Tom Christiansen Audio (TCA) - HPA-1 Headphone Amplifier - Official Thread

My warranty is now as follows:

  • Product price: $0 ā€“ $499: One year
  • Product price: $500 ā€“ $999: Three years
  • Product price: $1k+: Five years

The rest of the conditions remain the same. You can read my warranty and return policy here: https://www.tomchr.com/pages/warranty-returns

Tom

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Great stuff. This is a win win for everyone.

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Well thatā€™s much betterā€¦

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@tomchrā€™s children, siblings.

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I have the PASS WHAMMY design class a amp and upgraded to opa627 after auditing many other opa amps- the TCA HPA-1 uses a more glaring in voices OPA amp- but Iā€™m sure Tom has made it so itā€™s not so glaring in male and female vocals- I would love to see if it beats my WHAMMY w/OPA627 - the return fee of 15% restocking makes it REALLY hard for me to take a chance- the price is no big deal at $899 but restocking fee is too steep to try at home- how else are we suppose to shop at home? Maybe Tom could weigh in- im using the Topping D90 and I just ordered a Bottlehead Crack w/sb and upgraded tubes- just to have a tube amp around for my HD600s - but I would love to get the HPA-1 here at my home and see - I just donā€™t want to loose money if I decide not to keep it after only 2 weeks of trial period. Maybe Tom will have mercy and extend some allowance. I live in New York and Covid is keeping so many glued at home.

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The two-week return period starts when you take delivery of the amp. You then have two weeks to decide whether you want to keep it. If you decide to return the amp, it will need to be shipped back no later than 14 calendar days after you took delivery of it, so if you took delivery on June 1st, you will need to ship it back no later than June 15th. 336 hours should be enough to allow you to decide whether to keep the amp. :slight_smile: Please use a tracked and insured service as youā€™re on the hook if the amp gets lost in transit.

I will process your refund within 48 hours of receiving your return, usually faster. Basically, I need enough time to determine the amount of reconditioning needed. Youā€™re on the hook for all shipping costs and the restocking fee.

The restocking fee pays for me to recondition and test the amp, and for the loss I will incur when I sell it as B stock. I canā€™t with good conscience claim the amp is new when itā€™s been sold once alreadyā€¦

Some may find this policy strict, but it is clear and upfront. Returns cost money. That money has to come from somewhere. I can either make the person who returns the amp pay for it, or I can increase the prices of my products and distribute the cost of returns onto everybody. Thereā€™s no free lunch, unfortunately.

In more positive news: I am now able to offer rather incredible shipping rates on UPS and FedEx shipping. These shippers will get an amp to you in a few days, and overnight in many cases. Canada Post (and USPS and other postal services) take quite a bit longer these days, but packages are getting through.

You can find the HPA-1 here: https://www.tomchr.com/products/hpa-1

Tom

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7 posts were merged into an existing topic: Off Topic : Complaints Thread

New here so I wouldnā€™t expect my opinion to carry much weight but thought I would post my experience with TCA. My history amounts to spending way too much money a few years back trying to find my perfect system, so I stepped away from new toys for a while. Iā€™ve tried everything from the original O2 to the Bryson headphone amp with a few Burson, Schiit, etc. in between. Only reason Iā€™m saying that is not to brag at all, more like being honest about mistakes I made. This time around Iā€™m going to be a little more controlled and picky before I go down the slippery slope this hobby can be.

I started researching a new headphone amp to go with the Beyer T1.2 headphone. Stumbled upon Tomā€™s website and liked what I saw and read. Sent a question thru the ā€œContactā€ page and in less than 1/2 hour I had an answer from Tom himself. He answered my questions and then several follow up emails, all within a very reasonable time. I ended up ordering an amp and received a shipping notice within minutes of the transaction, then received the package from Canada to the US via UPS in three days.

The unit is impeccably finished and has those extra quality touches like the feel of the volume control. Every time I turn it on it brings a smile to my face and pleasure to my ears. It drives the T1.2 with authority, on both low and high gain. I also picked up a pair of Campfire Audioā€™s 2020 Solaris IEMS and they perform extremely well too. Yes it is overkill as they are very efficient but there is absolutely no hiss, even with the volume all the way up, and it allows me to experience all the capability the Solaris has.

Iā€™m not going to try and describe the amp any more, Iā€™ll leave that to others who are more experienced and way better at it than me.

