Best Amps for HD800S - 2023 Edition

I honestly can't remember the topology of my SinglePower Supra XLR, but I found it a great pairing. KG had mine for a short bit and reverse engineered it - he pretty much instantly had ideas for upgrades and different safety measures. Mine wasn't a ticking time bomb like some of the LSD builds that happened later. I swear I posted internal photos of it here or chang/HF.

It was easily tweaked by different tubes. Mine had a boost type switch to run different tubes. So running 6 7n7's was pretty cool.

Wouldn't say it was the best amp for everything, but the HD800 slammed and imaging became less everything everywhere and more everything in specific place.

Sorry for terrible post for a '23 amp, but I really do believe something similar exists in solid state or PCB vs P2P.

 

Hopefully it goes without saying but with all this talk about the proper amps for an 800, you can't discount total system synergy. You can have the right amp all you want but if the wrong thing is feeding it then it's still going to sound like crap, or at the very least not sound optimized.

It's I'm sure way too far down the rabbit hole to have some sort of total system synergy thread for the 800, but having the right amp isn't a silver bullet. It's just a good step in the right direction.

I think this thread is very helpful because it gets you halfway there, and it doesn't spoon feed you. You still have to experiment to get the last pieces in the proper place.

 

@purr1n have you had a listen to a Quicksilver amp yet? I don't really know the people in the dedicated thread linked to earlier in this thread and/or don’t trust them.

 

Awesome!! Impression soon to come?

 

Sometimes the truth hurts…

 

I was considering buying one not too long ago and have never ruled out owning one, so my vote is for ruthless candor.

 

You should have heard the Line Magnetic Mini LM-MINI84IA. I honestly thought something was wrong with the amp. It also was driven by 12AX7's and EL84's, and it had speaker taps that sounded even worse than a speaker amp. Harsh and distorted and void of any low end or macrodynamics at all. It might as well have been a poor SS amp.

And trust me, I wanted to send you this modded one with better parts inside and more premium tubes, like Tungsgram EL84's. Although I know your stance on an amp should not need excellent tubes to sound good. I do find that even 6DJ8 tubes are better on the front end as well. I also have HD800 and HD650 and not HD800S. But yes, it is a lush wet amp with way more gain that it needs.

I think it is still held back by the Hammond non-hifi OPT, and maybe it does not have enough NFB. For a test, I removed the NFB and it sounded worse and more hash. Overall though, with the right tubes, it still had more detail and enjoyment than the SW51. It just sort of lacks a bit of refinement. No reason to go in a rage.

 

FWIW the Mullard tubes I'm using with mine gives it some definite warmth and thickness. And combined with the BF2 it's not anywhere near what I'd call neutral now (but not warmpoo or bloated either)

 

I am aware and this is basically what I said in the QS amp thread and why I even went to lower gain 6DJ8 types that had some improvement. I would not even want 12AX7’s in a phono preamp or mic preamp. It is acceptable for guitar, but many are noisy and terribly microphonic.

I’d also rather have EL84 than 6V6. There are some other legendary hi-fi EL84’s out there that I never tried. Even Psvayne makes some.

It is what it is, love it or hate it.

 

v true--i will choose to hate this tube type, thank you. meme tube extraordinaire. sorry, Marv, know you hate that word, but it rly do be a meme ass toob, super expensif for the good shit and even the good shit isn't that great.

i don't trust any amp (for the 800 especially, it doesn't need anymore über unobtainium esoterica as said earlier) or DAC that has these anymore, the sfd-1 gets a pass tho...