I admiti havent watched the whole video, but this quote from your mimic-audio link in the description is not something I have ever seen in any audio product listing lol. "Because of the high price of the item, there is an option to have it delivered by M. Masuda at expense of travel and custom duties."
I once had a similar reaction hearing a custom tube preamp. Listened to it 12 hours straight, Canon in D finally made sense, felt like a religious experience, was asked by my friends if I was high and by that point I was but I wasn't for the first 2-3 hours.
@robertbuscarino5056 It was custom, made by Quebec hifi guru Marcel. I could look for the tube number. I don't know enough about tubes but I'd like to fix that.
If as you describe it, there is a massive (not subtle) change in sound between this Mass-Kobo solid-state amp compared to other good solid-state amps (with same or higher amount of power/watts), then in my opinion (imho!) inside this amp an analog exciter circuitry may be implemented. Do you know the "APHEX Aural Exciter 204"? This device generates or enhnaces harmonics which lead to a very exciting, very vivid, very colorful, very dynamic sound. If you put this between your source (e.g. DAC, preamp or whatever) and your power amp and set the controls to the optimum values, any amp's sound is leveled up to another exciting experience. After that you do not want to step back and switch off the Aural Exciter. Such a harmonics exciting analog circuitry could be impemented in the signal path of an amplifier. The question now is, if some of such nonlinear magics are implemented? It would be good to carry out spectral measurements of the input versus the output of the amp in order to check if the ratio of the overtones (harmonics) versus the fundamental wave is not changed by the amp. If it is changed, a kind of mentioned exciter (or enhnacer) circuitry must be inside the signal path.
If Mass-Kobo sold a DIY kit of this amp for a reasonable $4-5k, I'd be impressed. I'll settle on saving up for Tungsten on affordable monos & a tube preamp. If I want better there's always live music.
@@ZReviews No one but the richest can afford it Z. That's the point. It already looks like a DIY amp. It should have DIY pricing in the form of a kit. I can solder too. For 17 grand (25 here) I'd want some elaborate hand-carved wood case (which I can get for MUCH less from Geshelli/O'Neill's). It's the HE-1 problem all over again... Where is the affordable version without the marble case and motorized crap? It's just rich a$$h0les rubbing our noses in what the rest of us will never afford. I refuse to contribute to hyping overpriced, pretentious crap like this. I don't care how good it sounds. It's only worth it to those dumb & rich enough to buy it.
I love Z's enthusiasm, that's part of why we watch. But here's the thing. I don't believe it. I don't believe it sounds that much better, if at all, from all the other great amps out there. I would love to listen to it though, and do some a/b comparisons, primarily just to confirm that even if I heard it, I wouldn't be THAT impressed with it.
I must admit, I DO think you are what you refer to yourself as early on in your video however, you made me laugh as hard as I ever have whilst watching you or any other YTer, in my life! I guess Mr. Zeos, you prove the adage about "acquired tastes!"
It has to be class A to get that hot. I love my Mjolnir3 which is also class A. There might be something to ClassA-ness that makes headphones sound great.
My Focal Arche is probably the most beautiful sounding HP amp I own, also class-A. Just something liquid and velvety about it like it’s truly organic and makes other amps’ music sound like the musical notes are rapidly being turned on and off.
The founder was here in Hong Kong last month and brought that unit, at first I was interested to go have a listen. But I changed my mind on that day coz I told myself I’m never gonna afford it then why should I try it? Just like what you said in the video 😄
Just a serious question to any engineers or experts. If we already have almost perfect measurements from multiple headphone amps, with no discernable differences in sound between them. Could this be using some sort of DSP, or maybe something like Schiit is using in the HALO topology to color the sound?
@@ZReviews This kind of nonlinear effects which for instance a so-called "harmonics exciter" or "harmonics enhancer" (both are different by the way) can produce, do not need a DSP in the digital domain. There may be purely analog circuitry, no digital is needed. The "APHEX Aural Exciter 204" (as mentioned today in my comment above) is one of these audio effect machines or you can also find them as "Behringer Ultraflex Pro" or "Phonic T8200 Tube Optimizer", Phonic T8300 Tube Enhancer" etc. But the ones I listed are the budget/lowest-cost items for home studios. Professional recording studios also apply these kind of harmonics enhancers and exciters but often at a higher price. But with this kind of devices (or implanted circuitry) you can dramatically enhance the beauty of the sound. Not in the sense of puristic high-end freaks who long for an amp to represent the famous "amplified neutral wire" without any sound flavoring, but in the sense of making the sound more brillant in mids or high frequency, more sparkling, more colorful and less "grey" or boring, more bass pronounced, more dynamic. These effects are much stronger in making a sound more "beautiful" and "exciting" than a classic equalizer (EQ) which only manipulates the spectrum by linear filters (while exciters and enhancers use nonlinear filters). And it is quite easy to implement such a "harmonics exciter" analog circuitry as a pre-stage into an amplifier. If you succeed in hiding the details and the mircales by epoxy resin, no one can see what miracles, what secret circuitry is hidden. A cheaper option to get the same miraculous sound would be to put a studio exciter device in front of a normal amplifier, the price of such a combo would be maybe 30%. And you are able to adjust the strength and orientation of the exciter/enhancer effects to your taste. It would be interesting to measure the input spectrum and the output spectrum of the amp and compare them (e.g. by substracting the signlas from each other after power normalization/re-leveling) and see, if the amp was transparent or added harmonics/overtones to the spectrum. But maybe already only by looking at the spectra one could easily see if harmonics have been generated and added. It would be very interesting if the device was measured. Maybe Armin from AudioScienceReview will measure it one day. However, there are only very few of them flaoting aroud in the world. So, maybe impsoosible to get one measured.
