Amps & DACs

Want to bring your personal music listening experience to an entirely new level of sound quality? Simply put a Micro Amp between your music source and your favorite headphones and let the beautiful music flood in. Designed to bring fine audiophile electronics into in an affordable space-saving little amp, the HeadRoom Micro Amp is ready to inhabit any tiny nook on your desktop, nightstand, or any other listening place where you have access to AC power. (For battery-powered mobile listening, please check our HeadRoom Portable Micro Amp.)

Features

Sure, it sounds great driving headphones to glorious heights of musical detail and accuracy, but the HeadRoom Micro Amp is also an 'all-singing, all-dancing' fully-featured headphone amp plus pre-amp. The Micro employs deeply 'Class A'-biased electronics and a discrete-component Walter Jung 'Diamond Buffer'-based amplifier output just as found in our pricier Desktop Amp, but uses 'mini' 1/8" (3.5mm) connectors and smaller controls to fit into these tiny dimensions. The HeadRoom Micro Amp is a true Class-A, DC-coupled amp (no capacitors in the signal path) so you know the sound will drive even the most power-hungry audiophile headphones effortlessly and with total precision. The HeadRoom Micro Amp provides an awesome 3.5mm headphone jack on the front, but it also has a similar 'pre-amp' jack on the rear panel that can double as a volume-controlled input into a power amp, computer speakers on your desktop or to your powered bookshelf speakers. The HeadRoom Micro Amp also features two separate 3.5mm line inputs that are selectable from the front panel for easy switching between your sources (an iPod and a computer, for example). Front panel Gain control switch allows you to adjust the volume ranges to easily control headphones of any impedance and efficiency rating. And, of course, our famous HeadRoom Crossfeed circuit centers the audio image on headphones very subtly and quite carefully.

Build

The Micro is enclosed in an amazingly sturdy and lustrous black anodized aluminum enclosure with urethane bezels (the rubber piece around the front and back panel). The bezels handily act as bumpers protecting the amp, and they allow you to securely stack the Micro Amp and the Micro DAC units together. All HeadRoom Micro Amps are hand-built in Montana, USA.

Accessories

A standard 120-volt AC power-supply 'brick' comes included with the HeadRoom Micro Amp. International customers can select a 220vac power supply for international or overseas voltages for a $50 upcharge. Also, a nicely upgraded international-use Astrodyne Power Supply is optionally available for audiophiles wanting to fully maximize the audio performance of the Micro Amp. The Astrodyne works anywhere on the planet you can find an outlet [from 100V ~ 240V] so it makes a great accessory for frequent travelers. Plus, the Astrodyne also improves upon the sound quality when compared to the standard 'brick' power supply.

*The Micro Amp does NOT include any interconnect cabling. To hook up your Micro Amp to a portable audio player, you will need a mini 1/8"-to-1/8" (3.5mm) interconenct cable. We recommend the Cardas 6 inch or 12 inch mini to mini cables. For longer runs, we suggest the Cardas 1 meter or 2 meter versions. If you are using an audio source with RCA outputs, the Straightwire 0.5 meter MusiCable cable will work great, or simply browse all of our cables.

Measurements

The Micro Amp is 1.75" (3.8cm) high, 3.5" (9 cm) wide, and 4.75"(11.5cm) long. It weighs only 8.8oz (250 grams). The HeadRoom Micro Amp is hand-built in Bozeman Montana USA.

great starter amp
Posted by commtrd from Corpus Christi, TX on 2013-03-13

Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: drives 600 ohm headphones
Cons: smallish sound stage?

Purchased this amp with the micro dac to drive a pair of Beyerdynamic DT990 600 ohm headphones. Using the USB input and it seems to work OK. Being my first dedicated headphone system I was not sure what to expect. At first it all sounded very marginal. The cans seemed to be radically underpowered and voloume even close to half way up had the system sounding like it would blow up. I was ready to box everything back up and return but decided to put some more hours on everything first. After about 30 hours everything started working MUCH BETTER. After 50 hours or thereabouts I have a rockin' little system! The amp provides good clean drive to phones and takes multi-hour listening sessions in stride. Also can turn volume high enough to be uncomfortable and amp maintains clean output. Soundstage has gotten much better with very good separation of instruments and vocals have moved somewhat more front/center -but- the soundstage is not real big at all. I am not sure how much the amplifier affects this with no prior experience using headphones, but it has improved dramatically as hours on the system accumulate. In summary, I would say the micro amp is a great way to get into a dedicated headphone system and so far seems to be holding up well. Sound quality and ability to handle 600 ohm loads plus a price that doesn't break the bank add up to a good value. Overall I could recommend the micro amp with the dac in good conscience.

