It might help to determine what your priority is.
If you demo’d an amp and it was the best thing you ever heard, are you going to reject it because other people call it a ‘flavor amp’?
Is the goal your enjoyment/experience or is it about finding a certain spec sheet?
If you could up your budget a bit, I’d take a look at the Headamp GSX-mini.
@Saber_Goli I’m very early in my exploration of headphones and amps so I probably can’t describe sound quality as well as many of the others here. That said, I’d say you owe it to yourself to at least listen to a tube amp before dismissing it as “too this” or “too that”.
My first “good” headphone was a Dan Clark Aeon2 Closed and I bought a Schiit Asgard3 amp+DAC to drive it. I then learned more about open headphones so I bought a Drop 6XX and a Bottlehead Crack tube amp kit. When I first heard that tube amp with the 6XX’s I was truly amazed at the sound compared to the solid state Asgard. It wasn’t necessarily “better” sound, but more enveloping and engrossing. There’s something about a tube amp that just pulls you into the sound.
Since then I’ve learned that tube amps have quite a range of sound signatures, from “tubey” to almost clinical - all depending on the amp, or the tubes that are used. I’m currently trying to find the best amp to match my ZMF Verite Opens, which sound really good with the Crack, but also (in a very different way) with my AAA 789. The “problem” with the 789 is that it is incredibly revealing, which in my early listening was really fun since I heard new things in all the songs I thought I knew really well. As I continued to listen to that combination however I realized that level of accuracy became fatiguing and somewhat less enjoyable. So now I’m trying to find an amplifier that’s somewhere in between the two.
At the end of the day you may prefer a solid state amplifier over a tube amp, but if you dismiss tube amps because of a few comments you heard you could be missing out on a great combination.
Good luck!
As other have said, don’t be blinded to tubes before actually hearing some tube amps - you might be surprised. It would make sense, that you might find something you like there, given you’ve already transitioned away from chip DAC’s to an R2R design, that’s already pretty esoteric by some peoples estimations.
I’m with you, many years ago I transitioned from chip DACs to non-oversampling tube DACs, I never looked back (well, not entirely true, in my headphone rig I’m still running a solid state chip DAC, but I’m about to compliment that soon with a R2R DAC).
There is a bevy of great neutral tube amps out there that play well with planars - tube amps and designs have come a long way in the past 60 years - it’s no longer pipe and slippers to use an English saying (which means; a person or activity that is old before their time, in audio (in England) used in connection with tubes to mean; boring, no drive or attack, no pace or energy - too safe.
I owned a Pathos Aurium for about a year, great amp and close to your budget. To my ears it was on the slightly sweet side of neutral, not dry but not warm either and relatively transparent. The Aurium is a hybrid design - so its closer in to what people consider solid state to sound like. It played very nicely with my Audeze planars at the time. I only sold it because I wanted to burn some money on tube-rolling, the Aurium isn’t really ideal for that.
Beyond Phonitor and HeadAmp as already mentioned and along a somewhat similar trajectory you might want to try something from Violectric - they have a couple of amps in your general price range. I’ve read a good number of positive reports of Arya with Violectric.
BTW, congrats on the great headphones and awesome DAC - you’re two thirds of the way to a dream setup for sure.
all stores in Norway where i live are selling overpriced.
both the arya as well as the clear both sell for the same price at 2300$ to give you an example, i know because ive cross checked all stores in this country, it really is that expensive, on top of all of this there are extremely few stores with exotic heaphone gear to demo and when there are its often only one brand. Any of you EU guys have the same trouble?
TL;DR
do you guys know which online resellers take requests on declaration prices?
hey thanks man. i wonder how these compare to questyle, phonitor and violectric stuff
oh yeah and i think i want something on the 1500usd side instead tbh guys. so if you have any suggestions i would be super duper appreciative since i already know you have much more expertise than me.