@@ZReviews Such "sort of DSP" need not be in the digital domain but can be realized by simple analog circuitry. There is a lot of this applied in professional recording studies that do not only use digital DSP or software. It can easily be implemented in any amplifier and if no one has access to the inner electronic board of the "amp" because of epoxy resin coverage, some of that kind of analog circuitry may be present. But one can measure input and output spectra and if the output spectrum exhibits additional or enhanced harmonics (enhanced ratio of harmonics versus the fundamental tone) than the input, it is clear that some "exciter" effect must be in place. Then this would not be only an amp but an amp plus exciter which produces psychoacoustic WOW effects of sound clarity, brilliance and dynamics. There is nothing wrong with it, why not offering such a device as it sounds great. But for the buyer and hifi enthusiast it would be good to know what kind of device he buys. One could ask the builder/owner if anything of such kind of effect generation is implemented. Would be interesting if he would deny, affirm or keep silent.
@qauau vor 0 Sekunden That amp is no digital device and does not contain any DSP (as far as I know). However, such "sort of DSP" need not be in the digital domain but can be realized by simple analog circuitry. There is a lot of this applied in professional recording studios that do not only use digital DSP or software. It can easily be implemented in any amplifier and if no one has access to the inner electronic board of the "amp" because of epoxy resin coverage, some of that kind of analog circuitry may be present. But one can measure input and output spectra and if the output spectrum exhibits additional or enhanced harmonics (enhanced ratio of harmonics versus the fundamental tone) than the input, it is clear that some "exciter" effect must be in place. Then this would not be only an amp but an amp plus exciter which produces psychoacoustic WOW effects of sound clarity, brilliance and dynamics. There is nothing wrong with it, why not offering such a device as it sounds great. But for the buyer and hifi enthusiast it would be good to know what kind of device he buys. One could ask the builder/owner if anything of such kind of effect generation is implemented. Would be interesting if he would deny, affirm or keep silent.
@@ZReviews I think you can discard my previous messages which are not displayed here but you might have received them as emails (I don't know?) because they disappeared after I had posted them. So, maybe I made a mistake to reply directly to "@ZRe...." and RUclips interpretes this as a personal mail (PM) and not as a public message being visible to all. I don't know if I am right as I don't know the RUclips procedures. Or it was just a RUclips bug. So, I posted my reply now again, but directly as a reply to "tswfoutsider". That finally worked :-). So, my message did not disappear this time.
I've heard the 475, not the other two for more than a few seconds. There is a Mass Kobo house sound to a degree, but 465 ramps it up to 11. It's also a question of power, the smaller amps can't drive Susvara or Tungsten so as an owner of both I didn't spend much time on them.
The real question we need answered Z is: Do the other more affordable models like the 433 or little 475 have any of this "magic" or house sound? I went ahead and ordered the 433 but i cant compare to the 465
Got the 433, packaged and built well but first listen it has tons of background “noise” or “buzz”. Tried several headphones but I’ll give it 50hours to burn in and try again. Disappointing tho 😢
So I just heard this at Canjam NYC, along with Viva Egoista 845, and Riviera AIC10 Bal. I’m torn between them. Anyone have any suggestions which should I go with? Help me out here.
thinking of gettting this and hifiman susvara. do you think the fiio r9 is a good dac pairing this to amp? what dac do you recommend? i sit on my pc would love a dac that takes usb. thanks in advance
I’m curious did you plan on reviewing the aune ar 5000 headphone you had in the one video? No one is talking about it and seeing as how they make great amps and I plan on getting the s9c cuz I’ve only heard amazing things about it I was wondering how their first headphone would be. I’m guessing average and you prolly didn’t like it as I haven’t seen you mention it lol
@@ZReviews awwww shit bro! Is it really tho!? Haha don’t just tell me that you ole fuckin hype beast 😂. Can’t wait man, knowing aune I’m intrigued but being the first try I’m sketched
By the way bro just some recommendations on some amazing shows most people don’t know about. Erased and serial experiment lain, welcome to the nhs are fucking amazing anime’s. Go peep em
$17,000? I could always use an extra meal if you have cash to throw away. The looks remind me of 80s gear. So it sounds good, so what. At that price, it better, and it better come with free shipping with no custom fee. Shot, I forgot about the taxes. In Canada, after all the fees, we are looking at $25 thousands.
I'm confused. You were so anti spending so much money 8K USD headphone amp (HM1, which is btw of insane SQ) but this 15K USD headphone amp? Buy it!! ... I mean, $26,151 AUD total import price.
