Meier Audio CORDA PREHEAD-1

This is exactly along the lines of what i am after. Headphone amp/preamp combo. To form the basis of a quality headphone rig in the first place, with the flexibility of a pre amp for my other sources, and the option of adding a power amp and speakers in the future. Tasty . Anyone come acroos this bad boy, or have any other suggestions as to what might be suitable for Cookie. cheers.



http://home.t-online.de/home/meier-audio/prehead.htm


Paging PBIRKETT: Where did you buy your Corda mate - how do you get hold of these things. They are hard to track down.

cheers

 

You have to buy them from Meier Audio....

www.meier-audio.de

BTW, the Prehead is a wonderful device for the money, I was thinking about this myself the other day, flogging the Rotel and getting this and a power amp. And Jan Meier is a top bloke to deal with, his amps have a very high performance -> price ratio. The Corda HA-1 is supposed to be clearly better than the X-Cans, the HA-2 is on par with the Sugden Headmaster, if not better, for £200 less. The Pre-head is similar to the HA-2, but with extra driving ability and the pre-out...

If you page a dude called Tonyli4 on Hifi Choice mate, he has one...

 

I used to have a Sugden Headmaster (headphone amp/preamp with three inputs and remote volume control). About £599 new, I think, I've seen them ex-dem for £450-ish. Very nice piece of kit, and the casework is absolutely beautiful in the flesh.



-- Ian

 

Cheers PB.

This is the first thing i have come across which seems ideal for my purposes. And it appears to be very highly reviewed. Would still be a blind purchase though ultimatley.

Thanks for the heads up on Tonyli4, i may give him a shout. How long did it take from ordering to delivery for your Corda HA-1 incidentally?

If anyone has any other suggestions for Cookie, regarding something along the same lines as the above, it would be much appreciated. The Prehead-1 retails for EUR 940/$ 1035 btw, to give you an idea.

cheers

 

Don't know anything about the amps - but that CD (DG Originals 447 400-2, Carlos Keiber conducting the VPO in Beethoven's 5th and 7th symphonies) is fantastic !

 

Another thought. I snaffled a secondhand ATC CA2 from hififorsale.com for £375 last week. As well as being a full-featured preamp with 5 inputs, tape loop, and full remote control, I've discovered that the headphone output (on the back, unfortunately) is excellent, even driving Sennheiser HD600s, which are not an easy load. It sounds better than my Creek OBH21, to be honest. These are £750 new. An absolute bargain, it really is a seriously good preamp. About the size of a Classik (two thirds standard width), so reasonably compact as well.

http://www.locationhiend.com/atc/ca2.html

-- Ian

 

Thanks Ian - seen both of those offerings before, but never really looked into them as yet. £375 is an excellent price for the latter

Also come across these:

http://headamp.com/dynamic.shtml

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue5/headroommax.htm

Basically, any decent pre-amp (no requirement for phono stage) for the hub of a new system, but in most cases it is difficult to gauge its performance in the cans department, which would be the initial primary concern for me. The Carda, initially posted, as far as i can gauge thus far, seems to offer the best of both worlds, with all the flexibility whilst maintaining quality performance.

Does the Sugden have pre-outs btw? Are you using the ATC in the main rig now Ian - what did it replace?

cheers for all help.

I think it is going to be virtually impossible to try and demo any of this gear is it not?!

 

Yes, the Sugden has pre-outs (and a matching power amp).

The ATC is now being used to drive my active 10s. Not sure what to do with the EAR I was using. I'll probably keep it for now. Come over and have a listen any time you like, bring your headphones and some CDs and see what you think.

-- Ian

 

Cookie, you have hit the nail on the head as to why I have had so much headphone gear - because you are now discovering how hard it is to audition this gear. The Corda HA-1 was a blind purchase on my part, and despite it being very highly regarded, I was left disappointed because at best it was no better than my Rotel headphone jack, and at worst, I preferred the Rotel. This is a solid state solution that many would swear beats X-Cans, Creek etc. So to be honest, if my Rotel is as good as an HA-1 (which it was on all but one set of cans) then something like a Creek or X-Cans would have left me very disappointed, but on the plus side it does say a lot about the headphone jack on the Rotel. A mate of mine who used to work as a hifi dealer swears that Rotel stuff has got some of the best headphone circuitry of any integrated solution, but I am digressing here, the point is, yes it IS a risk.

The delivery time on the Corda was less than a week though mate.

