[ungawa]

Quote:

I've read a review that the Bakoon 5210mk3 wasn't a good match for the LCD2. I hope this time things have changed for better with the new model. 

 
Hi there - can you give us a link to that review? Curious to see what the issues are ....

 

[Currawong]

When I tried the Bakoon amps (75xx?) at the Tokyo festivals they were good with the LCD-3s (this was when we had the only two prototypes of them). If the 5210 was what I heard when I visited Bakoon a few months ago, it was too dark-sounding for them IMO. 

 

[CanDude]

Quote:

Great review CanDude, here it is my review also, I liked it a lot.
Very transparent, having a multi layered sound and smooth as a tube amp, I will miss it that is for sure

Thanks, and thanks for your great review!

 
Quote:

Manufacturer informed me that high gain will be readjusted and 6 dB will be cut from it.

 
Hm, maybe bad news for HE-6 lovers using DACs with very low output (<= 1Vrms), at least for quieter records. Maybe there should be a three-way switch, "Dynamic" - "Orthos" - "HE-6"... 

For LCD-3 the volume pot's range will be better utilized though. Hard to please everyone.
 
Quote:

Extreme linearity attenuates a bit of musicality

 
With "musicality" I guess you mean the "fun" sound signature of some (most?) HP amps. Since HPA-21 is more or less a "wire with gain" I cannot see how any musicality can be attenuated. Of course if the mastering engineer's monitoring was less "wire with gain" than HPA-21 the sound may be less "fluffy" than intended... 

 

[DarKu]

Hi CanDude, glad you liked my review
 
Take it with a grain of salt as I am not a native English speaker, so some expressions are hard to translate to English for me, but I tried my best.
As you may know how much would you will try all reviews are subjective, based on personal taste and nothing more.
 
I'm liking spicy meals will a lot of different colors in it, tasty cloudy beers, or strong and deep red wines, only because of a strong taste... Same goes for music for me, I really dig folk and folk rock music, modern rock, also a lot of fast gipsy jazz and any kind of jazz that makes me dance in my consciousness, almost everything that has a great natural tone, a dynamic and engaging sound with a lot of musical instruments of all sorts.
Well... same goes for gear.
Bakoon HPA-21 is an excellent  wire with gain, its easily the best wire with gain, however not all people will look into this type of sound, me included, that is all.

 

[DarKu]

Quote:

[size=10.5pt]Great review, DarKu.[/size]

Thanks!
Yeah, I really love Chord QBD76 HDSD, to this day it is the best DAC I have heard in my house ( it even outclassed M2tech Vaughan), it is very transparent/airy but also has a great tone, weighty notes and a lot of punch. It matches with HPA-21 perfectly. I think it adds a bit of substance and weight coupled with HPA-21 so that is a great thing for me. That was easily the most transparent thing happened to my LCD-3 and HD800.
I soon will add a very good S/PDIF interface to replace the USB and I am pretty done with the headphone system, but you never know, this is head-fi in the end

I also looking forward to a DAC from Bakoon with SATRI-Link with the same size as HPA-2, I'm also hopping for a programable FPGA chip and a custom firmware. They should work very nicely together.

 

[dan.gheorghe]

Hey guys!
 
Nice review Darku! My impressions were very very similar to yours!

 

[kcee]

Quote:

Does anyone know if the more expensive bakoon amp, the amp-11r has the same or even better performance with headphones than the cheaper hpa-21?

 
I can tell you that the headphone amp in the amp-11r is no slouch and the best headphone experience I have had. It also happens to be a very capable integrated on top of it.

 

[CanDude]

Quote:

Hey guys!
 
Nice review Darku! My impressions were very very similar to yours!

 
Thanks for your review! I haven't heard Conductor/Soloist, only HA-160D and it didn't take long to hear that it is colored. If the Conductor/Soloist still has the Burson sound, as some reviewers suggest, I guess you like that type of sound.
 
One thing puzzles me, didn't you try HD800 on the current output with low gain? Maybe you reviewed one of the few (two?) units that hadn't got the low gain adjusted? Or maybe your DAC has a very high output. When I switch from LCD-3 to HD800 I switch gain from high to low and then rise the volume a little bit to get the same sound level. When switching between the current output and the voltage output the sound level for HD800 is almost the same, with more treble and less bass and body for the voltage output. Using HD800 with HPA-21 was a big surprise. With most other SS amps HD800 sounds like putting your ear against a tweeter. With HPA-21, using the current output, the sound is almost balanced, pure music!

 

[CanDude]

HPA-21 receives the RED FINGERPRINT award by High Fidelity!
 