Cant wate for the review of this one. I. personally got the AIC10 for my reference desk but, need more time with this only spent 15 mins at the show with tungsten and sus and every mother fucker was yelling at the top of there voice so could not judge lol
That need to be compared a Dartzeel or DCS stack that chaps pushing it pricewise Currwong and Z need to tag team review this…the numbers are questionable proper teardown required!!!!
I think DCS stack is going to be cleaner.. But that isn't the point of this. THIS is to remove the need for tube amps to exist.. Let that stew in your brain for a bit. 0.1 THD should tell you what that does.. WILD SHIT
They don't compare, this is better. At CanJam we did that. Folks did it with everything. It's not a little better, it's a lot better. You notice it within 5 seconds that it's the best amp you've ever heard.
IDK how to feel about this. On the one hand, I know a lot of old japanese audio guys who spend decades trying to chase their own "ideal sound". When they find it and can reliably create it, they charge an insane amount for it because it cost them a significant portion of their life to get to that point. Granted. On the other hand there is nothing about this amp that should have taken someone decades to produce. I would honestly be surprised if the circuit itself costs more than about 150 to make.
I mean. You can tear one down to see what is inside. I believe its gonna be quite a bit more than $150 to put together. He apparently hand picks and tests every part.
It sounds better than everything else and it's not even close. This isn't an amp meant for everyone and he can charge whatever he wants for it. As Zeos said, you have to hear it to understand.
@@ZReviews I have tried writing a response a couple of times. Bottom line is this. I hope I am wrong. I was already planning on developing some open source tube amps towards the end of the year, and even though I haven't designed a SS amp in years, I will try to throw one in as well. Worst case, my comment looks stupid. Best case is you can have something equal to or better than this thing with little to no soldering for maybe 100 bucks ish. Also, don't let anyone fool you with the whole "hand test" nonsense. Any time you use Jfets, BJTs, and tubes (and even mosfets in some cases) need to be matched. There is just wayyyyy too much unit to unit variance not to. There are tricks to getting around the problem, but most reputable companies will hand match the parts. They rarely advertise it because it's just part of the job. Nelson Pass is famous for doing it in quantities in the 10s of thousands, which is ironic since I suspect this amp in question is derived from his work.
Hey man, if your look for another headphone amp to review- def dont miss the Nitsch x Schitt Pietus Maximus. I got it Wednesday and have been loving it! Idk if its good value, but a lot of audiophile people are comparing it to a $1300 amp by Schitt so, would be curious on your opinion to it :)
I get that you don't necessarily upload these vids in chronological order, Mr Z, but ffs the last vid I watched told me the Starkrimson monos were the best amps on earth..........
hey guys. im a new audiophile i have a few hundred hours maybe 1000 with beyer tiger 300R and Hifiman Edition XS combined which are the only two midfi/hifi headphones i own. I moved from tigers to Edition XS and now idk where to go from here. im not really interested in buying so many more midfi headphones i wanna get some HD 660s2 or whatever they are called i havnt kept up in awhile. and then whatever that one brand is that had the really good headphones that were a new version that are around 300-500 dollars. and then i think i want to go in to a couple 1000-3000 dollar headphones. ik i want the meze emperions 2s and umm something else i forgot alot of names
Ah yes, spending 17K dollars on an amp with a higher THD distortion than that of a hundred dollar amp. Is that the definition of insanity? it might be.
well that "HUM" is important when considering accurate audio reproduction. The only factors that matter in an amp are power and distortion.@@Peace_Guard
@@Xishnik94 You know that forums are full of people of ex-yours opinion who also had this ideology of yours, but changed opinion the first moment they had a chance to actually try a great well-implemented amp vs just basic amp with same power and distortion? And you know you can try things out in some audio shops fully for free, right?
@@Peace_Guard if you can tell me what these amps are doing other than distorting the signal and providing power please let me know and I will gladly check out some amps. If you can’t . Well… it’s pretty much the definition of insanity… buying audio gear because of no good reason at all.
I need this explained. How much better chan this sound vs a good but "normal" amp? i can't fathom even to imagine the difference that could justify this price. Can someone honestly and seriously explain to me?
Welcome to the dumbest hobby in the world. The snake oil goes down smooth. To answer your question, I can't fathom this being a reasonable value for any consumer.
Nobody can explain it. But once you hear it, you'll know. This is so much than everything else that it caught everyone by surprise. We didn't know this was possible. And it's better for everyone. I like an R2R into tubes, a friend likes ultra revealing and technical. Our tastes are very different, yet on the 465 we agree this is the best and can't explain why. It just is.
@@rogerhuston8287 Have you heard model 394 or 433 by any chance ? If so, would you say it's the Mass Kobo house sound that is too good, or instead it's just the 465 unit that is so unique ?
Oh I de-glaze several. And Recently. You just need to know how to look at the disappointments. Most aren't biblical meltdowns. Just slightly disappointing.
He says holo may sounds like any other 200 dollar DAC, so he can't hear much difference with things so for him to say this amp drastically makes everything sound different must be an understatement.
