Best Amps for HD800S - 2023 Edition

Appreciate the offer, but I'm sick of "The Tube Game"

 

I'm fine if they just bring back the HD800

 

Apparently it's not OK to dislike tubes these days

 

if i had my Abbas OTL, and got the ATX crew's ears on it, i would lovingly put it up here, too bad old man Abbas is concentrating on his bread and butter DACs rather than my OTL... so I likely won't see it until the end of the year, if then even—had to beg the man to make one for me actually. It is the real Abbas unobtainium now.

But... it is supposedly very, very good w 800--on Apex Teton-level, but coming in at a much more palatable price. And apparently above the ZDS. The LA crew knows, I will however, have to wait to find out...

 

hahah, and i WOULD mention that lil historical Craig-gremlin-1k-endgame-piece, too... if only i could. but you're right, Abbas is for all intents and purposes unobtainium or OOP, along w being esoteric asf...

 

I don't think mentioning or talking about OOP gear is a bad thing. Sure, those amps you will only find on the used market, but we still need a point of reference of where stuff stands against the new stuff. Some of these companies just did not have a plan to exit (eg. Cavalli, Craig from EC, ECP) and when they retired, so did the entire line of products. Other models just get swallowed up in the quick pace of the HP world. I am sure we will be comparing amps to discontinued products for awhile that were staples (eg. Mjolnir 2, Valhalla 2 (days are numbered), Vali 1, Sonnet, Torpedo III, NBM, etc.).

I do love your list, but I think most of the issue is that there is not a WHOLE lot of new stuff that is worthy of mention with HD800/800S. Your list of prior lists is much longer than the current list. Even your top two tiers mentions four amps and only two of those is an in-production amp; not to mention that amp has a 14-16 month wait time, and the OOP's are very rare to come up FS. So mentioning those gives all of us who have not heard them an idea of where they stand and may act faster when these rare OOP's do come up for sale without having to do much research and have a better chance at actually snagging. Many top tier amps are becoming more and more rare on the FS lists, but that is a different discussion.

The rare franken-Moth-EC I do agree is not worth mentioning because it is likely the rarest of the rare EC amps. It is more like a one off, like your 4-45.

 

That sounds like a lot of work to satisfy a small group of people

 

The prices of tubes were silly before the Ukraine War and the game was never going to last, NOS vintage tubes are a non-renewable resource. Nobody wants to build a system around a chain sensitive headphone like the HD800 that hinges on having a particular rare tube that may become unavailable or excessively priced. I don't even like paying $40 a tube for ElectroHarmonix anymore and those are "cheap."

 

I recently went tubeless as well and i’m quite happy. No worries about warmup, i just turn it on and it sounds great, a bit better after an hour but no nervosa. I can leave stuff on and go out and no stress. All my gear has no ventholes so no dog hair or dust getting in either, perfect tbh.

Sorry for the OT.

 

I've ranted a few times about tubes already over the years. Not so much the tubes themselves, but the opportunistic pieces of shit selling them, and how my tube testers have outed more tubes than I've kept. Well implemented tubes do have the best sound, I can't argue that. These days some may want the low maintenance Ronda NSX vs the high maintenance Bugattotini dick Douche Luxotica, even after driving both on their home roads...

There has been a great sense of community here sharing and selling fantastically rare gear over the years. Lately it seems to being getting into the Head-Fi/ORFAS realm of wanting to be an audio influencer/reviewer with the most obscure hard to get conversation piece. It's like episode #7 of Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of curiosities with Robocop bragging about his bottle of whiskey that survived WWII, then the earthquake the following year. Only to be drank with the guests while doing moon coke with Colonel Gaddafi's former private physician.

 

I have the 8xx so probably not so relevant, but I found good synergy with Studio B + EML300B (regular) + Bendix + Gungnir A2 + ET3.

 

Am I the only one who uses 800S with GSXmk2? I do have a better power supply than the stock. Mid range purity, naturalness and transparency - check. Bass slam and palpability - check. Smooth high - check. Bloom? No tube glow here just a very natural presentation. Pair with a musical source.

is it cheating if I use a single piece of TP in front of driver?

 

After just receiving Starlett, I’d take it over MJ3 any day of the week and does not need high dollar NOS tubes.