fredpb
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2001
- Posts
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After listening too a borrowed Maxed Out Home for a while, and comparing it to my Perreaux, I decided I had to have the MOH. There was no comparision between the two amps. I took advantage of Headrooms sale, which makes the MOH a bargain.
My equipment was:
Rega Planet CD player (original model).
Music Hall MMF5 turntable, with Goldring 1012GX cartridge.
Rotel Phone stage/amp.
Straightwire Encore II interconnects.
Sennheiser HD600 phones.
Clou Red cable for the HD600's.
DiMarzio Big Red Headphone extention cable, 15'.
Most of the music was classical. I am an avid classical fan. Also some jazz.
In a quick summary:
1) Quality of build of MOH: Superb. And it has a five year warranty.
2) Flexibility of MOH. Very good. Has Crossfeed switch, two inputs,
and two step hi filter (which is really two stages of hi freq boost).
3) Sound: Superb.
4) Value. You get what you pay for. You pay a lot for this amp, you get
it.
HD600's are hard to tame. I spent years trying to find a good amp to power the HD600's. Started with Creek. No guts. Headroom Little....No guts.... Headroom Premium Little .... good sound, no guts. MG Head OTL....good sound, some guts. Perreaux....great sound....decent guts. Guts? The ability to power the HD600's at low freqs.
Classical music can have tremendous low frequency energy. With my speakers, good ones, the room shudders. I wanted something comparable to my speaker/home system. I want the impression of low freqs. I want the sound to be effortless, and the entire audio frequency spectrum to be reproduced equally.
FINALLY. An amp that will do it. The Headroom Maxed Out Home. I am sure other Headroom amps, like the Max and Blockhead are superior in this respect. Perhaps the lesser amps with the optional power supplies can compare too.
But the MOH delivers.
Without getting into the pat phrases like "liquid" "sweet", etc, the sound of the MOH to me is perfect.
The MOH takes complete control of the Sennheisers. The lowest octave passages of classical music come through effortlessly. It is a joy to finally hear ALL the sound that my sources can provide. Sometimes I think the Senns are going to vibrate off my ears!
The detail is incredible. My ears are maxed out now. Some say the MOH is "dry". I don't think so, they are just accurate, without coloration. Tube amps are raved about, but they do provide much sound coloration, although pleasing to most ears.
The dual mono power supplies in the MOH perform flawlessly. Many amps have good power supplies, but the feed both channels. You get two great power supplies in the MOH, each as good as the single ones feeding both channels in most good amps.
The build quality of the MOH is without peer. I enjoy products of any type that have quality build. The MOH has this "great feel". No crummy slide switches or plastic jacks.
The MOH is one unit with internal power supplies. It is not small, it is not light.
The dual input model, which I have, has the souce switch in the back of the unit. This is a bit inconvenient, but it's better than another long signal path from the back to the front to the back. So I don't mind. I only use one source anyway. I may occasionally plug in a hard drive MP3 jukebox into it, but not often.
This is not a detailed, fine, wordy review, just my opinion. I think the MOH is fabulous. I have no future plans to upgrade now. I am very happy with it.
Love it!
My equipment was:
Rega Planet CD player (original model).
Music Hall MMF5 turntable, with Goldring 1012GX cartridge.
Rotel Phone stage/amp.
Straightwire Encore II interconnects.
Sennheiser HD600 phones.
Clou Red cable for the HD600's.
DiMarzio Big Red Headphone extention cable, 15'.
Most of the music was classical. I am an avid classical fan. Also some jazz.
In a quick summary:
1) Quality of build of MOH: Superb. And it has a five year warranty.
2) Flexibility of MOH. Very good. Has Crossfeed switch, two inputs,
and two step hi filter (which is really two stages of hi freq boost).
3) Sound: Superb.
4) Value. You get what you pay for. You pay a lot for this amp, you get
it.
HD600's are hard to tame. I spent years trying to find a good amp to power the HD600's. Started with Creek. No guts. Headroom Little....No guts.... Headroom Premium Little .... good sound, no guts. MG Head OTL....good sound, some guts. Perreaux....great sound....decent guts. Guts? The ability to power the HD600's at low freqs.
Classical music can have tremendous low frequency energy. With my speakers, good ones, the room shudders. I wanted something comparable to my speaker/home system. I want the impression of low freqs. I want the sound to be effortless, and the entire audio frequency spectrum to be reproduced equally.
FINALLY. An amp that will do it. The Headroom Maxed Out Home. I am sure other Headroom amps, like the Max and Blockhead are superior in this respect. Perhaps the lesser amps with the optional power supplies can compare too.
But the MOH delivers.
Without getting into the pat phrases like "liquid" "sweet", etc, the sound of the MOH to me is perfect.
The MOH takes complete control of the Sennheisers. The lowest octave passages of classical music come through effortlessly. It is a joy to finally hear ALL the sound that my sources can provide. Sometimes I think the Senns are going to vibrate off my ears!
The detail is incredible. My ears are maxed out now. Some say the MOH is "dry". I don't think so, they are just accurate, without coloration. Tube amps are raved about, but they do provide much sound coloration, although pleasing to most ears.
The dual mono power supplies in the MOH perform flawlessly. Many amps have good power supplies, but the feed both channels. You get two great power supplies in the MOH, each as good as the single ones feeding both channels in most good amps.
The build quality of the MOH is without peer. I enjoy products of any type that have quality build. The MOH has this "great feel". No crummy slide switches or plastic jacks.
The MOH is one unit with internal power supplies. It is not small, it is not light.
The dual input model, which I have, has the souce switch in the back of the unit. This is a bit inconvenient, but it's better than another long signal path from the back to the front to the back. So I don't mind. I only use one source anyway. I may occasionally plug in a hard drive MP3 jukebox into it, but not often.
This is not a detailed, fine, wordy review, just my opinion. I think the MOH is fabulous. I have no future plans to upgrade now. I am very happy with it.
Love it!