Review: http://highfidelity.pl/@main-1704&lang= (Polish) http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fhighfidelity.pl%2F%40main-1704%26lang%3D (Google translated to English)
 
It seems I got the thread title right:

 
Google translated quote:

...comforted me in the belief that HPA-21 is one of the best, and perhaps the best headphone amp I know, regardless of price, technology, country of origin my preference.

 
I'm happy that he primarily used HD800 for the review. Proves that HPA-21 is an excellent amp for both LCD-2/3 and HD800!

 

[CanDude]

Srajan wraps up his and Wojciech's reviews of HPA-21 (including a proper translation of the review in High Fidelity): http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/bakoon3/5.html
Don't follow all links too manically though, since my review is linked you'll be in an infinite loop...

 
Now I wish that more people get to listen to HPA-21!
 

 
EDIT: As you should have read by now HPA-21 wins the brand new (and rare) BLUE fingerprint award!
 

 

[Funklezen]

Hi Guys, can you tell how long it takes to recharge and is there a woltage switch or is there differentieret versions for The Staten and Europe

 

[x838nwy]

From what I've read, I'm a little curious about the HPA-21's input impedance - which is aoparently in the order of ohms (as in single ohms, not hundreds or thousands).

For you guys with more knowledge than I, can you comment on this? Would this be problematic the source end?

Thanks

 

[En_R]

Candude, I'm assuming when you say "one of the best" that you have listened to (extensively) some other top offerings in this price range. A review is only good if you have experience with gear and make relative comparisons.... I can say that an amp has a very forward or even "aggressive" sound, but if I have only owned and listened to let's say ... a Leben, then that doesn't mean a whole lot does it?
 
So what other headphone amps have you to compare the Bakoon to besides the Bryston which is 1/3 of the Bakoon's asking price?

 

[jacal01]

I'm not Candude, but I can try to help answer your questions.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Funklezen /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Hi Guys, can you tell how long it takes to recharge and is there a woltage switch or is there differentieret versions for The Staten and Europe

 
 
 
I read in one of the reviews that it basically takes as long to charge it as it did to discharge it.  That should be about 6+ hours from full discharge to full charge.  I haven't noticed a input voltage selector switch, so it's either full supply voltage range tolerant, with software auto detect, or the correct voltage pre-selected in the factory at time of order.  
 
Quote:
 

From what I've read, I'm a little curious about the HPA-21's input impedance - which is aoparently in the order of ohms (as in single ohms, not hundreds or thousands).
For you guys with more knowledge than I, can you comment on this? Would this be problematic the source end?
 

I personally can't really comment, but Soo In Chae of Bakoon International Ltd. should be able to answer these kinds of questions.  Unfortunately, product specifications are not yet posted on their website. 
[size=medium]Bakoon Products contact info[/size]
 
 
Quote:

Candude, I'm assuming when you say "one of the best" that you have listened to (extensively) some other top offerings in this price range. A review is only good if you have experience with gear and make relative comparisons.... I can say that an amp has a very forward or even "aggressive" sound, but if I have only owned and listened to let's say ... a Leben, then that doesn't mean a whole lot does it?
 
So what other headphone amps have you to compare the Bakoon to besides the Bryston which is 1/3 of the Bakoon's asking price?

 
This kind of comment is a distraction.  Reviews, including some by industry knowledgeable pros, and whose links have been posted throughout this thread, have consistently been nothing but sterling, with the HPA-21 comparing very favorably to whatever amp(s) the reviewer has on hand, including the high end Leben CS300 that I assume you're alluding to.  I would think that sort of uniform review criteria would certainly warrant placement in the upper echelon of current headphone amplifier offerings, i.e. "one of the best".  I myself have compared it to the EAR HP4, Cavalli Liquid Fire and Burson Soloist, and remain a staunch proponent of the Bakoon at its cost point. 

 

[En_R]

Quote:

I'm not Candude, but I can try to help answer your questions.
 
This kind of comment is a distraction.  Reviews, including some by industry knowledgeable pros, and whose links have been posted throughout this thread, have consistently been nothing but sterling, with the HPA-21 comparing very favorably to whatever amp(s) the reviewer has on hand, including the high end Leben CS300 that I assume you're alluding to.  I would think that sort of uniform review criteria would certainly warrant placement in the upper echelon of current headphone amplifier offerings, i.e. "one of the best".  I myself have compared it to the EAR HP4, Cavalli Liquid Fire and Burson Soloist, and remain a staunch proponent of the Bakoon at its cost point. 

 
??

What? Holding a reviewer accountable is a distraction? I also hope by "knowledgeable pros" that you don't mean Srajan because.. How many products has 6moons actually put down? Also when does having good reviews make a product good? Because it's the FOTM?
 
I alluded to the Leben to make an example- and no, being in the "upper echelon" does not make it "one of the best". But these questions are relevant to Candude, and you're right. You are not Candude.