Audiophilepure

I employ the Dan Clark Audio Stealth headphones for the focused portion of this review, and to provide a more worthy comparison, I forego using my $650 SGA-1 Soncoz Headphone Amplifier that, while an excellent value for the money, is a lighter-bodied pinot noir to the bolder HPA-1’s cabernet sauvignon. Hence, I enlist the services of the powerful, but discontinued Cypher Labs Prautes tube headphone amplifier with a rebuilt power supply.

I had been very impressed by the Prautes when I reviewed it in 2019, and Joe Jerzec, who was a reseller and lent me the review sample when he ran JAM’n Audio (he’s currently a partner at Purity Audio Design), lent it to me again. A veritable tank, only 50 units were made, retailing for $3900 (that would be $4714 in 2023 dollars, according to Amortization.org). One of its standout features is an impedance selector switch to accommodate various headphone and speaker impedances, as follows: 300 Ω, 100 Ω: Standard for many Studio headphones, 32 Ω: Standard consumer headphones, 8 Ω: Speakers or very low impedance headphones, and IEM: In-Ear-Headphones.

Now, the Stealth headphones have a 23 Ohm impedance and a sensitivity of roughly 86 – 87 dB/mW, so they’re not the most efficient headphones, meaning you have to crank up the volume on a headphone amp to hear them properly. 

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