Video: Auris - Headonia 300B Review
Client Name
Living Entertainment
Date
January 2025
Category
Video
Review by Nat Dobbie.
Most of you probably wouldn’t even realize that something at this price point even exists—specifically in head-fi alone. But for the few of you who do understand that there’s an ultra-premium side to head-fi, I want to introduce you to the Auris HA-300B tube headphone amplifier.
This isn’t Auris’s first HA-300—in fact, this is the second iteration. But what’s really special about this one is in the name: it uses 300B tubes.
Now, as you tube-heads know, 300B is well regarded as the king of tubes, smooth, liquid, powerful, and dynamic. Everything you really want from a tube, 300Bs typically bring that to the party.
This one here behind me outputs a full 5 watts of power, which is pretty much going to drive nearly anything on the market. So if you’ve got a difficult-to-drive set of cans, this is going to handle it no problem.
Now let me tell you a bit about the tech inside—or maybe the lack thereof, because this is an all-analog amplifier, after all.
The components inside are all of a high standard:
Japanese Alps potentiometers
Lundahl transformers
Mundorf capacitors
All the really top-tier gear from the best manufacturers, coming together to create a really refined recipe in this particular amplifier.
It’s got single-ended RCA inputs, obviously, but you also have fully balanced XLR connections as well. And for headphones, there’s a balanced XLR out on the front, along with a ¼-inch jack, so you’re pretty well covered, as you’d expect at this price point.
The front display is a high-quality OLED screen, particularly useful when going through the menu. You can adjust the brightness of the screen to suit your personal preferences. It also shows tube lifetime, ours, as we’re reading it now, has 248 hours on it. It’s really nice to see how many hours your tubes have run, you’re not left wondering, “Oh gosh, is it time to replace them or not?”
You also have the option to go into the pre-out settings. So if you’ve got a really nice power amp and you want to introduce tubes into the front end, you can use this for that. Basically, run all your sources in, and then balanced or single-ended out into your power amp, and you’re getting that 300B goodness.
If you haven’t invested in a preamp yet, but you also want a headphone amplifier, this is doing two-for-one duties, and that makes it a really good value proposition to get into 300Bs while also having both a traditional stereo system and a high-end head-fi experience. Definitely worth considering.
But really, what you probably want to know most of all is: how does it sound? And what are the features that make it pair nicely with a wide range of headphones?
As far as source components I used during critical listening:
I used the Auralic Aries streamer
Hooked up to the T+A DAC 200
A beautiful DAC, very clean and detailed. Sometimes I found that pairing could be a little forward. If you're someone who listens to a lot of audiophile recordings, it’s a wonderful combination. But if your music is a bit more grungy or not so well-recorded, there might be better pairings.
For example, I found that the PS Audio DirectStream DAC, hooked up to PS Audio’s own AirLens, was a bit more forgiving. It had a softer touch and performed really well across a variety of genres, from '70s and '80s rock to heavier music, pop, and more.
If I had to pick one area that really stood out, it would be acoustic vocals, piano, and guitar. That kind of music really shined. But I probably have a bit of a bias, as that’s the kind of music I personally resonate with anyway.
Headphones all come in different impedances, some easy to drive, some harder. The HA-300B behind me handles everything from 32 ohms to 600 ohms, with five different impedance settings. So it pretty much covers the entire gamut.
Now, as for the sound, how I described the 300B earlier is kind of how it sounds... with one key difference I noticed across all the headphones I listened to. From the Meze Elites, the Meze Empyreans, to the Abyss Diana MR, and the Austrian Audio Composer...
What really surprised me was the clarity, particularly in the midrange and vocals. It was like a window into the music, really transparent.
I suppose I expected some coloration or warmth, but it didn’t sound overly warm at all. It was really natural.
Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, since tube amps are often great with midrange, but normally they don’t have that “window-like” transparency. This felt like the best of both worlds: the detail of solid state combined with the soul of tubes.
Bass was tight and accurate. Highs were extended, never harsh, but certainly present.
If you want an endgame headphone amplifier, or even a desktop amp (though, let’s be honest, this thing is bigger than most integrated amps!), this is it. It’ll drive everything, and sound wonderful across a wide range of headphones.
In conclusion: This really is the headphone amplifier to end all headphone amplifiers.
If you’ve been in the head-fi game for a while and you just want to put a full stop on your system and say: "I now have the best of the best", this is it.
Just go for it. Finish your system. Then enjoy the hobby, and stop thinking about your upgrade path. Because with this, you’re already there. Now, I know that might sound a little cocky or over-enthusiastic, but seriously, it’s a beautiful headphone amplifier.
If you don’t want to take my word for it, I implore you to go and have a listen for yourself. Just keep in mind, you’ll want to check what source is feeding into it. At the end of the day, an amplifier is only as good as the source feeding it. So make sure whether it’s a streamer, turntable, or CD player, it’s up to scratch to match the quality of this amp.
