Emotiva A-100 as headphone amp.

[luckylion100]

I posted this on the main hi-fi forum but thought it may be of interest to some here.

This morning I received the Emotiva, early thoughts but tbh I've been blown away with the performance.

For the money build quality is impressive! I paid £254 delivered to the door and received it within 9 days (I think) 5 days ahead of schedule. If you're in the market for a decent headphone amp to drive any headphones and already own a desk top dac with rca outputs give this serious consideration. The headphone output easily matches my Oppo HA-1 but has so much more controlled power. Terms like clarity, control, agility and finesse sprung to mind as I was listening. Perhaps all cliched I know. Meaningless subjective phrases, exhausted adjectives when it comes to describing sound and yes done to death I know but f"ck me for the money it's incredible! Connection wise it's poor, single rca inputs and a rca loop out but this is about the sound. That's why you need an existing dac/preamp to be in place. For my set up, it's certainly not ideal. I knew I was going to encounter some issues, primarliy with my speakers and I have. Using the rca signal loop at the rear of the Emotiva fed from the Oppo rca outs the signal then goes to the MInidsp DDRC-24 and on to my speakers. My AVI DM10's need to be either switched off or muted via their remote prior to headphone listening or else they still play the received signal. I switch them off from the back to be safe, worried they'll suddenly receive an unexpected burst. The Oppo is set to full fixed volume output and the Emotiva controls main volume levels. With headphone use clearly the Emotiva has a lot more power and muscle in reserve than the Oppo. Real life, upper listening levels are likely to be much the same (I can only tolerate so much volume) but there's also the psychological aspect of only having to turn that volume dial x amount and feeling that there's so much more real power in hand. Emotiva provide jumpers in the box to bypass the circuit resistors so apparently you can feed the full 50 watts normally delivered to the speakers terminals to the headphone output and nuke your headphones unless extreme caution is taken. As far as I'm concerned no chance, I value my PM-2's way too much! I'm seriousy considering letting the HA-1 go now and perhaps replacing it with a Oppo Sonica to feed the Emotiva. Originally I wanted Balanced outputs for headphone use but now I'm struggling to see how much of an improvement this could actually offer. We'll see... other considerationa could be upgrading the Minidsp hardware as I'm feeling somewhat limited with the rca's and God forbid thinking about another change of speakers... it's never ending!

Upon switching the headphones between Oppo and the Emotiva (both will output simultansously) the latter is less warm and actually to me offers a better, more palatable sound. There is a clear and distinguishable difference in sound reproduction. I'm using Roon audio via usb to the Oppo's dac. As to what's the most accurate, no idea...

 

[dalethorn]

I posted this on the main hi-fi forum but thought it may be of interest to some here.

This morning I received the Emotiva, early thoughts but tbh I've been blown away with the performance.

For the money build quality is impressive! I paid £254 delivered to the door and received it within 9 days (I think) 5 days ahead of schedule. If you're in the market for a decent headphone amp to drive any headphones and already own a desk top dac with rca outputs give this serious consideration. The headphone output easily matches my Oppo HA-1 but has so much more controlled power. Terms like clarity, control, agility and finesse sprung to mind as I was listening. Perhaps all cliched I know. Meaningless subjective phrases, exhausted adjectives when it comes to describing sound and yes done to death I know but f"ck me for the money it's incredible! Connection wise it's poor, single rca inputs and a rca loop out but this is about the sound. That's why you need an existing dac/preamp to be in place. For my set up, it's certainly not ideal. I knew I was going to encounter some issues, primarliy with my speakers and I have. Using the rca signal loop at the rear of the Emotiva fed from the Oppo rca outs the signal then goes to the MInidsp DDRC-24 and on to my speakers. My AVI DM10's need to be either switched off or muted via their remote prior to headphone listening or else they still play the received signal. I switch them off from the back to be safe, worried they'll suddenly receive an unexpected burst. The Oppo is set to full fixed volume output and the Emotiva controls main volume levels. With headphone use clearly the Emotiva has a lot more power and muscle in reserve than the Oppo. Real life, upper listening levels are likely to be much the same (I can only tolerate so much volume) but there's also the psychological aspect of only having to turn that volume dial x amount and feeling that there's so much more real power in hand. Emotiva provide jumpers in the box to bypass the circuit resistors so apparently you can feed the full 50 watts normally delivered to the speakers terminals to the headphone output and nuke your headphones unless extreme caution is taken. As far as I'm concerned no chance, I value my PM-2's way too much! I'm seriousy considering letting the HA-1 go now and perhaps replacing it with a Oppo Sonica to feed the Emotiva. Originally I wanted Balanced outputs for headphone use but now I'm struggling to see how much of an improvement this could actually offer. We'll see... other considerationa could be upgrading the Minidsp hardware as I'm feeling somewhat limited with the rca's and God forbid thinking about another change of speakers... it's never ending!

