Alright, my Master 19 showed up in the mail about 45 minutes ago. Oh man, is this unit ever good sounding. I will put up my impressions after further listening, but after listening to it for the last half hour or so I am just blown away. This is the upgrade I have always wanted from my C-2 amp. The soundstaging width and depth, and the vocal presentation on the Master 19 is just spectacular.
Audio-GD Master 9
- Thread starter bigfatpaulie
- Start date
Wow, this unit just sounds amazing. I am totally impressed here at the upgrade in sound from the C-2. I will say that anyone who currently owns a C-2 or NFB1, and is considering grabbing a Master 19, I highly recommend the upgrade. The sound quality improvement will blow your doors off.
Well, pretty tired today. My fault though after staying up half the night listening to the new Master 19. I ended up leaving it running today with music going through it as well to continue the burn in process. It probably has about 20 hours of time on it now. The bass response has continued to further open up. There are so many impressive aspects in regards to the sound of this unit. Bass is quick, tight, detailed, impactful, and nicely textured. It has none of that one note bass characteristic that some other headphone amps have. It presents the low frequencies exactly as they should sound. Soundstage on this device is just spectacular. The width, depth, and even the height are all well beyond the speaker or headphone connected. With my Focal Clear, which is known for not having a huge stage, it too is noticeably wider with more depth present. Vocals are so clean and detailed sounding, and very realistic. It sounds like the singer is in the room with you. Instructions have excellent layering and texture. The Master 19 is very neutral, musical, and natural sounding. Macro and micro details are all coming through the music with excellent clarity and focus. There is a ton of detail in the upper frequencies. Treble is clean, very smooth, and well extended. There is no grain or harshness present at all. I can't find a single fault with the sound of this unit and I highly recommend it. This is an insanely good sounding piece of hardware for the 880 US cost.
gimmeheadroom
Headphoneus Supremus
^ great review and welcome to the Audio-gd-hood 
gotitforcheap
New Head-Fier
thinking of picking up the master 19 to take care of headphone duties fed with my yggy, think this combo will be a winner with some ZMF verite closeds? trying to avoid going the tube route & my search for a solid state amp lead me here
gimmeheadroom
Headphoneus Supremus
It can drive almost anything well. Make sure you run balanced for your ZMFs though.
Make sure you check the dimensions, the amp (and most Audio-gd gear) is bigger than most people expect.
Make sure you check the dimensions, the amp (and most Audio-gd gear) is bigger than most people expect.
gotitforcheap
New Head-Fier
running the ZMF balanced right now via a schiit mjlonir 1 which has served me very well but it's been a few years since I've upgraded the amp, hoping the master 19 is a worthwhile upgrade
as far as space goes, I have pretty big hifi rack, managed to fit my blue circle BMPH amp in there which for whatever reasons is 21.25" deep!
as far as space goes, I have pretty big hifi rack, managed to fit my blue circle BMPH amp in there which for whatever reasons is 21.25" deep!
gimmeheadroom
Headphoneus Supremus
The connectivity on the Audio-gd is much better and so is the build. The sound quality is a personal thing and could vary with the chain but I haven't heard a bad combination out of my Master 19. I would say if you have the room and money, you could also consider http://audio-gd.com/HE/HE9 MK3/HE9MK3EN.htm
If an integrated amp would help in your setup look at this one http://audio-gd.com/Master/M9PMK2/Master9Pmk2EN.htm
If an integrated amp would help in your setup look at this one http://audio-gd.com/Master/M9PMK2/Master9Pmk2EN.htm
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One thing to mention too is that the Master 19 does run hot. I have one of these USB powered fans on the top of mine. This brings down the temps dramatically. The Master 19 is only slightly warm with this fan.
https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-...&qid=1696446015&sprefix=ac+in,aps,150&sr=8-17
https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-...&qid=1696446015&sprefix=ac+in,aps,150&sr=8-17
bust3r
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2015
- Posts
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I got this fan the moment you mentioned it (separate discussion), it literally halves the temps of the master19, so anyone wanting to bring their temps drastically down, this fan works wonders.
gotitforcheap
New Head-Fier
what happens if you just let it stay hot?
I noticed a smeared sound on my R8HEMK2 when not cooled. I have not tried the M19. The dac though needs cooling
gimmeheadroom
Headphoneus Supremus
Nothing. There is a lot of metal there, the reason it's hot is it's sinking away the heat. Mine is on a top shelf with air on 3 sides and on top. It sits next to my DI-20HE.
I agree that they get hot (they run class A) and suggest giving it plenty of air and not putting it on an inside shelf.
For those who said they got fans, how are you using them?
PeterCraig
100+ Head-Fier
Summer 2022 I had to add a USB powered fan on top of my HE9 because it was hot as heck. The fan worked great and brought it back to normal temp.
This year I increased the space above the amp about 50% more to 4.5"/11.5cm and I didn't need the fan. But I still ran it on extreme hot days.
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