[marhol]

How does the HE9 compare to the Ragnarok and Moon Neo 430 HA ?

A head-fi member @negura had experience with all three amps. He preferred HE-9 among them. Some of his thoughts are linked below. However, most of his comparisons were with HE-6, although in the second link there is some reference to HD 800 and LCD-3. Perhaps you could send him a PM and ask directly which amp could be the best with HD 800s...


https://www.head-fi.org/threads/amp...anar-headphones.529873/page-257#post-11366510
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the...ressions-thread.666765/page-158#post-11499273
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/amp...anar-headphones.529873/page-267#post-11475414

 

[Jackula]

I have the HE-9 as a reference amp in my mastering studio and i couldn't be happier.

Fradoca, I've been thinking about getting a HE-9 for a long time. Read your review and posts, auditioned a bunch of amps and finally decided to get the HE-9. I lurk Head-Fi a lot, but hardly ever post anything, but just thought I log on to give you a big thanks!

Pairing it with my HD650 and I've never heard it sound so good. Compared to the Rag, 430HA, ifi iCan Pro, v281 and the HE-9 is my favorite, by a significant margin! And it was a faith purchase

 

[fradoca]

Fradoca, I've been thinking about getting a HE-9 for a long time. Read your review and posts, auditioned a bunch of amps and finally decided to get the HE-9. I lurk Head-Fi a lot, but hardly ever post anything, but just thought I log on to give you a big thanks!

Pairing it with my HD650 and I've never heard it sound so good. Compared to the Rag, 430HA, ifi iCan Pro, v281 and the HE-9 is my favorite, by a significant margin! And it was a faith purchase

Jackula,
i'm happy you liked the HE-9!!! But i'm also very happy that people still trust my ears and my advices! A tip : keep the gain of the HE-9 on High with the HD650 and you'll have the full power.Pair the HE-9 with a really good balanced dac and you'll have a great combo!!

enjoy

 

[Jackula]

Fradoca, yes I'm running on high gain but unfortunately my DAC only has RCA output. It's a very old Lampi and still manages to sound better than many modern balanced DACs.

Out of all the other amps I'd tried, I think the ifi iCan Pro deserves a special mention considering its relatively bargain price and came closest to HE-9 level of performance. But I wasn't looking for a bargain.

I'll be trying the HE-9 as a pre-amp soon with my SeatonSound active speakers. I keep hearing how good these are for music but that hasn't been my experience, I'm hoping the HE-9 will drive them better than my Marantz pre.

 

[fradoca]

Fradoca, yes I'm running on high gain but unfortunately my DAC only has RCA output. It's a very old Lampi and still manages to sound better than many modern balanced DACs.

Out of all the other amps I'd tried, I think the ifi iCan Pro deserves a special mention considering its relatively bargain price and came closest to HE-9 level of performance. But I wasn't looking for a bargain.

I'll be trying the HE-9 as a pre-amp soon with my SeatonSound active speakers. I keep hearing how good these are for music but that hasn't been my experience, I'm hoping the HE-9 will drive them better than my Marantz pre.

trust me buy a real balanced dac.Using the rca inputs on your HE-9 is like driving a ferrari in second gear only.You are using only half of the power and of the potential of your HE-9

 

[Jackula]

That's my plan, but I don't know what to get yet, and I'm still waiting for my wallet to recover

Most likely I'll just replace my Lampi with the current model that has balanced, but I'm really over tube rolling.
Or I could get something cheaper like the Holo Spring L3 or R2R7, but will be a slight downgrade.

 

[mtmercer]

trust me buy a real balanced dac.Using the rca inputs on your HE-9 is like driving a ferrari in second gear only.You are using only half of the power and of the potential of your HE-9

My personal experience with using my HE-9 with the Chord Qutest which is singled ended has been extremely positive. Since the HE-9 and Master 9 have a phase splitter for single ended inputs, I’m not sure balanced vs single ended matters as much as getting a quality DAC with a presentation you like.

Granted there are good balanced dacs that would sound great with the HE-9!

 

[fradoca]

My personal experience with using my HE-9 with the Chord Qutest which is singled ended has been extremely positive. Since the HE-9 and Master 9 have a phase splitter for single ended inputs, I’m not sure balanced vs single ended matters as much as getting a quality DAC with a presentation you like.

