Musicality in terms of not adding anything to the music? Yeah, but it doesn't subtract anything either. The HE-9 is the single most transparent headphone amp in existence, it's completely spotless - like the glass screen of a new phone the instant you remove the protector film. It shifts the focus of music reproduction to your DAC, which IMO - as it's meant to be.
I believe grizzly eventually went back to tube amps, and that's fine. I actually grew up from tube amps myself, but I've changed directions towards purity and realism instead of a colored and euphonic sound.
While I do seem to have endless praises for the HE-9, it does have its faults though. My gripes with it are mainly in its design and function, not with its sound. The amp itself is huge, I should've measured my equipment rack beforehand because it barely even fits on the top shelf. The ventilation holes are on top which dust can fall into, which I have to cover when my amp isn't in use. And I don't like how the remote control is silver, I made sure everything is black in my listening room - black equipment, black furniture, black teapot, the only thing that sticks out is this friggin Audio-GD silver remote!
