After upgrading my DAC (from a modi Multibit/mojo to Hugo2), I am rediscovering the La Figaro. I find that the unique characteristics of this amp, I.e. the wide and holographic soundstage plays well with the abilities of the Hugo2 and significantly improves the experience that I am getting. I also found out that one of the headphones that didn’t work very well with the La Figaro, the HD800, now synnergize particularly well, so much so that I keep getting back to this combo over and over. Here’s what I found out:
Previously, I had settled on a tube combo of TS 5998/RCA 5693 as my preferred choice. While this combo worked magic with the Audeze LCD3, it produced harsh, somewhat artificial glaring highs with HD800. I erroneously thought that the LF amp itself is not a good fit for the HD800.
Recently, based on some comments in this thread about the synergy between HD800 and 7236/6SJ7GT tubes, I gave it a shot. I had a pair of Sylvania 7236 and Philips 6SJ7WGT (they are quite close to 6SJ7GT) which I tested with the HD800. The source was hqplayer upsampling to 768K fed into Hugo2, then to LF 339. Here are my impressions: (1) zero treble glare on HD800, (2) no sibilance. This is so magical, even the songs that were completely unlistenable previously, are not only listenable now, but actually sound quite good. (3) Vocals sound as perfect as I can imagine, voice textures are amazing. (4) bass impact is very very satisfactory and natural. No longer I have to ignore the lack of bass, constantly reminding myself that these are HD800. (5) wide and holographic soundstage with adequate height, forward presence and imaging. These characters are a result of hqplayer and LF amp working hand in hand.
I can confidently say that this setup is the best I have heard so far on the HD800 (although I presume that the HD800 can shine even more with higher end setups that are beyond my means). It's better than my other amp, Violectric V280, which is also a widely acclaimed pairing for HD800. While the V280 has great bass quality and microdynamics, the LF amp wins over the Violectric in terms of bass weight, heft of individual notes and overall macrodynamics. Where the V280 sounds a little more sublime is in classical music. However, based on my subjective preference, I feel the V280 to sound a bit polite with other musical genre. The extra subtle aggressiveness of the LF amp pays off in jazz, acoustic and live recordings (I was listening to some Bruce Springsteen live performances, which sounded very life-like to my ears). Based on my past experience, it's not easy to strike the right balance of dynamism and treble glare on HD800 without attenuating specific peaks in the FR. That's why I feel this is such a prized combo. Overall, for music enjoyment, I prefer the pairing of HD800 with the LF amp over V280.
Curious that the 7236/6SJ7WGT makes such a drastic difference with HD800 over 5998/5693, I substituted between the two combinations, one at a time, e.g. I would replace 7236 with 5998, keeping 6SJ7WGT constant. Then I would replace 6SJ7WGT with 5693, keeping 7236 constant, and so on. What I found out is that the 5998 is the sole contributor of treble harshness in HD800, since replacing 6SJ7WGT with 5693 didn't change the sonic characteristics too much, but bringing in 5998 (even with 6SJ7WGT as rectifiers) brought back the harshness. I think, the dynamic character of 5998, along with its extended treble is contributing to the problem here. With HD800, we probably need something with slightly rolled off highs, extended bass while preserving the soundstage and instrument separation. That's exactly what the 7236 is providing here.
Having converged on the power tubes, I will continue experimenting with other rectifier tubes to figure out if I find an even better combo, but so far I can safely conclude that I have reached a stable plateau in terms of musical enjoyment with HD800.
