MAMORITAI Euphony HP Amp Review

[MAMORITAI Audio]

Voted not terrible.
I kinda like the look of it.
It will sound identical to every other transparent headphone amp out there providing you don’t impedance mismatch…which is one of it’s problems.
Another one is the low power; if you’re driving planars like DCAs og Hifimen and want to play around with EQ, you fairly quickly run out of steam.
I’m not a fan of headphone amps that hide away the gain settings either. While this certainly isn’t the most powerful thing on the market, I still suspect you’ll run into volume control difficulties if you plug in an easy to drive can such as the Aune AR5000 or the Beyerdynamic T1 3rd Gen.

This amp’s biggest problem however is it’s competition. I can think of a dozen much cheaper offerings that are way more powerful, have proper gain settings as well as being able to drive iems.
Then again I suspect this amp is more for folks over at Head-Fi where it’s shiny silvery surfaces will translate into something ‘highly detailed’ or perhaps ‘leaning a little bright’. People hear what they see over there.

At the exhibitions where we showcased Euphony, we paired it with the Sennheiser HD800S and HIFIMAN Susvara. Based on the feedback from audiophiles who listened, the combination delivered excellent results.

 

[MAMORITAI Audio]

Out of curiosity, what was the thought process behind giving the Euphony high output impedance/low damping factor?

The primary reason is that when designing Euphony, we positioned it for use with high-impedance, high-end over-the-ear headphones. Currently, there are even headphone amps in the market with output impedance below 1 ohm, which are better suited for low-impedance balanced armature IEMs, as these tend to have high sensitivity. We think Euphony is indeed not the best match for such earphones.

 

[Cbdb2]

When this
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/tanchjim-luna-portable-hp-amp-dac-review.58272/
performs just as well, includes a great DAC and is 1/10 the price ....

 

[fordiebianco]

Im always assured that east companies just need to hire west designer/consultant to understand what people want.

A lot of the times I feel that there is a lot of work put into the product but without real understanding...
We are different, culturally, and if you want to aim west market you have to.understand the differences.
Anyway I root for fosi.

Pretty much the most condescending comment of the day.

 

[Chr1]

There's a couple I'd class as racist tbh.
Fosi should be commended for their honesty and innovation. Don't think this is their best product from my perspective personally, but they are definitely a quality manufacturer with good value/bang for buck, and one to watch.
My 2c.

 

[dark132]

资深发烧友是没有用的，资深音乐家还差不多，就我所知，资深发烧友的专业音乐水准都不怎么样，中国企业想学瑞士，法国那种靠故事卖奢侈品的时代还早得很

独创性，权威性，专业性，品牌效应不是短短几年就可以积累的

希望fosi先做好产品再来考虑人傻钱多

Senior audiophiles are of no use, only senior musicians have reference value.
As far as I know, the professional music standards of senior audiophiles are not very good.
Chinese companies want to imitate Switzerland, and the French era of selling luxury goods based on stories is still early.
Originality, authority, professionalism, and brand effect cannot be accumulated in just a few years.

I hope fosi will make good products first and then think about how to make money from rich people.

 

[amirm]

Senior audiophiles are of no use, only senior musicians have reference value.

Musicians in general are not audiophiles, nor have any special hearing when it comes to music reproduction.

 

[supa]

At the asking price, gain switch should be placed externally. I will rate that as more important than the swappable badge.

Also, the op amp should be the best version that the designer has tested after taking in testers’ comment. If Mamoritai is to be a premium brand compared to Fosi, it is not good to include an average performing op amp and make it the owner’s work to find the best sounding op amp.

 

[restorer-john]

Here's the maximum Output power vs Load for the Euphony, based on Amir's measurements:
View attachment 404159

I've also tried my hand at predicting the Euphony's output impedance using Amir's data. Feedback is welcome!

Here's how I did it:

1. Trace a part of the Load impedance sweep graph in an area of linear behavior. This should show purely the impact of output impedance induced voltage drop:
   View attachment 404167
2. Do a trace fit and use the Predict function to estimate the output voltage under no load condition:
   View attachment 404171
3. Use the Predict function again to see at what load impedance the predicted no load output voltage is halved. That's the point where Load impedance=Output impedance:
   View attachment 404170

---> 11Ω Output Impedance

Good, but a whole lot of work. We don't need to do that.

Take the start of the plots. Pick the two extremes. Eyeballing, you get ~24mV @ 12R and ~48mV @ 600R.

