Dragon Inspire IHA-1

In case anyone is "inspired", there's one for sale on HF for $1600

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/fs-...mint-condition-w-lundahl-transformers.879866/

"Mint Condition w/ Lundahl Transformers"

 

I guess I missed the loaner of this thing... Thats what I get for disappearing

 

We have had a couple people bow out, so if you want in just say so.

 

That's actually me! I just haven't been using headphones since starting to work from home more often. It's collecting dust, so i decided to sell it.

 

Finally listening to this amplifier. It has taken me a while.

Truth be told I have not been in the hobby anymore at all so take what I hear with a grain of salt. Not that you didn't before.

What I noticed was a nice and solid bite to the instruments. Not a wallop or a bang or anything hard hitting but good definition and decent snap. However the music sounds a bit compressed and slightly stuffy like it needs to open up and bloom. It sounds pretty clean and organic. The depth seems a bit missing as well. I am hearing kind of flat imaging. I just get a sense of that the music needs to open up but the separation is there. Microdynamics don't seem bad but Macro seem only okay. But also resolution and air seem missing like its rolled off in the treble(prob tubes I popped in). Well I better listen a bit more tonight then off to the next person it goes.

It looks purty.

 

The initial tubes I had mirrored this pretty closely. It really took swapping tubes to hear the capabilities this amp had. Since mine is up for sale, happy to send folks some tubes to try with it.

 

Having different amplifiers on the desk everyday feels like a rich guy - Of course I am not. That's the magic of (coincidentally) overlapped two loaner programs.

Listening three different amps at three drastically different point points (Lyr 3 at $500, IHA1 at $2k, and DT-Alpha at >$3k) is fun. Moreover, these three amps are VERY DIFFERENT in characters. Really makes me think about the role of head amps. Very insightful experience. That's good.

Bad part is... Why do human beings have only two ears? What does a day have only 24 hours? More importantly why do I have to do some real world stuffs during the weekend? (sigh)

PS. Really likes stepped attenuator.. Every amp manufacturer must use it. Or, at least they should give customers option to choose.

PS2. This is a good chance for me to test some different 6SN7 for my Lyr 3. Cool byproduct.

 

Loaner impression

Gears used

• Source: RME ADI-2 DAC
• Head amps: Lyr 3 (reference), DT-Alpha, IHA-1 (kenrad vt-231 signal-drive tubes + Brimar rectifier)
• Headphones: Elex, HD800

I actually enjoyed the loaner program of IHA-1 very much. Prol more positive than previous loaner participants.

Was initially interested in this amp, because it was developed by Dennis Had, the guy who developed Cary 300SEI. 300 Sei was THE head-amp which greatly impressed me when began this hobby long ago (paired with HD600). What I aspired IHA-1 to be was a super 300SEI (300SEI tonality with state of the art SET technicalities). This was not the case [1]. Dennis prol wanted to make something totally different from Cary's house sound.

The overall tonality is rather SS-sounding. That's not bad. Paired with HD800, this amp sounded very clean and clear (clarity is indeed top-notch for a SET amp). However, to my ears, this amp overly pretended to be SS-ish, adding some artificial flavor. It reminded me of something like the result of noise-reduction filters in photography. Low excitement was another point to report. The sound was not necessarily boring, but quite dependent on tracks and genres. This made long time listening more tolerable at a cost of diminished soul. Pick your poison.

Head stage was decent and not exaggerated. Perceived depth was far better than Lyr 3. But there were mixed results in layering and separation. At a glance, spatial information was reproduced amazingly well. After 10-30 mins, I figured out that instrument placements were rather over-simplified. Neither flat nor 2d-ish like some amps (e.g., Jotenheim).. but nearly similar level of lacking information.

Stock HD800 with IHA-1 was listenable.. but compared to DT-Alpha or Lyr 3, IHA-1 seemed to favor heavily modded HD800 (as an extension, HD800S would be nice, too). I liked Elex over HD800 for IHA-1. Elex with IHA-1 was very slightly mid-bassy, otherwise quite synergistic.

To sum, IHA-1 had many good things to my linking, but some issues bothered me a bit (preference-wise rather than performance-wise). I'm thinking this amp is well priced and worth its asking price. Will take Lyr 3 over IHA-1 if I am on the market.. but that's because of my preference. Some people will do the reverse. IMHO the real problem is that $2k is neither-fish-nor-fowl for headphone amplifiers in 2018 [2].

[1] Ironically "super 300sei" was a more appropriate description for Leptoni DT-Alpha.
[2] On the one hand, there recently appeared a few "star" amps in <$1k, which can do something (not everything though) even better than big boy summit-fis. On the other hand, wisely-chosen boutique amps ($3-4k) easily cream sub-3k. Dumping 2k solely on an amp is IMO a good signal showing the buyer is less price-sensitive than the consumer majority.

 

Man, I should have posted my impressions a long time ago. My apologies.

First off, many thanks for the loaner, especially the incredible tube collection that accompanied the amp.

Lots had been said about this amp, so I will just add my bulleted impressions.

Mainline vs Dragon Inspire

• tubes: westinghouse and sylvania pair
  • Listening comparison exposed some odd harmonics on the Mainline at 50Hz and below *. More apparent with some headphones, like the Utopia. I didn't hear the anomaly with the Inspire.
  • Mainline has a more centrally focused image. Dragon has a little wider image. Possible due to a little more emphasis on treble with the Dragon. This could also be the tubes.
  • On a few tracks, the dragon sounds a little sloppy in the bass, but just a little
• With the Brimar tube
  • loses a little detail and becomes a little smoother
• With westinghouse and kernad VT231 tubes
  • Very detailed and slightly forward
  • Possibly even a little too hot on the treble
  • A little less hot with the brimar. Might be a good combo for the HD650 or other warmer HPs
• With the Westinghouse and the Sylvania 6SN7 GTB
  • sounds OK to me. Hard to tell the difference, if there is any, with the kernad VT231 tubes

I realize these are pretty basic impressions, but my take away is that I'm happy with the Mainline, and the Dragon Inspire HA-1 and the Mainline are in the same class.

* explanation from Bottlehead

 

Hello good morning

I want to buy a new Tube Amp Headphone to my LCD4 from Audeze.

Do you recommend this model? With your experiences.

1. Drives well? (500mw)
2. There is enough power? (11/12 oclock for example)
3. Are the default stock tubes good? Or upgraded to 6SN7
4. This can bem considerate Tube Rolling?

Is it possible to extract the technical capability of LCD4, like low end and the soundstage? some microdetails?
For the 200 Ohm impendance, this tube amp is good?

My listing is like Hanz Zimmer, and low end bass, keyboard piano (impact and melody keyboard), some soundtracks, and r&B, queens, and similiar stuff.

Thanks in advanced

 

Anyone?

 

@ricar1 I have IHA1 and I enjoy it with dynamic headphones like HD800 or HD650.
I've never liked it with any planar headphones that I've tried. YMMV. I'm not familiar with
LCD4 so it could be an exception.

 

@ricar1

Mine is in storage right now, and I never owned the LCD-4 (I have a -2 and a -X, and a couple old style HifiMan models), but here are my thoughts. I remember it being a bit anemic with planars, bass was definitely rolled off and a bit sluggish. The HE-6 in particular sounded bad, but that sucker only sounded great on the Decware I have. I would get something that can swing a bit more current to drive planars, maybe ask around in the LCD-4 thread for more specific recommendations.