[Lan647]

The HD 800 sounds wonderful with the HPA. I've heard the Lehmann BCL and Burson HA-160 as well with those cans and the hpa + hd 800 combo proved to synergize the best. With the Lehmann, the sound was a bit too neutral for my taste. Clean and "hi-fi" sounding but lacked musicality. The Burson was similar in a lot of ways but more aggressive, I didn't like this combo. 

M1 hpa gave the HD 800 a very nice, spacious soundstage. Nice black "space" in the sound, very hi-fi sounding but with musicality. Slightly warm, absolutely not bright. Easy on the ears

Cheers.

 

[metalgear]

MF's class a series of products all have that signature sound - hifi + musical.

 

[Lan647]

Quote:

Im not sure that this will run any of the mentioned.
 

M1 hpa runs two LCD-2s at the same time with zero difficulty. Cheers 

 

[Questhate]

 
Quote:

M1 hpa runs two LCD-2s at the same time with zero difficulty. Cheers 

Yep. The audio store that I demo'd the LCD-2 at used the M1 HPA to drive them -- and it drove them with authority. Not sure where the poster is coming from with those claims. 

 

[Lan647]

Quote:

 


Yep. The audio store that I demo'd the LCD-2 at used the M1 HPA to drive them -- and it drove them with authority. Not sure where the poster is coming from with those claims. 

I think M1 HPA is the best solid state amp under 1k actually (of the ones I've heard) Good lookin' too!
 

 

[Audiowood]

I have the M1 Hpa & have try the HD800, LCD-2 and LCd-3 and it's never run out of steam.
 
Best features of M1HPA = Tight and very deep bass. Had good extended high yet zero sibilance. Good for all genre. have a very Good attack as well. Sometimes it sound like the Stepdance desktop version, with better bass extension.
 
 

 

[Lan647]

Quote:

I have the M1 Hpa & have try the HD800, LCD-2 and LCd-3 and it's never run out of steam.
 
Best features of M1HPA = Tight and very deep bass. Had good extended high yet zero sibilance. Good for all genre. have a very Good attack as well. Sometimes it sound like the Stepdance desktop version, with better bass extension.
 
 

IME it has an unusually large and airy soundstage aswell, with a nice "black" space all over it. 
 

 

[buson160man]

  I read a review by steve guttenberg about this amp and he commented that he preferred it to his burson ha-160 amp.I have not heard the hp1a amp yet but I have owned a burson ha-160 amp for some time and after viewing the inner workings of the hp1a amp in a previously closed thread I try not to be prejudgemental about a component but after seeing that photograph and after viewing the inner workings of my ha-160 it is hard to believe his preference for the musical fidelity.The inner workings of the burson appear to be much more substantial and I am even more sceptical about his judgement in light of the sparsely populated circuit board in the hp1a amp.And that board also has a dac included.It would appear at least to me that musical fidelity is making a ton of money selling its amp in light of its sparcely populated circuit board at least when you compare it to the burson ha-160 amp.One look at the bursons inner workings and the solidity of the amplifier case you can see where burson puts its money.One look at the inner workings of the musical fidelity and the case work which is nowhere near as well built as the burson i wonder what the profit margin is for the musical fidelity people is at least on the hp1a amp?
 I have grado, akg, and audeze lcd2 rev2 phones and the burson sounds great with all of them.One thing though the stepped attenuator is sometimes an issue due to its very steep volume ramp up which can be problematic on some recordings making it very difficult to find the correct volume for listening.It is very frustrating at times but I am ok with it in light of the amps very reasonable price which is amazing considering the amps build quality.I have a ray samuels raptor otl amp as well and I have to say that over all that  the burson is the best amp I own.

 

[vinylrecordust]

Have used the Musical Fidelity gear for years and it should be on everyone's short list.......
 
Regards,

 

[Lan647]

Indeed! Musical fidelity gear sounds very nice allround. Laid-back and smooth but still very punchy and dynamic. 

 

[CantScareMe]

When I have the space this is the first thing i'm going to get.
 
It's an awesome piece of kit. I demoed it extensively and this redefined my definition of 'diminishing returns' in the amp/dac world! At around £400 it actually is the only amp I've ever come across to offer a REAL sonic improvement over the fiio e9 with my set of low impedance high sensitivity cans.
 
The musical fidelity vdacII (with a £20 replacement psu) would pair awesomly with this amp I reckon. Well, it's a great dac by iteslf obviously, but it'll sit nicely on top of the hpa without restricting heat flow (class a amp). I didn't think the inbuilt dac of the hpa was too great, although it's good for 'high end' casual listening probably- if such a thing can exist.  

