[thinker]

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[ALRAINBOW]

great post, im glad to here your comments.

 

[dleblanc343]

As more as you listen to this amp you will notice that HD-800 -stock cable -HDVD-800 is designed as a one complete unit.I had even to remove the toxic cable.
I have tested huge amount of amplifiers with HD-800 and wasn't fully satisfied with none of them.The HD-800 loves tube amps best are OTL designs.
What i hear now is that this complete unit trumps all of them.The sound is full like OTL designs and at the same time it's feather light with plenty of air.
This unit is honest to the tone, crap is crap and Guarnieri is as sweet as it should be.When you run this amp cold it put you in position of a spectator and
when warming up it drives you in.If you put hands on the amp it's only slightly warm.This unit performs much better than you expect it is cabable to blow you away .
Attributes wich describe the sound of HD-800 phone should be evaluated again with this combo, problems of sibilance or fake soundstaging are gone.I guess somebody at Sennheiser
got headache to get the amp to this level with HD-800 .This amp transforms the HD-800 headphone to a fun headphone and hifi attributes disappear in the background,this easyness or liquidity
keeps you listening to songs wich you normally skip over.

What amps form your basis of comparison?

 

[shinex64]

Quote:

Quote:
 
 
 
I remember the first review of Orpheus in Stereoplay magazine i have still that issue and i also owned that combo some years .
They were not praising it on that review to heaven i think they gave same points to Stax Omega.
There are negative comments around of the new HDVD-800, who actually own this unit and listen to it at home? All wich i can say at this moment
it is the perfect amp for HD-800.I run the amp with Jadis pro drive,Transparent cable digital AES,Toxic headphone cable and HD-800.This amp sounds very
natural.It will not shine at first listening wich is a good sign,after few days you realize that you are listening to one of the best amps around.I will not comment on R.
Giskard review, i dont agree with him on some points and he was actually listening to HDVD-600 and i don't know how clean he's source was.You dont hear any grain.
This amp can play on earbleeding levels with HD-800 if you like,who said it cannot drive HD-800? that information is BS.If you compare Burson 160 to HDVD 800 Burson sounds artifcial,sorry.
On direct comparison to BCL ,yes i like that amp but no competition either.This amp is detailed  in a natural way it has also the warmth of the 300B OTL tube amp.The distance wich you get of the performance is excellent not narrow or too far away.This amp is dead silent and you occasionally notice that on familiar recordings suddenly do new things pop up wich doesn't happen with most amps.
This amp is articulated in a interesting way, everything is nailed in it's own place, every instrument plays separate from each other with plenty of air between,i dont get this feature even with the best tube amps.This amp reacts nicely to poor and good recordings, you notice it on recordings with vocals,sometimes the vocals appear close sometimes distant.You cannot forecast what you will hear from familiar recordings but you can forecast it with Burson or BCL,this amp lives with the recording.(wich is interesting)   .Cannot say how good this amp play with other phones but with HD-800 it's stunning and takes HD-800 to a new level.If you consider to buy this amp,please take time to investigate it.

 
Wow! I wasn't expecting that after reading that the HDVD is not ideal to the HD-800
 
I reeeeally want to listen to it for myself, hope to get an audition in Spain soon!
 
Congrats for the review! 

 

[thinker]

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[Rewkie]

I heard it was coming out this month can someone verify this?

 

[R Giskard]

Coming out? Where? It's been available for quite some time here. 
 
Solid state amplifiers in pure class A can really deliver, that's true. Though most manufacturers advertise their amplifiers as class A, very few use the benefits of class A operation to the fullest and an amplifier being specified as such is no warranty for anything. Quality of the parts usually is. With tube amplifiers a lot more things can go wrong. Output transformers are a major problem because even if design of the electronics is good, the end result will be ighly dependent on output transformers and since apart from Audio Note no one makes their own, it is a problem. Output transformer-less amplifier don't have this problem. Their problem is the power supply and it's filtration. Given the fact power supply is the most expensive part of any amplifier, manufacturers take extreme measures to cut the cost down precisely here so none of the OTL amplifiers I've heard sound like an OTL should sound. If it is done right, it should be liquid smooth, no saturation in the low end and with exceptionally fast and fluid bass. In essence, an OTL should embody the finest of solid state and usual tube advantages. Sadly, it's not really the case with what I've heard so far.

 

[Rewkie]

Really? I can't find the hdvd 800 anywhere. So where do I buy?

 

[R Giskard]

If I could have obtained one for an audition, I think you would have no problems elsewhere.

 

[Rewkie]

I found one from this place called accessoryjack.com for 1869.99. Any experience with this site? I've had my fair share of fake products for one lifetime.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

AJ is solid.

 

[Rewkie]

Well that's good to hear but I just noticed that it says coming soon? Now I'm just confused because that's the only place that showed up in google shopping...

 

[rosgr63]

Quote:

Quote:
 
 
 
I remember the first review of Orpheus in Stereoplay magazine i have still that issue and i also owned that combo some years .
They were not praising it on that review to heaven i think they gave same points to Stax Omega.
There are negative comments around of the new HDVD-800, who actually own this unit and listen to it at home? All wich i can say at this moment
it is the perfect amp for HD-800.I run the amp with Jadis pro drive,Transparent cable digital AES,Toxic headphone cable and HD-800.This amp sounds very
natural.It will not shine at first listening wich is a good sign,after few days you realize that you are listening to one of the best amps around.I will not comment on R.
Giskard review, i dont agree with him on some points and he was actually listening to HDVD-600 and i don't know how clean he's source was.You dont hear any grain.
This amp can play on earbleeding levels with HD-800 if you like,who said it cannot drive HD-800? that information is BS.If you compare Burson 160 to HDVD 800 Burson sounds artifcial,sorry.
On direct comparison to BCL ,yes i like that amp but no competition either.This amp is detailed  in a natural way it has also the warmth of the 300B OTL tube amp.The distance wich you get of the performance is excellent not narrow or too far away.This amp is dead silent and you occasionally notice that on familiar recordings suddenly do new things pop up wich doesn't happen with most amps.
This amp is articulated in a interesting way, everything is nailed in it's own place, every instrument plays separate from each other with plenty of air between,i dont get this feature even with the best tube amps.This amp reacts nicely to poor and good recordings, you notice it on recordings with vocals,sometimes the vocals appear close sometimes distant.You cannot forecast what you will hear from familiar recordings but you can forecast it with Burson or BCL,this amp lives with the recording.(wich is interesting)   .Cannot say how good this amp play with other phones but with HD-800 it's stunning and takes HD-800 to a new level.If you consider to buy this amp,please take time to investigate it.

 
 
Can you please tell me which 300B OTL amp are you referring to?
Thanks

 

[thinker]

-

 

[rosgr63]

Are you sure you have experience with an amp using 300B's in OTL mode?
 
BTW what do you mean by OTL?