I'm Sailing Away

10 Favorite Solid-State Headphone Amplifiers

This list is probably more subject to re-thinking than any I’ve posted so far, so don’t be surprised if I revise it … once or twice.

In most cases, since my primary DACs also have direct headphone outputs (and in the case of my TOTL DACs, they’re the same output as the line-outs), I don’t typically bother using solid-state amplifiers for “listening for pleasure” … which is a definite factor here.

  1. SPL Phonitor X (XE was indistinguishable to me)
  2. ECP DSHA3 (or especially DSHA3 F if you’re a Focal Utopia user)
  3. Benchmark HPA4
  4. SimAudio MOON Neo 430HA
  5. Pass Labs HPA-1
  6. Eddie Current Black Widow (“MK II”)
  7. HeadAmp GS-X Mk2 (w/ Alps RK50) [Not for brighter cans, though.]
  8. Schiit Jotunheim
  9. Drop THX AAA 789
  10. Schiit Magni 3+

Among the THX AAA amplifiers, excepting the Benchmark, I liked the Drop version the best. I have a soft-spot for the original Ragnarok (both in general, and over the Ragnarok 2, at least for headphone usage). And if we got into more stuff around the Magni 3+ level, I’d take the Heresy version over all of the other <= 0.000X% THD+N inexpensive options …

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