Is it worth the price of entry? Only you can answer that for yourself. Yes, you can get something that will work for much less and a lot more. This one has earned a place in my system for what I anticipate will be a long time. Thatā€™s more than I can say for all the others.

Quality sound - yes. Fit and finish - perfect. Emails from the designer himself - check. Honest businessman, philosophy I agree with, other intangibles - yep.

Does that add up to the price of the amp? I can easily answer yes to that question.

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Does anyone know if the HPA-1 can adequately power the HEDDphone (which @angstorms mentioned earlier in this thread)? Being from Calgary myself Iā€™d love to support a local designer ā€“ but not sure if this has enough juice for my hungriest cans.

From the measurements over at ASR, I take it the HPA-1 delivers around 600 mW per channel at 32 Ī© (or 1.2 W total, as per the spec) ā€“ and the sweet spot for the HEDDphone (say, 1 W @ 42 Ī©) is quite a bit higher. Iā€™m pretty new to reading power requirements, though ā€“ before the HEDDphone Iā€™ve only owned easy-to-drive dynamics ā€“ so please correct me if Iā€™m wrong.

Hedd has stated 1-6 watts ā€¦but with the caveatā€¦try it and seeā€¦

I use Schiit Jotenheim and Lyr 3 and have more than enough power for my Heddsā€¦

See here ā€¦

Great, thanks for the link (and @lost33 for HEDDā€™s suggested power requirements). According to that chart, wouldnā€™t 2 W be the absolute maximum youā€™d want to feed the HEDDphone, at 120 dB (enough to cause instant hearing damage)?

Still, the HPA-1 is likely not the best choice for Ć¼ber-hungry headphones (if Iā€™m correct in interpreting the spec to mean 600 mW per channel at 32 Ī©). Looks like a really solid build though, and Iā€™m happy to have discovered a new amp from my hometown.

Generally you want your amp to be operating with some headroom, since distortion increases with power output.

As a general rule, Iā€™ve found that having double the power I need (per the specs/math) for the peaks encountered at my normal listening level does the trick. Though having a bigger margin has NEVER hurt.

I tend to listen at 80-85 dB ā€¦ which puts peaks around 105 dB for me. Thatā€™d put the amp in question closer to limits than I would personally want.

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Yup thats a good pointā€¦having some headroom is important for sureā€¦Any modern day amp like a Schiit Lyr 3, Jotenheim, Magnius or even the Schiit Magni 3+ would do just fineā€¦and many other amps out thereā€¦

Ah yes, I didnā€™t think about headroom ā€“ great point. I usually listen at around 83 dB (a common recommendation for mastering, which is what Iā€™ll mostly be using these headphones for), so peaks would be in the 105 dB region for me too. Lots of great amp options these days, fortunately.

I emailed Tom and he says the HPA-1 will indeed deliver at least 1.03 W per channel at 42 Ī© (a conservative estimate) or, more likely, 1.1 W. Also I misinterpreted the spec in my first post above: 1.2 W into 32 Ī© is also per channel, not total. So much better than I expected. Not as high as the amps @lost33 listed above, to be sure, though for most cans ā€“ the HEDDphone notwithstanding ā€“ thatā€™s likely more than enough. I have an RME ADI 2 FS on the way so Iā€™ll probably try the headphone amp on that first and see if I need to upgrade.

I do hope this amp does well ā€“ as a Canadian-made, built-to-last alternative to some of the cheaper options out there (and, by some accounts, able to hold its own against much more expensive amps too). If I do end up getting my hands on one (perhaps the next time Iā€™m in Calgary), Iā€™ll report back on how it pairs with the HEDDphone.

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Honestly, It is a good headphone amp. I am sure you be happy with it. I run the Susvara on it. Since to me, It runs well with that Headphone the rest of Cans are easy to drive in comparison. Like Torque music peak to 105dB but nomial is 80-83 dB range

Just a quick note: Iā€™m down to one HPA-1 in stock. I will have more made but it could take a bit given the current supply shortage on parts.

Tom

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The first time Iā€™ve heard of Tomā€™s amp was through the PAF video. Hope to be able to try them out soon!

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Has any have or compared the HPA-1 with itā€™s little brother the HPA-10? I currently have the HPA-10 which is a fantastic small little amp, perfect for traveling if anyone is curious. Iā€™m wondering how much up an upgrade in sound the HPA-1 would be?

@tomchr - If youā€™re paying attention to this thread if would be great to get your thoughts between the two and how much of a difference they are.

Thanks!