Review: The new beyerdynamic A1

[yrh0413]

thanks Peer, the pictures are up now. Does the amp really worth EUR 1000?

And by the way, do you personally recommend it for other Beyer owners?

 

[ghiberti]

is it only me can't see those pics?

btw, nice review, peer.

 

[Peer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghiberti /img/forum/go_quote.gif is it only me can't see those pics? btw, nice review, peer.

I fixed the problem, now you should see them.

BTW: Thanks for the praise

 

[*645-k701]

She looks to be a chunky beast?

Looks to be alot of space happening.
be nice a tad smaller. but still looks nice-ish.
1k price tag...... squirt.

 

[M0T0XGUY]

No offense to Beyerdynamic, but nothing about this amp entices me to even think about spending upwards of a grand on it. Of course I'd have to hear it first, but from the review it would appear as though you could do alot better with the same budget than the A1; something from Rudistor definitly comes to mind.

 

[Skylab]

It certainly seems hard to recommend versus the similarly priced and very, very good Meier Opera which includes a very good DAC in addition to a very good headphone amp, has as many inputs, has normal and 120 ohm headphone outputs, crossfeed, adjustable gain, etc, etc...

 

[SR-71Panorama]

Look at the wire to the outputs.
This looks pretty nice except for this one aspect. I just can't imagine this would lead to good outputs.

 

[Morph201]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab /img/forum/go_quote.gif It certainly seems hard to recommend versus the similarly priced and very, very good Meier Opera which includes a very good DAC in addition to a very good headphone amp, has as many inputs, has normal and 120 ohm headphone outputs, crossfeed, adjustable gain, etc, etc...

x2 on that!

 

[Peer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab /img/forum/go_quote.gif It certainly seems hard to recommend versus the similarly priced and very, very good Meier Opera which includes a very good DAC in addition to a very good headphone amp, has as many inputs, has normal and 120 ohm headphone outputs, crossfeed, adjustable gain, etc, etc...

True. I think, the Opera is built for enthusiasts and the beyer for "solid" people

 

[JensL]

I had the A1 for two weeks a while back, and did a little writeup.

I compared it to my Mapletree tube amp, and found the A1 to beat my beloved MAD on just about everything.
Unfortunately, I only had a (modified) Zhaolu D2 as source. Maybe not as high-end as the A1.
I think the A1 would scale very nicely with more expensive gear.
The A1 isn't as sexy as other expensive amps, but I couldn't care less. It got a very nice, solid, everlasting feel to it. Not unlike their headphones.

Now I own a Corda Opera.
The Opera is better than the MAD Ear++, but I feel that the Beyer A1 might be even better than the Opera. Purely as an amplifier, that is.

However, this is just by memory, which is known to fool people.

But when you see what you get for your money, the Opera is hard to top.
The DAC is quite good, and USB is very convenient.
You also get crossfeed, a gain switch and two outputs (0 and 120 ohm).

If the A1 was priced at about the same as the Opera without the DAC ($895), it would be very interesting indeed.
At €1000 (about $1350) it's just too expensive, in my opinion.

 

[epaludo]

Nice review Peer. Really interesting product ...

 

[Towert7]

Thanks for the information and the pictures Peer.

This is beyerdynamics first released headphone amp in a long time, and I wonder if they will make other headphone amps in the future.

 

[frozenice]

Thanks for the review.

Germany used to be a "low" wage country. After WW 2 they made the currencies in Germany and Japan cheap so they could rebuild their economies. I lived in Germany when I was a kid in the late 60's (my dad served in the military) and I remember the German kids sure worked a lot harder at school than I did. Anyways at that time it was 4 marks for 1 Canadian dollar.

 

[Daryn Alexander]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JensL /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had the A1 for two weeks a while back, and did a little writeup. I compared it to my Mapletree tube amp, and found the A1 to beat my beloved MAD on just about everything. Unfortunately, I only had a (modified) Zhaolu D2 as source. Maybe not as high-end as the A1. I think the A1 would scale very nicely with more expensive gear. The A1 isn't as sexy as other expensive amps, but I couldn't care less. It got a very nice, solid, everlasting feel to it. Not unlike their headphones. Now I own a Corda Opera. The Opera is better than the MAD Ear++, but I feel that the Beyer A1 might be even better than the Opera. Purely as an amplifier, that is. However, this is just by memory, which is known to fool people. But when you see what you get for your money, the Opera is hard to top. The DAC is quite good, and USB is very convenient. You also get crossfeed, a gain switch and two outputs (0 and 120 ohm). If the A1 was priced at about the same as the Opera without the DAC ($895), it would be very interesting indeed. At €1000 (about $1350) it's just too expensive, in my opinion.

Actually very helpful. I was considering a MAD Ear HD, and this adds competition (even if it costs a little more). Wonder how these sound with the 600 ohm DT880's.

 

[JensL]

For no reason whatsoever, here's the current view of my desk: