Cambridge 840A Headphone Out?

[hungrych]

I'm thinking about upgrading my headphone amp, and since I'm using my Nuforce Icon for headphones right now I might as well upgrade my speaker amp at the same time. I've heard good things about the 840A, but not much about its headphone amp. Anyone have any experience?

[Salt Peanuts]

Paging Dr. Posty, paging Dr. Posty...

FYI, you should be able to find decent deal on 840A since they've released 840A V2 recently.

[postjack]

After seeing this post, I decided to bring the Wheatfield into the speaker room and hook it up to the 840A's tape out to do a quick comparison. I used portions of a track from the Hoffman Bluesnik. All in all, the 840A's headphone out faired pretty well in comparison. The sound on the whole was a bit more aggressive then the Wheatie, which was much more subtle with the gentle horn sounds and piano notes. And maybe the 840A was a little honkey on the midrange sometimes, but I couldn't quite be sure if this was all in my head.

This was all quick minute or so long back and forth comparisons, no long term listening involved.

Haj is right, prices on these things are ridiculous right now. They're going on agon for $750 easy, making them an absurd steal. I paid $1175 for mine a year ago, even at that its a great price.

Still, I might eventually sell mine to upgrade to Quad separates.

[hungrych]

Cool, thanks posty. What headphones did you use? Also, how was the soundstage?

[postjack]

Cool, thanks posty. What headphones did you use? Also, how was the soundstage?

Ah, what headphones I used would be helpful wouldn't it.

HD650 with super elite nato cabo. I would say the soundstage on the Wheatie was better, but I'd rather go back and do some more listening with your question in mind before saying anything firm. About to crash now but tomorrow evening I'll try to do another comparison, maybe finally drag the 840C in there to make it a little easier.

[postjack]

Alright, finally took the plunge and moved the 840C and Squeezebox into the speaker room. I thought this meant I had dismantled my headphone rig, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed laying flat on my back all sprawled out listening to headphones with my eyes closed. Speakers rawk, but I haven't kicked this headphone itch yet.

Again the HD650, this time the test tracks were the first three songs on Genesis' A Trick of the Tail (Diament master). Also tonight the Wheatie was fully warmed up, a good half hour minimum I left it on before listening.

The Wheatie has much better control of the bass then the HD650. I didn't notice this last night, probably because A) my source material wasn't bass heavy (jazz) and I hadn't warmed up the Wheatie. Its neat how proper amplification does the bass right on the HD650. With the Wheatie, its in its right place, perfect, bam, everytime. With the 840A, sometimes the bass is to slow, or it comes on to fast! I would expect one or the other, but listening to it do both is funny.

I also heard an exacerbation of the midrange issues I was having. The midrange is indeed more aggressive with the 840A, and yes, the soundstage as a whole is an eence more closed in. Perhaps though what affects the soundstage more is the lack of richness in the individual notes. The word that kept coming to my head all tonight and last night while I was doing my comparison was subtle. The Wheatie's handling of individual musical notes is so much more subtle then the 840A's, and as such the sound is much richer and (of course) warmer.

I'm being highly critical of the 840A's headphone out here. It does fair pretty well, but the Wheatie obviously gives a more pleasant and enriching listening experience.

I think the best way to inject some truth back into audio reviewing is to start giving products a 50/50 shot, instead of rating them out of 5 or 10 or 100 or whatever. So despite it being pretty good, the 840A simply does not meet Head-Case's standards for a quality headphone amp.

[hungrych]

Hm, well even so it's probably better than the nuforce Icon, plus the remote seems really convenient. Right now it's between this or maybe a Leben.