I have recently determined DACs can make a difference but mostly in very near field setups. THAT said.. The $1000 price ceiling is still holding strong.
i want to see whats under the hood lol....and a schematic lol....clone it!! but im sure someone in china already did that but hey its for personal use not resell right.
There are only 21 made so far and everything sits in a bath of epoxy so no one is taking it apart without destroying it. Also, Masuda-san says it can take 4 months to 2 years to source the parts if they are out of stock, so not so common.
true but with help from a good meter i could most likely find values of the parts and match them up..would be epically hard i assume however taking epoxy off can be done moderately safely but yeah worth it? maybe not. @@rogerhuston8287
Its an old brand frm nippon butt... Where we u??.. They even has portable.. n so on.. Butt2..ery free things that expensive U'll say that I know y ha3.. Butt2.. Peace!
You'll never miss what you've never heard 😮😢
Wise words..
I admiti havent watched the whole video, but this quote from your mimic-audio link in the description is not something I have ever seen in any audio product listing lol. "Because of the high price of the item, there is an option to have it delivered by M. Masuda at expense of travel and custom duties."
I've seen it but only in ultra high end world I'm talking like 50k tonearm
I once had a similar reaction hearing a custom tube preamp. Listened to it 12 hours straight, Canon in D finally made sense, felt like a religious experience, was asked by my friends if I was high and by that point I was but I wasn't for the first 2-3 hours.
What was the tube amp?
@robertbuscarino5056
It was custom, made by
Quebec hifi guru Marcel.
I could look for the tube number.
I don't know enough about
tubes but I'd like to fix that.
I love the physical design, looks like it was pulled out of the classic star trek Enterprise
I was thinking NASA-y around the moon time.
“Newborn babies are easier to carry; you can drop one of those things and they’ll heal… this will not heal”. Hahahahaha! Best line I’ve ever heard.
If as you describe it, there is a massive (not subtle) change in sound between this Mass-Kobo solid-state amp compared to other good solid-state amps (with same or higher amount of power/watts), then in my opinion (imho!) inside this amp an analog exciter circuitry may be implemented. Do you know the "APHEX Aural Exciter 204"? This device generates or enhnaces harmonics which lead to a very exciting, very vivid, very colorful, very dynamic sound. If you put this between your source (e.g. DAC, preamp or whatever) and your power amp and set the controls to the optimum values, any amp's sound is leveled up to another exciting experience. After that you do not want to step back and switch off the Aural Exciter.
Such a harmonics exciting analog circuitry could be impemented in the signal path of an amplifier.
The question now is, if some of such nonlinear magics are implemented?
It would be good to carry out spectral measurements of the input versus the output of the amp in order to check if the ratio of the overtones (harmonics) versus the fundamental wave is not changed by the amp. If it is changed, a kind of mentioned exciter (or enhnacer) circuitry must be inside the signal path.
Interesting
It needs Anime stickers or engraved Waifus on the casework to make it more bonkers.
If you meet the man and the WIFE.. they would approve
love your attitude Zeos! Keep it up buddy... insane product but I love it!
A bargain at 1/10 the price! Visual aesthetics are straight out of 1985.
If Mass-Kobo sold a DIY kit of this amp for a reasonable $4-5k, I'd be impressed. I'll settle on saving up for Tungsten on affordable monos & a tube preamp. If I want better there's always live music.
If he doesn't sweat and bleed in it there is a loss of 5,248 fidelities. Can you really afford that?
@@ZReviews No one but the richest can afford it Z. That's the point. It already looks like a DIY amp. It should have DIY pricing in the form of a kit. I can solder too. For 17 grand (25 here) I'd want some elaborate hand-carved wood case (which I can get for MUCH less from Geshelli/O'Neill's). It's the HE-1 problem all over again... Where is the affordable version without the marble case and motorized crap? It's just rich a$$h0les rubbing our noses in what the rest of us will never afford. I refuse to contribute to hyping overpriced, pretentious crap like this. I don't care how good it sounds. It's only worth it to those dumb & rich enough to buy it.
Scotty could beam me up with those buttons.....
When you have this much headphones on the table,then you know something there is very special driving them😢😮😅😊👍🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
Have you tried DACs that are designed for two channels like MSB or Lampizator? It might change your opinion about DACs on a headphone setup.
I love Z's enthusiasm, that's part of why we watch. But here's the thing. I don't believe it. I don't believe it sounds that much better, if at all, from all the other great amps out there. I would love to listen to it though, and do some a/b comparisons, primarily just to confirm that even if I heard it, I wouldn't be THAT impressed with it.
I so need this.
No headphone and shit, the fact that it's handmade gets me wet.
Bro when I finally counted the number of diamonds I thought to myself 'Masuda-san better deliver it himself.'
Then I clicked on the link........💀💀💀
Your description of this amp is like people listening to the Trafomatic head 2, i would love to see what you would think of it.
I just heard it at Canjam and I agree it's the best amplifier I have ever heard.
Ridiculous! I love it❤
I must admit, I DO think you are what you refer to yourself as early on in your video however, you made me laugh as hard as I ever have whilst watching you or any other YTer, in my life! I guess Mr. Zeos, you prove the adage about "acquired tastes!"
