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RNHP Headphone Amp.
#1
I was in my local dealers having a chat to the owner when the subject of headphone amps came up.
He asked me whether I'd heard of Neve and I told him I knew of Neve mixing desks.  He went on to tell me that Rupert Neve has designed a headphone amp, which, by all accounts is a stunner and is only £469 and which he intends to stock. I'll be borrowing  one for a listen when he has some in.
More details can be found here: http://rupertneve.com/products/rnhp-head...amplifier/
Project Eperience X Pack with Ortofon Rondo Red MC, Oppo BDP 105D, 2 x Sonos Connect, QNAP HS251+ NAS with 2 X 6TB Western Digital Red, Mac 5K 32GB running Lifetime Roon, iPad Pro 12.9" for remote control.  Etalon Ethernet Isolator, Devialet 440 Pro CI, Sonus faber Olympica ll with Isoacoustics Gaia ll feet, Auralic Taurus Mkll headphone amp.Denon AH-D5000, Sennheiser HD600 and HD800 with Cardas cable,  Van Den Hul The First Ultimate and Crystal interconnects, Furutech power cables, GSP Audio Spatia speaker cable.
South Coast England
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#2
I did some research on Rupert Neve, watched a few interviews with him and thought the RNHP sounded like a good proposition and bought one.  I haven't a clue whether it's supposed to be run in, benefits from a warm up before use etc., although I have made an enquiry directly to Neve. Even after prolonged use the casing is stone cold. It runs on a cheap 24V wall wart and I can't help wondering whether it would benefit a decent linear supply to improve sound quality. 
Not that it sounds like it needs tweaks. I'm driving it from the pre-outs on my Conpanion, so that I have remote control of it. You need to crank  the Neve quite high, about 3 o'clock and let the Dev preamp do the rest.  
 It sounds wonderful: inky black silences, not a trace of noise. Deep powerful and well controlled bass. Crystalline highs with long reverberation tails. Bags of air and space.
Since there are no pictures of the internals online, I won't even bother to take the lid off, let alone photograph them, although interest does pique me, because I can't find any description of how it works online, and it's always nice to know what's going on under the hood! 
 One thing is for sure: I've never heard my HD800s sound this good. The 800s are a relatively high impedance load at 300 Ohms, yet when I plug my 25 Ohm Denons in, with all controls as they are the volume is the same. Does this give us any clues as to what makes it tick?
   
Project Eperience X Pack with Ortofon Rondo Red MC, Oppo BDP 105D, 2 x Sonos Connect, QNAP HS251+ NAS with 2 X 6TB Western Digital Red, Mac 5K 32GB running Lifetime Roon, iPad Pro 12.9" for remote control.  Etalon Ethernet Isolator, Devialet 440 Pro CI, Sonus faber Olympica ll with Isoacoustics Gaia ll feet, Auralic Taurus Mkll headphone amp.Denon AH-D5000, Sennheiser HD600 and HD800 with Cardas cable,  Van Den Hul The First Ultimate and Crystal interconnects, Furutech power cables, GSP Audio Spatia speaker cable.
South Coast England
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