Granted there are good balanced dacs that would sound great with the HE-9!

the fact is that i'm not talking about quality but the fact that on a real balanced amp if you use the unbalanced rca inputs and then you connect the headphone in single-ended mode
you are using only half of the power and the potential of the amp.If you have a real balanced amp like the HE-9 you should use a balanced dac connected with the xlr output to the HE-9 and then use a balanced cable for your headphones.That's the only way to unleash the full power and potential of the HE-9.Everything is connected in balanced mode in my studio.
Look at the specs of the HE-9 and look at the differences between the power output for balanced and single-ended connections :

40 ohm: 9000MW (balanced)

40 ohm: 2500MW (single ended or unbalanced)

 

[mtmercer]

Agree completely on using headphones balanced connected via the XLR output to not waste 1/2 the amp.

Regarding dacs connected to the HE-9, my feeling is there isn’t much in single ended vs balanced as they both use all of the amp. It comes down more to DAC vs DAC. Granted the volume will be lower with the single ended DAC due to less overall gain of SE vs balanced (nominal 2.0v vs 4.0). So if you are pushing Susvara’s or HE-6’s this could be an issue.

This is just my opinion based on my impressions of using the HE-9 with a few DACs (balanced and SE). I am not making any absolute claims.

 

[marcan]

Agree completely on using headphones balanced connected via the XLR output to not waste 1/2 the amp.

Regarding dacs connected to the HE-9, my feeling is there isn’t much in single ended vs balanced as they both use all of the amp. It comes down more to DAC vs DAC. Granted the volume will be lower with the single ended DAC due to less overall gain of SE vs balanced (nominal 2.0v vs 4.0). So if you are pushing Susvara’s or HE-6’s this could be an issue.

This is just my opinion based on my impressions of using the HE-9 with a few DACs (balanced and SE). I am not making any absolute claims.

Indeed, rca input doesn't change much, just less gain and a bit more noise but you still use the full amp. Actually the rca input is symmetrically inverted and feed both push/pull. The real difference is on the output, when you use the single ended you use half of the amp so half of the slew rate, less headroom and so on

 

[Jackula]

Guys, it's a question I asked Kingwa before I purchased the amp. He said as his flagship amp, there is no phase splitter for the RCA input, however with his unique design, the RCA signal can still make use of the full balanced circuitry and output as a balanced signal. Don't ask me how it works.

The only difference between RCA input and XLR input in the new 2017 model, is the XLR input uses the same current mode technology as the ACSS input. Which offers a more neutral sound with better transparency.

Btw, there are also some cosmetic differences in the new 2017 model, all the external chassis screws are black and flush-er, which IMO gives it a cleaner and more premium look.

 

[mtmercer]

Guys, it's a question I asked Kingwa before I purchased the amp. He said as his flagship amp, there is no phase splitter for the RCA input, however with his unique design, the RCA signal can still make use of the full balanced circuitry and output as a balanced signal. Don't ask me how it works.

The only difference between RCA input and XLR input in the new 2017 model, is the XLR input uses the same current mode technology as the ACSS input. Which offers a more neutral sound with better transparency.

Btw, there are also some cosmetic differences in the new 2017 model, all the external chassis screws are black and flush-er, which IMO gives it a cleaner and more premium look.

I had a similar discussion with Kingwa. I’ll copy and paste the question and answer as soon as I can.

He stated the HE-9 has the same boards as the master 9 except the HE-9 power supply is better...

 

[mtmercer]

Question:

I noticed the Master 9 info page states

" Using RCA input, Master 9 can convert to balanced ACSS signal and output real balance signal from XLR and ACSS."
Does the HE-9 do this as well when used as a headphone amp? I am thinking of using the HE-9 with a Chord Hugo 2 which is single ended.

Response:

They have the same design and boards on amp parts.
So the HE9 also can input RCA signal and output real balance signal without extra circuits built in.

 

[Jackula]

I had a similar discussion with Kingwa. I’ll copy and paste the question and answer as soon as I can.

He stayed the HE-9 has the same boards as the master 9 except the HE-9 power supply is better...

Thanks for confirming. It's roughly what he told me too, he was specific about "no phase splitter", except he left out the part about RCA being just as good as ACSS - guess I could stay with my single-ended Lampi then, but would consider a balanced DAC for driving a Susvara in the future.

Yes, the upgraded power supply is the main reason I got the HE-9 instead of Master 9 with PS Audio PowerPlant. With the PowerPlant, you're essentially running the regenerator with a stereo amp. With the HE-9, you're essentially running two regenerators, one for each mono section of the amp.

 

[smodtactical]

Anyone try the HE9 with the HD800S ?