There is no sound of an amp, only if it is not well engineered, Like having high Noise and distortion, or nonlinear frequency response.
star wars electronic visual vibes ❤
It has to be class A to get that hot. I love my Mjolnir3 which is also class A. There might be something to ClassA-ness that makes headphones sound great.
ASR will tell you if an amp measures the same in SINAD regardless of class A or D, it will sound the same
No
@@RyuMasterEXand it’s true
My Focal Arche is probably the most beautiful sounding HP amp I own, also class-A. Just something liquid and velvety about it like it’s truly organic and makes other amps’ music sound like the musical notes are rapidly being turned on and off.
@@mikeg2491 this is the most audiophool BS I have heard. “Liquid” and “velvety”, what does that even mean?
The founder was here in Hong Kong last month and brought that unit, at first I was interested to go have a listen. But I changed my mind on that day coz I told myself I’m never gonna afford it then why should I try it? Just like what you said in the video 😄
17 💎’s.
damn I wish someone who makes reasonably priced amps would use those green push buttons. those are fly as hell
zeos constantly trying to convince himself he doesn't need one ...
but once experienced the need for such an item will never go.
Just a serious question to any engineers or experts. If we already have almost perfect measurements from multiple headphone amps, with no discernable differences in sound between them. Could this be using some sort of DSP, or maybe something like Schiit is using in the HALO topology to color the sound?
It is an all analog amp. And I am sure it doesn't measure perfect. which is why it sounds so good.
@@ZReviews This kind of nonlinear effects which for instance a so-called "harmonics exciter" or "harmonics enhancer" (both are different by the way) can produce, do not need a DSP in the digital domain. There may be purely analog circuitry, no digital is needed.
The "APHEX Aural Exciter 204" (as mentioned today in my comment above) is one of these audio effect machines or you can also find them as "Behringer Ultraflex Pro" or "Phonic T8200 Tube Optimizer", Phonic T8300 Tube Enhancer" etc. But the ones I listed are the budget/lowest-cost items for home studios. Professional recording studios also apply these kind of harmonics enhancers and exciters but often at a higher price.
But with this kind of devices (or implanted circuitry) you can dramatically enhance the beauty of the sound. Not in the sense of puristic high-end freaks who long for an amp to represent the famous "amplified neutral wire" without any sound flavoring, but in the sense of making the sound more brillant in mids or high frequency, more sparkling, more colorful and less "grey" or boring, more bass pronounced, more dynamic. These effects are much stronger in making a sound more "beautiful" and "exciting" than a classic equalizer (EQ) which only manipulates the spectrum by linear filters (while exciters and enhancers use nonlinear filters).
And it is quite easy to implement such a "harmonics exciter" analog circuitry as a pre-stage into an amplifier. If you succeed in hiding the details and the mircales by epoxy resin, no one can see what miracles, what secret circuitry is hidden.
A cheaper option to get the same miraculous sound would be to put a studio exciter device in front of a normal amplifier, the price of such a combo would be maybe 30%. And you are able to adjust the strength and orientation of the exciter/enhancer effects to your taste.
It would be interesting to measure the input spectrum and the output spectrum of the amp and compare them (e.g. by substracting the signlas from each other after power normalization/re-leveling) and see, if the amp was transparent or added harmonics/overtones to the spectrum. But maybe already only by looking at the spectra one could easily see if harmonics have been generated and added.
It would be very interesting if the device was measured. Maybe Armin from AudioScienceReview will measure it one day. However, there are only very few of them flaoting aroud in the world. So, maybe impsoosible to get one measured.
@@ZReviews Such "sort of DSP" need not be in the digital domain but can be realized by simple analog circuitry. There is a lot of this applied in professional recording studies that do not only use digital DSP or software. It can easily be implemented in any amplifier and if no one has access to the inner electronic board of the "amp" because of epoxy resin coverage, some of that kind of analog circuitry may be present. But one can measure input and output spectra and if the output spectrum exhibits additional or enhanced harmonics (enhanced ratio of harmonics versus the fundamental tone) than the input, it is clear that some "exciter" effect must be in place. Then this would not be only an amp but an amp plus exciter which produces psychoacoustic WOW effects of sound clarity, brilliance and dynamics. There is nothing wrong with it, why not offering such a device as it sounds great. But for the buyer and hifi enthusiast it would be good to know what kind of device he buys. One could ask the builder/owner if anything of such kind of effect generation is implemented. Would be interesting if he would deny, affirm or keep silent.
@qauau
vor 0 Sekunden
That amp is no digital device and does not contain any DSP (as far as I know). However, such "sort of DSP" need not be in the digital domain but can be realized by simple analog circuitry. There is a lot of this applied in professional recording studios that do not only use digital DSP or software. It can easily be implemented in any amplifier and if no one has access to the inner electronic board of the "amp" because of epoxy resin coverage, some of that kind of analog circuitry may be present. But one can measure input and output spectra and if the output spectrum exhibits additional or enhanced harmonics (enhanced ratio of harmonics versus the fundamental tone) than the input, it is clear that some "exciter" effect must be in place. Then this would not be only an amp but an amp plus exciter which produces psychoacoustic WOW effects of sound clarity, brilliance and dynamics. There is nothing wrong with it, why not offering such a device as it sounds great. But for the buyer and hifi enthusiast it would be good to know what kind of device he buys. One could ask the builder/owner if anything of such kind of effect generation is implemented. Would be interesting if he would deny, affirm or keep silent.
