Help me with sub $1500 headamps

The Magni 2U and the Modi 2U hold each other back. The Magni 2U steel and overall negative feedback make the Modi 2U leanness and dryness way worse and f**k the panning of compressed recordings. The Magni 2U is ultimately less usable imo due to being so powerful and the shitty minipot (all minipots are shitty) not having a lot of usable range with most headphones.

 

Alan Parsons sort of looks like Ian McShane.

 

The Black Widow is available again in very limited quantity.

 

I recently won a barely used Metrum Aurix (http://metrum-acoustics.com/AurixEN.html) at ridiculous low price from Yahoo Japan auction. It is priced at 822 Euro for new.

My audio-gd DAC output 5V at XLR and 2.5V at RCA output. So for all the headphone amps I had owned and currently own, I almost never used high gain and a few even had channel imbalanced issue when tuning the volume pod close to lowest position. And when I listen to my EPA-007, I always turn the NFB "dampening" knob to lowest position.

So the perfect amp for me is not "Wire with gain", but actually "Wire with no voltage gain, but current buffer, and no NFB". On paper the Metrum Aurix looks like the perfect amp to me. Will report back when I received and spent some time with it.

 

I received my Metrum Aurix package today. I was connecting the amp and saw there is a coaxle input at the back, then look at the front plate of the device and there is no volume knob...

The seller wrongly sent me the Metrum Octave Mk2 DAC to me.

I contacted the Japanese buying service agent asking what the seller can do. I think shipping the Octave back to Japan could be too expensive. I may end up keeping the DAC.

 

How annoying! They probably sent the Aurix to the buyer of the Octave. It's their mistake, they should pay for the return shipping imo.

I was interested in the Aurix when I was considering my new head-amp, but I bought the NFB-1AMP instead. Would have been nice to read your impressions. I still need to write some more impressions of the NFB1-AMP vs the Jotty in the appropriate thread.

 

Hi @borrego , How is the situation regarding the Metrum Octave and Aurix? Did you manage to sort anything out?

Hi @Psalmanazar , I hope you don't mind me asking, but I would very much like to know which headphone amplifiers you use for listening or which do you recommend? Like yourself, I am very sensitive to treble and I would therefore value your opinion. I tried the NFB-1AMP, whilst it had inoffensive treble it unfortunately had various other problems.

One option could be to wait for the Eddie Current Copperhead, but I do not know how long that will be or whether it is going to be produced at all - I'm sure @Marvey would know. It would be nice to have an update.

Like borrego, I am intrigued by the Metrum Aurix. It is described as being full class A with no feedback (so hopefully, will not exhibit "steel" in its treble). It uses a step-up transformer rather than transistors or tubes to perform the amplification. Opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

 

Thanks Hands. I will be less inclined towards the Aurix.

What would you say are the best choices for inoffensive treble without many compromises? I wouldn't what something too relaxed though. I'm not quite ready for my pipe and slippers

 

@TheIceman93
Seems like you gave up on the Phonitor E. The only reason I haven't shared my review of it is because I am waiting to see if the Vendor will supply another 'fixed' Phonitor X or not because if not, and I can't plug my SE cable into the X without problems then I'm gonna have to leave that part of the review as is and unresolved.

No offense to Schiit gear at all. I honestly have a hard time believing any amp at that price point revealed more details or was even close to as 'clean ' sounding but the Joti is not what I call balanced nor tonally accurate. It is technically strong and highly recommended . There is no need to repeat its abilities that have been already repeated several times here. Either its for you or not and if you don't like it then move along ... no sweat
Phonitor E 1499 (1199 on ebay)
Strengths:

• Clean and grain free sound
• VERY refined
• Decently holographic
• Extremely well balanced
• Crossfeed presets works well
• Beautiful midrange from the lower all the way to the upper
• Treble presence without fatigue and extra hash. There are more natural out there but you need to pay a lot more to have more refinement in the treble
• Good resolution
• Has that finesse that some look for outside of solid states
• Excellent clarity
• Bass balance is good and satisfying in level without too weak. Decent mid bass body and sub bass rumble

On the fence:

• Punchiness. This area will split crowds. Its neither engaging nor laid back and somewhere in the middle but with decent tonal density.
• The treble doesn't possess the energy some may like to draw attention to itself (imo a good thing).

Weaknesses:

• Transients aren't as energetic or abrupt as I would like. I would like the sounds to have a little more snap to them and the attacks to be more engaging.
• The bass will sound rolled off to some because it doesn't have the bass grip of some of the others Its more enveloping than hard and fast. But during sweeps and sub bass tests it revealed solid bass line rumbles with only average (for its price) control over the driver. It is not where it excels at but its not an absolute failure like the Heron 5. I would personally prefer a more solid and gripping low end that is harder and tighter.

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You take something like the HERON 5. That is a worthy consideration since it appears for 750 used. (999 new)
Strengths:

• Clean and relatively detailed sound
• Wonderful balance
• Spot on midrange balance
• Good clarity
• Super wide soundstage
• Lots of power
• (since fixed) awesome build
• Openness... sounds very open and ethereal

Weaknesses:

• For having such a wide soundstage it lacks depth and is a bit diffuse in imaging
• Dynamics suck ballz
• lacks refinement
• Bass slam is farts, I mean it had some texture or resolution but it was basically non engaging
• For Having such a wonderful tonality it is really very much a solid state in the way it renders tones. It sounds a bit digital to me and that whole hashy thing applies. If this amp were bright it would have been a hot mess to me in the treble.

