[bassophile]

As title says...

 

[sgrossklass]

You want a LM386 chip amp with severely undersized coupling capacitors? Or a Cmoy using a TL072?

 
(I thought I'd start with the cheap variants.)

 

[zero7525]

I've heard that the nuforce icon mobile is very bright, but that's a portable amp.  

 

[DarKu]

Benchamark's DAC1 amp section, brightest DAC/Amp combo I've ever heard.
Second will be Creek's amps, Creek OBH 11 and 21 SE are very bright..
Cheap chinesse amps are also quite bright

 

[bassophile]

thanks, any more suggestions?
 
What about graham slee models - are they on the analytical side?

 

[Uncle Erik]

It's not bright, but very neutral. The Dynalo/Gilmore Lite would fit the bill nicely. About as clean and crisp as you can get. A wonderful circuit, too.

 

[fdhfdy]

Used to own a very early built burson 160a. it was bright to me, maybe too powerful as well.

 

[Misterrogers]

The Channel Islands VHP-2 was fast, analytical and a tad bright. Very nice amp.

 

[khaos974]

The headphone amp of the Benchmark DAC1 fits these criteria
- 0.11 ohm output impedance means straight frequency response from 0 to 20kHz for all headphones.
- very low THD + high power -106 dB, 0.0005% into 30 Ohms at +18 dBu (1.26W), as "dry" as you can possibly want with plenty of power.
- high current capacity 250 mA.

If you want brighter, you'll have to invest into an EQ and boost high frequencies.

 

[sling5s]

Nuforce HDP (from my experience).
 

 

[rhythmdevils]

The brightest I ever heard was my old PPA that had an opamp in it whose name I can't remember, but someone who knows that amp could fill in here.  It sounded similar to the Gilmore lite, but dryer, colder and brighter, just as the OP is asking for.  I know it's one of the brightest amps around because it was the ONLY amp I could find that worked with my Headphile HP3000, which were exceedingly warm.  I walked around during a large meet once and they sounded best out of my little PPA simply because they were too warm on everything else.  I had the amp with an HD650 at that meet and everyone agreed it made the HD650 w/stock cable sound bright, cold and analytical. 

 

[purrin]

 
Quote:

The brightest I ever heard was my old PPA that had an opamp in it whose name I can't remember, but someone who knows that amp could fill in here...

Was it an AD8** something? Was it a PPA v1 or v2?
 

Quote:

I had the amp with an HD650 at that meet and everyone agreed it made the HD650 w/stock cable sound bright, cold and analytical.  

LOL, that's just not possible, and if it were, then it would just be plain wrong.

 

[rhythmdevils]

AD861 maybe?  I'm not a DIY'er so I never paid much attention to the opamp numbers. 
 
I guess compared to all the crazily bright headphones out there, it wasn't all that bright.  But they were bright for HD650's and they did have a cold and analytical sound. 

 

[Severum]

AD861