Wait did you pump one amp into another amp to combine their power and sound?
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There are 2 effects.
1st Qutest is very detailed but details are not pushed forward. Rebel amp volume knob will smooth out the details a up to a point where everything was just boring, with no texture, so I maxed out the RebelAmp and used Archel to control the volume, and I got a nice expansive sound with much more details being presented.
2nd The power went up. amplifiers need to be properly fed, and generally speaking a DAC will not drive them properly, even with the nice Qtest output stage. With Archel as a preamp no matter what song is playing Arya are now coherent with no fractures in the sound stage as it tends to happen when was running out of power, and HD600 have more definition around the sounds. Everyone say HD 600 have no sound stage, but I start to believe it just requires tons of power to really sound good.
I did not try it, but I believe that ADI-2 would be a better DAC for Rebel Amp then Qtest.
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Sorry this boggles my mind a little. The standard thing to do is just have a DAC connected to an amplifier going to a headphone. You sound like you think almost every rig should have a DAC and two amplifiers, one to act as a powered preamp.
Edit: now I’m itching to try feeding my RU6 directly into my RebelAmp and seeing what happens…
Some folks are using the RU6 with amps, I think they use the RU6 as the preamp.
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Nice. Clever solution! I used to not buy into the whole preamp thing. Until I got really curious and decided to try it, if even on a small scale, with my TA-20. Kinda blew my mind! Changed my mind, too. This is how I enjoy my speakers now. Enjoy.
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As I said DAC does not always power up sufficiently. With really powerful headphone amps, or when you do not drive power hungry headphones like Arya, you can get away without one, but in this case RebelAmp needs the best conditions to drive those current sucking vampire.
It is both a synergy and a power thing. If I use this with my WA-6E will not get any better, in fact the sound is a little worse so I am not sure how well will work with RU6 but it is free to try if you have it. Just make sure to plug your cheapest phones and never put them on until there is sound.
p.s.
Thanks to iFi I got a full blast out of their iDSD NEO in to BaseX A-100 maxed out and in to my DT 880. It was under 1 sec but it took 3 days to fully recover. If there were my HD600 or even worse my M40x I would have been in serious trouble.
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Well I am getting many hours in on this amp. It is very impressive. I would describe the sound as crisp, clean and clear. The bass is presented very nicely and usually what I expect with a warmer amp.
I compared it head to head with my iFi Pro iCAN amp, but that is not really a fairy test at triple the price. Even then I had to use tube mode and bass boost to edge ahead of the Rebel.
I initially compared it to the Violectric V220 and i strongly preferred the Rebel. The V220 is a warm amp with a soft sound. If you’re in the mood, it works wonders. But the Rebel just buries it in detail and punch.
I love the simplicity of the Rebel. I have decided to run it on medium gain today. Volume goes to about 9:30 with the iBasso SR2’s and 10:30-11:00 with the Grado GH2’s.
The Grado’s in particular are just loving this thing. A long ride with Kenny Wayne Shepherd was awesome. The drums were crystal clear and sounded very real. And of course Grado’s are awesome with guitars and vocals.
This amp is very special. For the price I got it for, it is a screaming deal! For the list price, it would be a tougher call. If you see one used, pick it up and try it out. You won’t lose much if you sell it on, but I think you will be surprised.
I will post more thoughts in a week or two.
My chain for today was BF2 to Rebel to Grado GH2’s/iBasso SR2’s. 
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Sorry for the necrobumb but I have a bit of trouble removing the knob from rebel amp, the screw seems to be really deep and channel to get to it is too narrow for my multi bit screwdriver to reach it; what screwdriver did you use to remove it?
Would recommend an imbus set or some T- Handle those should go deep enough 
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That worked, thanks!
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Using my Rebel with my newly purchased Neumann ndh 30. Nice pairing. Anyone else using this combo? The Neumann’s have the best tonal quality of all my headphones. Very impressed.
Fyi… Zeos testing out revised rebel amp that is using new op- amps. Wonder if he hears an improvement.
If I remember correctly he used the new version in his SJY Audio Moonlight review/first look. He said it sounded good in that combo. It was impressive as that headphone is hard to drive, so it will be interesting when that amp gets its own review.
The changes are on the input and drive side of the amp, power amp itself remains unchanged.
Rebelamp like most other class a amps provides distortion free power for most of it’s range and then it rapidly cliffs off into oblivion as you start approaching it’s maximum power output
This video explains how to calculate if your amp can drive specific phone, if you plug in the amp measurements along with phone spec you’ll know if the amp can drive them, nothing surprising there
I am just coming from the stand point of someone using a Burson Soloist 3XP driving a pair of SJY Audio Starry Night v1 headphones, and who is getting a pair of Moonlight headphones. The Moonlight headphones in the form that he used are 58 ohms with a sensitivity of 85db/mw. So for the $$$, yes it is impressive, lol.
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Kinda wish he let someone else test it out…
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