Half an even better AMP-23R. It's the upshot of my attempt at Shakesparean fractricide. With the 23RM's functionality being exactly half of its dual-purpose elder; its price ~50% of $6'250… sonics held the same edge as the current output held over the RM's own voltage socket. Applying rudimentary math, this means that if we're headfi-only listeners or already have a speaker rig to which we want to bolt supreme headfi; the HPA-23RM really is today's ticket. On a Jazz Manouche outing with Edouard Pennes' Génération Django—Gipsy guitar, string ensemble, clarinet—the big amp was slightly sweeter yet not quite as electrifyingly direct. Whilst one could have the RM follow suit via its own voltage port, I shamelessly exploited its current-mode edge. This was high-level fussiness of percentile shavings like tasty but thin bonito flakes. Just so, if you fancy close-to-stage immediacy of rising edges and upper-harmonic content not yet diluted by reflective energies, the smaller amp puts you a virtual row or two closer. Mind 'virtual'. This subtle effect is textural then timbral in nature, not a matter of apparent seating position or stage perspective. On that score, no seats change, no distances alter. Feeling a bit closer or farther is purely down to whether sonic keenness and alacrity are a bit sharper or softer. What Enleum have done is eliminate the AMP-23R's speaker drive, downscale its headfi power for purpose but give us two flavors, shrink chassis size by a silly amount, add on-the-go pure battery mode, then halve the sticker. It all adds up with a bang.
When the time comes to change batteries because charging holds ever less energy, 8 easily accessible bolts are all it takes to gain access and do the swap.¹
If you're new to Enleum, what is that bhang? An ultra-res sound with class A juiciness but no 2nd-order octave-doubled cream. This tone is really like a distillate of a low-distortion 45 or Elrog ER50 power triode without bandwidth, noise or drive issues. That's the special Enleum weed. High-revving quick amps tend to go lean and perhaps overload transients with insufficient follow-up of bloom and sustain. As they clear out cobwebs, connective tissue fuzz and sparkle up the windows, they often strip away substance. Some refer to this substance as 'organic' or 'musical'. It's where Enleum's patented circuit differs. Its tuning is unapologetically racy not cozy but tone suffers naught. This is no bad dream of everybody walking down Main Street nekkid when none can pull it off. Here tone isn't denuded, haggard, pale, loose or fat. It's beautifully dressed harmonically and in full color and focus; just at no cost to quickness, incisiveness and immediacy. It's why Enleum's amps are personal faves; bar their limited power for speakers. For those and subs, I'm on Kinki monos and Goldmund's Job 225. Their general gestalt mirrors Enleum's but they put out 10 x more than 25wpc. Whilst the forthcoming AMP-54R promises 100 watts, a projected retail of ~$20'000 will place it well beyond my playground's bounds. For me then Enleum is still just for desktop or headfi use. But hand on heart, there it's as good as I've heard; not that pricing should demand any less. Instead "Superlative!" fits this bill to truly deliver. How then does the RM stack up to the very much never mobile Cen.Grand Silver Fox? To find out, a Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe fed that XLR, the Enleum RCA via matching Allnic cables to have both live simultaneously. For convenience I also bypassed both amps' attenuators by setting them to max² to instead use the DAC's remote-controlled analog volume which sits on a Muses chip with precision resistor ladder. It's exactly how I control our big speaker system as well.
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¹ When you remove the back plate, be sure to identify the bolt that sits right above the volume knob. It's marginally shorter than the others. If you put one of them in its place, you'll lock the knob and it won't budge.
² Actually, the Enleum's higher ampification factor meant that with the Cen.Grand at zero attenuation, its own control sat at 3'00" for the same SPL so less than fully open. Now I could freely swap Susvara's cable then trim the DAC's output from track to track whilst assuring instantly matched levels.
Considering how ~18 Enleum casings would seem to fit inside a Silver Fox—three layers of six to be precise—and how the latter's wattage rating absolutely crushes the little amp… the RM shocked by going louder yet qualitatively on the same elite level. The flavor difference between the two revisited the earlier voltage/current ports just pulled somewhat wider apart. The Silver Fox played the voltage role to be slightly more jovial hence more sweet, warm and mellow. Temperamentally it also was the more relaxed. Hey, by the time you're silvery but still foxy, you've shed some adolescent angular urgency; or should have if you rate your blood pressure. Where its disproportionate power rating got better than even was the low end. The Cen.Grand pummeled harder whilst doing that job just a bit bloomier than the tauter not quite as pugilistic Enleum. If we assign human body types and dispositions, call the HPA-23RM younger and fitter, the Silver Fox older and heavier; but A-listers both.
Local 4TB SSD USB3 library ⇒ iMac ⇒ Audirvana Studio ⇒ Singxer SU-6 ⇒ Cen.Grand DAC ⇒ RCA to HPA-23RM, XLR to Silver Fox ⇒ Susvara 6.3mm
The upshot. This impeccably styled hip flask of a headphone amp is a brute in a suit; a banger with a first-in-class Oxford education. It packs Suvara-level power with real sophistication and the kind of resolution owners of Chord and Mola-Mola DACs insist on. While you absolutely can take it for a walk, cans appropriate for that job don't usually need this level of turbo-charged muscle. So it's a bit of a pearls for swines thing. Of course if you already own the RM for a stationary gig, you'll have endless pearls to squander. That supply will never expire so why not gild the lily? I simply don't see much call to pursue this deck primarily or even exclusively for the M=mobile designation. That's more like an occasional chair. It'll get used here or there but isn't the main sofa.
Very deservedly, Enleum's AMP-23R as the Bakoon AMP-13R reborn celebrated endless victory laps through a broad swath of our specialist hifi press. By now its enthusiastic reviews and awards must exceed a dozen. It takes no crystal ball to predict a like future for the HPA-23RM. Sonically it's virtually the same amp. What's more, in my book it's actually still slightly better at the headfi gig whenever we tap its ¼" port. Besides being undeniably ultra-performance kit, the Enleum is also styled and finished like an unapologetic luxury product. Manufactured in South Korea not China, by a small boutique not 50+ strong team, this combination of looker and doer aspects thus demands a luxury tarrif at this level of execution. Yet there's no DAC inside. Neither can you use it as a bare-boned preamp. On the go it'll run out of power sooner than DAPs priced a fraction. It's a stubbornly specialized machine. Its entire raison d'être is to be the best, smallest and handsomest; at one and one thing only. Wherever miniaturization without performance dips plus sharp styling is the aim, engineering spasms. So do the accountants. There's no denying it. Soo In Chae's love of bonsai audio once again burns up some of our cashish in very pretty smoke rings. Compaction without sonic degradation is really hard work.
And there you have it, my take on Enleum's latest, greatest and much belated. It really is all of that!
Enleum comment: Thank you very much once again for your review on the HPA-23RM. We are happy and proud to start our first English review with such great and thorough words! The HPA-23RM project has been a great challenge and took at least six more months of R&D and costs to master and we've really gone beyond our initial design targets and goals. Despite size and price, we've put all our experience and knowledge into making a true reference product to represent our best possible dedicated headphone amp. There are new ideas and extremely complicated circuits and logics behind it and it's great to hear that the HPA-23RM delivers and meets such high expectations. We certainly hope that the HPA-23RM will follow the footsteps of our AMP-23R and that many will get to experience what we've accomplished for headphone listeners around the world. Best regards, Soo In
PS. There's a unique design in the output stage too as the voltage output Mosfets actually become drivers for the current output bipolar transistors. Everything works in harmony with efficiency!
