Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions
Showing 1 of 3 reviews about:
Jackula
1743
Apr 11, 2018
checkVerified Buyer
I wish there was an easier way to do this rather than copy & paste, here we go again...
I bought my Woo Audio WA6SE because at $1.2k it was the "bang of the buck" of flagship tube amplifiers, and talking with Jack Woo - founder of Woo Audio - the WA6SE is still considered the TOTL single-ended amplifier in the Woo range. Tube amps are popular due to their characteristic sound, particularly tubey distortion, expansive soundstage and poor bass definition. Why am I talking about my Woo when this is a review for the Heron5? Well, I've been looking for a solid state replacement for my Woo due to hassles with tubes. And I've found the one - Airist Audio Heron 5. My god this is a beautiful amplifier! It sounds almost as good as my much more expensive maxed out Woo (a $1.8k amplifier). I've read criticisms of the amplifier on SBAF so my plan was to flip it if I didn't like it. But after 8 hours of side-by-side comparisons, I hear none of those mentioned issues. My only guess is it's got something to do with the volume control problems from the initial production run, or simply a matter of poor synergy.
Volume control from the SBAF review:
search

Volume control in my unit:
search

Besides the volume control, the wiring is also slightly different to their review unit.
When I was looking for a solid state alternative to my WA6SE, there was one thing I could not compromise on, it was the expansive soundstage. The Heron5 certainly meets it in this regard, it has one of the most expansive soundstage of any SS amplifier I've heard. Compared to my Woo, the soundstage is even wider, however it isn't as deep, if I had to put a figure on that it'd be 30% flatter. It probably have something to do with the overly smooth treble, I'll go into this in more detail later on. To address the main concerns of this amp from various forums, mainly SBAF which for some reason is the only place where this amp doesn't get recommended:
Bass It's there, it's meaty and it's extended. It makes my Woo feel bass light! Also remember this amp is phase perfect which can have a lower perceived bass quantity, for example, amps with an average 45 degree phase distortion will mean approx 2.5ms of bass delay at 100hz, this delay can attenuate higher frequencies, making the bass sound more pronounced. As an experiment, I tried applying high amounts of bass gain; as expected, my Woo exhibited significant amounts of distortion while my Heron5 sounded effortless with no excessive distortion (provided it wasn't clipping).
Dynamics 130dB of dynamic range, what more do you want? Music have much blacker background and attacks hits fast and hits hard.
Smoothness My main criticism is although the macro-dynamics is great overall, micro-dynamics is slightly off in the upper octaves. I do like a smooth sound, however the Heron5 is even smoother than my Woo in the high frequencies making upper harmonics somewhat lacking in brilliance, but makes up for it with better transparency, resolution and timbre in the bass and lower mids. Some people might prefer the overly smooth treble, but coming from my Woo it will take time to get used to.
----------------
The main problem with the Heron5, IMO, is the build quality. I can confirm the volume control is absolutely a POS. It looks cheap and feels broken. There are two output jacks, one HIGH which is for better impedance matching and one LOW which is for lower damping, neither jacks are exactly centered. Reviews I've read suggests HIGH is for low impedance cans while LOW is for high impedance cans, but my experience is the opposite. When I first listened to the LOW output, the amp was a only slightly better than my WA6SE stock. But on the HIGH output, it easily outclasses stock and nears maxed quality! Maybe they've changed it, the amp has gone through a few improvement iterations.  My comparison rig, headphone jacks slightly off center:
search

The amp also comes with a high quality power cable. Although I can hear the difference between certain cables, I couldn't hear any difference between it and a standard IEC cable. ----------------
Some might also ask, what's the point of a flagship amplifier if it doesn't have balanced output? And my response is, at what cost? Balanced output increases production costs which, at the same price point, makes it actually worse overall than amps designed purely for single-ended output. Balanced amplifiers are worth it for the extreme high-end, where possible improvements upon a single-ended design has reached saturation point, they are very expensive.
Although it sounds amazing with my favorite headphone of all time (the HD650/6XX), I feel this amplifier was really made for my HD800, or headphones with similar peaky treble. The smooth treble really helps tame that annoying 5-6K peak.
Overall, this amp is probably around 80% of my maxed out WA6SE, the Woo is simply lusher and exhibit more pleasing harmonics. I feel the original price of $2K for this amp is a tad overpriced, however it would compete very well at the $1.5K mark. MD's best price of $599 USD is an absolute bargain, at this price bracket, it literally smashes everything else into sub-atomic particles!
search
My setup: Metrum Octave mk1.5 > Audiophilleo2 + PurePower > Heron5 > HD6XX.
My review of the HD6XX here: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-sennheiser-hd6xx/talk/2031233
ajheyl
27
Apr 27, 2018
bookmark_border
Jackulawhat did it sell for on this drop?
Apr 27, 2018
Jackula
1743
Apr 27, 2018
bookmark_border
ajheyl$599
Apr 27, 2018
ajheyl
27
Apr 27, 2018
bookmark_border
JackulaI can't believe I missed it!
Apr 27, 2018
Jackula
1743
Apr 27, 2018
bookmark_border
ajheylThey'll be back if enough people request it, I'm sure of it :)
Apr 27, 2018
Oakes
3
Dec 9, 2021
bookmark_border
JackulaHi, I bought an Airist Heron 5 in 2017 from MD but haven’t unboxed it till now. Before I set it up, does it require a separate DAC and if so which would you recommend for a desktop PC setup? Thanks in advance!
Dec 9, 2021
See More Reviews
Related Products