That’s good to know, yeah, I really wasn’t sure which direction made more sense. If I’m being honest, I don’t really have a clear upgrade path in mind for either amps or headphones and I’m kind of just digging into my options right now. I could stick with what I already have and say VC/Utopia, but the truth is that I don’t know!
That’s good to know, personally I’d consider doing that first then see what you want. But if you also wanted consideration on what to do for the amp I’d say look into a Allnic HPA-3000 GT (not super wide but still wide and has a ton of depth and I’d say a bit exaggerated in that regard, pretty clean and neutral with still good tonal density, slight smoothness in the treble, technical but organic), Eddie Current (Studio B or Balancing Act for a bit of a warmer wider and more relaxed but still slightly dryer and technical pick, Aficionado or Studio Jr for something more cleanly and leaner with more forwardness and better extension and slightly better technical ability), Modwright Tryst (pretty no nonsense but a bit of sweetness and expressive dynamics, very technical without causing any issues) or a Viva Egoista 2A3 (if you didn’t mind a sweeter and more emotional but still capable signature that is wet but not too far).
Also shout out to the lta mz3 but I just worry it would be a bit to spatially compact in comparison, but otherwise would check the boxes very well imo so I’d consider that too
On the solid state side of things I’m not exactly sure there would be a good pick that would encompass what you are likely after in this price range
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Awesome, thank you so much! Yeah, it definitely sounds like I need to hear some higher-level headphones and setups to get a better picture of where I’m going next.
By the way, how are the single-ended outs on the Allnic HPA-3000 and the Eddie Currents? Do I need to go balanced to get the most out of those amps?
That’s what I would do, the above amps are in expectation of a utopia or verite although works well with others too, but depending on what you end up going after things could shift
For the allnic I’d try to use balanced if you can, for the eddie current it doesn’t matter much for the balancing act and studio be (only slightly better) but for the studio jr and aficionado balanced will be a bit more impactful imo
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There’s a Moon Neo 430 HAD tempting me…not sure how it’d do with current stable of LCD-24, HD600, R70x, and nighthawk. Only other headphones I’m slightly interested in ATM are Susvara, Gjallhorn, and maybe Clear MG. Could up the DAC running P6P into it too.
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@rgdelato As a fellow Quicksilver owner that happens to have a Verite Closed, I thought I’d chime in. Have you rolled any tubes in the QS? I’ve taken mine up a level just by upgrading the stock new production tubes to some quality vintage tubes.
I personally haven’t heard any more expensive tube amps, but it’s hard to imagine the QS as a bottleneck. I certainly don’t feel like my VC is being held back by the amp. I don’t have the level of experience of someone like @M0N, so maybe I am just blissfully ignorant of what the next tier of amplification could do for my VC’s.
That being said, I echo the opinion that it might be a better choice to make TOTL headphones your next purchase. I think the transducers always make the biggest impact on the sound, and your chain is already very high quality in its current configuration.
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Given his current cans I don’t think it’s a bottleneck, but it can become one with higher end cans, you might be surprised you can get a fair bit father with the vc as well even though that’s one of the more forgiving flagships (I’d also consider moving to the next tier of dac too, the vc would appreciate that as well if you wanted to up the dac first and kept the quicksilver)
Possibly lol, but I think for a verite you are in a pretty good place imo, but it can go higher
I’d agree, but there is a point where you hit the point where you can’t go farther on the transducer side of things, and at that point if you go high enough getting a new amp or dac can almost be like getting a new headphone, depends on your current one though. But in @rgdelato’s case I would suggest him to really explore higher end cans first, as he has a good foundation to try that out and move from there later on
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It’s kinda fun to hear that maybe the Quicksilver will carry me farther than I expected! (It’s also nice to hear from forum friends that the VC is a good pairing with the Quicksilver.)
I have Tungsram tubes in my Quicksilver. I definitely prefer them to stock, but I’ve only heard it stock and with the tubes I have now, so I can’t compare to other tube configurations.
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Hi everyone! I’ll be in the market for an amplifier for mainly an LSA HP 2 Ultra and i’m not sure about where to go for this. First of all, for Dac it will be paired with the Bifrost 2. In addition for some information i used to have the LSA and paired it with the ifi diablo and i absolutely LOOOVED the pairing, i felt like it really showcased the hyper detail, texture and layering that the HP 2 ultra is capable off. The HP 2 ultra ime is an extremely organic sounding headphones in terms of it’s timbre and texture and just plays very organic sounding instruments so accurately so i am looking for an amp that can really showcase all it’s strengths.
What i’m not sure about tho is whether i want an amp that just highlights those things or if i want an amp that focuses more on “fixing” some of the things of the lsa. Which imo are that the lsa can be a bit shouty depending on the recording and that’s really it. Besides that i have absoltely literally no issue with the headphone. Lower mids can be a bit lean but i wouldn’t call that a weakness for sure, i wouldn’t mind them getting a bit thicker tho.
So what im looking for, an amplifier that has the resolving abilities to showcase the HP 2 ultra’s abilities of great organic timbre across the range, awesome detail, wide soundstage and general organic sound. I also wouldn’t mind hearing options for amps that might make it less shouty so something that might be slightly warmer sounding in the higher frequencies without fully removing the beautiful treble that the LSA has or something that just thicken the lower mids a bit. Price range, im open to anything 1.5k and under. Portables is a huge plus but not a necessity.
Also i tend to side with warmer leaning source gear, my favs have been the Liquid Plat, Hiby R5,Asgard and if i could side with a slightly warmer amp thats still relatively netural that would prob be my pick
Would like to hear everone’s opinions on what might be worth checking out 
thanks!
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I don’t have the HP-2, so can’t say, but on the ‘portable’ front, I wonder if the WA-8 would be a decent pairing. It handles IEMs pretty well, so I don’t think the sensitivity of the HP-2 should be an issue. I don’t know that it’s as detail oriented as you’re looking for, though, but it could potentially fill in some of those lower mids you mention. I would mention the C9, but I’d be afraid you might get some noise floor there with how sensitive the HP-2 is.
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It almost feels like destiny, the WA-8 is something someone i know mentioned lol. Fells like i need to end up getting one. So how would you describe it? Also tho, isn’t it only a portable amp?
It’s only portable when you take it somewhere. 
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lololol sorry i should have chose my wording more properly, i meant isn’t it just as portable amp as opposed to portable amp/dac
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The wa8 has a dac built in, but it’s more meh and not on the same level as the amp, but serviceable enough to be used as a portable all in one, but if you have a dap with a nicer dac I’d advise using that instead of the internal imo
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How bout the dac on the hiby r6 2020 version? combined with the wa8. Or would the one in the wa8 be better anyways?
I think it might be around equal, but I’ve never tried that combo so I can’t say for sure
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gotcha gotcha, hmmmm very intersting
cough p6p
That’s an expensive cough.
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Others already covered that it’s got the DAC built in, and is decent, but yeah, not as good as the amp. I’d describe it as being pretty smooth and laid back, with good fullness of notes but softer on impact/slam, and has detail but it’s not pushed forward.