Àedhàn Cassiel
100+ Head-Fier
So I just had the chance to audition a Valhalla 2 side-by-side with a Magni 2 for the first time. These are the only two amps besides portable stuff made by FiiO that I've actually had the chance to listen to.
I definitely enjoyed the Val2 more, and I could certainly hear some differences. However, given that the Magni 2 is only $50, and as someone on a relatively tight budget, it didn’t seem to me like anywhere near $250-300 worth increased enjoyment unless that was a trivial amount of cash for me to drop for relatively minor improvements. I’d say if the Magni 2 gets me 98.5% of the possible output of the HD800’s, the Valhalla 2 bumps that up to 99%. EQ’ing narrowed the perceptible differences even further, since I could tell part of the way the Val2 was giving me the perception of a larger soundstage was just because I could comfortably get it to higher volumes with less treble pain.
However, I could hear an increased echo. There were a couple tracks where the vocals are reverberating, with the reverb being quickly swallowed by the sound of a plucked guitar. I could hear the reverberating echo for about a fourth of a second or so with the Valhalla 2 where it wasn’t perceivable coming out of the Magni 2 at all.
But this isn’t something I’d ever really notice in the vast majority of listening sessions. And I didn’t notice it everywhere. It really took a nitpicking level of attention that I don’t normally pay when listening to music, even though I do enjoy the increased clarity of the HD800 compared to other stuff I’ve heard by miles. But it has me curious now if I wouldn’t enjoy the sound of a full tube amp with the HD800’s more.
I’m thinking I should stick with the Magni 2 unless and until I ever really have cash to burn getting that final 2% out of my headphones. So far, my interpretation as someone who’s tried a big chunk of Sennheiser and HiFiMan’s lineup and has ultimately stuck with an HD800 and an LCD2C is that there’s way more enjoyment in a price to performance sense balancing my headphone collection out than there is putting it into amps. Maybe one day I’ll have a mind-blasting experience plugging it into a different amp, but testing out the Val2 after all the praise I heard (it even had 6N6P tubes!) mostly just gave me appreciation for how close to that value the Magni 2 already gets me.
Now, if I kept the Magni 2, I wouldn’t need to worry too much about accuracy, detail retrieval, and whatever else on the HD800’s in a second amp. I could get a pure tube amp that would just make the sound more euphonic and ‘interesting’ without worrying about any other qualities to the amp. Obviously one of the biggest selling points to listening out of the HD800’s is the massive soundstage, so I wouldn’t want the amp to destroy that quality, but as long as it wasn’t reducing my enjoyment of the soundstage relative to the Magni 2 I’d be quite happy.
So ultimately what I’m looking for here is just the cheapest 2nd full tube amp that would give me the best price-to-variety value in terms of giving me a variety of ways to listen to my music. I know there are affordable tube amps in the sub-~$300 range. Maybe even something like the Darkvoice 336SE.
Come to think of it, the Darkvoice might be the most logical choice for me to look for next, as far as I know. Would that be a reasonable assessment? Keep in mind, when listening for sheer enjoyment I love the dark LCD2.2 sound the most (I enjoyed them noticably more than anything from HiFiMan all the way up to the HE-560). Is there anything else in a comparable price range that would distort the sound in a ‘fun’ way and give me as close to the full experience of the tube sound as possible?
I definitely enjoyed the Val2 more, and I could certainly hear some differences. However, given that the Magni 2 is only $50, and as someone on a relatively tight budget, it didn’t seem to me like anywhere near $250-300 worth increased enjoyment unless that was a trivial amount of cash for me to drop for relatively minor improvements. I’d say if the Magni 2 gets me 98.5% of the possible output of the HD800’s, the Valhalla 2 bumps that up to 99%. EQ’ing narrowed the perceptible differences even further, since I could tell part of the way the Val2 was giving me the perception of a larger soundstage was just because I could comfortably get it to higher volumes with less treble pain.
However, I could hear an increased echo. There were a couple tracks where the vocals are reverberating, with the reverb being quickly swallowed by the sound of a plucked guitar. I could hear the reverberating echo for about a fourth of a second or so with the Valhalla 2 where it wasn’t perceivable coming out of the Magni 2 at all.
But this isn’t something I’d ever really notice in the vast majority of listening sessions. And I didn’t notice it everywhere. It really took a nitpicking level of attention that I don’t normally pay when listening to music, even though I do enjoy the increased clarity of the HD800 compared to other stuff I’ve heard by miles. But it has me curious now if I wouldn’t enjoy the sound of a full tube amp with the HD800’s more.
I’m thinking I should stick with the Magni 2 unless and until I ever really have cash to burn getting that final 2% out of my headphones. So far, my interpretation as someone who’s tried a big chunk of Sennheiser and HiFiMan’s lineup and has ultimately stuck with an HD800 and an LCD2C is that there’s way more enjoyment in a price to performance sense balancing my headphone collection out than there is putting it into amps. Maybe one day I’ll have a mind-blasting experience plugging it into a different amp, but testing out the Val2 after all the praise I heard (it even had 6N6P tubes!) mostly just gave me appreciation for how close to that value the Magni 2 already gets me.
Now, if I kept the Magni 2, I wouldn’t need to worry too much about accuracy, detail retrieval, and whatever else on the HD800’s in a second amp. I could get a pure tube amp that would just make the sound more euphonic and ‘interesting’ without worrying about any other qualities to the amp. Obviously one of the biggest selling points to listening out of the HD800’s is the massive soundstage, so I wouldn’t want the amp to destroy that quality, but as long as it wasn’t reducing my enjoyment of the soundstage relative to the Magni 2 I’d be quite happy.
So ultimately what I’m looking for here is just the cheapest 2nd full tube amp that would give me the best price-to-variety value in terms of giving me a variety of ways to listen to my music. I know there are affordable tube amps in the sub-~$300 range. Maybe even something like the Darkvoice 336SE.
Come to think of it, the Darkvoice might be the most logical choice for me to look for next, as far as I know. Would that be a reasonable assessment? Keep in mind, when listening for sheer enjoyment I love the dark LCD2.2 sound the most (I enjoyed them noticably more than anything from HiFiMan all the way up to the HE-560). Is there anything else in a comparable price range that would distort the sound in a ‘fun’ way and give me as close to the full experience of the tube sound as possible?
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