[Wes S]

A great and thoughtful review. This is the type of review that tells me something: real comments from a real user who spent real money and who has real ears. While I do not own either amp, I feel that I should look into them especially since I have the ZMF Auteur. (I wish that the RH-5 took 12AT7s…please don’t send me down the Footscray 12AU7 tributary…).
As for owning both amps, . My thought is: same musical event, different seats!

Thanks for the kind words! If I had to pick only one amp, I really don't know which one it would be, and thankfully I don't have to. Both amps sound fantastic with my Verite C and Atticus equally, and life is good!

You nailed it on the "same musical event, different seats".

 

[Wes S]

My two amps, with the RH-5 rocking my Atticus at the moment and loving every second! The Pendant SE and Verite C are temporarily on standby.

 

[RobertSM]

@Wes S

Are you running single ended from the Morpheus to the Pendent and XLR out to the RH-5?

 

[jonathan c]

My two amps, with the RH-5 rocking my Atticus at the moment and loving every second! The Pendant SE and Verite C are temporarily on standby.

Imagine if we (you) had four ears……

 

[Wes S]

@Wes S

Are you running single ended from the Morpheus to the Pendent and XLR out to the RH-5?

Good question! I am at the moment, and knew that question would come up, right after I made that post. However, I plan to eventually try a couple different options down the road to take advantage of the balanced output and built in preamp from the Morpheus to the Pendant, by adding a "black box" converter with input transformers made by AmpsandSound https://ampsandsound.com/collections/accessories and I also plan to try the RH-5 as a preamp for the Pendant, to again take advantage of the Morpheus balanced topology. One of the main reasons I bought the Morpheus, was due to the fact it has a built in preamp with lossless level control to use with a converter and my single ended tube amp. However, for now they both sound fantastic, and the single ended from the Morpheus is no slouch, but of course balanced is it's #1 strength. So, with that said the Pendant SE may take a slight edge over the RH-5, when I start running balanced from the Morpheus. However just to note, several reviewers from the other site claimed the SE from the Morpheus was just slightly less resolving than the balanced output, but in reality is quite close, which is another strength of the Morpheus compared to some of it's competitors (Schiit Yggy) who's SE output is much worse than it's balanced output.

 

[buson160man]

Curious, what is better with the Hi-Fi fuse? I am still trying to decide which one to go with, and seems each one has it's fans.

Curious, what is better with the Hi-Fi fuse? I am still trying to decide which one to go with, and seems each one has it's fans.

I have been using the hifi tuning supreme fuse in most everything for awhile. It has the low noise factor of course. But it does other things as well. The sound is just better all around. Of the fuses I have tried it seems to the best sounding in my experience. I have used the fuse in my active speakers and they made a noticeable difference in them as well. The emotiva airmotiv 5 and airmotiv 6 and the emotiva studio 8 as well which are all active speakers and the improvement was very audible.

 

[buson160man]

Curious, what is better with the Hi-Fi fuse? I am still trying to decide which one to go with, and seems each one has it's fans.

Curious, what is better with the Hi-Fi fuse? I am still trying to decide which one to go with, and seems each one has it's fans.

I have been using the hifi tuning supreme fuse in most everything for awhile. It has the low noise factor of course. But it does other things as well. The sound is just better all around. Of the fuses I have tried it seems to the best sounding in my experience. I have used the fuse in my active speakers and they made a noticeable difference in them as well. The emotiva airmotiv 5 and airmotiv 6 and the emotiva studio 8 as well which are all active speakers and the improvement was very audible.

 

[Wes S]

I have been using the hifi tuning supreme fuse in most everything for awhile. It has the low noise factor of course. But it does other things as well. The sound is just better all around. Of the fuses I have tried it seems to the best sounding in my experience. I have used the fuse in my active speakers and they made a noticeable difference in them as well. The emotiva airmotiv 5 and airmotiv 6 and the emotiva studio 8 as well which are all active speakers and the improvement was very audible.

Thanks for info!

 

[Musikfan]

Hi, are any owners of the Rogue Audio RH-5 using the amp with Abyss Diana v2 headphones. I understand that these HPs require a bit of power to drive them to their fullest extent and would like feedback from anyone who may own them. Thanks very much, James

 

[Wes S]

Hi, are any owners of the Rogue Audio RH-5 using the amp with Abyss Diana v2 headphones. I understand that these HPs require a bit of power to drive them to their fullest extent and would like feedback from anyone who may own them. Thanks very much, James

Hey there,

This amp was actually tuned with a 1266, and one of the sons from Abyss owns an RH-5 as well. So, I would imagine the RH-5 would be great with the Diana V2.

 

[Musikfan]

Hey there,

This amp was actually tuned with a 1266, and one of the sons from Abyss owns an RH-5 as well. So, I would imagine the RH-5 would be great with the Diana V2.

Thanks.

 

[Musikfan]

Hi, just wanted to give my impressions of the Brimar CV4034 tubes. I was previously using the Brimar 4003 tubes which I think are really really good. Initially, even after some burn in, the 4034 tubes sounded very thin, a little muddy and the soundstage collapsed. I let the tubes burn in for about a week more. The next time I listened critically, I was very pleasantly surprised. The sound had really and noticeably improved. Open, clear, airy sound at the top. Musical, detailed mids and meaty deep bass. There was a greater amount of details and resolution. I think the tubes really improved both the Empyrean and Verite open headphones and the improvement was not subtle. I think the Empyrean headphones really benefited from the tubes. In my opinion, the Brimar 4034 tubes require a lot of burn in, but they are really amazing tubes, and make an incredible difference when used with the RH-5, even with already good, high end headphones. I think they gave my headphones more presence and body, sweetening the treble, opening up the mids and giving a lot more weight to the bass region. I'm very pleased with the brimar 4034 tubes.

 

[RobertSM]

Yeah, I think that's the beautiful thing about the RH-5. It really responds well to high quality tubes. I mean some hybrid amps out there just add tubes in the circuit to satisfy a buyer that may want to dip their toe, so to speak into tubes. Those amps are really soild-state amps that want to show the light glow of tubes as a visual effect.

The RH-5 by design gets it's tone directly from the tubes. The MOSFETS only amplify the signal that's created by the tubes. So it's really a true hybrid design and thus allows the character of the tubes to shine through.

I'm still happy running my Adzam 12AU7-6189, triple micas. But I have no doubt I'll get the bug to roll some NOS tubes again at some point. The Brimars are at the top of my list. Glad to here you're loving your RH-5 and the new Brimars.

 

[Musikfan]

Hi everyone, quick question: would you recommend laying a matrix element x directly on top of the RH-5? Thanks.

 

[Wes S]

Hi everyone, quick question: would you recommend laying a matrix element x directly on top of the RH-5? Thanks.

Straight from the RH-5 manual below

INSTALLING THE RH-5 HEADPHONE AMP INTO YOUR SYSTEM
Place the RH-5 on a flat stable surface with at least 1” of airspace above the amplifier for ventilation. Do not place any other electronic components or any other objects on top of the amplifier.