I demoed the SR1a through a McIntosh MHA150 headphone amp, and did not like it at all. What came to mind is piping audio through boiling hot oil. Deep fried sound. The resolution wasn’t great, and the mid range was both exaggerated and rounded off.
Does anyone else have experience with this combo? Any different views? Was it a misconceived or misconfigured setup? I honestly cannot believe the SR1a would be intended to be so heavily colored by design. I reserve judgement.