[elicohen]

It IS neutral and transparent.
I am using it with the Chord Hugo - and I can feel more air and soundstage opened up with my Elear compared to Hugo direct.

The RCA/XLR are inputs.
Out is headphones (not balanced) 3/4 and 1/4

As a bonus - the volume dial is very smooth and there is no channel balance difference in lower volumes (which drove me insane on the iFi amp)

 

[Summum Malum]

It IS neutral and transparent.
I am using it with the Chord Hugo - and I can feel more air and soundstage opened up with my Elear compared to Hugo direct.

The RCA/XLR are inputs.
Out is headphones (not balanced) 3/4 and 1/4

As a bonus - the volume dial is very smooth and there is no channel balance difference in lower volumes (which drove me insane on the iFi amp)

Hmm, okay, interesting. Because my KRKs are very sensitive and have low impedance.

 

[buonassi]

There is no Channel imbalance whatsoever on this. It uses a special step relay attenuator not a traditional potentiometer.

When you turn the knob, it goes from zero sound to all of a sudden, it's there, very low, and perfectly balanced.

With that being said the amplifier does have quite a bit of power so I found that the noise floor did not work well with my campfire audio Jupiter. However, it sounds absolutely Sublime with my JH audio Angie. Almost no hiss at all. With traditional headphones it's completely black.

It is very transparent and quite neutral. It is a pretty fast amp that supplies plenty of damping power.

Out of all the audio purchases I made over the past year, this one was probably the smartest one. I would gladly pay $400 for this amp all day long. The fact that you can get it for $250 is outstanding. It originally went for 599

 

[alphanumerix1]

There is no Channel imbalance whatsoever on this. It uses a special step relay attenuator not a traditional potentiometer.

When you turn the knob, it goes from zero sound to all of a sudden, it's there, very low, and perfectly balanced.

With that being said the amplifier does have quite a bit of power so I found that the noise floor did not work well with my campfire audio Jupiter. However, it sounds absolutely Sublime with my JH audio Angie. Almost no hiss at all. With traditional headphones it's completely black.

It is very transparent and quite neutral. It is a pretty fast amp that supplies plenty of damping power.

Out of all the audio purchases I made over the past year, this one was probably the smartest one. I would gladly pay $400 for this amp all day long. The fact that you can get it for $250 is outstanding. It originally went for 599

$250?!?! do tell where you've seen it at that price

edit: I found a few units actually for that price or better. All U.K retailers though that wont ship to Australia. I'd have to use a forwarding service.

 

[buonassi]

$250?!?! do tell where you've seen it at that price

wow, can't recall exactly. I know that it went through (or is going through) a heavily discount campaign. I bought mine right before this campaign launched, but still got a good deal from an italian reseller (came to about $350 after shipping). Since then, I saw it as low as $249, but really can't recall where.

That same reseller on ebay now has it $50 lower (even after shipping) if you're interested. They are great with communication and can rec them as a seller: audio-impact-torino is the seller's name

https://www.ebay.com/p/Arcam-Rhead-Headphone-Amplifer/726409102?iid=311876991622&chn=ps

 

[Whizme]

I wonder how it holds up vs other Class A amps like the Aune X7s that move in the same price range or if there are any known issues (X7s seems to develop hiss and customer support is hard). All you find is praise so either the rHead is really good or the sample size is too small. I know this maybe should go to a recommendation thread but given the "sleeper" status I'm better here.

 

[Summum Malum]

Hey everyone, thanks for all the responses so far. I do indeed wonder if the sample size is too small, and it the product is too young, to really know it's true character and the level of quality control involved in its production and distribution.

Basically, I want an amp that is neutral, has no channel imbalance even at low levels, highly detailed, and essentially a device conducive to delivering fidelity. Further, I want a device that won't ever act weird, and the O2 and ODAC seem to do this for a lot of people.

Anyway, I won't be making a purchase for quite some time. I want my upgrade to be that of quality, and right now I'm focusing on getting my guitar fixed up.

 

[psychogene]

This amp deserves much more attention in my opinion. Purchased it about 1 month ago via ebay for a combined total inc. shipping for $450 AUD and arrived approx 2 weeks later. At its price point I find it has tremendous value compared to what is on offer. Nicely musical, great volume control with either IEM's or HP's and very clean.

Currently playing it out of micro BL dac/amp and it definitely increases the soundstage with no loss in clarity and detail with slightly better control on the low end (Sundara, HD650, Cascade) - less boomy and more impact. Its not a huge difference compared to playing it directly out of the BL but it is noticeable and definitely makes the whole presentation more musical. Pairing it with my Questyle Q192 DAC which already has a smooth and detailed sound maintains the clarity and gives it a nice bump in power as the Q192 lacks power in its amp.

Great Amp and if you can get it for under $500 I can't imagine many amps in this price range besting it in sound quality at all.

 

[Mayonnaise]

the x7s is definitely a competitive amp for 250 it does have a very low hiss, when using low impedance iems, but on all my full size headphones all above 35 ohms its clean and quiet. although, it does have a slight channel imbalance at very low volumes but I don't know anyone that would realistically run it that low for it to be a problem.

 

[Ellendar]

Had the Arcam rHead and I it was as good as my Asgard2. Only had to go again as I got the Asgard2 in a really good offer while I had to pay the full price for the Arcam. Still a little sad about it.

 

[Adu]

Absolute lovely little amplifier. It sound “honest”, very depending of the source.
My previous headphone amplifier was iFi iCAN SE.
Both amplifier sound great but I like better rHead because it have a more precise potentiometer, a switch to turn on/off and it’s better built than iCAN SE.

 

[Mightygrey]

Looks like a great little amplifier. They're currently being offered free with purchase of MrSpeakers Aeon headphones in Australia at the moment, a pretty sweet deal.

 

[Taz777]

This is such a brilliant head amp! Quite velvety and mesmerising sound quality - reminds me of a better version of my Little Dot Mark III head amp that was valve-based. I've only used the RCA inputs up till now but was thinking about using the balanced XLR inputs as I will soon have a DAP that provides balanced Line Out via a 4.4mm output.

Has anyone used the XLR balanced inputs? If so, did you notice better sound quality?

A 4.4mm Sony pentacon to dual XLR cable is very hard to find and I've only found one from a seller in China. If the XLR inputs provide better sound quality then I'll order the balanced cable.

 

[Taz777]

Does anybody know what the power connector plug spec is? Is it 5.5 * 2.5mm ?

 

[someyoungguy]

Does anybody know what the power connector plug spec is? Is it 5.5 * 2.5mm ?

There isn’t any official spec listed in the manual, so I pulled out the plug on mine and measured it:


Seems a bit bigger: 10mm x 5mm. Not sure whether that’s a common size or not?