600R for a headphone amplifier is essentially as close to unloaded as you will get. So we have lost about 50% of unloaded voltage with a 12R load. There's your output impedance at Amir's test frequency, (1kHz?).

Better still run two frequency response plots, one loaded and one unloaded and do a output impedance vs frequency plot.

 

[Robbo99999]

This is just too darn expensive for reasonable performance, so it's just not competitive - but yes you can't really say you have the same build quality from Topping, perhaps at least in terms of sheer weight of the case, but I think the higher end Topping stuff has decent metal cases too ableit maybe not aspiring to the same engineering quality of the case, but you could say this shiny metal case looks a bit garish, so some people might actually prefer the Toppings & units from other suppliers. It's just too expensive for it's measurements and the channel imbalance exacerbated by the inability to flip the gain easily, so I did vote it down in the poll, but I didn't think it deserved lowest marks.

 

[RoA]

Chrome/polished metal is a PITA for finger prints and dust. Lovely once the two mix.

 

[RoA]

Musicians in general are not audiophiles, nor have any special hearing when it comes to music reproduction.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5078501/

 

[sq225917]

Tldr, but the summary says nothing about accuracy or accuity testing. Maybe musicians just produce a larger EEG response to any music stimulus? You'd need a physical or verbal cue to back up the other two before jumping to conclusions.

 

[RoA]

Tldr, but the summary says nothing about accuracy or accuity testing. Maybe musicians just produce a larger EEG response to any music stimulus? You'd need a physical or verbal cue to back up the other two before jumping to conclusions.

Jumping to conclusions? It seems a pretty extensive if small sample take backed up with data. How much more objective do you want to go?

 

[Cadillacofminds]

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5078501/

I was ruminating for a few moments on what Amir stated when I came across it, I'm pretty curious what he knows on the topic. ...I got all this hearing loss centered at like 1000hz, and I've got no musical talent, I've been hoping that just listening to music and messing with equalization filters improves my hearing lol, the authors here come close I guess in citing a studies claiming music training helps the hearing impaired

 

[Billy Budapest]

What I don’t like is the brand using a Japanese name without any corporate ties to Japan. Although Atari did the same thing in the 1970’s, the circumstances were different.

 

[dark132]

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5078501/

Emphasizing audiophiles is definitely a marketing exercise

 

[Billy Budapest]

Chrome/polished metal is a PITA for finger prints and dust. Lovely once the two mix.

Not to mention oxidation and pitting.

 

[amirm]

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5078501/

Frequency dissemination is not a task we have for detection of fidelity impairments. Clearly the brain of a musician is trained differently and it does manifest itself in such skills. To help you, musicians also have 10 times higher ability to detect reflections in the room. Again, this is not a skill we need for fidelity testing. I don't know of any formal audio test group that uses musicians because they have any kind of critical listening skills for audio impairments. Nor have I found that to be the case in my own professional career.

Hearing impairments requires training and knowledge of impairments which neither the musicians or the typical audiophile has.

It would be great if this were not so and we could just hire musicians for audio testing. But is not the case whatsoever as evidenced by the musicians as a class not being audiophiles. As an example, my piano teacher uses a Bluetooth speaker to check his recordings.

 

[keith_h]

Has anyone here actually auditioned this unit? If not all comments are speculation only based on measurements and images.

To the design team, I would make the following comments: I applaud your ambition and have no doubt your team has what it takes to position a new product in a competitive market with the right balance of features and performance at the price point. Observations here are "its expensive" which suggests the bling factor might be over done, and "so shiny" in a not so flattering way - even though people are just looking at pictures and numbers. The tactile experience is also important, how does it feel to operate, what does it look like in person.

The FOSI design language has been very successful and I figure the polished CNC case will do the same for the new brand. Logo, the silver version is more discreet, looks better but I get that the gold logo carries meaning in certain markets. The distinctive appearance already sets it apart and has started a conversation - even though I expect no one here other than Amir has even touched one.

The build quality looks amazing, but the functionality headphone users desire should be available at the price point, specifically balanced and unbalanced and external switching.

For those concerned about maintaining the appearance of the case, it is entirely possible to coat polished aluminium to resist fingerprints, oxidation and such. Its been done on high end bicycle components for decades. I have some more than 40 years old that look like they were just made yesterday and I would be amazed if its not been done here as well. Maybe hold judgement on that aspect until you get to see for yourself.

I have seen the speed at which FOSI have incorporated product improvements and I have no doubt the same will happen here too, bearing in mind this unit is said to be a development mule.

To the design team, I wish you great success with the new brand.