Neurochrome HP-1

Yeah. You can't please everybody all the time. Moving on.

 

A valid and measured response under the circumstances. Sorry this has been your first impression of SBAF Tom. I look forward to hearing your amp some day when work and family permit.

 

A good amplifier is not an effects box. Most compressed recordings sound better on better amplifiers as many of them have decent panning and separation with little depth or dynamics; That separation gets lost on crappy amplifiers that compress a mix or master with a dynamic range of 5-7 db even further.

With 450w into 300 ohms being fed by the Gungnir Multibit, I doubt it was clipping the HD 650. If it was, then the amplifier is scrap worthy of physical destruction instead of just being another mediocre headphone amplifier in a crowded market full of mediocre solid state headphone amplifiers claiming to be audibly transparent and perfect. Audio objectivism is a religious cult.

 

Wew guys, hell of a party in this thread after my leg of the loaner tour.

I had the QRV-08 in the box along with the HP-1, though my QRV-08 impression is brief enough to fit in here. To wit: Throw it in the trash.

Before getting into my impressions proper, I would like to thank Tom (@tomchr) for being an absolutely upstanding guy in arranging shipping to me given my scheduling constraints. He was really helpful and understanding in the process, and is a real pleasure to deal with.

I've come out before stating a strong preference for tubes over solid state for reasons such as staging qualities, treble rendition, and dynamics, and I had high hopes the HP-1 might be able to change my mind about it (NOS 2A3s and magnetics are crazy expensive and troublesome). Unfortunately, the amp was unable to accomplish this.

At the moment in my cooped up dorm room, the point of comparison was my T3, mostly stock with Mullard tubes (my other stuff died/left in Singapore). The source was a Gungnir Multibit fed with USB, which is not ideal, but I could hardly ship over two crates of CDs into my temporary accommodation.

The initial impression of the HP-1 is a clean, aggressive sound with quick transients. This is party attributable to the lean, slightly thin tonal balance, and it otherwise commits no serious sins of commission. The power it supplied was more than generous for my HD600s, and perfectly sufficient for my HE5s. However, when doing a side-by-side comparison with my T3, I found the HP-1 rather un-engaging and dull.

Especially when listening to large orchestral pieces, I found the HP-1 to struggle with microdynamics. The lead violin in Beethoven's Fifth disappears entirely with the HP-1, I heard similar difficulties with distinguishing smaller gradations in volume in other tracks as well. It is also less capable than the T3 at macrodynamics, with notably less slam and the characteristic solid state compression with peaks. Combined with these issues was a relative loss of resolution. Note sustain and harmonics were often absent or tailed off. Staging was also lacking in depth, though instrument separation was excellent along with the clarity.

While the amp provides clean, issue free power, and a mostly uncolored presentation, it does not bring enough to the table at the price point it is placed at for me to recommend it as a purchase.

 

What's wrong with the RNHP? Its one of the best sub $1k solid states I've heard. There must be something wrong with my ears because I think it kicks serious ass. I had a Jot as well and I kept the Neve.

 

@HitmanFluffy

To understand why you would have high hopes of the HP-1 to change your mind about solid states. Have there been any exceptions?

Would you say the drawbacks you notice about the HP-1 apply to most ss amps? Or is this amp even more dull sounding to you than other SS's?

 

It does have its own thread but not much interest I guess, only one review so far. But yes, not relevant to the discussion at hand. At some point, I would like to get Psalm's take on the amp in more detail. He hasn't posted any impressions on the RNHP thread but he has clearly heard it so I'd like to know his thoughts.

 

Pretty much nope. I wish there was one, then I could quit spending $700 for transformers and $300+ to reload on tubes, not to mention lugging around 50lb amps. The best solid state has gotten for me is "not bad, hmmm". The Cayin iHA6 at trade show prices is probably the best SS deal Ive heard, and it was a 6/10 in my book. Beat the HP-1 by a wide enough margin to mention. There are more lively SS amps, but those usually come with significant drawbacks (GSX Mk2, jesus christ). The staging remains subpar, consistently.

 

wow.... I better close my iHA-6 FS adds until I audition some more solid states and use it as a reference. Not to take one persons (good persons) feed back from a trade show as the most secure stock but I better pump the breaks a bit.

I am really hoping for my solid state to sound like a more balanced iCan Pro but with a slightly wider soundstage and more air. The Pro bested my iHA-6 in almost every area except for treble balance and neutrality.

If this HP-1 is more thin than my Cayin I won't be able to consider it. I will post a comparison vs the iHA-6 when its my turn. So I have a point of reference I will close my FS adds. I will also have the Phonitor X here and E at the same time. So a three way solid state shoot out will be posted.

Just to give you an idea I find the Jot and iHA-6 very very similar with the iha-6 sounding more even in the treble but just as bright and the Jot being slightly cleaner sounding but very slightly worse at layering or depth. Iha-6 for planars, Jot for 650. They are almost twins in regards to tonal signature with minor exceptions and the Joti being a better value. At least if the HP-1 can have a blacker background and a cleaner sound it has transparency on its side.

We will see.

But based on impressions the Pro is likely still the one to beat when I audition gear to make a choice.

 

What we look for in every amp is different. While it is nice that you're holding off the FS so that you can compare, chances are you'll come to a different conclusion.

 

If you have a strong preference for tube amps, you'll probably find the HP-1 a bit clean, lean, and unforgiving. I had a similar experience when I switched from my DG300B to the Modulus-86 on my speakers. I did find that overall I prefer the precision of the solid state setup but it did take a little getting used to at first. I suggest giving the HP-1 a couple of days of listen. You may find you end up liking the precise sound after all.

Then again, if you really do prefer the tube setups, I can deliver those as well. The DG300B is about as good as it gets. With a couple of resistor tweaks, you can set it up for the 2A3 and with a few more tweaks, for the 45 as well. I do agree that a little bit of audible 2nd and 3rd order harmonic distortion does bring a nice quality to the sound on many recordings and can add to the perception of sound stage. Do note that this is an added effect, though. It's not in the original recording.

The main drawback of the DG300B is cost. It is an expensive project. A budget build can be done for around $1000-1200 as I recall. Skimping on the output transformers is a false economy in my view, so a more reasonable build budget is around $1500.

Those who are more cost conscious, ought to have a look at my humble Novar Spud. It can be built for about $250 if you shop around a bit. Set it up with a pair of 6GF7A tubes and you have all the sweet triode sound money can buy. It's no 300B, but a complete Novar Spud cost about the same as a budget pair of 300B tubes...

It's interesting for me to see the comparisons of the HP-1 to other solid state amps, such as the GSX Mk2 and QRV08. It would be similarly interesting to see a comparison of the HP-1 and the O2.

Tom

 

@tomchr $1500 really isn't very much at all in the DHT world. Also as far as sound goes, the O2 really bears no comparison with the HP-1 or all the others mentioned here, simply because I don't count it as functional with the awful clipping that occurs.