Liquid Crimson was fine with HD800 and my personal preference over LG. LG is more laid back. Greed owned an LG and HD800 (SAA mod which is like 5% of an Anax mod, but for $1200 more dollars.) Might want to ask him.

Get the best amp you can get and don't worry about balanced for not.

Great Balanced > Great SE >>> Merely Good Balanced > Merely Good SE >>> Mediocre Balanced >= Mediocre SE.

OK. More listening last night and this afternoon here. the HE-9 will go. I miss clarity and transparency and I can't get rid of this feeling that there's something synthetic in timbres.

So i'll eat my words one more time and i'll go to the BW+PSU route and i'll continue to save money for a DNA Stratus.   

Yup. I did not miss it either. One of the better solid states, and in some ways I preferred it to the Moon 430HA or Ragnarok. The drawbacks: One of the reasons is the colourations it has. One notch too warm for me and that bass while a lot of fun, is probably unrealistic. This affects transparency as it imposes too much of its character over the source. Hence it did not move me. The EC 2A3MK4 does. I've not heard the Stratus yet - here's an idea. Bring yours to CanJam London (if you get one by then)! I'll likely bring my EC.

Didn't Kingwa go for the more neutral colder side of things with the master series? I mean i'm still listening to a phoenix although i tweaked the bias by lowering it a bit below stock to make it a tiny bit darker and made sure all 4 amps are matched exactly. That last bit is very important IME. To give a bit of reference compared to my modded crack, i prefer the phoenix noticeably. It's just as smooth but tighter and more plankton.

Some changes i made to the crack are speedball upgrade, film oil output caps, 41 steps attenuator, russian military tube socket for the input tube, tubes used are GEC 6AS7G Brown base and various tungsram, GE and mullard input tubes.

But source is most important though, if you fuck that up the phoenix sounds bland and the crack is more enjoyable.

My setup right now is: MF V-link 192+squeezeupgrade usb psu>Violectric V800>Phoenix>120Ohm impedance adapter>HD800 without mods(this one doesn't have much of a 6k peak, 27k range on s/n). Cables are diy sommer cable.

It's very worthwhile you just have to contact them i guess so you know where the pots are and where to measure. Also knowing the default setting is a good starting point. I did have a look at their pics and i couldn't find the pots, perhaps they were obscured from view.

Maybe this one is auto bias? Or is that a tube only thing? If you do find the info though make sure the amp is fully warmed up before adjusting the bias. Also try using something non conductive to adjust the screws, not that it's needed but if you fuck up and drop your screwdriver it's not gonna be pleasant.