[TaronL]

additonal £1000

I am unsure if the price will increase in Europe beyond what it has already increased. I have no insight into European prices. I just know that we've been told there will be a price increase for North America in January of 2023. European prices have already had their price hike and may not go up any further but you would have to talk to your local dealer about that.

 

[eskamobob1]

Genuine, unavoidable, increases are understandable, but an additional £1000 on top of what is already an expensive basic price will sadly put it beyond what I can justify.

Such is life.

Maybe I value headfi differently but I kinda feel like if a 12% jump in price makes something "out of your budget" you were already stretching your budget too far. Like I won't be buying an hm1 at either price, but if that price jump is a deal breaker for anything other than knowing you missed the wave past FOMO (which I seriously do get tbf) I would probabaly consider hobby spending habbits tbh

 

[Nomax]

I seriously doubt it would be even close to half the price even without the added features tbh

If it didn't have these features I wouldn't even find half the advertised price reasonable and consider it excessive
Because as I mentioned in another of my posts there are other amps that sounds very good

NOMAX

PS.Therefore, good tip from my side...who does not need these features...look elsewhere or just wait a few more weeks
if it can be a pure analog amp without Dac
(Unfortunately I am not allowed to reveal too much yet)

 

[IanB52]

If it didn't have these features I wouldn't even find half the advertised price reasonable and consider it excessive
Because as I mentioned in another of my posts there are other amps that sounds very good

NOMAX

PS.Therefore, good tip from my side...who does not need these features...look elsewhere or just wait a few more weeks
if it can be a pure analog amp without Dac
(Unfortunately I am not allowed to reveal too much yet)

Are you making a statement relative to all the TOTL SS amps, or just this one? Yeah, you can get good sounding amps for less money. But what amp at half the price, does the HM1 not beat sonically by a decent margin? In fact, what solid state amp does the HM1 not beat, period?

In the last year I've owned the XI stack, Ferrum stack (I liked), Enleum Amp-23r, and Luxman p-750u. All of these range from 3k to 6.5k, and the HM1 beats each one in resolving ability and technicalities. That's the bar set by the market.

 

[rthomas]

Are you making a statement relative to all the TOTL SS amps, or just this one? Yeah, you can get good sounding amps for less money. But what amp at half the price, does the HM1 not beat sonically by a decent margin? In fact, what solid state amp does the HM1 not beat, period?

In the last year I've owned the XI stack, Ferrum stack (I liked), Enleum Amp-23r, and Luxman p-750u. All of these range from 3k to 6.5k, and the HM1 beats each one in resolving ability and technicalities. That's the bar set by the market.

Did you volume match these comparisons?

If you’ve owned 5 Totl SS amps in the last 12 months the chances are very high that in less than 24 months you’ll move on to the next “latest and greatest “

I don’t mean any disrespect but gear chasing /cycling at greater and greater price points is so common here it’s comical.

Next year if Zahl releases a $12000 upgraded version with all silver internal wiring there’ll be a dozen deep pocketed headfiers shouting from the roof tops about how it beats the original with more naturalness more soundstage more details etc etc etc

 

[IanB52]

Did you volume match these comparisons?

If you’ve owned 5 Totl SS amps in the last 12 months the chances are very high that in less than 24 months you’ll move on to the next “latest and greatest “

I don’t mean any disrespect but gear chasing /cycling at greater and greater price points is so common here it’s comical.

Next year if Zahl releases a $12000 upgraded version with all silver internal wiring there’ll be a dozen deep pocketed headfiers shouting from the roof tops about how it beats the original with more naturalness more soundstage more details etc etc etc

Why would I feel disrespected? Lol

 

[IanB52]

I've never really had to second guess leaving positive impressions about an amp I own because it will hurt people's feelings. I guess this is the world we live in now.

 

[adrianm]

Next year if Zahl releases a $12000 upgraded version with all silver internal wiring there’ll be a dozen deep pocketed headfiers shouting from the roof tops about how it beats the original with more naturalness more soundstage more details etc etc etc

Since Michael makes studio gear, I assume he doesn't believe in magic.

 

[rthomas]

Why would I feel disrespected? Lol

Thanks for taking it in the right spirit. If you own 20 thousand dollars worth of Shunyata research accessories and $3000 double helix cables and believe that these items improve the performance of your transducers then we disagree on the importance of various components in the signal chain.

In my experience the headphones have been 90% of the equation.

I'm happy to be proved wrong about the HM1 if I ever get to try one.

Cheers

 

[rthomas]

Why would I feel disrespected? Lol

By the way could you please clarify if you tried volume matching these amps?

Or was it turning up the volume to a comfortable level by ear?

Even a 2 db difference in listening level can fool the brain into thinking that one amp has better bass/ clarity or details than the other

 

[rthomas]

Since Michael makes studio gear, I assume he doesn't believe in magic.

Go look at the marketing materials of companies like Double Helix Cables and Shunyata Research. A significant portion of his potential customer base do.

 

[jokostyle]

The only reason to buy this very good sounding amp for me would be that you can expand the spatial performance
This is really well done this implementation...Best experience I ever had..forget all other crossfeed circuits

As you tried the Meier audio flagship, do you feel that the crossfeed on the HM1 has bested the Jan Meier implementation on the Soul ?
I'm pretty curious about that because Jan's crossfeed is/was a reference.

 

[Pastwa]

It seems to be a very capable amp and great addition for professional reviewers, having said that, don’t think i need that level of ’technical’ performance, i’m mainly after a very convincing holography these days (even if at expense of some ultra detail retrieval) and none of the solid state amps i have tried so far excels in this department, at least not to my satisfaction, and unlike some very good valve amps.
i tried not that long ago the Oor set (with hypsos psu) sonically it was only acceptable to me, especially next to Raal hsa-1b, that achieves much greater level of insight into recordings and general realism, but perhaps, the sound difference is justified by the higher price. All, Enleum, Luxman, Pass HPA-1 are good, maybe even very good (especially if paired well), but again, don’t produce that satisfaying, believable level of holography (3D feeling of various instruments, their spatial definition, etc.). I very much liked AT-HA5050, but don’t need its built in DAC, but the amp section is great. The above Raal was also a high class, especially with some dynamic headphones ( strangly, didn’t impress me that much with the Raal headphones, even dough it is a dedicated amp for them).

I gave up then idea of chasing another good/great ss, my next amp will be, most likely a valve one or potentially a hybrid.

 

[ufospls2]

What might be an interesting product for Zahl to consider creating would be a AU/VST based on the analog sound shaping features of the HM1. Although I understand he may have a large preference for doing things in the analog domain, if he perhaps worked with a competent digital based company to create something that does the same thing in a digital package, that would certainly be interesting to try out. I know crossfeed AU/VST's exist, but this does appear to be a different solution, and initial reports seem to be quite positive about it.

Just thinking out loud, thats all.

 

[auded33]

Has anyone compared the HM1 with the Benchmark AHB2 for driving headphones? I know Goldensound was using AHB2 to drive e.g. Susvara.