@@ZReviews I think you can discard my previous messages which are not displayed here but you might have received them as emails (I don't know?) because they disappeared after I had posted them. So, maybe I made a mistake to reply directly to "@ZRe...." and RUclips interpretes this as a personal mail (PM) and not as a public message being visible to all. I don't know if I am right as I don't know the RUclips procedures. Or it was just a RUclips bug. So, I posted my reply now again, but directly as a reply to "tswfoutsider". That finally worked :-). So, my message did not disappear this time.
I just about fell of my chair at 9:25
I'm glad they spent $1.40 on the design out of the $17k😅
I've heard the 475, not the other two for more than a few seconds. There is a Mass Kobo house sound to a degree, but 465 ramps it up to 11. It's also a question of power, the smaller amps can't drive Susvara or Tungsten so as an owner of both I didn't spend much time on them.
475 does make most IEMs sound better and cheaper than buying a top of the line DAP.
What makes Z so entertaining is things like when he refers to his cats as “YOU TWO PRICKS” hilarious!
you know its a big deal when the anime wallpaper is just of the old Japanese engineer who built the amp.
The real question we need answered Z is: Do the other more affordable models like the 433 or little 475 have any of this "magic" or house sound? I went ahead and ordered the 433 but i cant compare to the 465
Got the 433, packaged and built well but first listen it has tons of background “noise” or “buzz”. Tried several headphones but I’ll give it 50hours to burn in and try again. Disappointing tho 😢
@@sillysmack sorry to hear that. Interested to know if the noise goes away after some use.
can confirm noise floor has gone away completely from balanced output since burning in, yet to extensively test single-ended@@KXP70
@@KXP70noise went away, all good now
Z, Set up the V3 in bedroom with my LS3/5A's. holy-cr@p! The SOUND The POWER. Got my V3 the week it came out. Best, D.
“Don't get cheap on me, Dodgson. That was Hammond's mistake”
High gain adds brightness? Woah that's a deal breaker. So more glare and harshness on high gain? Damn. That's a no go.
So I just heard this at Canjam NYC, along with Viva Egoista 845, and Riviera AIC10 Bal. I’m torn between them. Anyone have any suggestions which should I go with? Help me out here.
You get this to avoid the tube game altogether.
I looked at it. It is made well. I know this is earth shattering
Looked at or LISTENED?
@@ZReviews looked not heard
thinking of gettting this and hifiman susvara. do you think the fiio r9 is a good dac pairing this to amp? what dac do you recommend? i sit on my pc would love a dac that takes usb. thanks in advance
Finally landed, after 6 month wait. 😎
It looks like the old Weiss stuff used to look.
So, how thick would a piece of his plexiglass need to be, at 60 feet by 10 feet, to withstand the pressure of 18,000 cubic feet of water?
That’s easy, 6 inches
Hello? Computer?
I'm Thinking he will eventually buy one.
Currently at 17K views, one for every dollar of the device itself :)
He's fucked us all :P
He did
I’m curious did you plan on reviewing the aune ar 5000 headphone you had in the one video? No one is talking about it and seeing as how they make great amps and I plan on getting the s9c cuz I’ve only heard amazing things about it I was wondering how their first headphone would be. I’m guessing average and you prolly didn’t like it as I haven’t seen you mention it lol
I do plan on it. Thing is a smooooth beast once broken in. More then most it seems to need that.
@@ZReviews awwww shit bro! Is it really tho!? Haha don’t just tell me that you ole fuckin hype beast 😂. Can’t wait man, knowing aune I’m intrigued but being the first try I’m sketched
By the way bro just some recommendations on some amazing shows most people don’t know about. Erased and serial experiment lain, welcome to the nhs are fucking amazing anime’s. Go peep em
Greatest waifu ever!
Did you try it with the Susvara?
It's a bit pricey, better only order two.
Did you see that Aune released a open back headphone
Japan has outlets that are compatible with US standard plugs.
In car terms you jumped from a Corolla to a koenigsegg
Only 1 word.....DAM!
$17,000? I could always use an extra meal if you have cash to throw away. The looks remind me of 80s gear. So it sounds good, so what. At that price, it better, and it better come with free shipping with no custom fee. Shot, I forgot about the taxes. In Canada, after all the fees, we are looking at $25 thousands.
Z, I stopped thinking there is better when I got my Jotunheim.
But the Carl ATHF shirt is amazing, and costs far less then this amp.
I'm confused. You were so anti spending so much money 8K USD headphone amp (HM1, which is btw of insane SQ) but this 15K USD headphone amp? Buy it!! ... I mean, $26,151 AUD total import price.
That's one eloquent fart in the wind
Slow Clap
Cant wate for the review of this one.
I. personally got the AIC10 for my reference desk but, need more time with this
only spent 15 mins at the show with tungsten and sus
and every mother fucker was yelling at the top of there voice so could not judge lol
That need to be compared a Dartzeel or DCS stack that chaps pushing it pricewise Currwong and Z need to tag team review this…the numbers are questionable proper teardown required!!!!
