CoolCat
Well-known member
revisiting a reference headphone amp,the GraceDesign m902.
retailed $1500 street many many years ago 2006 or 2008. but its 24/192 capable so....is age an issue?
its top choice headphone amp. its a DAC...with I/O. it can feed any headphones and the m902 can also feed your monitors (that my 901 didnt. )
I had the 901 which was the first design with Bob Ludwig name drop and others like Skywalker Studios ordered a bunch so everyone was using and hearing the same thing on big dollar projects etc...
m902 came out with 24/192 and 901 was 24/96k...etc.. future versions continue to come out with newer chips and things, remote controls etc..$2200 if you want...wild gear
The 901 and 902, headphone amp is noticeably better than cheaper stuff I had here aka laptop, and usb interface headphone amps.....but it wasnt glaringly better than my Headphone Rack Behringer and my Line6UX8 (which designed the interface for 250-300ohm headphones.) the m902 is no different and sound wise, as the 901, imo, it is still the "reference" pro piece.
my Line6UX8 headphone amp and Behringer multi headphone amp sound really good and was confirmed with the comparisons.
I had sold the 901 and bought the m902 mainly for better decoding and 24/192 ability (even though I cant hear a difference) and mostly for ability to plug my DynAudio BM5mkII into the Grace Design.
I have the SennHd280 closed 64ohm , Beyer 880 semi back 250ohm, Takstar 671 open back 125ohm for headphones...no 600 ohm yet. The Grace Design takes any headphone and plugging the active dyn's to it makes it a nice little desktop control box, of top grade build giving confidence "this is what pro stuff sounds like". aka Reference headphone amplifier.
off topic- this stuff always makes me wonder if Im really hearing anything better than 16/ 44.1k though, with my ears.....the oscilliscopes and jitter graphs etc see it, hmmm? 32bitvs24, 44 vs 96,192...etc..
Its a lot of money for me but having a top-grade Monitoring source for my headphones and active monitor speakers is cool. I admit every file I play I glance at the decoder led to see if its 44.1 or 88 or 192, or 96 as the unit auto detects the incoming. It also has the Crossfeed for Headphone Mixing built in (the 901 didnt have), so the headphone mix is simulated like listening to speakers "mono-ish" vs pure stereo left right ear which is fun too.
retailed $1500 street many many years ago 2006 or 2008. but its 24/192 capable so....is age an issue?
its top choice headphone amp. its a DAC...with I/O. it can feed any headphones and the m902 can also feed your monitors (that my 901 didnt. )
I had the 901 which was the first design with Bob Ludwig name drop and others like Skywalker Studios ordered a bunch so everyone was using and hearing the same thing on big dollar projects etc...
m902 came out with 24/192 and 901 was 24/96k...etc.. future versions continue to come out with newer chips and things, remote controls etc..$2200 if you want...wild gear
The 901 and 902, headphone amp is noticeably better than cheaper stuff I had here aka laptop, and usb interface headphone amps.....but it wasnt glaringly better than my Headphone Rack Behringer and my Line6UX8 (which designed the interface for 250-300ohm headphones.) the m902 is no different and sound wise, as the 901, imo, it is still the "reference" pro piece.
my Line6UX8 headphone amp and Behringer multi headphone amp sound really good and was confirmed with the comparisons.
I had sold the 901 and bought the m902 mainly for better decoding and 24/192 ability (even though I cant hear a difference) and mostly for ability to plug my DynAudio BM5mkII into the Grace Design.
I have the SennHd280 closed 64ohm , Beyer 880 semi back 250ohm, Takstar 671 open back 125ohm for headphones...no 600 ohm yet. The Grace Design takes any headphone and plugging the active dyn's to it makes it a nice little desktop control box, of top grade build giving confidence "this is what pro stuff sounds like". aka Reference headphone amplifier.
off topic- this stuff always makes me wonder if Im really hearing anything better than 16/ 44.1k though, with my ears.....the oscilliscopes and jitter graphs etc see it, hmmm? 32bitvs24, 44 vs 96,192...etc..
Its a lot of money for me but having a top-grade Monitoring source for my headphones and active monitor speakers is cool. I admit every file I play I glance at the decoder led to see if its 44.1 or 88 or 192, or 96 as the unit auto detects the incoming. It also has the Crossfeed for Headphone Mixing built in (the 901 didnt have), so the headphone mix is simulated like listening to speakers "mono-ish" vs pure stereo left right ear which is fun too.
