Rayzilla
1000+ Head-Fier
Hi,
Honestly, I didn't give the BHA-1 much of a chance with the HD800. Tried it once and remember not being overly impressed, but it wasn't an extended listening session. Will give it a better evaluation in a couple weeks. I've been really happy with the SQ of the HDVA600 - HD800.
Thanks. I am still interested to hear you comparison, now that I just joined the HDVD 800 party. Just picked up a used one a couple of hours ago and running it for close to two hours now. it's better than I remember when I heard it at the shop.
I have the HDVD 800 so I assume the DAC end is not what you are interested in. The DAC in the HDVD800 is OK but I find the DACs in both my disc players, OPPO BDP95 and Marantz SA8005 to be superior. However I am looking to upgrade DACs, considering Benchmark DAC2 HGC or Chord Hugo.
Anyway, to answer your question, both Amps are identical, I believe, and the pairing of HD800 to HDVD 800 is superb. I have no experience with BHA 1 so I cannot answer. I do know the pairing of amp to cans is extremely important in some cases so proceed with caution if you are considering something other than the Sennheiser. I tried a Burson amp for a while and found my little Creek drove my Senns better than the far more expensive Burson HA160D ? was that It, don't remember model # for sure.
IF you stick with the HDVA you won't go wrong. Not saying there isn't better, but probably not at that price point.
I am running it with its own DAC right now. Maybe in a few days I will try it out with my DAC.
That Burson amp was another one that I considered picking up but when I saw this deal, I couldn't pass it up and committed to it without even mentioning it to my wife first, which was a risky move because I just picked up a new BlackBerry Priv (man it is an amazing phone). I must have caught her on a good day.
... I have heard recent comments about the Schiit Mjolnir2 w/ tubes performing very well with the HD800. I have the Mjolnir1 w/o tubes and it does not pair well with the HD800 - too bright. The tube effect of the Mojo2 is probably reducing some of the inherent HD800 bright treble range.
To the high-end, I heard the HD800 driven by the Yggy/Ragnarok and Yggy/WA5 stacks at the Nashville meet. Both stacks drove the HD800 exceptionally well - there was no brightness at all to the SQ, just really great mid/treble performance, especially with the WA5 amp.
As for DAC's, I am using the Schiit Gungnir MultiBit and would recommend it as a great pairing with the HDVA600. The level of detail and SQ are excellent with the MB technology from Schiit Audio.
Enjoy your music!
RCB
I found the same with the amps that I've had with the HD 800 so far. My tube amp was quite bright too.
I was close to getting the Rag a few months ago but there was no demo unit to try so I would have had to buy it without having tried it first.
I am tempted to go for the Gungnir MultiBit but that wouldn't be good for my marriage. Need to give it some time. I am still so surprised that I pulled out of this one unscathed.
When I first purchased my HD800 I also had a very difficult time trying to decide on the right amp. I tried several and never did like th synergy some amps were overly bright and some just never matched well. When Sennheiser released the HDVA600 and HDVD800 I decided I would buy it and give it a try.
It's difficult to make these types of decisions because I don't have a place where I can audition amp/dac's and I don't have a bunch of money to float.
In the end I decided on the all in one HDVD800, in hindsight I would have probably gone with the dac-less model the HDVA600 but I'm very happy with the HDVD800 and the synergy is great, its just a perfect pairing. Good luck but with your choice. I can tell you only from my ears that the Senn amps really do have great synergy with HD800.
I know it's only been a couple of hours on it so far but I am very happy with it so far. But I will give it some time and come back to this in a few days at least.
Thank you all for pushing me over the edge in going for this. I wouldn't have done this without you guys. LOL