[Lil' Knight]

What? I thought the Rudistor thing is the best?

 

[Surge74]

  HI All,
 
My Mal Valve is due to land this week. Once I have spent some time with it I am going to do a loaner program (you will find out more info on my sponsor thread here at Head-Fi) so 3 of you will get to do your own review. I will insist that you have a Stax electrostatic headphone as well as 1 or 2 of the TOP dynamic headphones to use with the Mal Valve.
 
This looks like a very exciting product and I will also chime on with my opinion of the unit once I have spent time with it.
 
Also, Steve Guttenberg hasn't heard the Pinnacle....
 
Todd

 
So where is your review?!

 

[smial1966]

Seriously doubt whether the Malvalve is any better sonically than the ALO Studio Six or EAR HP4.

Malvalve is THE greatest headphone amp on earth.Ergonomics aside this is the most transparent natural sounding headphone amp especially with HD-800 +stock cable with xlr input.It needs a lot of burn in time to sound really stunning.

Here you get some idea of Malvalve sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjzzn22yOGU

 

[DefQon]

I've heard some very positive things about the HD800 and HP4 combination.

 

[smial1966]

I'd love to read a comparative review of the HP4, Studio Six and Malvalve using the HD800 as reference cans.
 
Quote:

  I've heard some very positive things about the HD800 and HP4 combination.

 

[bmichels]

not a very active thread !  Is this MalValve amp on the decline ?

 

[cerol]

Hallo bmichels!
I have no reason to believe that Malvalve is "on decline" but perhaps it is not very busy. I wrote to Dieter Malach (you can get a glimpse of him on Youtube where he is demonstrating on a Munich High End show) about a year ago. He answered very nicely and offered a buy "on trial" where you could return the item and get your money back with a slight reduction. But I thought Malvalve was a bit too expensive.
 
In the meantime there was this thread about the German Audiovalves Luminare, also a "universal" amp, with its much more attractive price. There are some threads about it mostly contributed by a frenchman eric65. There is a lot to read also on the German open-end.de sites.
Living in EU, like you, I find it nicer to deal with Germany than USA so I bought one and I am very pleased with it.
It is feeding my 009, LCD3F and HD800 to splendid results.
Regards
cerol