Well, what I get from that review is that if you want something that gives good numbers on an AP analyser you should buy something else? Surely prospective buyers can look at specs, listen to the amp and decide if they think it's worth the money?
Most ASR reviews read like someone trying to convince a buyer of a classic car that based on specs they should buy a new Kia instead - surely that's missing the point. My expensive watches aren't more accurate than a cheap one either - I still bought them...
Most ASR reviews read like someone trying to convince a buyer of a classic car that based on specs they should buy a new Kia instead - surely that's missing the point. My expensive watches aren't more accurate than a cheap one either - I still bought them...
Now if you're a millionaire you should get speakers cause you have a big house to put them in ... The expensive headphones and hp amps market is reaching out to the middle class echelon that wanna feel like a milionaire in a 4/4 rented room from where they put out tweets and post youtube videos with their great "realizations" in the multibillion ftx crash crypto market.
I told people once and I repeat it: you can buy 50watts/8 ohms class AB amplifiers for 10...50 bucks anywhere .They'll be delivering 5 clean class A watts into 8 ohms speakers, while there's no headphone on the planet capable of using 3.5 watts without burning in flames.
A few years ago I talked about Neve RNHP, a 150 dollars product appreciated and recommended to me by a proven golden ear of the audio industry and there was an instant reply with a guy who rejected it...A year later a technical review put the RNHP amongst the best possible headphones amplifiers in terms of measured performance. I can't imagine the middle class aspiring to be billionaires over night to even touch a 150 bucks product ...They need a damn Ferrari in miniature to show off before their twich and youtube audience...How are you going to tell your online finance classes about your wealth if you can't buy a damn Ferrari ? You buy a Pass Labs and some Hifiman headphobes, put them on your desk and bragg about your mini-billionaire life in front of your 50 bucks usb camera...I know how 200 bucks worth of components headphones came to sell for 3000 bucks and it's all marketing making some very few people in the chain millionaires while the people working for them get less than 600...800 buck/month wages...I know how a headphones product worth of no more than 400 bucks got promoted to 31 000 bucks ...and it's always some people claiming immense costs for R&D when the reality is that less than 5 marketing and logistic people get 90% of the money and the guys who really did it get the rest...there are some japanese silvery cables for headphones that sell for 3000 bucks alone...If I weigh the silver in it it's probably 2 bucks of it, 2 more bucks getting into jacks ...A guy probably solder at least 50 of them per day and get less than 500..1000 bucks /month wages...
I told people once and I repeat it: you can buy 50watts/8 ohms class AB amplifiers for 10...50 bucks anywhere .They'll be delivering 5 clean class A watts into 8 ohms speakers, while there's no headphone on the planet capable of using 3.5 watts without burning in flames.
A few years ago I talked about Neve RNHP, a 150 dollars product appreciated and recommended to me by a proven golden ear of the audio industry and there was an instant reply with a guy who rejected it...A year later a technical review put the RNHP amongst the best possible headphones amplifiers in terms of measured performance. I can't imagine the middle class aspiring to be billionaires over night to even touch a 150 bucks product ...They need a damn Ferrari in miniature to show off before their twich and youtube audience...How are you going to tell your online finance classes about your wealth if you can't buy a damn Ferrari ? You buy a Pass Labs and some Hifiman headphobes, put them on your desk and bragg about your mini-billionaire life in front of your 50 bucks usb camera...I know how 200 bucks worth of components headphones came to sell for 3000 bucks and it's all marketing making some very few people in the chain millionaires while the people working for them get less than 600...800 buck/month wages...I know how a headphones product worth of no more than 400 bucks got promoted to 31 000 bucks ...and it's always some people claiming immense costs for R&D when the reality is that less than 5 marketing and logistic people get 90% of the money and the guys who really did it get the rest...there are some japanese silvery cables for headphones that sell for 3000 bucks alone...If I weigh the silver in it it's probably 2 bucks of it, 2 more bucks getting into jacks ...A guy probably solder at least 50 of them per day and get less than 500..1000 bucks /month wages...
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Don't want to comment the performance of something I've not heard. That headphone socket just looks completely out of place with the style of the face plate. As if all the design thought, time and money went elsewhere until the last minute. I mean, even the screws holding it into the chassis are visible, not chromed and are the only visible faceplate screws. Odd.
The drivers in Sennheiser hd650 used to cost 1 buck per driver as delivered from China.There are a few headphones manufacturers that were able to identify the manufacturer in China of those drivers, get to talk with them and put out different headphones names and designs for similar prices around 300 bucks...They all want to sell in the western countries, but the distributors get at least 1/3rd of the money and in order for your 5...30% of the dope to mean something you need to raise the final price accordingly.Well known reviewers wants a good chunk of the pie too...The final price is almost always at least 10 times the component's cost .You can't sell 3000 bucks headphones with 150 bucks amplifiers...it's " unethical " 
You think any cheap 50W amp can be biased to 0.5A? Seriously?
I leave the commie drivel for someone else to comment.
But that goes for ALL audio products, the BOM cost is at max 5% of the final retail. There's nothing unethical about it, it's making the sums to survive.The drivers in Sennheiser hd650 used to cost 1 buck per driver as delivered from China.There are a few headphones manufacturers that were able to identify the manufacturer in China of those drivers, get to talk with them and put out different headphones names and designs for similar prices around 300 bucks...They all want to sell in the western countries, but the distributors get at least 1/3rd of the money and in order for your 5...30% of the dope to mean something you need to raise the final price accordingly.Well known reviewers wants a good chunk of the pie too...The final price is almost always at least 10 times the component's cost .You can't sell 3000 bucks headphones with 150 bucks amplifiers...it's " unethical "
Even with that situation, audio manufacturers often go belly-up because they can't make ends meet.
For instance, dealers routinely get 40-50% of retail, but if you sell one $1000 product per day, can you then pay for a shop, a staff member, taxes and still have enough left to put food on the table for your family and pay the car installments?
Jan
The PS noise strikes me as odd.
For comparison:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/pass-labs-hpa-1-headphone-amplifier-measurements
For comparison:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/pass-labs-hpa-1-headphone-amplifier-measurements
50 watts/8 ohms use 20V signal. Class A idles at 50% the max output current. That's 0.125 A for 5 watts.
It seems Pass labs get his class A powers from somewhere...
https://www.passlabs.com/technical_article/leaving-class-a/
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No. this isn't a classic amplifier like a McIntosh MC-3500 or so, so you're analogy doesn't make sense here. It's a brand new offering which should be state of the art at that price. It should immaculate in it's construction, execution and bench performance. And it should sound superb of course.
Wrong. 0.125A idle current provides only 0.25W in 8ohms.
P = Imax * Imax * R / 4
Imax is twice the idle current, that is 0.25A.
So 0.25 * 0.25 * 8 / 2 = 0.25W
You're right , I used the wrong formula, need to drink some cofee, still 0.5Amps idle current gets you 8 watts /8 ohm...
Isn't 250mW class A amp that can go up to 50 watts class AB in 8 ohms enough for any headphones on the planet except electrostatics?
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... and the winner is, hands down, Benchmark HPA4, which is $375 cheaper than Pass HPA-1.
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