Orchard Audio Valencia Headphone Amplifier

May 20, 2026

ORCHARD AUDIO VALENCIA HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER REVIEW

Oscar Stewart takes a listen to the Orchard Audio Valencia Headphone Amplifier.

Orchard Audio was founded in 2017, and is a quite small company that designs and makes a range of different audio devices. They do have a bit more of an objective-first philosophy and believe that good measurements will yield great subjective results.

This goes for the Valencia amp being reviewed in this article; it is designed as a power amplifier for headphones, with exceptionally low noise, and perfect linearity. It’s capable of 17W into 32 Ohms, allowing it to comfortably power all major headphones out there.

BUILD AND FEATURES OF THE ORCHARD AUDIO VALENCIA

The Valencia is a solid amp, the chassis is made from aluminium and features XLR inputs on the back, a single 4-pin XLR output on the front, an on/off button, and a set of speaker outputs. It accepts a normal IEC power cable, and the speaker outputs allow you to use the amp with sensitive speakers (as it offers up 7W of power into 8 Ohms). The amp is Class-AB in its design.

As mentioned in the intro, this is a power amplifier for headphones; it does not feature any kind of volume control on the amp itself, and it is fully balanced throughout. This does require you to have a DAC with a pre-amp, or a pre-amp somewhere between your source and the amp. The amp also has a fixed gain of 14dB, which is great for most desktop headphones; however, you will need a good pre-amp to make this amp usable with more sensitive models and earphones.

This is an amp that was made in collaboration with Z-Reviews, and it is built as a wire-with-gain type amplifier, not trying to impart any real colouration, whilst simultaneously being able to drive pretty much any headphone currently out there.

It’s very much a no-frills device, plug it in, ensure your source has its volume at the lowest, and enjoy with your headphones of choice.

SETUP AND USE

I used the Valencia with my main reference DAC, the SMSL D6s, which has very good attenuation without sacrificing those all-important bits. This was run via XLR cables into the Valencia, which I then used with 3 main headphones for this review, the ZMF Ori 3.0, HiFiMAN Susvara, and Beyerdynamic T1 2nd Generation.

SOUND QUALITY

First up, I decided to use the ZMF Ori 3.0 in this review. It’s an engaging headphone, and one that also benefits from a bit of power behind them to sound their best. I listened to Song Of Women by The Hu (ft Lzzy Hale), as this is a track that has power and drive, whilst featuring plenty of detail and layering. The Valencia with the Ori 3.0 is one of those cleaner-sounding combos, especially when you’ve heard this headphone out of a more coloured valve amp. This headphone features a tuning vent, and I usually like the vented plugs that offer up a slightly warm, yet well-controlled sound. With this amp, I found myself removing the plugs altogether, which is the fullest sound configuration, yet they never came across as overblown or too full with the Valencia.

This is a very well-controlled amplifier; it keeps a tight grip over the sound of the headphones and delivers exactly what’s in the recording to your headphones, allowing the headphones to deliver the tonality. It didn’t seem to add anything as such, and comparing it to my main reference amp (the iFi iCAN Phantom) there wasn’t any appreciable difference in sound quality (both amps showing themselves to be tonally neutral).

Next up were the HiFiMAN Susvara, which are such a fantastic pair of headphones (as I have alluded to many, many times), and aside from having to crank the volume up a bit more, they lapped up the power from the Valencia with ease. With this combo, I decided to listen to The End by Silverstein (ft Lights), a more laid-back acoustic track with excellent midrange clarity, which builds into a heavier rock second half of the song. The Susvara does what it does, and the Orchard delivers plenty of clean power to make them sing. Once again, though, this is an amp that isn’t trying to impart any kind of colouration, which you will either love or hate. You could tune the source device to deliver some colour if you so wish, and the Valencia does exactly what it says on the tin; however, even with the Susvara, there was not an appreciable difference between this amp stage and my main reference amp. This is not to say the Valencia is a bad amp; it is a great amp if you want wire-with-gain for hard-to-drive headphones, and serves well as a reference amp.

One last track with the Susvara, LIVIN’, LAUGHIN’, LOVIN’ by Bilmuri, which is a bit of a blast, with heavy guitars, saxophone, and great vocals. The Valencia + Susvara delivering every detail with effortless ease, and there is a great sense of space in this recording. This combo never once sounds congested; there is plenty of space between instruments, snappy transients, and deep basslines when called for. It is a fun listen – yet always controlled and detailed, nothing is missing, yet for me, this kind of music could do with a little more substance from a subjective standpoint.

Lastly, I used the Beyerdynamic T1 2nd Generation, a headphone I acquired a few months back after wanting them for a long time. These are a great reference when wanting to test amps with high-impedance headphones, and suffice to say, the Valencia can drive high-impedance loads with ease. I listened to Lullaby by The Cure, and there was good synergy without the treble being too hot. The Valencia brings out nicely articulated bass, a clear midrange, and well-extended treble when paired with these. The lack of character imparted by the Valencia still shines through, yet from a subjective perspective, some may still prefer a slightly more rounded sound from these headphones paired with a warmer amp.

Back to the World by Ben Ottewell came on, and there is good body from the acoustic guitars and bass, yet this amp doesn’t hide anything, and there is a hint of sibilance at times. As mentioned before, this is a powerhouse of an amp that aims to do nothing but deliver plenty of power to your headphones of choice. As a reference point, it is fantastic. For everyday listening, I would be looking to pair it with a pair of warmer headphones personally, as with the wrong headphones it may be a slightly fatiguing listen. You could also tune it a little by using a smoother DAC, for example, or a pre-amp, so there are plenty of ways to get this amp dialled in with your headphones of choice. I deliberately chose an acoustically transparent DAC setup to understand what the amp offers, and that is neutrality.

QUIBBLES

For an amp with so few features, I do feel the price is a little steep for what you get. Due to the gain, and power, it is mostly suited to less sensitive desktop headphones, it certainly lacks versatility.

CONCLUSION

If you need speaker amp levels of power for your headphones, then the Valencia is likely to appeal, and it does drive pretty much any headphone out there with ease. Just be sure you have components downstream that suit your preference, as this amp does just power the headphones, without adding its own flavour. It makes for a great reference point, and I know my reference amp is nearly 2x the cost, however it sounds pretty much identical when used in solid-state mode with the Susvara, whilst also adding a lot of features.

I do like what this amp does, it does exactly what it set out to do, which is deliver wire-with-gain type sound in a simple package. This does seem to come at quite a considerable cost, though, and unless you really need this kind of power, I can think of some other options that add more convenience whilst also powering even the Susvara with ease.

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality And Features:

Solid build quality, no frills, power amp for headphones

Single input / output, with speaker outputs for sensitive speakers too

Sound Quality:

Neutral, it does not colour the sound

Reference quality, clean, and detailed

Value For Money:

This is hard to say, it sure does deliver a lot of power, yet, also has next to nothing in terms of features – It does feel a tad expensive for what you get, but does what it sets out to do very well

We Loved:

The reference sound quality, and sheer output power

We Didn’t Love So Much:

It feels expensive, and lacks versatility (a pro, or a con, depending on who you ask)

Elevator Pitch Review: The Valencia is a clean, reference-sounding power amplifier for headphones. It simply takes what you feed into it and pumps it out with more power for hard-to-drive headphones. It’s overkill for most, and really shines when you have headphones that are not driven well by low-powered amps. It helps having kit downstream that can add flavour, though, if you want optimal synergy on a subjective level. It is a wire-with-gain amplifier that delivers tons of power without adding anything, and on a reference level it is a fantastic tool.

Price: £1829