Integrated Amps

I owned the latest Heaven 11 Billie MK2, just sent it off to TMR for consignment. Lots of reviews online, but some important points.

a) It’s buried on their website, but Heaven 11 says DON’T use the amp with high-sensitivity speakers (10+ ohms). I tried the amp with some Zu Audio speakers and found it fatiguing and not a good match. This was before the warning was added. A tube integrated was a much better match for those speakers

b) Volume control bug. This KILLS me. Even with the latest firmware, if you lower the volume, it momentarily gets louder before the volume decreases. With the older firmware and the latest, I would occasionally flinch when lowering the volume because it gets louder and it’s not what you’re expecting. This "little" issue alone kinda killed the amp and as a standalone preamp.

Lots of features, it’s beautiful. The owner (Itai) is very nice in emails. I had some issues with the headphone, so I don’t recommend it if you plan to use headphones. You can change the sound a bit with different tubes, but their Gold Tubes are quite good. It wasn’t bad with Buchardt S400, but it wasn’t my favorite amp/speaker combo I auditioned.

In the last 5 years I’ve been through a Yamaha A-S2100, Sugden A21SE, Pass Labs INT-25, Rogue Pharoah 2 and after it was all said and done I bought another Yamaha, a A-S2200.

@ivickery I think what speakers you were using would be very telling in your journey. Your profile is showing a completely different system. 

For the Music Fidelity owners, since the MF M6Si does not have an internal headphone amp, have any of you used the line level out to a separate headphone amp? I'm wondering if that would work.

@tkrtrb125 Current speakers are Revival Audio Atalante 5’s for the past year and a half or so, and before that were Cornwall IV’s.