Upon switching the headphones between Oppo and the Emotiva (both will output simultansously) the latter is less warm and actually to me offers a better, more palatable sound. There is a clear and distinguishable difference in sound reproduction. I'm using Roon audio via usb to the Oppo's dac. As to what's the most accurate, no idea...

An audiophile friend of mine from the Philippines has been into headphones for years. So on a lark, he got a receiver with power for speakers, and since it had a headphone jack, he used that jack. He started reporting on how much better the dynamics were, and how much more solid the bass was, with the receiver, compared to his headphone amps. I got the impression that it's not just the number of watts, but something the power amp does in damping factor. Sounds like you're getting a similar benefit.

 

[luckylion100]

in the past I've used poweful intergrated amps with a headphone out and they've sounded absolutely awful. I watched a youtube review of this amp and it was reviewed more from the aspect of its ability to drive headphones well, for example the HifiMan HE6. I'm not technically minded enough to understand the whys etc of why this intergrated sounds as good as it does but I'm absolutely astounded by the quality of this device for a silly asking price.

Last night I spent over 3 hours immersed in truly wonderful sound, different genres, music I thought I knew so well to be blown away time and again! For example I listened to a digital version of The Best of Faith No More, blew me away! I had to stop simply because my right ear began to get sore and needed a breather!

If I can sort my hi-fi chain out the Oppo HA-1 can go, it's headphone section doesn't compare to Emotiva, that's quite a statement! Instantly noticable is the bass, the impact, the tightness and total control, the Oppo sounds muddy and sluggish by comparison but the same can be said right across the frequency range, superb balance. The only reservation about letting the Oppo go is the fact that I use it as a dac and preamp too because of my use of active speakers and subs.

I can't recommend this product enough.

 

[muljao]

in the past I've used poweful intergrated amps with a headphone out and they've sounded absolutely awful. I watched a youtube review of this amp and it was reviewed more from the aspect of its ability to drive headphones well, for example the HifiMan HE6. I'm not technically minded enough to understand the whys etc of why this intergrated sounds as good as it does but I'm absolutely astounded by the quality of this device for a silly asking price.

Last night I spent over 3 hours immersed in truly wonderful sound, different genres, music I thought I knew so well to be blown away time and again! For example I listened to a digital version of The Best of Faith No More, blew me away! I had to stop simply because my right ear began to get sore and needed a breather!

If I can sort my hi-fi chain out the Oppo HA-1 can go, it's headphone section doesn't compare to Emotiva, that's quite a statement! Instantly noticable is the bass, the impact, the tightness and total control, the Oppo sounds muddy and sluggish by comparison but the same can be said right across the frequency range, superb balance. The only reservation about letting the Oppo go is the fact that I use it as a dac and preamp too because of my use of active speakers and subs.

I can't recommend this product enough.

If the oppo goes you can now pick up an irdac 2 for 299, its a well received dac, even if WHF talked more about the mojo in uts review. Glad you like the new toys