[Sorrodje]

  I don't believe spending several hundreds to even a thousand or more to get the slight refinement in your headphones is a worthy investment, of course tube amps can give a slightly warmer sound if the hd800s are too lean sounding for you. I use the $300 matrix mstage hpa2 classic which provides everything I would ever want in a headphone amp and dac for the hd800. I honestly don't think you should be spending more money to upgrade your mojo, however if you end up enjoying the sound of your friend's valhalla, tubes are for you. A bottlehead crack should be a good amp if you are alright with putting it together, you have to order a kit and solder it.
Hope you enjoy!

 
May I ask you what his your experience with amplifiers and especially Hi end ones . I mean real experience that could support your statements ? 

 

[akg fanboy]

May I ask you what his your experience with amplifiers and especially Hi end ones . I mean real experience that could support your statements ? 

May I ask you to conduct a blind test between a $1000 amp and a $300 amp (both solid state) then guess the better one with high accuracy? What is high end supposed to mean? Ludicrously expensive? If I sold my amp for $1000, would that count as a high end amp?

 

[Sorrodje]

unfortunately I did a few blind tests and i think it's a really insightful experience. Differences are not that easy to get but with a few headphones I know , they're significant.
 
You should try as well  

 

[akg fanboy]

unfortunately I did a few blind tests and i think it's a really insightful experience. Differences are not that easy to get but with a few headphones I know , they're significant.

You should try as well  

Was the blind test a proper unbiased one, meaning someone else switched the amps without you knowing and each amp was volume matched to equal loudness for the headphone?
I tend to trust engineers, nwavguy, and candid assessments over amp reviews and marketing teams that over exaggerate. But feel free to loan me a thousand dollar or whatever "high end priced" amp so I can blind test it

 

[lenroot77]

May I ask you what his your experience with amplifiers and especially Hi end ones . I mean real experience that could support your statements ? 

akg fanboy
Still waiting for an answer to this instead of more questions projected to the other party.

 

[akg fanboy]

akg fanboy
Still waiting for an answer to this instead of more questions projected to the other party.

The mstage hpa 2 classic is a vey high end amp in my perspective and to many others who aren't obsessed with the whole "audiophilia." If you disagree, look at my questions...
The amount of better sound you are getting even from a $100 magni is not going to be substantially better than a phone with a decent amp, but of course I paid $300 for the mstage mostly because of the design...

 

[Rozenberg]

But again it is easier to say "I can't hear difference between thousand bucks amps" when demoing them at a meet or something 

Must be nice to be that kind of guy because he doesn't really need to be tested.
 
Tyll has covered this topic in his Big Sound 2015 article though. Feel free to read it if you want.

 

[akg fanboy]

But again it is easier to say "I can't hear difference between thousand bucks amps" when demoing them at a meet or something :rolleyes:
Must be nice to be that kind of guy because he doesn't really need to be tested.

Tyll has covered this topic in his Big Sound 2015 article though. Feel free to read it if you want.

A lot of audiophiles say they cannot "properly evaluate" the performance of an amp at a meeting due to the noise which may or may not be true. I advise you read a couple articles nwavguy wrote and kindly left up for years even as he retired from the community.
$300 is still an insane amount of money to put on an amp that literally just drives headphones with so little upgrades to the sound. Every review was praising the mstage for amazing warm sound and lifting the soundstage etc, yet I don't hear it. What will be your excuse? Mstage is a bad amp or the amp is not expensive enough?

 

[bigfatpaulie]

A lot of audiophiles say they cannot "properly evaluate" the performance of an amp at a meeting due to the noise which may or may not be true. I advise you read a couple articles nwavguy wrote and kindly left up for years even as he retired from the community.
$300 is still an insane amount of money to put on an amp that literally just drives headphones with so little upgrades to the sound. Every review was praising the mstage for amazing warm sound and lifting the soundstage etc, yet I don't hear it. What will be your excuse? Mstage is a bad amp or the amp is not expensive enough?

 
I just want to be clear what I am reading...  You are saying that the M-Stage is very, very highly regarded by both the community and professional reviews but you didn't see value in it, correct?

