# Cen.Grand 9i-806 “Little Silver Fox” - Headphone Amplifier **URL:** \ **Category:** DACs and Digital\ **Created:** [June 27, 2023, 12:48am UTC](https://forum.headphones.com/t/cen-grand-9i-806-little-silver-fox-headphone-amplifier/21524 "2023-06-27T00:48:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ckhirnigs113](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.headphones.com/ckhirnigs113/32/35219_2.png) [@ckhirnigs113](https://forum.headphones.com/u/ckhirnigs113)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 12:48am UTC](https://forum.headphones.com/t/cen-grand-9i-806-little-silver-fox-headphone-amplifier/21524/1 "2023-06-27T00:48:08Z")
As the first purchaser of the Cen.Grand 9i-806 “Little Silver Fox” headphone amp in the US, I feel it’s my duty to start a thread for this relatively unknown (for now at least) headphone amp. I was considering the TOTL amp from Cen.Grand, the 9i-906 “Silver Fox”, but decided to go with the little brother that shares most of the features of its big brother at a much more affordable price. For now let’s ignore the Silver Fox and focus only on the Little Silver Fox. Here is the handsome devil: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/headphones/original/3X/4/5/45a5858c3d67cfc51dc3a6864f0d4bfd529455c7.jpeg) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/headphones/original/3X/3/8/38309bdbaeb0b67a743e8990ea8ac1185e0e2c9e.png) This is a seriously powerful headphone amp. I can’t imagine it would have trouble driving any headphone out there including the Susvara. It pushes 15W at 30 ohms for goodness sake! It has 4 different types of headphone jacks including: - 4-pin XLR - Dual 3-pin XLR - 4.4mm balanced - Two 6.3mm single ended outputs (shared with 3-pin XLR ports) It has two RCA inputs and two XLR inputs on the back. There is no preamp function. This is purely a headphone amp. The amp has four output modes: Normal, Balanced(BTL), Virtual Ground(Active G) and Parallel, as well as three low resistance modes and one high resistance mode. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/headphones/original/3X/5/d/5d5b4d62e5a5e18b4f87cc706990690636b2e81f.jpeg) It’s my understanding that the “low resistance” modes are in place to be used with highly sensitive headphones/IEMs. The way it works is low resistance mode 1 adds a 50 ohm resistor in-line, mode 2 adds 100 ohm, and mode 3 adds 150 ohm. High resistance mode has no resistor in the signal path and is recommended for most headphones. The wording is a bit confusing, with some of the documentation calling the modes “high impedance” and “low impedance 1, 2 and 3”. It’s a bit counterintuitive, but I think I have a handle on how it’s being implemented. If a single-ended input is plugged in, the amp converts it to balanced, so you have the same output power whether a balanced or single-ended source is being used. Cen.Grand recommends using a balanced source to avoid more processing of the signal, but it’s nice to have the option to use single-ended sources without any impact on output power. Here are a few pics of the inside of the amp. I’m not very familiar with amplifier topology, but the 4 pairs of Exicon lateral MOSFETS are supposedly a good thing! ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/headphones/original/3X/b/c/bc1e89b7f02d7a1e8508ef2e84a306db86651a3c.jpeg) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/headphones/original/3X/b/c/bcef2a70156cb508217a62fa9874ee0be0d311e9.jpeg) I haven’t received the amp yet, so I won’t be posting any impressions until after I’ve had a few weeks to get accustomed to it. ---
**Author:** ![antdroid](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.headphones.com/antdroid/32/8600_2.png) [@antdroid](https://forum.headphones.com/u/antdroid)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 2:32am UTC](https://forum.headphones.com/t/cen-grand-9i-806-little-silver-fox-headphone-amplifier/21524/2 "2023-06-27T02:32:45Z")
Looking forward to hearing your impressions! I’ve seen this brand pop up a few places and it looks quite interesting! ---
**Author:** ![mgosdin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.headphones.com/mgosdin/32/47331_2.png) [@mgosdin](https://forum.headphones.com/u/mgosdin)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 6:31am UTC](https://forum.headphones.com/t/cen-grand-9i-806-little-silver-fox-headphone-amplifier/21524/3 "2023-06-27T06:31:37Z")
I always like it when a product goes all out doing one thing, in this case Headphone Amp, very well. Looking forward to seeing what it can do. Mark Gosdin ---
**Author:** ![ckhirnigs113](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.headphones.com/ckhirnigs113/32/35219_2.png) [@ckhirnigs113](https://forum.headphones.com/u/ckhirnigs113)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 12:39pm UTC](https://forum.headphones.com/t/cen-grand-9i-806-little-silver-fox-headphone-amplifier/21524/4 "2023-06-27T12:39:54Z")
Agreed! I feel the same way about restaurants as I do about audio. Stick to what you do and do it well. A gigantic menu is always a bad sign to me. Too many dishes makes it very hard to keep the quality at a high level. ---
**Author:** ![ckhirnigs113](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.headphones.com/ckhirnigs113/32/35219_2.png) [@ckhirnigs113](https://forum.headphones.com/u/ckhirnigs113)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2023, 10:50pm UTC](https://forum.headphones.com/t/cen-grand-9i-806-little-silver-fox-headphone-amplifier/21524/5 "2023-07-10T22:50:09Z")
Finally received the Little Silver Fox today! It took much longer to get to me than expected, but it arrived safe and sound in the end. I have been sick for the last couple of days, so no sound impressions yet. I’ll be listening as the amp burns in, so once I get to feeling better and the amp has been put through its paces I’ll report back. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/headphones/original/3X/c/3/c38b5c5b8678a64e94b15a6d38cfdde1c67c6abc.jpeg) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/headphones/original/3X/4/e/4e008644c19989f556a33cb87b65d54148da61e0.jpeg) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/headphones/original/3X/6/8/688a2dbe25c7fb13f5a0bd9e8b6056136a423c5c.jpeg)