[yammy1688]

Which one would you buy for HD600s? I've pretty much narrowed my choices down to these 3.

 

[yammy1688]

By the way I used a Rega Jupiter, the older model with separate transport / Dacs as my cd player.

 

[nicorette]

i'm not quite the right person to answer this. but i think it might help for those who know the stuff if you mention some criteria.

1. price/performance ratio. (are you price-blind?)
2. what kind of sound are you pursuing? - auditioning is the only way, i hear.
3. are you going to possibly need preamp?
4. well..... what else?

p.s : i believe jude mentioning that he liked max more if the price was not an issue. (yea his phones are hd600 too.)
p.s II : according to what i've read so far, you can't go wrong anyway among those three. (I ENVY YOU!)

 

[nicorette]

oh one more thing to cause more abulia.

have you considered the LaRocco PPA? it's kinda in the price range between the max and prehead, i think. http://www.laroccoaudio.com

i haven't found people's impression on it. maybe. well, anyways, it's too beautiful to trust.

(yes, i hold the same view on women)

 

[tom hankins]

I've used the Headroom MOHR/stepped atten. with the Jupiter and the HD600 and they made beautiful music together. The Max should be a little bit better.

 

[williamgoody]

I'd say the Prehead would do the trick. I find it to be everything the Max is, with a little more (as it is a prehead). Definitely enough "power" tpo bring the 600's to life, nice, slightly fast paced capture of the music, and solid, impactful lows to go with the articulate highs.
I found myself enjoying the Prehead/600 combo (when I had them) moreso than when I had the Sugden/600 combo.

 

[lextek]

I would say you need to decide between the two types of crossfeeds. Headrooms is very, noticably. The Cordas is very subtle. I have only heard the older Corda HA-1. I almost could'nt tell the crossfeed was working. Otherwise as said before you can't go wrong with either. Never heard the Sugden.

 

[Anders]

I was in this situation until a few days ago when I ordered the Prehead. Have not received it yet. I have now the old MOH which I perceive as somewhat grainy, slow and restricted in dynamics. I run it with a high quality source and both are powered by a PS Audio P300 power regenerator. The new MOH should be clearly better according to a Soundstage review.
The Max is more expensive but seems to be different rather than clearly better in performace (not only williamgoody says that). The price difference is accentuated for us who live outside USA.
The Sudgen was harder to exclude, it seems also to be very good and it would be nice with a remote control. It seems to have a somewhat dry sound and a little low in the volume of the bass. I also want crossfeed, although I don't use it always.
According to the reviews here, Prehead has a well defined and impactful bass coupled with a detailed, fast and natural sound extending through the upper registers. This together with the crossfeed was appealing to me. The Prehead has three levels of crossfeed + bypass and I beleive that this should be enough for me. The effect shall be subtle, but of course hearable.
Hope my reasoning works!

 

[Rameish]

Between the Corda Prehead and Sudgen I would pick the Corda for several reasons - it has both 120 ohm and 0 ohm jacks so you can pick a slightly different sound . You have a choice of 3 crossfeed functions as well as normal strreo. And, more importantly, it has a slight but noticable edge over the Sudgen (very subjective cos I listened to both at different times). However, using my HA-2 as a comparison to the Sudgen, I still prefer the HA-2.

I used to be the Corda dealer for Singapore and a good friend of mine has a Sudgen - he has since modded it queiet extensively

 

[Geek]

I unfortunately have not had the chance of hearing the Sugden Headmaster or the Corda Prehead, but I do know that the Max makes a really great combo with the HD600.

The max sounded wicked smooth for a solid state amp, had a great crossfeed processor, a very useful three-step gain switch, and a nice three-position brightness filter to add back the highs that the headroom crossfeed subrtacts, in case you find it to be dull.

I would opt for a stepped attenuator, the Max reaches an entirely new level of precision (channel balance) with one of those.

Cheers,
Geek

 

[greenhorn]

Yammy,

Go with the Prehead, you won't regret the choice!

greenhorn

 

[yammy1688]

Beautiful is right! Anyone heard one of these before?

Quote:

Originally posted by nicorette oh one more thing to cause more abulia. have you considered the LaRocco PPA? it's kinda in the price range between the max and prehead, i think. http://www.laroccoaudio.com i haven't found people's impression on it. maybe. well, anyways, it's too beautiful to trust. (yes, i hold the same view on women)

 

[yammy1688]

OK thanks for all the feedback guys. I think I'll go with the prehead given the price compared to the Max. I'd go with the HA2 but I need the extra inputs. Hopefully I'll be able to find a used one.

 

[Carlos3]

The Prehead is currently on sale for Head-Fi members isn't it?

 

[dd3mon]

Quote:

Originally posted by Carlos3 The Prehead is currently on sale for Head-Fi members isn't it?

WAS on sale - for the month of August. Current Meier Audio sale is a pair of Ultrasones.

-dd3mon