Nuprime HPA-9

Anyone interested in this amp?
http://www.nuprimeaudio.com/index.php/products/dacs-and-headphone-amps/headphone-amp/hpa-9.html

NUPRIME HPA-9

Said to use a unique type of power circuit that can drive almost any headphone despite its relatively low output ratings. I will have one soon and incase anyone is interested or wants a listen I don't mind sharing.

impressions below

Volume pot is very smooth and solid... And another amp better than the pulse infinity hp out.

 

@Kamikazi have you heard this amp?

 

Just bringing this thread back in case anyone else has had a chance to give this amp a listen.

 

Busy demo'ing the NuPrime DAC-10H as I'm typing this, it's on the way back to the dealer soon. Since NuPrime claims the HPA-9 shares it design traits this feedback might be relevant here.

The DAC-10H has quite a competent headphone amplifier on its own and does share many of the attributes with the HPA-9 that gbeast mentioned in the opening post, though I don't find it quite as spacious. I'm kind of surprised that the HPA-9 is a single ended design though. The balanced output is noticeably better on the DAC-10H so it's kind of confusing that the HPA-9 did not inherit the better parts of that implementation. The balanced headphone amp in the DAC-10H is definitely capable enough to be considered for a separate stand-alone product, but based on the single ended output alone, not so much. I also did not care for the ESS DAC, but using the DAC-10H as a preamp/headphone amp was very enjoyable with the Theta DSP Pro Gen III.

Looked as a whole the DAC-10H is only really worth considering on the basis of its strength as a DAC and that is the part of I did not care much for. It's got good bass (solid and well extended and articulated) and it's pretty neutral and the treble is also nicely extended and airy and generally non offensive (in Sabre terms), but does sometime does bite back with cringe worthy spikes (it doesn't like metal). Tone and timbre is a bit thin and artificial sounding and the staging is quite closed in focusing more on height than width, though this does balance out some of the shortcomings in the Hifiman HE-500. The preamp gain and volume control on the DAC-10H is also a definite advantage over most volume pots I've used in the past and gives very fine control. I did experience hiss with my sensitive Audio Technica IEMs even on the lowest gain which was disappointing, but then it is a high powered headphone amp. It drove the HE-500 with great aplomb and drive though, it's vastly better than the Violectric V100.

 

My post of this was very old and when I first got it compared to the hp out on the geek pulse inifinity. I will need to edit it. It is not that spacious but more so than the amp on the xfinity with better separation and body.

But overall and from memory:

• it lacks treble extension
• has solid bass
• has decent tone
• lacks micro dynamics
• has decent macro dynamics
• Priced fairly and pre-joti was competitive
• has good body and tonal weight.
• is somewhat musical but needs to be paired with the right headphones. I found it to do decent with low impedance dynamics but not with orthos
• I think I also preferred it to the liquid carbon but can't remember well enough.