Eufonika H22S Review
January 21, 2026 § Leave a comment
https://www.headfonia.com/eufonika-h22s-review/
The H22S uses a 6080 power tube and a 6N8S input tube. The big advantage here is that these tubes are easily available everywhere, and they won’t break the bank if you stick to the “normal” tubes.
The 6080 is a tube that is very common in OTL headphone amp designs, and it can be replaced by a multitude of tube equivalents such as 6N5P, 6N13P and 6AS7 (+ all equivalents). Some of the more exotic and famous tubes here are the 5998 (Tung-Sol), 2399 (Chatham) or the Bendix 6080WB graphite plates which come in a whole lot of variations.
The H22S came delivered with a winged Svetlana 6N13P tube, which certainly isn’t a bad tube, though it also depends on the amplifier. It’s a perfectly fine tube to start a tube rolling journey with. An easy and affordable first switch can be a 6AS7G black plate from RCA, just to name one.
dCS Bartók APEX with Headphone Amplifier $24,100 Review
January 6, 2026 Comments Off on dCS Bartók APEX with Headphone Amplifier $24,100 Review
Hands down, the Bartók APEX is the finest sounding DAC I have ever listened to; in fact, it’s the finest sounding DAC/Headphone Amplifier I have heard. Are there better stand-alone amplifiers? Yes, the dCS Lina comes to mind for solid-state, and of course, if you want the tube sound, you would have to shop elsewhere anyway. Is it worth $24,100? Absolutely, if you want the state-of-the-art and have the pocketbook to afford it. You will get many more hours of pleasure out of it than you would spending the same amount on an upgrade to a higher-end luxury car.
In the long run, whatever shortcomings the Bartók APEX has are in the Mosaic Control software, which will, in all likelihood, improve as time passes.
Just a quick note on the Moon Audio Bronze Dragon Cables, they were definitely a welcome upgrade to Black Dragon Cables I was running previously, and the Bronze Dragon Headphone Cable was certainly a cut above the already high-end cable that the SUSVARA UNVEILED comes with, I should be doing a complete review of them in the near future.
Pass Labs Lowers HPA-1c Headphone Amplifier Review
January 5, 2026 Comments Off on Pass Labs Lowers HPA-1c Headphone Amplifier Review
I reached out to Wayne Colburn, advising him of my findings, and inquiring if the new changes implemented in the HPA-1C are to target the measured distortion and “noise” that Amir Majidimehr, an electrical engineer and former executive in digital media whose popular site, Audio Science Review (ASR) critiques audio equipment solely based on measurements—an approach which Schiit Audio partner and designer, Mike Moffat, said, “boil down to mosquito farts in the context of jet engines” in my 2021 interview with him (HERE).
“I know that for some audio aficionados, measurements are king,” I write. “As I recall, (Schiit Audio partner) Jason Stoddard mentioned a DAC in a YouTube video that measured better in an apparent nod to their demands. Is that the case with the HPA-1c? If I could have some clarification from Wayne Colburn on the noise the HPA-1c targets, as well as what methods he employs to ameliorate it, that would be helpful.”
Violectric HPA V324 Review
December 29, 2025 Comments Off on Violectric HPA V324 Review
https://www.headfonia.com/violectric-hpa-v324-review/
Now we get to the good stuff – the nice VU meters! They’re nice to look at as they dance in tune with the music, but they also serve an actual purpose. On the HPA V324 they measure the incoming signal. Some power amps have output power meters and many folks quickly realize that their amp is coasting at under 1W so the meters pretty much stay in place.
With the Violectric amp, we first need to adjust the input sensitivity of these meters. On the back panel, we see the DIP switches, which can reduce the input sensitivity of the meters. Your DAC tech spec should show how hot the output signal is. 4Vrms is roughly 15dBU, so flip the appropriate switch up to get an accurate measurement.
If you’re unsure, download a 0dB noise file, play it on Foobar2000, or some other player that bypasses the OS mixer and flip the switch so that the needle stays at roughly 0dBU.
The back panel also houses a couple of curiosities. There’s a tuning knob for the VU meter brightness as well as the inputs and outputs. Violectric is advertising that the HPA V324 is also a preamp, so we get outputs and a button which toggles the outputs between true attenuated preamp duty and loop-outs if you want to connect something else in a daisy-chain, like an integrated amp.
Feliks Audio Echo Vibe €999 Review
December 28, 2025 Comments Off on Feliks Audio Echo Vibe €999 Review
https://www.headfonia.com/feliks-audio-echo-vibe-review/
I’m a sucker for wood in audio electronics (blame Audeze for that), so the engraved side panels make my heart beat faster. In all honesty, I’d say that the Echo Vibe looks no worse than any of the more expensive Feliks Audio creations. The haptics of operating both the volume knob and the input selector are downright excellent.
Yes, the ON/OFF button is at the back, which sucks a smidge. Overall, high marks for the feel of the amp!
TOPPING A900 REVIEW
December 26, 2025 Comments Off on TOPPING A900 REVIEW
https://www.headfonia.com/topping-a900-review/
The midrange is unadulterated transparency. The A900 reproduces female vocals and acoustic instruments with stunning clarity but never tips into dryness. Even on abrasive material like Opeth or Igorrr, upper mids remain free of harshness. There’s an almost electrostatic sense of immediacy without the usual tradeoff of thinness.
Schiit Lyr+ Fusion Architecture Headphone Amp & Preamp Review
October 12, 2025 Comments Off on Schiit Lyr+ Fusion Architecture Headphone Amp & Preamp Review
As a solid-state amplifier, the Schiit Lyr+ Fusion Architecture Headphone Amp & Preamp is easily competitive with anything in its price range, truth is, there just aren’t that many discrete amplifiers under a thousand dollars; they almost all implement some chip-based op-amp or other. On the other hand, once you stick a tube in it, the Lyr+ knocks it out of the park. While it is not the most powerful amplifier in my arsenal (my reference amplifier puts out 35Watts per channel), it appears to have enough go juice to drive most any headphone to levels that will satisfy most listeners.
For a tube amplifier, the Lyr+ has an epically low noise floor, which means it can deliver reference-level detail and soundstage, the only limit being the headphone you choose to listen with. For those who are hung up on push-pull amplifiers (“balanced”), again, the Lyr+ has plenty of power to do the job, and retains the sonic advantages of single-ended amplification (a bridge amp requires two perfectly matched amplifiers, and no such devices truly exist, which means low-level details are lost).
So in conclusion, though I miss the versatility of the modular design of the Lyr3, the improvements in sound quality more than make up for that, and I believe the Lyr+ could easily stand as the end-point choice for most headphone enthusiasts.
Violectric HPA V324 $2,799
September 28, 2025 Comments Off on Violectric HPA V324 $2,799
Violectric’s high-end amp houses three front-mounted headphone outputs: balanced 4-pin Neutrik, 4.4mm Pentaconn and conventional 6.3mm. There are also balanced XLR and RCA single-ended inputs at the rear for connecting a DAC or analogue source, as well as XLR and RCA outputs if you want to hook up to an amplifier or active speakers.
While its primary function is as a headphone amplifier, the HPA V324 can be used as a preamplifier to connect to a power amp and a set of speakers as part of a larger hi-fi setup.
The HPA V324’s enclosure is constructed from black anodised aluminium complemented by a laser-engraved front panel, and there is also a set of VU meters displaying each channel’s input signal level
Audiophilepure 
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