I fee like your Verite closed can be branched off into it’s own rankings now with all 40 versions you have by now.
also, a zmf ranking would be cool, with specific wood types listed. 
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My personal ZMF ranking, at present, would be as follows:
- Vérité LTD (Cocobolo)
- Vérité LTD (Ziricote)
- Vérité LTD (Pheasantwood)*
- Vérité Closed LTD (Blue/Green Stabilized Maple-Burl)
- Vérité Closed LTD (Purple Stabilized Maple-Burl)
- Vérité Closed (Monkeypod)**
- Aeolus LTD (African Blackwood)
- Eikon LTD (Bloodwood)
- Eikon (Padauk)
Though it’s worth noting that I’ve had very little time with the Atticus or Auteur … so they’re not represented at all above. Which will change in the near future.
Also, I have no doubt that my sonic preferences within a given model for any stated wood likely have much more do with how much I like the wood/finish than any actually audible differences in sound.
*My original set; sold only because I liked the aesthetics on later “LTD” woods better.
**Review set; would have been happy to keep on sonic-grounds, but wanted something more unique finish wise.
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I’m curious as to how Covid-19 has affected your traveling plans, if at all.
Of course a ship out at sea can be an effective bolt hole.
No effect at all to this point.
If it does wind up having an effect, it’ll likely just be a slightly later departure.
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Best of luck with your upcoming adventure and thanks for all of your contributions to this great group. Your vast knowledge and research was/is much appreciated.
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10 Favorite Tube Headphone Amplifiers
These are ALL pure-tube headphone amplifiers - no hybrids in this list. Some of them also have enough power to drive efficient speakers (and those that do have mostly have speaker taps) and some can act as pre-amps that’ll add their signal-tube characteristics to the output (though with most pure tube amplifiers the power-tubes are what give most of the signature):
- Woo Audio WA234 MKII Mono (running 300B tubes)
- DNA Stellaris (2A3)
- Bottlehead Neothoriator (845) [Only two exist*.]
- Viva Egoista 845 (845)
- Eddie Current Studio (2A3) [Discontinued]
- Woo Audio WA33** (2A3)
- DNA Stratus (2A3)
- ZMF Pendant
- Eddie Current ZDS [Discontinued]
- Decware Taboo MK IV
Again, just my favorites … yours may vary.
There are LOTS of tube amplifiers I enjoy with headphones. If you’re a DIY-capable type then the Bottlehead Crack is a must-have … with or without the speedball upgrade (I built one of each). It narrowly misses this list … which is amazing given that it is 1/6th the cost of the next least expensive option.
Also interesting (to me) is that my favorite tube, the 300B, is only represented here once. Which suggests my preference for the 300B is as much romantic/historical as anything else.
*The only reason one of those isn’t mine, is that it is not practical to take with me on my world-tour, and my opportunity to buy one of them came just a couple of months before I’d have to have chosen a single tube amplifier to keep.
**The standard version, rather than the “Elite” unit.
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I’ve been saying for years that the Crack is criminally underrated. Glad it got a mention.
Pendant over ZDS? I’ll admit, I’d swap the two places, but only because the ZDS staging is sooo good. Pendant might edge it out in tube tonality though, and it’s not unobtainium either. Hmm… Could go either way now that you got me thinking.
Speaking of thinking… Time for some Advil and a nap. My brain hurts today.
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Very much depends on what they’re paired with for me … as well as what I’ve been drinking and what headphone is involved. I hedged those two back and forth quite a bit, and ultimately the Pendant won out based on a) accuracy, b) adaptability and c) availability.
ZDS and the HD650 … is very hard combination to beat.
But the Pendant works better (for me) with a broader array of headphones, overall.
The ZDS is a very special amplifier, however.
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Ok, you convinced me.
LOL
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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.
- SPL Phonitor X (XE was indistinguishable to me)
- ECP DSHA3 (or especially DSHA3 F if you’re a Focal Utopia user)
- Benchmark HPA4
- SimAudio MOON Neo 430HA
- Pass Labs HPA-1
- Eddie Current Black Widow (“MK II”)
- HeadAmp GS-X Mk2 (w/ Alps RK50) [Not for brighter cans, though.]
- Schiit Jotunheim
- Drop THX AAA 789
- 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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Number 3…
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I don’t have your experience or gear inventory, of course. I was using the Phonitor XE (which I got following your review of the X) until I got an ECP DSHA-3F (nickel transformers). With Verité C monkeypod, the DSHA-3F makes me happier than the XE: just a slight touch of warmth, many layers, I get lost in the modern jazz and chamber music that I favor – which is a bit of a problem since I’m WFH for the time being. Indeed, since I got the DSHA-3F I’ve hardly used the Aficionado next to it. If I put it simplistically on a single dimension, the DSHA-3F sits at just the right point between the XE and the Aficionado to keep me from turning on the tubes…
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That makes sense to me.
There’s not that much between any of these amplifiers, and what there is is going to be heavily biased towards personal preferences and overall chains etc.
Absent headphones that need more power than Chord’s DAVE or Hugo TT 2 can provide, which in my current headphone collection is really just one, and then only situationally, I am tending towards using their direct outputs if I want solid-state (at which point, even the best amplifier can only add distortion, noise and/or coloration) or I’m listening via tubes.
And I listen via tubes for probably 95% of my “for pleasure” listening.
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If I’ve never heard a tube amp before, is the BHC a good place to start? I am happy to DIY, as I was into a parallel mech keyboard rabbit hole before this.
The Phonitor seems to be a favourite around here. I dont see it come up much on “other” forums.
I hope that Schiit brings out a next generation Jot sometime soon. I am putting down some on a tube amp but I still wouldnt mind having a decent SS around. Schiit seems to make pretty good leaps between generations of their products so Im hoping that the next gen Jot can be that SS for me at not too much .
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I don’t think there’s a better place to start, tube-amp wise, than the Crack.
Provided, that is, that you have headphones of higher impedance - say 150Ω or more. It’s not a great pairing with low-impedance cans at all (typical for OTL amplifiers).
Most importantly it’s a pure-tube amplifier not a hybrid. I can’t name another pure-tube amplifier at anywhere close to the Crack’s price that is worth the time, let alone the money.
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It’s something that a little app I built generates. One of a number of functions/features the app has. When I finish the main function of the app (and the patent filing for that feature is complete), it’ll go up on the App Store.
Very likely before I head off …
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Thank you Torq, I might hold off on writing a python or excel app that creates a similar table.
I started to think about a machine learning application that we can use to characterize a headphone. Some interesting research in combining signal processing and machine learning is going on.
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I love this as it would really help the ‘lay’ person, such as myself!
Looking forward to it as it’ll be a definite purchase. 
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