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Product Description
From Arcam, a company long known for its class-leading integrated amplifiers, the rHead is a compact, solidly built headphone amplifier with a truly linear class-A design. This results in absolutely no crossover distortion, allowing the rHead to cleanly drive high-end—and often power-hungry—headphones and deliver pure, natural, and engaging sound Read More
Twice now I have bid to purchase this at the lowest drop price ($465 + $9 shipping, then $425 with free shipping), but both those drops were unsuccessful. Perhaps $399 with free shipping will garner enough buyers to make it happen. Considering this is $599 on Amazon, this is a pretty good deal. I would try again.
tessierpg
Apr 27, 2017
No gain control? Will it drive accurately a 18 ohm headphone as well as a 65 ohm one or a 300 ohm one? It is optimized with what headphone impedance?
nope, just the sound signature, output stays at (quite incredible) 6W. But it can change sound signature significantly. Many people say that Lyr is not that good, but just because they stayed with basic stock tubes. I have tried 4 other pairs (2x some soviet tubes from 60´s, Sylvania for 30$ a pair and EH 6922 Gold for 60$ a pair. Soviet ones were a bit too bassy, Sylvania too bright and EHs are perfect.
I'm on the fence here. Explain to me: why should I choose this over say, a schiit mjolnir 2 or jotunheim? The lack of a balanced 4pin xlr input is extremely disappointing. Where's the warranty information? Despite arcam's reputation and history, they're extremely overpriced imo.
Like chord, British made products are completely overpriced.
Schiit is well regarded in the audiophile community. They're certainly not overhyped imo. Schiit offers plenty of choices/price points which makes their products accessible to the budget oriented consumer. That certainly doesn't make them "overhyped". Anecdotal experience should never be the deciding factor for others. Have you demo'd schiits endgame stack? It's a far cry from their entry level stuff, mate. Also, there's no such thing as "mid-fi" or "summit-fi". You've coined those terms from too much head-fi lol...
And for the record, I don't own any schiit products. My endgame is an oppo ha-1.
schiitheadI agree their products are good, just not great or best performance at their price points. I'be own some of them and had extensive audition on the rest. I want them to do well as I like their design and p ice but unfortunately their relatively low price is reflective of their performance. I've not heard their flagship products so i shall not comment on those.
Again I'm not saying they are bad, just definitely not the best in the class at they are at. If you could find time to try them first hand, you'll most likely share my findings.
on the topic of this arcam amp, I'm very curious about it. On paper, it looks like a better amp than jotinheim. It has class A topology while jotinheim is not. Ive always find class A products to sound significantly superior.
You are not going to get steep discounts from Arcam. They know they are the very best in the industry and the best never has to compete on price. I have this amp mounted under a shelf that hold my headphones and an interconnect to my DAP. Someday I might consider a standalone DAC but the current combo is the most brilliant I've ever had. If you have a pair of hard-to-drive large diaphragm cans or three or four of them, they will like thIs amp. I use HD600s for live acoustic or small combo studio acoustic and classical recordings. Basically anything recorded direct to 2-track master. Several nice closed back cans for bigger music and amplified live or studio recordings.
They all love the Arcam headphone amp. It grabs large drivers with a grip and control only big horsepower can manage, but with all that punch in reserve, Arcam still manages to get this thing to sound as delicate as one of those underpowered SET amps the Klipschorn guys use
Love it, love it, love it. Worth 4 bills and change all day long if you're a music lover.
I don't know why you're so adamant at defending arcam. That really begs the question, why not just admit you're affiliated with them? Fact of the matter is, people on here think their prices are ridiculous when looking at other alternatives. The rHead says "designed in the UK". Alright, nice... What about where it was built? What about their warranty policy? There's a few reasons people aren't purchasing this.
1) Review sample size: there isn't a big enough sample.
2) Lots of plastic for a "premium product".
and finally, 3) Lack of inputs and low output power seems lackluster in comparison to the schiit jot.
People have a right to be skeptical, it's their money after all...
schiitheadI've the rHead here at home and it is not from massdrop (got mine for 250€ in EU and it work on 220v without issues)
1) Do you need hundred review if it just sound good?
2) It is full metal except the volume control know and it does not feel cheap at all
3) It have Left+Rigth 3pin XLR and RCA input
I'd say it sound clearer than the Burson fun, actually it not that it sound better, I find it clearer and more transparent. The Burson is "rounded" sound is likeable no issue there but it is colored.
It have no issues to drive any of my headphone I don't have to push the volume to max for any of them.
(HD600, 6xx, 598, 599, 558, DT990pro, koss950, planar HE-4xx, Monoprice M565, K7xx, Creative aurvana)
if i did not already have the Grace, i would jump on this. Amp only (no DAC) but balanced, so that is very nice. this is a very nice amp and well worth the money. Don't try to compare it to your O2, this is a completely different league...
No worries man, thanks for the reply. Your confusion mirrors mine: why have balanced inputs with two single ended outputs. I think maybe worth an email to ArCam - I'll report back :-)