[Dwee]

Are there any in that prize range that nicely complement / don't make too prominent HD 800's supposed brightness?

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,
 
A used Mjolnir might do the trick. Used Firestone Audio Bobby. At your price range, used is the way to go. Otherwise, you'll be getting some entry balanced item that really may not be ideal. Typically going fully balanced is an extremely expensive thing to do. Already having the HD800 and balanced on top of it, expect to put nearly that much into the balanced gear too. Otherwise, why bother, right? Go used.
 
Very best,

 

[Dwee]

Well, I don't really mind going the used route. I'd already seen the Mjolnir while I was browsing other Schiit products, though it didn't occur to me that I could've went looking for a used one.
How does the Bobby compare to it?

 

[picopa]

Hi,
If you like DIY, I'd recommend AMB's M^3.
That's what I use with my HD800 , and a Marantz cd6004: on good recordings, no harshness and no "treble peak" with my HD800. But my experience is, when a CD mastering is bad, HD800 sound is bad.

 

[DarKen23]

Matrix Quattro is said to have great synergy with the HD800, its balanced as well under 500, new.

 

[DarKen23]

Well, I don't really mind going the used route. I'd already seen the Mjolnir while I was browsing other Schiit products, though it didn't occur to me that I could've went looking for a used one.
How does the Bobby compare to it?

I had the Mjolnir with the HD800 and did not like it. While its very neutral and has some pRaT, I found it to be too thin--especially around the midrange and higher freq. You wont get a full bodied sound as well. Youd get a better pairing with Bryston BHA-1 over the Mjolnir but Id still get something else over a bryston, keep in mind that the Mjolnir was not really designed to drive high impedance headphones, its aimed more towards orthos and it does a fantastic job in that regard. For a fully balanced route in mind, look into the Little Dot Mk6 (out of your price range though), I would recommend the Matrix Quattro because its 2 Matrix M stages in parallel-basically 2x the power of M Stage which is said to have amazing synergy with the 800s. Ive always prefered to go a balanced setup as well but the fact will remain that a single ended amp is just as good and even better a lot of times, I dont think you should worry too much about going with a fully balanced setup. As long as I can go dac xlr to amp xlr it wouldnt bother me if the amp had a single ended input or an xlr input for the headphones.

 

[Jd007]

Why do you have the balanced requirement? A lot more options open up at your budget range if you can go SE.

 

[DarKen23]

Why do you have the balanced requirement? A lot more options open up at your budget range if you can go SE.

 

[Dwee]

You know what? You are totally right.
Now I'm looking at some Audio-gd DAC/Amp combos. I want the best achievable fidelity, I don't wish to beautify or color the sound and from what I've heard they should be among the most transparent, so...

 

[DarKen23]

Careful when going highly transparent, at times you may lose musicality for transparency.