Rupert Neve RNHP Headphone Amp Review

[H-713]

I don't think that RND was trying to compete with the rest of the headphone amplifier market. From what I can tell, there was a desire to have a decent headphone amplifier with balanced inputs- probably something they developed for testing in house, and this performance was deemed to be "more than good enough". For what it's intended for, it probably is.

They don't make any outrageous claims, and my suspicion is that they wanted a headphone amp that met their exact needs. The high price is likely more reflective of production quantities (or at least, intended production quantities) than anything.

 

[Spocko]

I don't think that RND was trying to compete with the rest of the headphone amplifier market. From what I can tell, there was a desire to have a decent headphone amplifier with balanced inputs- probably something they developed for testing in house, and this performance was deemed to be "more than good enough". For what it's intended for, it probably is.

They don't make any outrageous claims, and my suspicion is that they wanted a headphone amp that met their exact needs. The high price is likely more reflective of production quantities (or at least, intended production quantities) than anything.

If it's made in the USA, then much of that premium is obviously labor costs.

 

[tomchr]

Put it in a prettier box and charge more than double: https://fidelice.com/precision-headphone-amplifier

Tom

 

[Spocko]

Put it in a prettier box and charge more than double: https://fidelice.com/precision-headphone-amplifier
Tom

Sadly, the box isn't even that pretty - yes it has that 70's vintage aesthetic but so do bell-bottoms.

 

[xema]

My good old auralic Taurus mk II amp was said inspired by the Rupert Neve consoles and sounds great serving me well over the years. So I have had great hope on this performing good but sadly it’s just soso

I have(had) both, and I can say Auralic is Bullshiting about this. Neither the sound nor the measurement are similar.
At last, Taurus sounds dull and irritating(), however RNHP sounds a little bit warm, and very satisfing.
Taurus is even worse in the test result too. If I remember correctly , it's THDn is about -85db

 

[nhatlam96]

I have(had) both, and I can say Auralic is Bullshiting about this. Neither the sound nor the measurement are similar.
At last, Taurus sounds dull and irritating(), however RNHP sounds a little bit warm, and very satisfing.
Taurus is even worse in the test result too. If I remember correctly , it's THDn is about -85db

yeah 100%. rnhp sounds very warm and very organic with wide soundstage and life like vocals and instrumentals. its better than any thx amp out there. im not influenced or biased about the reputation, looks and price of the rnhp AT ALL

 

[xema]

yeah 100%. rnhp sounds very warm and very organic with wide soundstage and life like vocals and instrumentals. its better than any thx amp out there. im not influenced or biased about the reputation, looks and price of the rnhp AT ALL

Sounds like you are satirizing...what ever you are thinging about, RNHP is a really cheap amp, and it's better than many 1k to 5k $ amp to me.
Measurement is like a body examination report, you cant say a person with good 3 sizes is certainly a good dancer, but a person with very bad 3 sizes is more likely could not dance well.
And according to my experience of contrasting measurements and hearing results, THDn -100 is not bad at all.

 

[YSC]

I have(had) both, and I can say Auralic is Bullshiting about this. Neither the sound nor the measurement are similar.
At last, Taurus sounds dull and irritating(), however RNHP sounds a little bit warm, and very satisfing.
Taurus is even worse in the test result too. If I remember correctly , it's THDn is about -85db

Well I just can find this
https://www.google.com.hk/amp/s/hom...aurus-mkii-balanced-headphone-amp-review/amp/

and it seems the Taurus was at 108db or so performance. It’s spec is a lot more conservative though.

not trying to defend anything, but that what I mean soso is not only to it's SINAD, but also the power it's capable of, for most users if using IEMs an amp is not needed, and then for full size, low impedance headphones out there in the higher end of the market this will sure not be enough for being a general purpose headamp, it's great in the era 10 years ago when the major players are at 70-80db ballpark and with all sort of gimmicks but not something in recent years. hence my "soso" comment. I was tempted to get the RNHP when the taurus dies on me but then it seems the itch is gone.

