Besides, they kept the dimensions the same across the DAC/HAP/STA/DDA so everything would all match and makes them stackable. The DAC and STA both take up more room internally than the HAP.

 

[Armaegis]

*cough*
 

 

 

 

[kazsud]

Whoo Hoo!!

How do you like them so far?

I was wondering if anybody was going to buy a set or at least one.

 

[Armaegis]

Initial impressions are that they are rather aggressive and forward sounding, reminding me of the Schiit Mjolnir. However, I am still relatively new to the Wadia121 dac and I haven't heard it's balanced output before, so I can't discount that having some effect as well. I have some pro audio dacs that have balanced outputs, but those have TRS outputs so I need to buy some adapters (I would make them, but I'm all out of XLR plugs... I used up 7 making the interconnects and adapter)
 
For curiosity sake I had one unit "burn in" for a week before the second one arrived and can't really tell the difference. There's a noticeable difference when the unit is cold however (as in cold when fresh off the delivery truck in -40 weather). Not so much from room temperature.

 

[kazsud]

Would you say this is a improvement over the Hap-100?

 

[Armaegis]

While I'm still forming impressions, I would hesitantly say yes. I really need to get my hands on another Senn or something though. My only reference headphones at the moment are planars or very easy to drive dynamics. There's enough oomph for my HE-6 at least.
 
So far I'm not really digging the sound sourced from the Wadia121 with the HAP-200. It starts to feel shouty like the Gungnir/Mjolnir, though not as pronounced. Using my Echo2 USB (pro audio) dac feels much nicer, with clarity that doesn't feel as "in my face" as the Wadia. Granted, I like a laid back tonality

 

[grizzlybeast]

  *cough*
 

 

 

this may sound dumb but I have never used balanced before.
Would using a non balanced dac with the amps balanced out still give you left and right signals with the extra power advantage.

 

[Armaegis]

I don't believe so. You need to use the balanced in to get a balanced out.

 

[punit]

Any more impressions on these ? Am looking for   balanced amp in the $750 - 1,000 price range. This  & Yulong A28 are the contenders so far.Looking for something that will match well with HD 800 & HE 500.
 
Thanks