I think DCS stack is going to be cleaner.. But that isn't the point of this. THIS is to remove the need for tube amps to exist.. Let that stew in your brain for a bit. 0.1 THD should tell you what that does.. WILD SHIT
They don't compare, this is better. At CanJam we did that. Folks did it with everything. It's not a little better, it's a lot better. You notice it within 5 seconds that it's the best amp you've ever heard.
I could get Mark Levinson to custom build me an Amplifier for less.
But.... would it be as good?
What a beaut
IDK how to feel about this. On the one hand, I know a lot of old japanese audio guys who spend decades trying to chase their own "ideal sound". When they find it and can reliably create it, they charge an insane amount for it because it cost them a significant portion of their life to get to that point. Granted. On the other hand there is nothing about this amp that should have taken someone decades to produce. I would honestly be surprised if the circuit itself costs more than about 150 to make.
I mean. You can tear one down to see what is inside. I believe its gonna be quite a bit more than $150 to put together. He apparently hand picks and tests every part.
It sounds better than everything else and it's not even close. This isn't an amp meant for everyone and he can charge whatever he wants for it. As Zeos said, you have to hear it to understand.
@@ZReviews I have tried writing a response a couple of times. Bottom line is this. I hope I am wrong. I was already planning on developing some open source tube amps towards the end of the year, and even though I haven't designed a SS amp in years, I will try to throw one in as well. Worst case, my comment looks stupid. Best case is you can have something equal to or better than this thing with little to no soldering for maybe 100 bucks ish.
Also, don't let anyone fool you with the whole "hand test" nonsense. Any time you use Jfets, BJTs, and tubes (and even mosfets in some cases) need to be matched. There is just wayyyyy too much unit to unit variance not to. There are tricks to getting around the problem, but most reputable companies will hand match the parts. They rarely advertise it because it's just part of the job. Nelson Pass is famous for doing it in quantities in the 10s of thousands, which is ironic since I suspect this amp in question is derived from his work.
@@rogerhuston8287 Don't get me wrong. I am NOT doubting the sound quality whatsoever. I am questioning the price.
@@tristanjones7735 Not everything can be reduced to the sum of it's parts. Thetr are other factors that go into it. It's called supply and demand.
I dont need a 20k acoustic piano. I suck at piano anyway. Let me just enjoy the rest 36 years of my adult life.
Can you feed it with Hugo2?
Bro lists the Tungsten in the description like it's for sale 😂
Every week there are like.... 4? Then they are gone in like 150 seconds. I swear!
why didn't he just round the number off to 20?
Why not 25k? People are good for it.
Hey man, if your look for another headphone amp to review- def dont miss the Nitsch x Schitt Pietus Maximus. I got it Wednesday and have been loving it!
Idk if its good value, but a lot of audiophile people are comparing it to a $1300 amp by Schitt so, would be curious on your opinion to it :)
Z, Where are your DT880's?
Up on the shelf. I have harder / better things to test with now.
So I guess this is what I’m watching on my bus ride
this things in scam/snake oil territory
Did you demo it?
@@dzemoski45 Did you?
I did not, did you?
@@dzemoski45 nope
Hopefully it will be at NYC Canjam next month. See what the fuss is about.
I get that you don't necessarily upload these vids in chronological order, Mr Z, but ffs the last vid I watched told me the Starkrimson monos were the best amps on earth..........
Speakers Vs Headphones.. So two of the worlds best were in my house simultaneously.
@@ZReviews fair enough - I stand corrected.
cheaper than a used civic.
2023-24 used car market in a nutshell
is that a catgirl or a foxgirl? 🧐
HOW DO WE CHECK?
@@ZReviews You call an expert my friend. Is clearly a Foxgirl.
taste of sugar...it's why I've never tried Beats
wait what/
Is z getting one?
Don’t you feel like you want to sell all the stuff you have and buy this and a headphone and be done and happy? 😅
I quit watching after hearing the price. Sorry Z
I warned everyone with the Gemstones.
Chassis quality is a joke.
Its perfectly adequate. Which is never a joke.
@@ZReviews That thin sheet metal is "adequate"? Another joke.
@@betulaobscuraok, show us the amp you’ve built
@@WalksWithNoFear You have extremely low reading comprehension skills.
Best this best that. RUclips clickbait.🙁
I mean very rarely will everyone who hears it back me up.. So when you hear it. You come back and let me know.
better than HE-1?
I mean that is a System and a headphone. This isn't that.
@@ZReviews I guess I meant if paired with some great cans does it compete, like Empy 2 or Tungsten…
Hey zeos, it's a long way, from when you reviewed the dayton speakers huh? :)
I mean I wonder what 2015 zeos would have said if he heard it. I didn't have the knowledge-base to grasp it.