From what I can gather of the performance of the amps you are considering, from what I've read, this is how I'd rate the performance of these amps: 1. Headroom Max, 2. Corda Prehead, 3. Sugden Headmaster. However, this is also the order of their price as it goes. The Headroom Max is an awesome headphone amp, but ultimately its probably only *slightly* better than the Prehead. However, if you are determined to go for Sennheiser HD600 / 650 then the Headroom Max may well be worth the extra for their supposed synergy. If you are looking more towards the likes of the Sony MDR-CD3000 or Beyer DT880, then the Prehead would be the best option IMO.

 

BTW, from what I've read, the DT880 and CD3000 are better than the HD600s, unless you get an aftermarket cable. I used to own the DT880 and it was clearly better to my ears than the HD580 given the right kit.

 

Dino, you can dem the Sugden at Walrus or O'Brien's (both in London).

-- Ian

 

Oh Lord, i think perhaps more than any other area of hifi, this is one (cans/amps) where the plagerised motto of one of our well known members is necessarily and best employed - 'He who dares wins' :cry: (A lot of this stuff seems to be in the States too)

Oh dear. Well there is no rush. But this is a serious enquiry, so all assistance welcome.

Another reason to come over Ian. We must arrange.

I don't know why, but for some irrational reason the Corda seems to be doing it for me at the moment But cans is also another grey area, with no certainties at present (my current stock needs 'upgrading'), so that doesn't provide a platform upon which to base a decision for choosing a pre-amp either. I am more inclined to purchase the right pre-amp, and then experiment with cans after.

Oh well, a change of topic slightly for the ZG'ers

 

I think Zerogain seriously needs a headphone and headphone amp bake off!!

E.A.R do a headphone amp - I bet that its awesome, but its not a pre I dont believe.

Cookie - you might want to post the question on 'headwise' too?

Chris

 

I shall post on headfi soon. Just thought i'd limber up in the relative tranquility and comfort of ZG first. Plus, you lot are the oracle when it comes to specialist pre-advice

 

well, you'll have to elaborate now chief .......as i have roughly outlined my plans....or at least the starting point.

.......................


What things have to be considered when matching a pre to a power btw. Do they all pretty much integrate ok, is it just to do with 'gain' - it's all new to me this stuff - i've been slumming it with an integrated . This is something i would have to bear in mind when purchasing a pre - i.e potentially, its future compatibility with a power. Once i buy this i don't wanna change it (yes you can quote that ).

cheers

 

I think WM's planning on modding whatever you've got before you even decide what it is. Or something. Just give him a slap.

In theory, virtually any pre should, within reason, work with virtually every power amp. Impedance matches can be an issue, as can gain - you'd be surprised how many expensive preamps have too much gain and poor pot response at the lower end of the volume scale, making it very hard to set the right listening level. From too quiet to deafeningly loud in a few tiny steps is far too common.

Matching pre and power to the same manufacturer doesn't guarantee better results, although it certainly does with the ATC combo I'm now using, mostly it's a case of trying stuff out until you find something you like. I've come to the conclusion that a preamp doesn't need to be expensive to be extremely good, and that remote volume control is harder to live without than I imagined.

-- Ian

 

On the subject of the Corda HA-1 I've not heard it (or any other headphone amp for that matter) but I was thinking of getting one at one point and checked out some reviews on the headphone forums and it seems like the HA-1 didn't get very good reviews (by the people on the forum).

Michael.

 

Maybe it isn't a significant enough upgrade over a stock headphone out of a reasonable integrated, hence why there may have been less than glowing reviews?? (I thought it was fairly well reviewed though - the Prehead is at any rate, as is the HA-2 as far as i can gather). Paul's experience with the HA-1 ilustrates this to some extent. I know from my experience that there is very little difference between the XCansV2 and the headphone socket of a NADC370. So if somebody was to buy this product soley on the basis of improving their existing stock headphone socket, they may be disappointed.

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Thanks for the 'pre' explanation Ian.

In a new set up, intend to have the 'stack' positioned in close proximity to the listening position. So hopefully that won't be an issue. But in a conventional arrangement i don't think i would want to live without a remote.

 

Well, my "normal" listening positioning is next to the gear as well. Problem is when I'm working (I do sometimes) and the phone rings. Mute is really handy at those times. If I'm playing a CD pause works, obviously, but no good if I'm playing a record or tuner...

-- Ian

 

A well placed kick would "mute" a record...

Michael.