Amps & DACs

What if you could take your listening room with you? We've been asking, and answering, this question for a full two decades now. Our latest response: the HeadRoom Portable Micro Headphone Amp. This little gem is a very deliberate blend of audiophile quality parts, a road-worthy extruded aluminum & black urethane enclosure, a serious lithium battery/recharging circuit, plus a well-conceived set of travel accessories, all tightly focused on getting you great access to your tunes whether they live on an iPod, laptop, or any other type of portable audio player.

Your player and the Portable Micro Headphone Amp in its standard configuration creates an outstanding personal audio system that provides hours of high-end portable listening pleasure wherever you may roam. Add the optional internal Digital to Analog Converter (DAC; $200 extra) and the Portable Micro will accept optical and coaxial S/PDIF digital inputs, or direct USB input from any computer. You'll be amazed at how good your laptop, MAC or PC can sound when the audio digital-to-analog conversion process is done properly, and outside the noisy electrical environment ever-present inside the hard-drive.

Features

The front panel of the Portable Micro Amp sports (left to right) line input and headphone output 1/8" (3.5mm) mini-jacks, HeadRoom Crossfeed switch and gain switches, volume control, and power switch. The rear panel has the power input jack, charge state indicator LED, and pre-amp output jack in it's standard configuration; the DAC option adds the 3.5mm mini-optical/coaxial digital input jack and a USB mini-B connector.

How it Works

The Portable Micro Amp/DAC couldn't be easier to use, simply plug in a source and headphones, and turn it on. The battery is a two-cell, 7.4VDC, 2550mAh Lithium-Ion rechargeable which runs for about 12-15 hours, and recharges in about 3 hours. The battery is specified to deliver greater than 70% of its rated capacity for greater than 300 charge cycles, and is fully warranteed for one (1) year. The unit must be returned to HeadRoom for eventual lithium battery replacement. The Portable Micro Amp is meant for mobile listening use so the provided 'power supply'  accessory is purely a battery recharging unit, and NOT a true AC-power supply!

Build

The HeadRoom Micro Amp casing is a custom-manufactured heavy aluminum extrusion and all markings are laser-etched into the jet black anodized finish --- in other words, you could run over this baby with a car and it wouldn't even chip the paint [umm, not recommended! -ed.]. The urethane bezel (that rubber thing surrounding the front & rear amp panels) provides significant protection for the entire enclosure and non-skid security while on your desktop. The bezel has a foot sweep that fits into the groove in the top of the bezel, thus allowing all HeadRoom Micro products to stack conveniently and securely.

All HeadRoom Portable Micro Amps are hand-built in Montana, USA.

Accessories

An external AC charger "wall-wart" [not a true AC power supply!] is included with the Micro Portable Amp/DAC.

 *The Portable Micro Amp does NOT include any interconnect cabling. If you are purchasing a Portable Micro Amp with the DAC option and want to use it with your computer, you will need a USB cable. If using the coax/optical input, you will need an Optical Digital Cable along with a Toslink to Mini Adaptor. To hook up your Micro Portable Amp to analog-output sources, you will need a mini-plug 1/8-to-1/8 (3.5mm) interconnect cable. We highly recommend the Cardas 12-inch mini-to-mini interconnect cable ($26). For additional cables and lengths, browse all of our cables.

Great Unit! Dac works with iPad Camera Kit.
Posted by bikebob from VA on 2010-06-19

Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Clean smooth highs. Tight bass.

I have used this unit on my Mac Pro, MacBookPro and now my iPad. I have the built in DAC. I use the optical input with my Mac Pro and MacBookPro. I discovered that I can use Apples camera adaptor kit om my iPad with a USB cable to the DAC in the Micro Amp. It's a great portable set up. I'm using Sennheiser HD 650 Headphones. The highs are smooth and clean without being harsh. The bass is defined not muddy. My iTunes files are Lossless and AAC @ 320kbps.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you?

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A rarely talked-about amp
Posted by nickman from Canada on 2010-03-27

Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Excellent build, crossfeed, small enough, amazing sound
Cons: May rob your free time

BUILD
It it smaller than it looks on the pictures, though it was heavier than I expected. The aluminium shell sure is tough, if you knock on it, you will not hear the empty oscillations of a thin metal casing. There are two rubber gaskets at both ends (not water-resistant in any way). The casing is slightly curved and has rounded corners unlike a lot of those aluminium-box type of amps out there. I suspect that the aluminium is anodized, not painted, and that it is quite slippery despite the light textures. Indeed it feels very substancial in your hand... Nothing rattles inside, the switches are firm and the pot is smooth when turning. Very high quality build, indeed.
SOUND
Eqp: IPC 160GB Late 2009. RAM Electronics I-Extreme iPod docking cable, straight plug, 5ft. beyerdynamic DT880-32 (2005). Amp at Mid gain, Crossfeed ON.
The Portable Micro shows substancially improved control over the Total AirHead. Bass was improved, not in quantity, but in quality. It feels much more impactful and has better extension. The bass is very detailed without sounding overly rich. Mids are quite flat, however due to this improved control, it has become apparent to me that this beyerdynamic has mids that are a bit sunk. The highs are clear, well extended, but does not feel completely open (sounds a bit uneasy).
Binaural tracks sound wonderful with this (Crossfeed OFF). The sound position is simply incredible. Basically, when listening to the Audio STAX CD, close your eyes and you're off. This was never found on the AirHead. The sound is notably way more dimensional and full.
GRIPES
Arn't much, really. You'll hear just how badly recorded (and / or mastered) they are, some of your tracks. Also, this amp may force you to enjoy your music more (and get more well-recorded music).
SUMMARY
I bought this amp mainly for the crossfeed, since I get headaches without it. Did consider the ZENHEAD, that was supposed to sound tube-like, so no. There are many, many other amps out there around this price ($400 USD), and unfortunately I have never even considered them (notably RSA) due to the lack of crossfeed. If you don't get headaches, though, you get way more choices. Your call.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you?

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Moderately Satisfied
Posted by Talos from Near Seattle on 2010-03-11

Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Excellent Desktop Amp
Cons: Fair IPOD amp

The internal battery of this unit is just not sufficient to get real big sound unless its connected to a computer via USB. I wasn't aware of this shortcoming when I ordered it and was dissapointed to hear it with the internal battery alone and a IPOD. Headroom confirmed this when I confronted them with the issue. "Naturally you wont get as vibrant a sound without being connected to a computer." To be fair to Headroom, throughout their website they stress the importance of a solid power supply as a component in any system of theirs. This amp with the available DAC plus a pair of Mackie 5's or any good studio monitor pair is sufficiant to rock you out. Even with this amp connected to your computer you will get a little clipping at really high volumes.

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