TL;DR
something wide and technical but without being dry/harsh/2d/thin or otherwise “digital” sounding. ive got the Clears and the Arya, oh yeah and the aeolus’s but the arya is the one that gets the most use, then the clears and then the aeolus’s
Time to read some reviews and user opinions. Good luck.
thanks man! …
Violectric v281 in all but name or elaborate scam?
unless i’ve missed something this thing has the exact same motherboard as the actual Violectric v281.
would really appreciate someone’s view on this, this would be huge for me not only because ive been looking at getting one for a very very long time but because there is so much to save, although reselling it would probably be hell, or not, if the internals actually are identical, anyhow.
tl;dr
spot anything suspicious aside from the name?
for anyone familiar with aliexpress, can they legally fake these motherboard pictures against ali’s TOS?
I wouldn’t go near this, knock-off items are never going to be a reliable investment and are most likely to be a massive dissapointment.
You have no guarantee that the parts/components indicated are what they claim them to be and even if this is an exact and faithful component replica, which I doubt, there is no assurance that the manufacturing tolerances, testing, Q&A etc., is of a comparable level. Not to mention service / warranty issues and support.
It takes years of competent execution to demonstrate quality and build a brand. After WW2 the Japanese worked to move from ‘knock offs’ to world-class brands. This happened over several decades with Nikon, Canon, Ricoh, Seiko, Sony, Panasonic, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, etc. However, into the 1960s Japanese brands were seen as novelties.
Little Honda was a mainstream 1964 pop song:
Then, in the 1970s the Japanese literally destroyed dozens of US, UK, and European brands…
fair points. really i just think it depends on how vigilant and secure Ali is. Because these guys have motherboard pictures and everything, i just dont know enough about the Ali TOS and im not going through it. the worst part is probably the knock off branding so reselling may or may not be difficult, and yeah like you said about warranty its a huge concern. Though to be fair, excellent rating, but that doesnt always mean much on aliexpress, asian platforms are dodgy. its not like i dont like Ali its just that i have reservations even though ive been buying there for years
thanks for your input man
I avoid AliExpress like the plague. I bought a cable there and received the wrong item – the seller didn’t want to ship the correct product and wanted me to pay for return international shipping to China. He then asked me to place a fictitious order for the replacement so he could avoid paying international shipping to me. That was the last time I bought anything from AliExpress.
In my experience GearBest has better controls, but they are not great either. Firms like Drop and Apos have arisen to improve the international ChiFi buying experience. However, @zeroprivacy is correct about resale value. In my experience Chinese electronics can be resold for 25% to 50% of retail at best. Some unknown brands are worth $0 for resale.
got that right , I did it once, got a tracking number which turned out to be fake, and never got my product. And never got a refund, just thankful for my Visa who gave me a credit.
Just look at these reviews Aliexpress Reviews | Read Customer Service Reviews of aliexpress.es
This is changing too as more reputable sellers from China make inroads to more quality equipment. I see this trend continuing into the next decade. AliExpress is a whole different story, as I have been to the knock off markets in China and one would be amazed in what they sell in the shops that are counterfeit and even the counterfeits having varying degrees of quality. Many of these items are being made out the back door from the same factory that makes the legit items, they just don’t have the QC done which is the risk. Shenzen audio is a bit safer as drop.com as they vet a lot of these sellers first.
Heed caution to EBay Chinese sellers too. They did the same thing to me with a PlayStation controller and nakamichi banana plugs. They send me some garbage banana plugs and return shipping was more expensive than the product itself. Not even sure how they made any money on that order. Had to go through EBay guarantee
Unless seller pays return shipping I would be very cautious.
I remember hearing this song on the radio when it came out. I think I may have seen this on Bandstand. I’d have been 10 years old.
man imagine if it really actually is the violectric v280 and that its made in the same facotry but for only a fraction of the cost at 700usd. this is going on repeat in my head right now but so would being the victim of an elaborate scam do, not to mention the several months back and forth with both the seller and ali themselves.
im not gonna do it but i wish someone else did so that we could have something tangible to grasp onto. It sure would shake up the community and market quite a bit because the product seems to be of some status
seems about right, for me i would assume so by default as i think would most. Audio GD is the exception i would think. speaking of v280, i wonder how it compares to audio GD stuff, i think they are both slightly warmer thicker and wider sounding if im not mistaken which is exactly what i want. buying audio GD definitely could be an option, no insane import costs. asians have always been good with declaration requests
i saved buying a 200$off arya at 1399 if i recall correctly intstead of buying locally, which is 2300usd, yes, yes i said 2300usd
its grindtime