P.S. for warm and smooth sound... personally I feel it's either some kind of sighted bias, or that it's transient/FR is broken so that it smooths out details which might be hard to the ears

 

[nhatlam96]

Sounds like you are satirizing...what ever you are thinging about, RNHP is a really cheap amp, and it's better than many 1k to 5k $ amp to me.
Measurement is like a body examination report, you cant say a person with good 3 sizes is certainly a good dancer, but a person with very bad 3 sizes is more likely could not dance well.
And according to my experience of contrasting measurements and hearing results, THDn -100 is not bad at all.

all solid state amps sound the same, the only difference is the power.
there is nothing like "this amp sounds warm or this amp sounds too bright" or whatever, thats pure nonsense.
people who say this are fooled by their audiophile golden ears or think too highly of themselves, overestimating their intelligence.
the only reasons you think they sound different, is because you did not volume match them, you are getting fooled by their looks or confirmation bias from those subjective audiofools.
learn to properly compare gear by starting to voltage match / volume match first.
I have compared rnhp, sp200, g103, g111 and vioectric v200 and they all sound the same.

here is a guide on voltage matching, which is the most essential thing in a comparison, if you dont do this, then you will hear sonic differences that are all imaginary in your brain.

 

[xema]

Well I just can find this
https://www.google.com.hk/amp/s/hom...aurus-mkii-balanced-headphone-amp-review/amp/

and it seems the Taurus was at 108db or so performance. It’s spec is a lot more conservative though.

not trying to defend anything, but that what I mean soso is not only to it's SINAD, but also the power it's capable of, for most users if using IEMs an amp is not needed, and then for full size, low impedance headphones out there in the higher end of the market this will sure not be enough for being a general purpose headamp, it's great in the era 10 years ago when the major players are at 70-80db ballpark and with all sort of gimmicks but not something in recent years. hence my "soso" comment. I was tempted to get the RNHP when the taurus dies on me but then it seems the itch is gone.

P.S. for warm and smooth sound... personally I feel it's either some kind of sighted bias, or that it's transient/FR is broken so that it smooths out details which might be hard to the ears

• Real sounds are not hard at all. Even the sound of a pile driver is smooth and vivid, it's loud and scary but does not contain any annoying burrs that bad equipment could brings.

And if I had any sighted bias, Tarus is more likely could be the beneficiary, because I bought it for the stylish front face....but finally find it's not sound good(even not as good as hilo's headphone amp).

 

[YSC]

• Real sounds are not hard at all. Even the sound of a pile driver is smooth and vivid, it's loud and scary but does not contain any annoying burrs that bad equipment could brings.

And if I had any sighted bias, Tarus is more likely could be the beneficiary, because I bought it for the stylish front face....but finally find it's not sound good(even not as good as hilo's headphone amp).

that is more than likely sighted bias or as others mentioned, volume matching issue, if only Taurus and the RNHP then yes, maybe the taurus you auditioned is broken or it's just that bad that the sound is significantly irritating, but you mentioned the RNHP is warm and smooth compared to even the THX amps, which both science and my personal experience can't find anything different from them when using a headphone both of them can handle with ease.

Sighted bias could be both ways, you might be seeing a nicer looking amp and think it must sound better and the worse looking one should be crap, so when you listen to the same thing in the better looking one and found it not different to the supposedly crap one it will becomes bad sounding. just as the old saying of view on a half full or half empty glass of water

I am not sure what the burrs you are mentioning, if that's some kind of pops or static noise it's likely there's some caps or circuitry inside being broken, even really crap amps like audio-gds will still sound mostly fine and similar to normal amps and not weird pops or so, those things comes from malfunction parts of the electronics and if that unit measured is likely to have some serious issue

 

[H-713]

I'm actually a little surprised that the RNHP measures as well as it does. Neve equipment is fairly notorious for being colored, but not necessarily in a bad way.

I'm also surprised that they dolled it up and sold it at a higher cost. Sounds to me like someone at RND realized the RNHP was selling infinitely better than they expected and thought they could take the marketing concept a step further.

I do have to give RND a huge amount of credit for being one of the few companies bold (crazy?) enough to build a real analog recording console these days.

 

[JoostE]

all solid state amps sound the same, the only difference is the power.
there is nothing like "this amp sounds warm or this amp sounds too bright" or whatever, thats pure nonsense.
people who say this are fooled by their audiophile golden ears or think too highly of themselves, overestimating their intelligence.
the only reasons you think they sound different, is because you did not volume match them, you are getting fooled by their looks or confirmation bias from those subjective audiofools.
learn to properly compare gear by starting to voltage match / volume match first.
I have compared rnhp, sp200, g103, g111 and vioectric v200 and they all sound the same.

here is a guide on voltage matching, which is the most essential thing in a comparison, if you dont do this, then you will hear sonic differences that are all imaginary in your brain.

