That’s a good idea, I will get to that tonight
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Added honorable mentions, if there’s some missing that you might think should be on there, let me know and if I’ve heard it I’ll consider adding
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Thanks thats actually slightly in-depth, im sure others will also have diff 500ish favorites, anyway extremely solid list.
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Very short blurbs lol
Of course of course, I kinda just want to make sure I’m not missing something obvious that’s slipped my mind so I figured asking would be a good way to make sure
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I don’t know how well others rate the Gustard H16 but it’s one of the better ones available in the EU for under 500 - in fact under 400 now on Audiophonics. Warm leaning but reasonably well detailed and an enjoyably rich sound. Maybe worth an honourable?
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I’ve not heard that one, I’ll have to give it a listen when I get the chance to
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In my experience it’s around or slightly higher than the Gilmore Lite Mk2 but definitely below the studio trio. Same with SPL Phonitor One actually. So depending on the price I could personally see it in the honourable mention, but only if one can be had for lower than the studio trio.
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Well I ordered one to try cause why not, so I’ll have to find out lol. I’ll likely drop impressions here in a few weeks (or whenever it decides to get here)
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Nice. I vouched for it a few times lol hopefully it isn’t too bad. It should certainly sound a lot better than Topping/SMSL/THX stuff
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Awesome. Personally I find it to be much better in both sound and build quality than any of the SMSL/Topping offerings I’ve tried in this price range. Certainly in Europe it is one of the few decent amps under 500 that can be had without importing and paying well over the rrp after costs. It definitely isn’t as detailed and natural sounding as the RNHP but depending on the headphones or the music I can enjoy it more than the RNHP. I have it paired with a JNOG1 as I’ve found this works well for me. With a Soncoz LA-QXD1 it gained more warmth but I felt it was uncontrolled. Fun but not what I wanted. I look forward to hearing your opinion, Mon, as very few people seem to have bought it so other perspectives are hard to come by!
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A little north to the 500USD, wanna bring up Tor Audio Roger and Glow Audio One as I’ve heard good things about them but don’t know whether they deserve a mention.
Edit: have also seen Violectric V200 for under 500 bucks used from time to time
Oh yeah the roger, that is good, I like it, will give a mention. The glow audio one I’m less of a fan of, personally I think it’s lack of control and mushiness gets to me a bit too much to justify adding it, at least considering what else is there
How would you compare the Roger and Echo? I may slightly regret selling the Echo but I do remember the reason being it was a bit blunt to me in terms of dynamics. Might try the Roger instead this time if it’s slightly higher performing
I found that with some of the lower impedance headphones, was a bit less noticeable with some of the higher impedance, but its is more tuned that way to be more all around chill and dynamics took a hit there as well. I do think the tor might be more immediately macrodynamic but less microdynamic. Personally I don’t think the tor is an upgrade over the echo, you might really just want to take the next step into higher end tube amps to get a full, worthwhile upgrade
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@Gothique finally got my h16 in, so far it’s pretty good. Agreed it’s definitely better than any of the topping/smsl stuff I’ve tried. Nice neutral bit warmer signature that’s pretty inoffensive and capable. Overall good technical ability so far but nothing has jumped out at me yet so seems well balanced. Will have to get more time on it. Seems to respond to dacs reasonably well which I wasn’t expecting. Does sound better when using balanced for sure
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That fits with my experience of it. In general it performs well and is very well built for the price - especially as in the EU there are fewer lower cost options outside the usual Topping/SMSL suspects. For me, while not outstanding it is solid: “warmer, inoffensive and capable” seems spot on to me 
I think it’s a great option for a first amp for many people given the price - 372,08 € with tax on Audiophonics now. It seems to get discounted often as it seems as if the H16 never really sold in any quantities and I think shops want to get rid of their stock.
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Probably because they positioned it somewhat toward measured performance in advertising, and while it measures well it doesn’t get as high as other amps that have come out around the same time, so I figure those looking for measurements and not sound quality picked something that looked higher on paper, and then for those after sound quality it just ended up going under the radar
But yeah really can’t fault it for the money, plays nicely with what I’ve thrown on it so far, although I don’t really have many headphones that are made to be driven on this tier of amp anymore lol (so far used 600, 880, and briefly the 800s and t1.2, will grab something like the th900 mk2 or d8kp next)
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You poor thing! 
It plays very nicely with my ATH MSR7b which falls a bit short when I move to my RNHP. My HD660s sounds decent on the Gustard it but there is a very clear jump up when I move that onto the RNHP. For me it works best with sub 500 headphones, especially the single ended which is the weaker element.
I am curious to see how you feel it pairs with the 880!
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Lol, if I got this like a year earlier I would have had a lot more to demo on it, been purging things I don’t use as much lately
I’ve balanced my 880 600 (using jena hp 1222 cable) so it does perform better since it can take advantage of balanced, but I’d still pretty easily prefer something like a lake people g111 or some of the tube options at this price point (or even the neve but I would have to have a hotter signal going into it to get enough gain/headroom), but it still does a reasonable job. I have a feeling that some of the 500 ish buck planars would be nice on here, something like a edition xx or 5xx or sundara, or perhaps a lcd 2, although I can’t really try that
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Heard about this in the HFG forums, but it looks like the RNHP’s retail price has been increased to $700. It’s still in the price bracket of all these other amps (I feel like “$500-ish” really means “sub-$1k,” lol), but yeah, I thought I’d mention it here too.
I haven’t heard its direct competitors (Little Labs, G111), but I do like the RNHP quite a bit.
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