Best Amps for HD800S - 2023 Edition

Woo WA33 is notable here in that it's able to play well with both HD800 and Susvara. That's some crazy versatility.

 

It's my favorite amp.

I've considered selling my medium format camera setup to buy one but then I remember it has 7 tubes I don't want to deal with. MJ3 should be less bullshit to deal with, short of some rich Uncle I never knew existed dying and leaving me money. Actually, that already happened to me and I spent the money two decades ago so...

 

Excuse my ignorance if there is a reason for this, but why has no one mentioned how the iFi Audio Pro iCan or Pro iCan Signature pairs with the HD800S? I would be curious to hear how it handles them in solid state, tube, or tube+ mode with XBass disabled or enabled.

 

Don't get your psychoses mixed up with your neuroses-- they're each bad enough on their own

But really, this mentality is why I've stuck around and feel SBAF is a genuinely great place to be and hang out at: advocacy for the middle path between over-simplistic, objectionable objectivism and Synergistic Research Headphone-Optimised Transducer-level madness (that remains one of my favourite threads on head-fi after all these years). Not an easy path to pursue, but one that's eminently rewarding where it really matters.

The Magni Piety's been a great thing for me, and I can see why the older prototype's been your most-used amp for years-- I still prefer the MCTH for some things because while approximating tube sound, the Piety isn't wholly there yet IMO. Still, the Piety's a proof of concept that perhaps we're not so far off being able to get actually good sound without relying on overpriced consumables; I don't feel as much like being irresponsible getting a Starlett in the near future like I used to be-- that money should be going elsewhere, lmao.

I still think I'm mad for this but I'm actually considering getting an endgame DAC (endgame for me that is, either an older Bifrost 2 or a DAC2541) before getting another amp, which is still on the table for when finances comfortably allow, but I feel both the Piety and MCTH are enough for me to sink into music with my HD600s.

Hopefully a time comes when we can just have leave tube amps be save for aesthetics and keep on with more sustainable systems.

 

I listened to it at Tyll’s place with the HD800 and it was really good

 

It looks like Todd of TTVJ is selling one and it is slightly on sale here. I just skimmed the Apex Teton HF thread and noticed that he was trying to sell it a couple years ago and advised someone to give him a call. Might be worth a shot?

 

You could create a new tag for yourself as "the Benevolent Curator of great tube amps" if this project ever took off, lol.

Also recommend shipping in pelican case padlocked, tracking device embedded, just in case any funny stuff with shipping company.

 

What were considered really good amps to pair with the HD800 when it came out in the mid-2000s? Would any of them hold up today?

 

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/best-amps-for-hd800-2021-edition.10330/

 

Product page is still up for MJ3, can still Add to Cart. They soldout but still taking pre-orders?...so confuse

 

"SHIP EST NOV 1" - so, yes, you can place an order now. It's much the same as being backordered for a couple of weeks.

 

There weren't many amp choices back then -- an argument could be made that the headphone-amp market has grown as much as it has BECAUSE of the HD800 -- so as I recall, reviewers generally used solid-state HeadRoom amps. Stereophile's reviewer used a HeadRoom amp and also a tube Cayin HA-A1. Years after the introduction, Tyll wrote a glowing review of the headphones and recommended driving them with an EC Balancing Act, which always struck me as a little odd given the boutique rarity of that amp.

The thing is, the reviews all said that the HD800 was super resolving, super accurate, etc., but they also said it was super analytic and sterile, and not really fun. I bought an HD800 right after it was released, and got HeadRoom's best DAC and amp to drive it, and came to the same conclusion as those reviewers. I hardly ever listened to that setup because I just didn't enjoy it.

So "would they hold up" is a difficult question to answer -- because I think the TOTL amps from 20 years ago still sound as good as anything modern, but there wasn't really nice musical synergy between the HD800 and those amps to begin with.

 

I would like to add the chain of Schiit BF2 > Neve RNHP is a very good chain for the HD800s IMHO. I use this as my daily pc setup.