I have a feeling you are missing the harmonic distortion here. All flat amps sound the same, but harmonic distortion does influence how an amp is experienced by the listener. If that is a good or a bad thing, is up to you. But an amp can be warm sounding for sure if it has 2nd order harmonic distortion (which this clearly has)

 

[solderdude]

One cannot hear -100dB 2nd harmonics.
There is something called masking.
So no tonal character from this amp when using high imp. headphones.
For low imp headphones thins change but 0.006% (-85dB) in 32 ohm (no idea about harmonic spread as is not documented)
It certainly won't impart a sonic signature, it would have to be in the >1% range for that.

Great for high impedance headphones, there are better options for low imp headphones.

 

[Ear-Wax]

I was left unimpressed with the RNHP's power output when I auditioned a pair of 2nd hand Focal Clear's with it last weekend. It seemed to struggle with the 55 Ohm load. I purchased the Clears and powered by my RME-ADI-2 DAC's built-in amp they sound as amazing as they are praised to be.

 

[Devian]

I want to tell you an interesting story.
3 mixing engineers(10+ years of mixing), two LCD-X headphones and Apogee Duet2.

3 amplifiers for AB:

Topping A90
Rupert Neve RNHP
SPL Phonitor One

The price range is $500-$600

Rupert Neve RNHP was an obvious winner. Warm, transparent, very comfortable for mixing. Coloration is OK for work. The instrument separation is fine. But it tighten the sound a little bit. Doing it more meaty like analog saturation do. It do the sound less sterile, brings some extra life and it's good in some way. You're not tired and always involved into the mixing process while doing EQ/Comp and PAN. LCD-X sounded wider with great instruments location also.

SPL Phonitor was so so. But the biggest disappointment is Topping A90. It has the best measurement on paper( according to audiosciencereview ).
The sound was disliked by everybody. Muddy bass, strange mids and highs, and very annoying dark coloration. It was clearly heared on LCD-X.

So, I do not believe in measurements after this AB testing. I'm selling my topping and getting RNHP. Another friend took RNHP after this test for his LCD-X.

 

[Jimster480]

I want to tell you an interesting story.
3 mixing engineers(10+ years of mixing), two LCD-X headphones and Apogee Duet2.

3 amplifiers for AB:

Topping A90
Rupert Neve RNHP
SPL Phonitor One

The price range is $500-$600

Rupert Neve RNHP was an obvious winner. Warm, transparent, very comfortable for mixing. Coloration is OK for work. The instrument separation is fine. But it tighten the sound a little bit. Doing it more meaty like analog saturation do. It do the sound less sterile, brings some extra life and it's good in some way. You're not tired and always involved into the mixing process while doing EQ/Comp and PAN. LCD-X sounded wider with great instruments location also.

SPL Phonitor was so so. But the biggest disappointment is Topping A90. It has the best measurement on paper( according to audiosciencereview ).
The sound was disliked by everybody. Muddy bass, strange mids and highs, and very annoying dark coloration. It was clearly heared on LCD-X.

So, I do not believe in measurements after this AB testing. I'm selling my topping and getting RNHP. Another friend took RNHP after this test for his LCD-X.

This just sounds like complete bullshit. I've tested many amps in the past and the measurements do align with the amps. This has to be a sighted bias. If you aren't doing abx testing like this then it's a waste of time.

 

[Devian]

This just sounds like complete bullshit. I've tested many amps in the past and the measurements do align with the amps. This has to be a sighted bias. If you aren't doing abx testing like this then it's a waste of time.

I bought topping a90 one year ago. I'm using motu 1248 as a source with good cables (Sommer Carbocab 225).
And I prefer to plug LCD-X into the motu1248 headphones jack instead of topping. That's a bullshit.
I plug LCD-X to the topping and hear a loss of details and colorisation. Motu sounds less punchy and less solid, but it's more neutral and preserve more details in sound.

 

[gvl]

There’s a RNHP clone on Aliexpress, would be interesting to see how it stacks up against the original.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004561808875.html

 

[Jimster480]

I bought topping a90 one year ago. I'm using motu 1248 as a source with good cables (Sommer Carbocab 225).
And I prefer to plug LCD-X into the motu1248 headphones jack instead of topping. That's a bullshit.
I plug LCD-X to the topping and hear a loss of details and colorisation. Motu sounds less punchy and less solid, but it's more neutral and preserve more details in sound.

Each headphone is different. Topping isn't supposed to be colored. If you like a colored sound then this is your preference.