Cayin iha6, burson soloist mk2, the liquid platinum, and arcam rhead, and more
1 Like
I really think the biggest difference is the mid range and spacial accuracy.
When I A/B’d the RNHP and SP200 after 2 weeks of using the RNHP exclusively, I was able to notice the differences more drastically. The SP200 projected the mids way wider than they should be, which made them feel rather distant and unnatural.
That width skews the sound and makes the treble sound rather forced and abrasive. The RNHP on the other hand recreates space in an authentic and natural way. Nothing sounds out of place and when scanning the width of the sound from right to left, there are no pockets of lost sound, unlike the SP200.
If you want a really good example of what I am saying, listen to a high quality live recording (Eric Clapton MTV Unplugged is a great one).
5 Likes
Have you tried it with Focal headphones yet? It’s supposed to be amazing for Focal from what I hear.
3 Likes
Almost any half decent amp will have a largely flat FR curve from 20-20KHz, it’s easy to do with almost any technology (opamps, JFets, MosFets, Valves). You have to get past FR curves define the way Amps and DAC’s sound.
When most people describe amps as warm it’s not because they have a tilted frequency response.
What seem to be a better indicators from a measurements stand point, it the nature of the noise (even vs odd harmonic, and the relative phase of that noise), along with the transient response, and possibly the phase error vs frequency response.
But outside lots of ringing bad, and odd harmonics nasty, even harmonics good, I really couldn’t predict the sound of an amp from those plots.
The issue when you see very low output impedances on amps is how they got there, it’s a desirable feature of an amp, but it’s often achieved using a lot of negative feedback, which in excess is generally not a good thing for the amps sound.
Though there are good sounding amps with relatively a lot of feedback.
4 Likes
Thanks Hazi and Polygon. Does this amp improve with burn in? I dont know if its the Arya or the RNHP but its sounding really good today lol
2 Likes
Probably the Arya
1 Like
That’s honestly a really good pairing. Probably both the headphones and the amp. I think the more you use the RNHP the more you get used to it and like its sound. That’s what people have told me who own it.
2 Likes
I’m going to guess that you are getting used to the sound of both the rnhp and Arya. Also I like to leave my rnhp on 24/7
4 Likes
Yeah i leave it on also. I got a 5 port 3.5mm splitter plugged into it. i got some powered speakers for video off my laptop, pair of koss kphi30’s for listening to laptop at night. two 6.35mm adapters plugged into it for burning in my arya’s and auteurs.
I hope you aren’t running more than one headphone at once while listening with them, it won’t sound that great imo
No, when i listen to music i plug in directly into the amp
Gotcha, just checking
In my less articulate moments I just call the RNHP’S signature “bouncy.”. 
3 Likes
The mellow boy octal interests me the most because it has a dial that changes the coloration of the sound between mellow and crispy as they define it
Interesting! I skipped that one as soon as I saw output impedance at 75.5 Ω. But I know this isn’t a black-and-white factor.
Can you put a picture of that in the funny picture thread?
2 Likes
I don’t think this is optimal for either listening, or the longevity of your equipment.
For burn in of the two headphones on splitter, wouldn’t it be better to use the other two amps in the picture?
Just my two cents.
2 Likes
Using a splitter (especially one with 5 ports) can affect frequency response and output level negatively. If it were me, I’d ditch that splitter asap.
1 Like
That may be fine for line level, but for headphones?
Unless you got a bunch of 600Ohms there, that configuration does not strike me as optimal.
3 Likes