[BournePerfect]

  Daniel, could you give a brief 'differences' between those two amps with the HD800. Only I'm very familiar with the m-stage but I'm thinking about giving the Vali a go. Cheers bud. 

 
m-Stage: warm, but w/ great transients and better soundstage, nice full-sounding bass, good tonality, zero sibilance.
 
Vali: more upfront presentation, smaller ss, punchier bass, possibly more detailed, slightly better tonality,still can be somewhat sibilant w/ stock HD800, but not bad.
 
They'd actually be great budget companion amps for HD800 owners-and easily the 2 I would recommend first in the <$1000 price range
 
-Daniel

 

[BournePerfect]

HD800 song of the day:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJxFAoiWSY
 
-Daniel

 

[Hun7er]

New day for my HD800.
 
I have received an MBL 5011D preamp. 
I tried it with the MCIntosh MC225. The sound is amazing. The preamp retains the musicality, the warm and the medium of the MCIntosh.
It adds dynamic, texturation, body, bass authority and depth. Moreover the sound becomes more analogic.
 
The MCIntosh and the MBL are complementary.
 
The HD800 become my favorite headphone with no contest. 

 

[LugBug1]

   
m-Stage: warm, but w/ great transients and better soundstage, nice full-sounding bass, good tonality, zero sibilance.
 
Vali: more upfront presentation, smaller ss, punchier bass, possibly more detailed, slightly better tonality,still can be somewhat sibilant w/ stock HD800, but not bad.
 
They'd actually be great budget companion amps for HD800 owners-and easily the 2 I would recommend first in the <$1000 price range
 
-Daniel

Thank you
 

   
The HD800 become my favorite headphone with no contest. 

Up against the HE60, HE6, K1000. That says something! 

 

[BournePerfect]

It speaks of scaling...

 
-Daniel

 

[skeptic]

  I'll be building "The Wire" BAL-BAL today and hopefully finish today too. The price to build one, case and all, is slightly above the Vali. So stay tuned as there is most likely a killer amp here for HD-800

 
Best of luck with the build and all the smd work brunk!  I'm eager to hear how you like it, even if I did opt for the lowly se-se version.  Also a good reminder that I need to get steppin' and place my component orders.  
 
The mainline is just so damn good with hd800's that I haven't bothered to turn my iron on since I finished it.  I also have a half done mini3 sitting on my bench that I really should polish off one of these evenings.

 

[LugBug1]

  It speaks of scaling...

 
-Daniel

Indeed. 

 

[Hun7er]

  Thank you
 
Up against the HE60, HE6, K1000. That says something! 

 
The HD800 is the most homogeneous when properly amped. HE60 had smaller soundstage, HE6 has too forward mid and the K1000 I don't very like it. The HD800 becomes better and better...the others too but their flaw remains

 

[kazsud]

 
The HD800 is the most homogeneous when properly amped. HE60 had smaller soundstage, HE6 has too forward mid and the K1000 I don't very like it. The HD800 becomes better and better...the others too but their flaw remains

 


Are you running off of speaker taps?

 

[Hun7er]

No, I use HE adapter

 

[brunk]

   
Best of luck with the build and all the smd work brunk!  I'm eager to hear how you like it, even if I did opt for the lowly se-se version.  Also a good reminder that I need to get steppin' and place my component orders.  
 
The mainline is just so damn good with hd800's that I haven't bothered to turn my iron on since I finished it.  I also have a half done mini3 sitting on my bench that I really should polish off one of these evenings.

Thanks, I am getting the build started now. I ordered my parts well in advance of the boards shipping because i think there was close to 100 boards in the wild at once. Currently, I hear capacitor selection is abysmal because of this, so you might be SOL for while.

 

[thegrobe]

I've had my HD800 here for the last couple days. SN 26089. Audio-GD SA-2 DAC > Decware CSP3 > Decware Taboo mk3. Holy smokes these cans are good! 
 
Although it's obviously honeymoon time, I can definitely tell you these aren't going anywhere. I had some concerns about reports of hot/unpleasant treble and no bass, but there's really none of that going on. Maybe you gotta have the upstream in order to get the most full/balanced sound out of these? Maybe the tube gear is getting it done but there's plenty of body in the mids, spot-on bass quantity, and the highs are not fatiguing at all. Top to bottom, it seems nothing emphasized, nothing lacking. And the imaging/ space etc. WOW 

 
I can see these are going to give the LCD-3 some serious competition. Back to the honeymoon .....(hangs "do not disturb" sign on door)

 

[MickeyVee]

^^ Congrats!!
Yeah.. I'm in honeymoon mode too but with a very different system..
 
Just picked up my Naim DAC-V1 and have been listening to it on and off for the last four hours or so. The last hour solid.. I've read that it takes about 100 hours to break in but so far it just smokes the WA7 (which now sounds rough around the edges to me).  Deeper, tighter bass, vocals to die for (both male & female), precise instrumentation placement, detail galore, a sort of richness/fullness thats hard to describe (the Naim sound that I've been reading about?) and a sound stage to die for.  Smooth as silk, no sibilance.. maybe a little rough on top but still smoother than what I've had before.
 
I haven't heard the HD800 sound better. In each of the previous setups (Bifrost Uber/Lyr, WA7) I always found something lacking but not so far with the Naim.  The plan was to add a tube (Woo WA2, WA5, Raptor, Decware??) amp way down the road (after I recover from this purchase) but if the Naim is going to get better, it may be an end game for me.
 
I'll give it a few months to break in and see if the magic is still there. The WA7 lasted four months and is now up for sale. Keeping the Vali just for the sheer value and fun of it and can easily use it in the bedroom and living room.
 
Darn these HD800's.. aren't they wonderful! 

 

 

[olor1n]

Is that the Xbox amp/dac? Cool.
 
Gotta LOL at the end-game proclamation though. The itch will always be there, regardless of how content we are. Y'all know what I'm talking about.

 

[MickeyVee]

Maybe.. this is it.. Yeah, gotta laugh at the end-game thing. This is HeadFi 

 
 
Quote:

  Is that the Xbox amp/dac? Cool.
 
Gotta LOL at the end-game proclamation though. The itch will always be there, regardless of how content we are. Y'all know what I'm talking about.