"Is the Arcam rHead discontinued?"

"Yes — Arcam discontinued the rHead several years ago and lists it as discontinued on their own site. It originally sold for $599 US / £399 UK. Units now appear on the used market (eBay, Head-Fi classifieds, used-hifi dealers) typically in the $180–250 range, which is where it becomes genuinely interesting."

"Can the Arcam rHead drive the Sennheiser HD 600 or HD 650?"

"Marginally. The rHead delivers about 130mW into 300Ω — enough for moderate listening levels, but without much dynamic headroom for 300Ω Sennheisers. If HD 600-class headphones are your daily drivers, a Schiit Magni Heresy or Asgard 3 is the better tool. The rHead shines with IEMs and low-impedance headphones, where its Class-A output and near-zero output impedance matter most."

"What should I check before buying a used Arcam rHead?"

"Three things: that the volume pot is quiet across its whole travel (scratchy pots are the most common aging issue), that the unit comes with its original 12V power supply (replacements work but verify polarity and rating), and that both the 3.5mm and 6.35mm outputs work. Class-A designs run warm — warmth in operation is normal, not a fault."

Arcam rHead Review (2026): The Discontinued Class-A Amp Worth Hunting Used

The Arcam rHead — a true Class-A, fully discrete headphone amp that sold for $599 and now surfaces used around $200. Why it's still worth buying in 2026, and what to check before you do.

Why Review a Discontinued Amp?

Because people keep searching for it — and because the used market keeps offering it at a price that changes the conversation. The rHead sold for $599 when British hi-fi magazines were reviewing it warmly; it now surfaces used for around $200. At $599 it competed awkwardly with cheaper measurement-focused amps. At $200, it’s one of the most interesting used purchases in desktop audio.

What Makes It Different: True Class A, Fully Discrete

Almost every budget desktop amp today — Magni, Atom, K7 — is a Class-AB op-amp design. Excellent ones, to be clear. The rHead is a different animal: a fully discrete, true-linear Class-A output stage. In a Class-A design the output transistors conduct through the entire waveform, which eliminates crossover distortion by construction rather than by correction.

Arcam’s engineering backed the topology with real numbers: 0.001% THD+N at 2V into 32Ω, 109dB A-weighted SNR, and output impedance under 0.5Ω. A decade later those figures still sit comfortably in “audibly transparent” territory. This is not a warm-and-fuzzy vintage amp — it’s a precision tool that happens to use a purist topology.

The practical trade-off of Class A is heat and efficiency. The rHead runs warm whenever it’s on. Give it shelf space, don’t stack it, and treat the warmth as the cost of the design.

Power: Know What You’re Buying

2.0W into 16Ω, 1.1W into 32Ω — abundant power for IEMs, portable headphones, and studio cans like the ATH-M50x or the DT 770 Pro 80Ω.
0.13W (130mW) into 300Ω — this is the limitation. The HD 600 and HD 650 will play, and at normal levels they sound composed, but dynamic peaks at loud volumes run out of headroom that a Magni Heresy (500mW into 300Ω) keeps in reserve.

The rHead was designed in an era when its likely partners were portable and low-impedance headphones, and its power budget reflects that. Match it accordingly.

Build and Ergonomics

The cast aluminium case is compact (194 × 44 × 135mm, 0.71kg) and feels like Arcam’s full-size components shrunk in the wash. The front is a single chrome knob — power and volume — plus both 3.5mm and 6.35mm headphone outputs. The back has RCA and balanced XLR inputs, which remains rare on compact amps at any price and makes the rHead an easy drop-in behind a studio interface or a balanced DAC.

There is no gain switch, no DAC, no Bluetooth, no display. It amplifies. That single-mindedness reads as a limitation on a spec sheet and as a virtue on a desk.

How It Sounds

Neutral, composed, and unremarkable in the best sense — reviewers at the time consistently noted that the rHead performs so evenly you stop noticing it. With sensitive IEMs the near-silent noise floor and sub-0.5Ω output impedance keep multi-driver sets tonally correct where higher-output-impedance amps audibly shift their tuning. With low-impedance over-ears it has grip and headroom to spare.

If you want an amp with a flavor — tube warmth, Class-A-biased richness like the Asgard 3’s — the rHead is not that, despite the Class-A badge. It belongs to the transparent school; the topology is about correctness, not coloration.

Verdict: Buy It Used, For the Right Headphones

At its original $599, the rHead was a hard sell against the measurement-era budget amps. At ~$200 used, the calculus flips: genuine British hi-fi engineering, balanced inputs, and a true Class-A discrete stage for Magni money. Pair it with IEMs, portables, or anything under 150Ω and it’s a quiet endgame. Pair it with 300Ω Sennheisers and you bought the wrong amp — get a Magni Heresy or Asgard 3 instead.