Integrated Amps

I took a demo Billie MK II home from my local dealer to try with some Harbeth P3ESR after reading some fantastic reviews. After 2hrs of listening at home I called them and ordered a new one in gold finish no less, lol. I swapped out the JJ ECC99s for some NOS Sylvania 12BH7s and the amp is now as great as anything I've owned at 2x the price. Interesting side note, the guys I got it from are the US distributor for Heaven11 and have #3 in their loft showroom. They are maybe a tad overly enthusiastic about the amp but I gotta say, the proof was in the demo with a set of LS50s. It was amazing in their showroom and even better at home with better speakers. The Billie could be $2500 and still be a great value. Just my experience

@bgross 
me: "I want Billie!"

wife: "go live with her! Here is your suitcase"

I owned the latest Heaven 11 Billie MK2, just sent it off to TMR for consignment. Lots of reviews online, but some important points.

a) It’s buried on their website, but Heaven 11 says DON’T use the amp with high-sensitivity speakers (10+ ohms). I tried the amp with some Zu Audio speakers and found it fatiguing and not a good match. This was before the warning was added. A tube integrated was a much better match for those speakers

b) Volume control bug. This KILLS me. Even with the latest firmware, if you lower the volume, it momentarily gets louder before the volume decreases. With the older firmware and the latest, I would occasionally flinch when lowering the volume because it gets louder and it’s not what you’re expecting. This "little" issue alone kinda killed the amp and as a standalone preamp.

Lots of features, it’s beautiful. The owner (Itai) is very nice in emails. I had some issues with the headphone, so I don’t recommend it if you plan to use headphones. You can change the sound a bit with different tubes, but their Gold Tubes are quite good. It wasn’t bad with Buchardt S400, but it wasn’t my favorite amp/speaker combo I auditioned.

In the last 5 years I’ve been through a Yamaha A-S2100, Sugden A21SE, Pass Labs INT-25, Rogue Pharoah 2 and after it was all said and done I bought another Yamaha, a A-S2200.

@ivickery I think what speakers you were using would be very telling in your journey. Your profile is showing a completely different system.