LD Systems HPA 6

My studio has been set up for years (since 1995) and recently I decided to extend it to about double the size. The headphone amp I used in the 'old' part of the studio while it never failed, it did have a number of issues like crackling from time to time. But for the new section of the studio I needed to look for a new unit.

The LD Systems HPA 6 I saw at Thomann and then took a closer look while scanning what brands were on offer. The HPA 6 stood out among the many brands in a number of ways as follows:

1. Two headphone outs (at the back) PER channel.. which I think will be very useful

2. There are 6 AUX mix inputs all in stereo which allows me to setup the unit in ways that I could only really dream of from the old amp.

3. Similar to other products but lower cost.

I also like the internal power supply as my rack has limited space to try and fit power supplies in. I liked the fact that it IS 120v and 230v switchable and while I won't use it in anything except 230v in the UK its nice to see that someone was bothered to offer that feature to customers. Commendable.

As I said inputs and outputs are what I expected and certainly better than my old aged unit of different brand. The muting on the front panel will prove to be useful too.

As far as sound goes I have only carried out a couple of quick tests but the sound is fine for what I expect and absolutely useable in the new wing of my studio. We all tend to like things loud in the studio where headphones and monitoring is concerned and this headphone amp did deliver on that for us. This one as I said is rack mounted in my studio and will be used for many different recording aspects including multitracking, podcasts and other stuff. I don't doubt its ability to work satisfactorily.

The unit feels good quality, but only time will tell but my old 'Samson' headphone amp worked since 1995! yes 25+ years. So I hope that this HPA 6 unit achieves such longevity but even if it lasted half that time that's a great achievement and I would not be disappointed by that at the price I paid.

Overall for the cost I have no complaints and if you are working to a budget as we are with the whole new extension costing big money and the additional equipment even more costs then it's very likely that the HPA 6 will probably operate as you might want it to and importantly fit the budget you might have.

Notice the similarity of the HPA 6 to the ART Headamp 6 and it seems to me to be the same device. I bought from Thomann because of the extended warranty... although who knows how easy that warranty might be to return the unit form the UK currently. The thing about Thomann is that they include taxes which makes them very competitive indeed when buying music gear of that there's no doubt.

In any case I can recommend the HPA 6 and Thomann as a supplier as well regarding this recent purchase.

This is an independent review and is completely genuine.

The LD HPA6 is not unlike the comparable ART or Samson or Behringer units (probably sourced from or manufactured by the same Chinese companies & plants) or the now discontinued excellent Alesis unit, but it has a somewhat better set of features, like the separate L/R earphone mute switches or the mono switch and actually informative level meters instead of poor sounding eq or weird "contour" controls etc.
The AUX input, for easy "more me" ego&performance enhancing headphone mixes is super useful, as is the presence of twin extra headphone outs for each channel on the back of the unit, meaning one can drive 3 sets of headphones from each of the 6 channels, for a total of 18 - and it actually CAN handle it, with no noticeable loss of level or power.
Sound quality is good and clean, but not spectacular (i.e. this is not a LittleLabs/R.Neve or SPL phones amp), build quality is good and clean although the pots seem a bit frail ... time will tell if they are rocker-proof!
Price/quality considered, it's a definite winner.