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Headphone Amp for Focal Utopias?

Just bought a pair of Focal Utopia headphones and have been driving them through the headphone jack in my Cary SLP-05 preamp. I thought I would try out a dedicated headphone amp. I see decent deals on the Simaudio Moon 430 HA and Cayin HA-300, as well as a Pass HPA-1. Does anyone have recommendations on any of these? Would another work better with my setup? I thought about going all-Cary with the now-discontinued HH-1, but they’re hard to find...
tammanyman
willryg's avatar
willryg
2 posts
 
Quad makes some really fierce headphone amps that can sound great and they're reasonable prices too. Nothing like hifiman or t+a prices but definitely quality amps. Even not as bad as Focal's very own Arche at $2.4k, since you're driving Utopias. Check out the VA-One+, PA-One+, and the Venas. They're great headphone amps, the One+'s for tubes, and the Venas for solid state. T+A put out that HA200 recently and it is a serious little integrated headphone amp too. Costs ya a pretty penny tho.

Best of luck!
pastorbob's avatar
pastorbob
74 posts
 
I recommend the Linear Tube Audio Microzotl 2.
A terrific amp and fine people.
The price is stunningly reasonable, considering the quality of build and sound.
 
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,370 posts
 
I just bought the SE846CL   After reading the reviews I thought I'd try it out (coming Saturday)  I know its in the ear, but ......we'll see (hear)
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