[Armaegis]

I might make a move on these. If I do, I'll be sure to write up a review. Curious if they can drive my HE-6.

 

[sree]

I might make a move on these. If I do, I'll be sure to write up a review. Curious if they can drive my HE-6.

I have one of these and I am sure they may not drive the HE6 that well. I think I made a mistake in switching from HDP to HAP. Do not get me wrong, these are great for what they are but HDP had more features and this amp needs a gain switch to drive high end gear to ear shattering levels. Without the gain activated on my Lehmann, they are pretty similar but with the gain, they were not even close to my Lehmann for HD800. Even though I have not tried them with HE6, I got a hunch based on HD-800 that it may not be right.

I wrote back to NuForce explaining my observation, hope they listen.

 

[sree]

Suprisingly very little interest in this amp, have I been away that long? I remember when Nuforce introduced the HDP...

I believe HDP was the best Value for Money gear I ever owned. HAP is good but I think it is in a delicate position as far as price to performance to weight goes. I have hardly listened to them since I bought them. May be once I go to India and switch the voltage to 220, I may listen to them more.

 

[TexasBuck]

Thanks for the feedback Sree.  Not exactly what I wanted to hear but it might have saved me some money.  I've got the Icon HD, and it's kind of struggle figuring out what would be a worthwhile upgrade for $1200 or under.  (DAC and Amp combined)  The Icon HDP/HD provides a lot of value for the price.  Sounds like the HAP-100 is a better amp but not a better value.  I keep coming back to the Schitt Lyr/Bifrost.  The Lyr would be great with my Hifiman HE-400 but likely a poor match with my Grado 325is.  I was hoping the HAP-100/Bifrost combo might be the answer for both phones.

 

[Armaegis]

There's the Nuforce DAC-100 to consider as well.

 

[runswithaliens]

This looks like a nice pre-amp/headphone amp. I also like that they included a remote. Anyone have any new listening impressions to report? I would personally like to know how it does with the Senn. HD650, but also can it hold it it's own for something like the Fostex T50-RP?

 

[Armaegis]

I have used it with an HD600 and several different modded T50rp's. It powers all of them quite well. Not ear-splitting loud like the Lyr, but it goes above comfortable levels when need be with either of them.
 
With the Senn I still prefer it with a Bottlehead Crack, but the HAP-100 is a close second.

 

[runswithaliens]

Quote:

I have used it with an HD600 and several different modded T50rp's. It powers all of them quite well. Not ear-splitting loud like the Lyr, but it goes above comfortable levels when need be with either of them.
 
With the Senn I still prefer it with a Bottlehead Crack, but the HAP-100 is a close second.

 
Thanks for the informative reply Armaegis! 
 
Now here is possibly a more difficult comparitive question for anyone. There is a local dealer here with an available Marantz PM 8004 Integrated amp for $899.00. I have read good things about the headphone out of the matching Marantz SACD player, but no mentiod of the headphones via the Integrated. I brought my HD650s to the store and the amp did certainly sound very refined through the headphones and I could tell the bass was a bit tighter than lower priced stereo receivers on hand, but I wonder if going that route I am going to be sacrifices quite a bit of Headphone performance vs. a dedicated unit like the HAP-100?  I have never heard the HD650s through a properly  powerful amp so don't know what I might be missing.

 

[Armaegis]

Not likely. Most speaker amps will run their headphone outputs directly off a resistor tap of the speaker outputs. If anything, due to how the impedance works the bass might even sound stronger coming off the integrated amp. That said, the HAP-100 has vaguely similar style output (without jumping into technical terms) so should sound somewhat similar. 
 
Really, pick which device you want based on functionality. Or buy both and use the preamp to feed the integrated amp 

 

[runswithaliens]

Thanks again Armaegis!  In the interim I have been reading up on the new Oppo bdp-105 and think I might just get that first as it could effectively act as a DAC from my PC, a pre-amp to my JBL LSR2328P powered monitors, and apparently a good Headphone amp even.  Heck, I might even use it to play the occasional Blu-ray and SACD disk.  Priced at only $100.00 more than Nuforce's new DAC-100 it seems the Oppo might be hard to beat for the money.
 

 

[runswithaliens]

Despite my last post, I still haven't figured out what I want to buy yet so am curious to know more about the HAP-100.  Does this amp have any kind of noticeable sound qualities that any of you have noticed?
 

 

[Armaegis]

Not really. It does a really good job of amping it up (no pun intended) with no noise added. As long as you stick with the high impedance cans, everything sounds as it should. With the way the impedance works, there's actually a very slight but pleasant bloom to the midbass region for some headphones, namely the high end Senns and the Beyer 250ohm models. It plays quite well with orthos as well. I've got notes for a review jotted down, but I'm waiting on a new output module from Nuforce to test out first. 

 

[kazsud]

Quote:

Not really. It does a really good job of amping it up (no pun intended) with no noise added. As long as you stick with the high impedance cans, everything sounds as it should. With the way the impedance works, there's actually a very slight but pleasant bloom to the midbass region for some headphones, namely the high end Senns and the Beyer 250ohm models. It plays quite well with orthos as well. I've got notes for a review jotted down, but I'm waiting on a new output module from Nuforce to test out first. 

Output module?

 

[Armaegis]

They've developed an output headphone jack with lower impedance. I'm supposed to be getting it soon. 

 

[runswithaliens]

Can you give us any details about the alternate headphone jack? Is that a matter of swapping out parts?  I'm not seeing any mention of it on their website yet.