[White Fox]

Other than the new features of the mkll, there are not alot of differences listed in the 'Technical details'. Without giving away any secrets, what makes the mkll sound better, aside of the new features? I don't know #$%! about designing amps.

 

[White Fox]

Bumpy.

 

[Slow_aetk]

I you are planning to buy any of those, better ask the man himself! E-mail Jan, he is really very helpful.

 

[saint.panda]

Only compared the MKI (mine) and MKII briefly so please take it with a grain of salt.

The MKII sounds less grainy than the MKI. On a few pieces this graininess could be interpreted as better texturing, which, however, I'm not really sure about. In general, the MKII has a more natural sound and is less fatiguing than the MKI. From the time I spent I couldn't tell whether the MKII had superior detailing.
The soundstage was better if I remember correctly. Again, not enough listening to form a proper judgement and further, volume matching had to be done manually because the MKI and MKII had different gains. Anyway, despite all these excuses for a straight answer, the difference was there. Better coherency, naturalness and a feeling of improved effortlessness would be the main aspects I noticed.
You could also ask JaZZ about it because he did the same comparison and has better-trained ears.

In any case, I think the main improvements from the MKI is that the MKII has a pre-out. But just ask Jan himself because there are too few people who have heard the MKI and MKII side by side. However, please be advised that Jan is always very humble about the differences/improvements between his amps. When I asked him about a Prehead MKI / HA-2 MKI comparison, he used to tell me that unless I need the preamp capabilities, the HA-2 is just as good as the Prehead. Well, there are a few members on this board who will tell you that the Prehead does sound better than the HA-2 and I doubt that Jan simply didn't hear the differences.

 

[White Fox]

I already have the HA-2 and I'm happy with it overall - the detail and dynamics are the best I've heard in my limited experience with headphone amps. Jan was a pleasure to deal with as well.

I think Jan picked a good tester in JaZZ, I agree with him for the most part in the weaknesses of the HA-2. However, 'over texturing' seems like a polite way of describing unnatural edginess, or a classic solid-state sound. But, whatever.

 

[Chisum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saint.panda Jan is always very humble about the differences/improvements between his amps. When I asked him about a Prehead MKI / HA-2 MKI comparison, he used to tell me that unless I need the preamp capabilities, the HA-2 is just as good as the Prehead. Well, there are a few members on this board who will tell you that the Prehead does sound better than the HA-2 and I doubt that Jan simply didn't hear the differences.

Well, from what Jan Meier said in another thread there IS a (small) difference between CORDA HA-2 and the Prehead:
"It's difficult to tell whether the HA-2 MkII sounds better than the new PREHEAD, as I never heard both in a direct A-B comparison, but I feel that the new PREHEAD is slightly more smooth and shows more authority. That's nothing unexpected, as the PREHEAD has a much better powersupply and a more powerfull output stage. Differences are small though."