Review on Bellari HA540: Unleashing Pure Class A Power for Superior Stereo Headphone Amplification by Danielle Bates

First I have to ask the question: What other headphone amp can beat this amp for $189 or less? the condition of the younger brother (HA543) of this amp as well. I was hoping this amp would have the same qualities but with lower noise levels. Well overall it works and seems to have more power to run my banks. Like HA543, its character is flat as a pancake, straight forward but not restrained, unlike Liquid Spark. (It also doesn't beat the Monolith LS, which is an engineering marvel for the price.) That's undoubtedly why fans who like character enhancers (non-linear flavor enhancers) won't like this one. I also like character enhancers. Well sometimes. I listen to headphones for hours, and the signature amps get annoying and tiresome at the end. (Notably the bass accent, aka the fart factor, gives way to annoying "modern-sounding" notched mids.) I'm glad the Bellari HA540 isn't a signature "tube"-sounding amp. I have read some of the other reviews and unfortunately have to disagree with some of the criticisms. While this amp lacks obvious non-linearities, it doesn't detract from the program material. It produces amazing detail - so much that I can single out certain tricks the audio engineers used. Talk about realism. Maybe better? Of course, but this is a consumer market product that is mass-produced. And here's my summary: Pros: Well detailed (and it's not even broken in yet!); simple controls; Effective; rigidly built; good linearity without material depletion with overloaded global NFB; Cons: packaging could be better; strange arrangement of exits (rear); lack of differential inputs, like the HA543 (scratch your head over that); 90 degree power supply connector (why? It will only break the connector on the board); Initially, the price was higher, but slightly decreased. Ugly: nothing!