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iFi Pro iCAN (1699) find a used one for less
Strengths:

• Nice blackground. Sure the Joti may sound cleaner when turn the pot up to listen for noise but two things may be the cause of that, the fact that the Pro is more powerful and the fact it may be hard to level match when listening for just noise. You would have to level match a song first and then go back to that notch on the dial to see which is quieter. When music is playing, because the pro is more natural sounding and holographic that blackground is taken advantage of better on the Pro and sounds pop from the background with better definition.
• Believable lower midrange
• Nice Macrodynamics
• Full and engaging bass
• Easy going fatigue free treble
• tons of options that all seem relatively useful
• Deep sound
• Great tonal density and realism
• Beautiful pairing with the HE-6 for balancing it out a bit, almost like they used it to tune the amp
• Great layering
• Bass boost is the real deal on that thing. Best bass boost I have tried to date

On the Fence:

• Sometimes I felt the bass was a little wooly and while in line with the whole presentation I wanted it a bit more dry and tight but it had good heft and was punchy enough for me for sure

Weaknesses:

• Soundstage width seemed very narrow to me
• The 650 did not sound like a good pairing tonally and felt a bit weighed down
• Not accurately balanced because from the upper mids to the treble it sounded a little too tuned down to my ears and I wanted just a little more air and vocal harmonics for the hps I used except the he-6 which has some of those things to spare. However, even though it didn't sound balanced to me it was tilted more towards the direction I prefer which is less digital sounding and etchy in the treble than a lot of solid states I have heard.

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Cayin iHA6 Skip this one if you didn't like the Jotunheim

Stengths:

• Speed
• Clarity (the Joti sounded just a little cleaner) but not by much
• Precision
• Upper midrange presence
• What a lot of 'audiophiles' look for when they speak of 'neutral'
• Dryness really reveals what planars are all about in the bass and shows their good texture and control. Bass is tighter and less doctored up than a lot of the above
• Good driver control
• Detailed
• Dynamics
• Still more realism than the Heron 5 and much better dynamics
• Shows good control from the balanced jack with all kinds of headphones, planars, low impedance dynamics and high impedance dynamics

On the Fence:

• Soundstage depth and width. Sure I recall it doing better than the Joti in depth but not enough to make it its strength
• Layering, tonal density, midrange body are all middle ground

Weaknesses:

• Solid state sound for sure. Pretty much whatever people complain about in solid states is what the Cayin does. The degree to which it commits those sins vary by aspect but they are all there. I have grown to enjoy this amp with the 650 because the balanced jack kinda kicks behind on this amp but it will, up against all but the heron 5 above, sound more digital. When I first heard the amp I was taken aback because I wasn't used to transparency at that level and hadn't even really gone to meets even to hear more gear.
• Lacks finesse
• People say 'brutally honest' for amps like this but screw that term. Honest is the Phonitor E. The Cayin is a very capable amplifier with tons of useful power and headroom but just because the treble is boosted doesn't make it honest. I call that lying. The treble on the Cayin is lying to my ears and shinning a little to much. I had this problem with the Joti as well and do not consider the Joti to be 'honest' either. YMMV though

 

I haven't given up on the Phonitor E but hobby cash is a bit tight right now so its probably a bit of a ways off.

 

Cool. sorry for all the typos and hot mess of a post but I think you get the idea.

The title of this thread is sub 1500. If you can't afford 1200 then you should maybe change the title to 1k. Also some of the above mentioned is worth saving for.

 

Budget is sub $1000, but I could maybe go over that.

Tubes are fine, although I have no experience with them.

I like the speed and punch of the Jot, but I am willing to give up some of that for a better balanced amp. I dislike the Jot's thin soundstage. But I especially cannot stand its nasty and abrasive treble.

I've recently tried the Audio-gd NFB1-AMP (I wrote a short review elsewhere on the forum comparing it to the Jot). I found that to be too slow and fat with exaggerated soundstage and bass. It altered the sound of certain instruments, e.g. guitars so that they no longer sounded how I expected. I liked that amp's inoffensive treble character, however.

I'm believe that I am looking for a truthful, neutral amp with realistic soundstage and inoffensive treble. I am currently considering Freya in front of Jot or Valhalla2 in place of Jot.

Many thanks

 

Other attributes of the NFB that I liked over the Jot were its instrument placement and separation. I felt like I was more inside the music with the NFB, whereas with the Jot I feel like I'm outside the music "looking" in. Instruments often get lost in the mix with the Jot, not so with the NFB. The Jot sounds "digital" and harsh whereas the NFB was softer and more "analogue", yet both are solid state.

 

Please, for the love of god, don't even consider the Heron 5. You're better off getting a Valhalla 2 or Vali 2

 

No worries, I was not considering the Heron 5 The Phonitor E looks interesting though, but is expensive and has no preamp capability.

 

What am I missing that rules the Mjolnir 2 out? It's within the price range, and it's not exactly fully limp dick.