Sennheiser HDVA600

General Information

The sound of your favourite headphones can be perfected with the Sennheiser HDVA600 headphone amplifier. With a stunning circuit design and beautiful casework, the HDVA600 is made for the discerning listener who wants the most enjoyment from listening to music through headphones.

Latest reviews

LiteJazz

New Head-Fier
Pros: Beautifully Designed With High Grade Components
Cons: I was not able to secure it as a gift!
I think this is one time I was thankful another headphone amp failed and I was forced to seek out a replacement.  I stumbled on the Sennheiser HDVA 600 with it's balanced inputs, balanced pass through outputs, enough headphone outputs for (2) sets of balanced headphones and (2) sets of 1/4" headphone plugs.  This headphone amplifier is beautiful, modern, elegant, what you would expect from Sennheiser engineering.  I chose the HDVA 600 for two reasons:
 
1.  On both my larger and smaller audio systems I already have the SABRE DAC in play, so I did not need the older DAC in the Sennheiser HDVA 800, and the 600 and 800 are exactly alike except for the inclusion of the DAC on the model 800, same design, same power output, same everything.
 
2. As the HDVA 600 has just now been discontinued in lieu of keeping only one headphone amplifier, the HDVA 800, all of a sudden the HDVA 600 is discounted to $997.00 in lieu of $1,599.00!   Do you need to hear more?
 
Mine is on order and should arrive in the next 5 days, and I must make a comment on the gentleman comparing the output of this finely tuned Lamborghini to the 1/4" headphone output on a Sony ES 5400 SACD player, which I owned and sold, because Sony will no longer carry parts past 2016, and many things cannot be fixed on the 5400 at this time, but to compare the HDVA 600 work of art to the Sony 5400 SACD headphone output, "come on".
If you did not know it, the actual cost of the Sony 5400 SACD player is $625.00, and I know this after battling Sony for over 8 long months about them badly damaging my prize SCD-1 SACD player, then throwing my box away and shipping it back thrown in a small box with limited packing, further damaging the player.  As soon as I received the 5400 replacement, I sold it, again, as there will soon be no parts and no repairs out of the Laredo Texas repair facility, and who in their right mind would send any top shelf product to Sony in Laredo Texas with their terrible track record. Simply  Google Sony Laredo Texas repair facility complaints and you won't ever send anything there, and if you don't send your product there, they have no other facility in the US to repair your piece of audio equipment, but I certainly digress. 
 
If you want the finest of headphone amps, the Sennheiser HDVA 600, without the DAC is the real thing, but you won't be able to find them much longer at $997.00, so you better act very quickly!  The model above the 600 is the 800, which will stay in their product line, however it has a somewhat outdated DAC, not bad by any stretch, just not the cutting edge DAC chip in many newer component, so I opted for the huge price break and relied on the SABRE DAC in my other components , and ordered the beautiful model 600, wow, what a deal!  You really better jump on this one quickly as these will sell like hotcakes!
 
LiteJazz
smial1966
smial1966
How can this be construed as a 'review' when you don't yet have the unit and presumably haven't spent any real time listening to it either?!?

musicbuff

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: Option of running balanced or unbalanced. Beautiful piece of equipment. You can attach up to 4 headphones at once.
Cons: None
I own the Sennheiser HD 650's and 800's.  I've owned the 650's for going on 3 years and originally listened to them through an Asus Xonar Essence One DAC/HP amp combo which was unable to totally lift the infamous "veil."  I eventually became so dissatisfied I sold the headphones (which I almost immediately came to regret) on ebay (sold the Asus DAC, too).  Fortunately the new headphone owner wasn't happy that the outer box had no pedigree label and returned them.  Providence?  I bought the highly recommended Bottlehead Crack headphone amp with speedball upgrade in hopes of lifting the veil, but found tube rolling highly distasteful because it was too unpredictable and the sound less than stellar so I sold the amp several weeks later.  I then bought a Musical Fidelity M1SDAC and found it lifted the veil and brought treble (life) to my music but that it's headphone jack sounded only a fraction better than the headphone jack on my old Sony 5 disc CD player.  After a ton of research I decided to expand and buy a top-of-the-line pair of headphones & a worthy amp.  I had 3 headphones on my short list, 1) Grado GS 1000e 2) Audeze LCD-XC and 3) Sennheiser HD 800.  The deciding factor was a review of the Sennheiser HD 800's with the promise of a wide soundstage and an experience akin to listening to loudspeakers on my head with music outside of my head instead of just between my ears.  I ordered the balanced CH 800 S cord with my headphones and the HDVA 600 amp for synergy between all my components.  I was tempted to order the HDVD 800 but read reviews stating the DAC side was mediocre and came to the conclusion it wouldn't be much better (and possibly no better) than the Musical Fidelity M1SDAC I already have.  I must say this combination is FANTASTIC.  When they say your music will be no better than the source you feed it they speak the truth.  When the HDVA is directly connected to my cheap 5 CD player there's quite a bit of sibilance through the HD 800's but connected to my computer via the MF1SDAC the combination brings me musical bliss.  I read a review of how much better the HD 650 was balanced so I ordered the CH 650 S balanced cord.  I'd been listening to the HD 650's unbalanced on the HDVA 600 amp and it sounded good but when I switched to balanced my jaw dropped at the huge improvement in my HD 650's.  The sound stage broadened significantly and became more accurate, detail increased substantially and the bass became tigher and more accurate.  Even my husband was impressed and he is not a critical music listener.  Although not as detailed as the HD 800's the 650's are a new beast.  I can only speak to my own experience, and the HDVA 600 is a perfect match for these 2 headphones.  All I can say is if you invest in this amplifier take the next step and run your headphones balanced.  It's worth every penny.
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M
maximus12
Excellent review.
I fully agree, although I changed my sources to the Yamaha CD-S3000 and the Chord QBD76, after a couple of years using my computer as my source.
After installing the Senn HDVA 600, the HD 650 expanded its soundstage. Going back to the HD 800, all of the 650's colorations are laid to bare, showing some congestion and thickening around the midrange. I use Audence AU for interconnects, and Van Damme- Neutrik terminated for the balanced interconnects, and the balanced cabling for the 650s and the 800s. I'm very satisfied with the sound, but must limit the 800's for the enjoyment of Classical music, as on jazz they tend to be bright. The 650s are excellent for anything else.
spenagio77
spenagio77
Such a great succinct review, with significantly a comparison to the crack bottlehead. Thank you for saving me time, I’ll head straight to a 600!

jrfmd

Head-Fier
Pros: pretty accurate, almost can't tell if its in or out of circuit:
Cons: loss of air and bass definition-small but audible
I have 2 sony 5400 cs/sacd players: sound slightly different from each other, use sennheiser 800's to listen. putting the amp in line with unbalanced leads and listening to cd's showed almost no change in sound of either player but small negative overall impression: bass boomier by a small amount, a little less air.  Have no idea how it compares to other equipment or balanced leads. definitely not a $1500 improvement in my system: i'd say about a detraction when compared to front earphone jacks on the sony.
Jeff
pbui44
pbui44
Try the HD800 balanced cables, OEM or 3rd party.
vinokurov
vinokurov
I have no Sony, but I have the HDVA600. I can not agree with the author. 
HDVA600 is a very refined instrument certainly not without flaws, in my opinion. But if you need cello do not need to take in hands violin. There are many devices designed for "wow effect", but helpless in displaying shades and subtleties of sound textures. Suum cuique. 
PS
Judge the sound of HDVA600's without XLR is like evaluate the sound quality SACD at listening CD-layer.

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