 

[Mr.Tom]

I'm not impressed with MF as of late. I feel there last great headphone product(bang for the buck)was the XcanV3, shortly after that, there prices went up and you got less. Or the price was good and you got much less.
 
There's a bazar website/forum in the UK that praises everything the make. After the V3 was dropped and the replacement was a joke, the site owner still went on about how great MF was/is. I was like WHAT! are you nuts? And I no longer go to the highly biased site. But if you need to know about MF products, look for this UK site, and you'll get a lot of info. 
 
MF has been around for a long time, and have always been a little pricey, but the V3 was a steal for what you got, and I guess I got spoiled on the V3. I feel MF went down hill after the V3, as far as head amps go's(IMO).

 

[CantScareMe]

I'd got completely peed off with mainly chinese brands producing gear that don't really function properly as a reliable piece of electronics. I mean, step back from it all. Were paying £300 for a device to ouput sound BUT you expect it to come with a whole host of problems. Yulong, musiland, audio gd, matrix....and other manufacturers simply don't produce reliable enough stuff (IMO/IME). Yet with the four fiio products i've had, none have even missed a beat. None have put a foot wrong. 
 
So I thought I might as well look into musical fidelity products, you know, local uk stuff. I'm actually pleasanly surprised by the quality of the vdac II. The vcan II needs a bit more attention given to the volume pot. Quite a bit too sensitive. It's small and £100 so it's decent for the price. Fiio e9 is £80 just for comparisons sake. Not a rip off.
Anyway, the vdac II. Yea, this is a great dac for only £40 more than the hrt music streamer II. It's easily better sounding than both the msII and it's big brother msII+.  
 
Back to topic- I was pleasantly surprised with the hpa amp. It's a definite improvement over the similarly priced graham slee solo srgII that I've got, all except in the subject of physical dimensions. Too big for the tiny cramped room I live in. 
 
I've been surprised by this companies products. I though fiddling with these products would be an experience matching much of what my experience with dacs and amps has been in the past: crap. But no!

 

[Greeni]

Quote:

  I read a review by steve guttenberg about this amp and he commented that he preferred it to his burson ha-160 amp.I have not heard the hp1a amp yet but I have owned a burson ha-160 amp for some time and after viewing the inner workings of the hp1a amp in a previously closed thread I try not to be prejudgemental about a component but after seeing that photograph and after viewing the inner workings of my ha-160 it is hard to believe his preference for the musical fidelity.The inner workings of the burson appear to be much more substantial and I am even more sceptical about his judgement in light of the sparsely populated circuit board in the hp1a amp.And that board also has a dac included.It would appear at least to me that musical fidelity is making a ton of money selling its amp in light of its sparcely populated circuit board at least when you compare it to the burson ha-160 amp.One look at the bursons inner workings and the solidity of the amplifier case you can see where burson puts its money.One look at the inner workings of the musical fidelity and the case work which is nowhere near as well built as the burson i wonder what the profit margin is for the musical fidelity people is at least on the hp1a amp?
 I have grado, akg, and audeze lcd2 rev2 phones and the burson sounds great with all of them.One thing though the stepped attenuator is sometimes an issue due to its very steep volume ramp up which can be problematic on some recordings making it very difficult to find the correct volume for listening.It is very frustrating at times but I am ok with it in light of the amps very reasonable price which is amazing considering the amps build quality.I have a ray samuels raptor otl amp as well and I have to say that over all that  the burson is the best amp I own.

 
I guess you pretty much nailed it, the Musical Fidelity sound almost pale and sparsed in comparison with the Burson. It has been mentioned by some audio community, and rightly so, that in the past MF changes model much more often than other audio manufacturers,  the resale value tend to depreciate much faster. For an budget of $1K one can get a Burson soloist and not look back.

 

[Monkee]

@buson160man rants about a review he read and how much space is between the components (which is as often done to reduce EFI noise as anything). I have a coffee machine which is 65kg and one which is 45kg. The 45kg one actually makes better coffee. SHOCK HORROR! Nevertheless, you'd think the laws of conservation of energy (as heat in the boiler) were being violated, because it's not just lighter, it's BETTER!
 
I like the burson headamp, but A/B/Cing them with a Creek amp, I came to the conclusion that the MF gear was less warm (less bass bloat), more revealing in the top end, and more musical. I'm really sorry I've said that. Can I leave now?
 
If Greeni, you really like warm stuff (Marantz for example), the Burson amp will satisfy as it sounds so high-end, but if you're more of a Naim person, the MF M1 HPA will be your best bet. The amp is stunning value - only they make me want the new sennheiser HD850's, and I'm still struggling with the cost of my Technics SU-3000 and AKG K702's.
 
~Monkeh