[duffer5]

Yes, to me it is a step up. The A90D is very resolving and provides great detail and a wider soundstage than the HA-1. It is most likely what the HA-1 would evolve to if still being made today. The looks and build quality in the HA-1 are still the best in the industry but the A90D is a big value package in todays market with evolved sound.

 

[Mungam]

Thank you very much for the info, exactly what I need!
I was also thinking of a Fiio K9 Pro ESS, but it doesn't seem to be as good as the A90D.

 

[duffer5]

do you need a DAC? The A90D is an amp only no DAC. The Fiio is good but why pay for a DAC if you don’t need it. You could still use the DAC in the HA-1 with the A90D.

 

[Mungam]

No, I don't need a DAC, I will use the NAD C510 for that, it sounds great. It has a tuning from Rowen in Switzerland in the output stage, the former CEO of Rowen was one of the founders of NAD.
I would prefer just an amplifier without a DAC, but often you get a combo and I don't care if one is inside, as long as the amp part is good. What I absolutely want is balanced in and out.
So it is save to say that a 600-800 Euros headphone amp nowadays *should* be superior to the amp section in the HA-1?

 

[duffer5]

No, I don't need a DAC, I will use the NAD C510 for that, it sounds great. It has a tuning from Rowen in Switzerland in the output stage, the former CEO of Rowen was one of the founders of NAD.
I would prefer just an amplifier without a DAC, but often you get a combo and I don't care if one is inside, as long as the amp part is good. What I absolutely want is balanced in and out.
So it is save to say that a 600-800 Euros headphone amp nowadays *should* be superior to the amp section in the HA-1?

Yes, I think the amp quality of today has improved over what the HA-1 offers but that is just my opinion. I would say try the A90D or something like it (balanced throughout and discrete) and if you don't like it return if (if the policy permits). That being said if you are looking for leaps and bounds improvement you most likely won't see it. But yes amps are a great way to improve sound but headphones have also improved so there is that and your source aka dac is important. If I had to rank them in order, headphone, amp, dac, cables and power conditioner. Again, only an opinion.

 

[Charlie101]

I'm upgrading/side-grading from my HA-1 to the new FiiO R7 all-in-one, primarily because of all the additional features it supports, and it's basically a desktop DAP on steroids that can work standalone. It uses the same THX AAA 788+ amps as the FiiO K9 Pro. I've pre-ordered it for £572 in the UK, which I think is a great price given all the features it supports (it's a truly insane amount of features), and also ordered the FiiO PL50 linear PSU to improve upon the built-in switching PSU of the R7.

It looks like you've already got a DAC though, which will probably perform better sonically than the DAC in the R7, but still it might be something you could consider.

 

[Mungam]

Thank you for the feedback. I will try the Topping A90D (even if I don't like them to put a switching power supply in a hifi product). I think I will also try the Violectric / Lake People headphone amps for comparison.

 

[Mungam]

Thank you for the feedback. I will try the Topping A90D (even if I don't like them to put a switching power supply in a hifi product). I think I will also try the Violectric / Lake People headphone amps for comparison.

Ok, I bought now a Pro-Ject Head Box DS2 B: https://www.project-audio.com/en/product/head-box-ds2-b/
It is a balanced headphone amplifier from Austria for EUR 600,00. I used one of my linear power supplies for testing it against the HA-1 (it comes with a switching power supply, but Pro-Ject also offers linear power supplies for better performance).
It sounds very good and has an adjustable impedance selector (they call it adjustable output current). Depending on the headphones the sound can be adjusted, quite nice.

But the soundstage has no chance against the HA-1. It is much smaller, it almost feels like it is outputting the signal only in mono when switching from the HA-1 to the Pro-ject. So it will go back and the search continues. I don't know if I will try the Topping A90D next or directly jump to the Violectric HPA V222 (EUR 1200,-, so double the price).

I used the NAD C510 as DAC for testing, this unit is just great. Especially with the Rowen tuning! It sounds very natural, brighter than the AKM and warmer than the ESS chips, just perfectly in the middle. The HA-1 and Pro-Ject were connect with XLR cables. The signals was routed from the NAD to the Pro-Ject and then to the HA-1.

 

[Mungam]

I don't know if it is interesting for someone:
Bought now a Violectric HPA V222. Very nice unit, well built. Compared to the HA-1 the soundstage is definitely a bit smaller and it is a bit warmer sounding.
I do prefer the warmth, as the HA-1 can sometimes be a little bit fatiguing for me. But the bigger soundstage of the HA-1 is really great.
I was expecting big improvements with newer headphone amplifiers but i have to say that I am quite disappointed. The HA-1 is a very good amplifer. The weakness I see for me is the DAC, as I think it is too bright. But feeding it with an external DAC shows its performance.
I tested again with the NAD C510 as DAC, balanced to the HA-1 and V222, headphones also balanced.

 

[innocentblood]

I do agree that the DAC inside the HA-1 is showing its age. that is why I was pleasantly surprised when I connected the iFi Neo Stream to the HA-1 via the XLR inputs. in my personal experience, this combo takes the HA-1 to the next level in terms of pure listening pleasure.

 

[Mungam]

Ok, after breaking in the V222 it has to go. First I thought it is a bit warmer than the HA-1, but now I can't hear any difference anymore. But the soundstage is a bit smaller, so I will keep the HA-1. It is really good sounding and still up to the task with an external DAC. I have read that Oppo installed Elkos for AC coupling, which is not very good with the voltages you usually have with a balanced input. But the NAD C510 has a really good 35bit digital volume control, and I don't use the Oppo pot. So the inoput voltages are smaller then usual, and that might contribute to this great sound.

 

[sonic2911]

I'm currently using HA-1 as amp and feeding my tube amp (bypass vol. control on HA-1), from a R2R DAC because my DAC only has XLR output. I want to upgrade but not sure which one can do the same thing as HA-1 now

 

[Mungam]

It is very easy to convert a XLR output to RCA. There are adapters available. But be careful, some adapters shorten one signal path of the XLR to ground, and not every unit (DAC) can cooperate with that. You have to check the manual of your DAC.
You can open the XLR to RCA adapter and clip the short in it, then it will make no problem.

 

[sonic2911]

It is very easy to convert a XLR output to RCA. There are adapters available. But be careful, some adapters shorten one signal path of the XLR to ground, and not every unit (DAC) can cooperate with that. You have to check the manual of your DAC.
You can open the XLR to RCA adapter and clip the short in it, then it will make no problem.

I have those cables/adapters you said. My Dac is Ares 2, and I can only use XLR or RCA at a time, and the signal from ha-1 to the tube amp is better than from the adapter.
DAC --XLR--> HA-1 (I use my LCD2 here with bal output) --RCA--> Tube amp (for HD600/650) and vol out from HA-1 is fixed or bypassed, I only control the volume on tubeamp

 

[Mightygrey]

Anyone else had this sort of problem with their HA-1 screen? It's getting some weird ghosting on it, and eventually fades to black entirely.