 

[JamieMcC]

  I don't believe spending several hundreds to even a thousand or more to get the slight refinement in your headphones is a worthy investment, of course tube amps can give a slightly warmer sound if the hd800s are too lean sounding for you. I use the $300 matrix mstage hpa2 classic which provides everything I would ever want in a headphone amp and dac for the hd800. I honestly don't think you should be spending more money to upgrade your mojo, however if you end up enjoying the sound of your friend's valhalla, tubes are for you. A bottlehead crack should be a good amp if you are alright with putting it together, you have to order a kit and solder it.
Hope you enjoy!

 
Its always good to keep an open mind with tubes amps for the most part I think it’s probably safe to say the majority of tube amp users would have plenty of experience with solid state gear prior to moving to tubes. You always get phrases like warm, lush sounding, rolled off etc bandied around by those who are unfamiliar or perhaps have only experienced low budget poorly designed ones. But the ones designed by those who know what they are doing are certainly anything but.
It can be important to have a benchmark for reference You mention the Crack as a good match for the HD800,  well The stock Crack has a very engaging sound and its circuit responds well to upgrades so well that you will find many builders go further  fitting things like stepped attenuators, boutique output capacitors and upgraded power supplies and of course premium tubes. A modified Crack with premium tubes can easily end up costing over $600 at which point going back to listening to a stock Crack again could be considered to be pretty tough as you would be very aware of what you were missing out on.
 
But here’s the thing even with a insanely enjoyable highly modified Crack the HD800 are capable of giving more if you have the inclination to try some of higher end amp offerings.

 

[Astral Abyss]

No point in getting caught up on what others think of a piece of gear, or system.  

 

[mysticstryk]

A lot of audiophiles say they cannot "properly evaluate" the performance of an amp at a meeting due to the noise which may or may not be true. I advise you read a couple articles nwavguy wrote and kindly left up for years even as he retired from the community.
$300 is still an insane amount of money to put on an amp that literally just drives headphones with so little upgrades to the sound. Every review was praising the mstage for amazing warm sound and lifting the soundstage etc, yet I don't hear it. What will be your excuse? Mstage is a bad amp or the amp is not expensive enough?

Have you ever been to a meet? Yes, the noise definitely and obviously impacts a proper evaluation.

You won't even bother readying Tylls article will you? Of course you think you know best when your only consuming information that plays to your own bias.

I'd take anything nwavguy says with a grain of salt. His ODAC dac is pretty nice at its price, but his O2 amp is outclassed by even cheaper amps.

 

[akg fanboy]

I just want to be clear what I am reading...  You are saying that the M-Stage is very, very highly regarded by both the community and professional reviews but you didn't see value in it, correct?

What? I said the performance didn't live up to my expectations from all the big improvements people tend to say in an amp review. They compared them to more expensive amps saying how great of a value the mstage is, I ended up grabbing the more expensive updated one because of the design

 

[akg fanboy]

Its always good to keep an open mind with tubes amps for the most part I think it’s probably safe to say the majority of tube amp users would have plenty of experience with solid state gear prior to moving to tubes. You always get phrases like warm, lush sounding, rolled off etc bandied around by those who are unfamiliar or perhaps have only experienced low budget poorly designed ones. But the ones designed by those who know what they are doing are certainly anything but.
It can be important to have a benchmark for reference You mention the Crack as a good match for the HD800,  well The stock Crack has a very engaging sound and its circuit responds well to upgrades so well that you will find many builders go further  fitting things like stepped attenuators, boutique output capacitors and upgraded power supplies and of course premium tubes. A modified Crack with premium tubes can easily end up costing over $600 at which point going back to listening to a stock Crack again could be considered to be pretty tough as you would be very aware of what you were missing out on.

But here’s the thing even with a insanely enjoyable highly modified Crack the HD800 are capable of giving more if you have the inclination to try some of higher end amp offerings.

I will agree with tube amps because they have an objectively measurable difference in sound quality. However I prioritize my money elsewhere

 

[akg fanboy]

Have you ever been to a meet? Yes, the noise definitely and obviously impacts a proper evaluation.

You won't even bother readying Tylls article will you? Of course you think you know best when your only consuming information that plays to your own bias.

I'd take anything nwavguy says with a grain of salt. His ODAC dac is pretty nice at its price, but his O2 amp is outclassed by even cheaper amps.

Who is to say I wouldn't? I enjoy inner fidelity and his blind test writings too. I will check it out later but not right now.
Oh great, you take everything objective nwavguy says even completely unrelated to his own product with a grain of salt because you do not like his amp. Sure shows your thinking