Z reviews bikini try on haul...just a thought.
hey guys. im a new audiophile i have a few hundred hours maybe 1000 with beyer tiger 300R and Hifiman Edition XS combined which are the only two midfi/hifi headphones i own. I moved from tigers to Edition XS and now idk where to go from here. im not really interested in buying so many more midfi headphones i wanna get some HD 660s2 or whatever they are called i havnt kept up in awhile. and then whatever that one brand is that had the really good headphones that were a new version that are around 300-500 dollars. and then i think i want to go in to a couple 1000-3000 dollar headphones. ik i want the meze emperions 2s and umm something else i forgot alot of names
Honestly, the 660s2 are pretty great. They go toe to toe with my ZMF Aeolus.
@@elasmojones the other headphones I was thinking of were the Harmonicdyne Zeus elites and the meze 109 pros
@elasmojones I have 725 dollars I'm 18 what should I do with it. I'm thinking 109 pros but idk what price they are last I knew they are 800 something
@elasmojones but I also have no Amp or dac lol I use my Edition XS out of my Playstation 5 controller 😅
Ah yes, spending 17K dollars on an amp with a higher THD distortion than that of a hundred dollar amp. Is that the definition of insanity? it might be.
That's like saying that spending a lot for a high class gaming laptop is insanity, because it has a louder hum that a 500$ basic one.
well that "HUM" is important when considering accurate audio reproduction. The only factors that matter in an amp are power and distortion.@@Peace_Guard
@@Xishnik94 You know that forums are full of people of ex-yours opinion who also had this ideology of yours, but changed opinion the first moment they had a chance to actually try a great well-implemented amp vs just basic amp with same power and distortion?
And you know you can try things out in some audio shops fully for free, right?
@@Peace_Guard if you can tell me what these amps are doing other than distorting the signal and providing power please let me know and I will gladly check out some amps. If you can’t . Well… it’s pretty much the definition of insanity… buying audio gear because of no good reason at all.
Next time put HEADPHONE in the title
I mean you get it pretty fast. I wouldn't do a speaker amp on the desk I'd do it in the arena.
I need this explained. How much better chan this sound vs a good but "normal" amp? i can't fathom even to imagine the difference that could justify this price. Can someone honestly and seriously explain to me?
Welcome to the dumbest hobby in the world. The snake oil goes down smooth.
To answer your question, I can't fathom this being a reasonable value for any consumer.
The price can only be that high if it's hand made and he makes 10 of these a year. But still, overpriced beyond belief.
A job for a live demo at a CanJam. That is all I can say. Bring your favorite IEM or cans and go nuts for 20 minutes.
Nobody can explain it. But once you hear it, you'll know. This is so much than everything else that it caught everyone by surprise. We didn't know this was possible. And it's better for everyone. I like an R2R into tubes, a friend likes ultra revealing and technical. Our tastes are very different, yet on the 465 we agree this is the best and can't explain why. It just is.
@@rogerhuston8287 Have you heard model 394 or 433 by any chance ? If so, would you say it's the Mass Kobo house sound that is too good, or instead it's just the 465 unit that is so unique ?
Lehmann Linear can compair to this hype amp 😘❤️
But real headphone amps don't get promoted 👎🤢
Why would anyone buy this?
Some people have cars that they don't drive. They just look at them. Those people.
I mean it COULD represent an end of a journey. Sell everything but a handful of headphones and this.
Exhausting to hear you glaze every single product, no matter how good they actually are
Oh I de-glaze several. And Recently. You just need to know how to look at the disappointments. Most aren't biblical meltdowns. Just slightly disappointing.
Z please what do you think about pairing SMSL SU 9 ULTRA and SMSL AO 200MK II. Thank you very much.
Sounds like a fine idea.
Did you just change your medication ?
He says holo may sounds like any other 200 dollar DAC, so he can't hear much difference with things so for him to say this amp drastically makes everything sound different must be an understatement.
Yep.. Upped the dosage.
I have recently determined DACs can make a difference but mostly in very near field setups. THAT said.. The $1000 price ceiling is still holding strong.
This is Fucking absurd.
Yes sir. First thing I did was look up the price. Then tapped out. I can't waste 38 minutes of ooohhhs and aaahhhs over snobbery.
Welcome.. To Jurassic Park.
@@ZReviews I suppose.
i want to see whats under the hood lol....and a schematic lol....clone it!! but im sure someone in china already did that but hey its for personal use not resell right.
There are only 21 made so far and everything sits in a bath of epoxy so no one is taking it apart without destroying it. Also, Masuda-san says it can take 4 months to 2 years to source the parts if they are out of stock, so not so common.
true but with help from a good meter i could most likely find values of the parts and match them up..would be epically hard i assume however taking epoxy off can be done moderately safely but yeah worth it? maybe not.
@@rogerhuston8287
@@rogerhuston8287 Sounds like it cannot be repaired if something goes wrong if it's been encased in epoxy.
Yeaaah nope.
Way (WAY) way too expensive Z.. are you feeling okay? Pungent smell of burnt toast perhaps?
Oh I concur.. Heavily. But the crowd I've been hanging with are BAD influences.
There is no way to justify the price of this amp...until you hear it.
Its an old brand frm nippon butt... Where we u??.. They even has portable.. n so on.. Butt2..ery free things that expensive U'll say that I know y ha3.. Butt2.. Peace!
Meh