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

HelpfulUnhelpful

European experience
Posted by Bloody Gus from Kosd, Hungary on 2012-11-29

Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Beautiful sweet accurate sound
Cons: The price ...

This review could be useful to anyone buying from Europe. I was using a FiiO E9/E17 Alpen combo for laptop listening: very nice for a while, but I began having doubts about the sour middle range and screechy upper strings - yes, a clear case of upgradeitis! It was a wino night when I trawled the web and came across the Headroom Micro Amp. Somewhat expensive if you have to buy the DAC too ... Lightbulb! Maybe I could get the Amp, use it with the E17, and add the Headroom DAC later to head off the expense. I checked with the switchboard at HeadRoom and got helpful advice, so I took the plunge and ordered online. Here the dread saga begins. I live in Hungary, so the carriage was expensive (80$). On arrival, I was charged another 100$ import duty. When I connected it, it blew all the fuses because the power supply was US voltage, not European. (The guys on the switchboard were very helpful and sympathetic here, many thanks, Josh and Ben.) HeadRoom kindly sent me a European voltage replacement free of charge, but it had an IEC socket on the end and I had no way of connecting it. I got a cable connection supplied by Amazon UK, and with this and a mini-to-mini jack lead I could at last, one month after ordering, connect up the amp with the E17. Well, you're all gasping, was it worth all the hassle and expense? And the answer is ... a definite YES ! ! ! That Class A sound was an amazing revelation of how much better listening can be with top equipment ('phones are Etymotic ER-4P/S incidentally.) I won't itemize all the sonar details, only to say the cross-feed facility is brilliant, I'm listening to a whole piano, not one sawn in half. Otherwise I can now listen to the music and not the equipment. The dictum is if you want something better than what you have, you've gotta pay a good three times more for it. Well born out here. You just have to hang the expense if you want something really good.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you?

HelpfulUnhelpful

No interest in any more amps, this one is perfect.
Posted by TravisD from Kalamazoo, MI on 2012-06-28

Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Drives everything well, neutral sounding, very revealing, built like a tank
Cons: Not cheap (that's OK), soundstage isn't super huge (or is it just accurate?), almost too small

I bought this after finding out my old US built (cheaper) amp didn't play well with both the K702 and HD-650 (starts with an A). I was actually going to give this a trial and return it if I didn't love it. Well, I kept it and haven't looked back.

It plays well with ALL my headphones, from my cheap Koss DJ100 all the way up to the AKG Q701 and HD-600. I like how the amp is neutral enough and none of them magically turn into something they're not due to the amp giving a headphone a very slightly screwy signature (which I've found is quite possible).

The difference between my imported $120 desktop and this is quite large and not subtle. You can spot the difference immediately. With my Q701 on cheaper amps there is something missing. With the Q701 and the Micro Amp the mids are much fuller sounding and not thin or lacking. Then there is a greater amount of detail. I don't find that this amp rolls off the highs or tames them. Not even remotely. I guess that's a good thing. It didn't magically make me like the treble of the K702.

The DAC or source that's paired up with this is very important too. If you just use a cheap CD player, the sound just isn't the same. I use an HRT DAC, but plan to try out the Micro DAC in the future. It will still sound good with even portable devices if you plan to travel with it. For my own amusement even the Clip+ sounded great with it. That's a very flat source.

One minor nit-pick is that the soundstage isn't as huge as on some other amps. Not a big deal for me at all and often depends on the DAC. It could be that someone my other amps give my headphones an artificially huge soundstage (not sure if this is even possible!!).

I think this is a fairly neutral amp, but leans to being slightly "musical". I think it may have very, very slightly forward sounding mids. Like i'm talking about .(point) 5% forward than other amps. I only experienced this with the HD-650. Hard to know if it's the DAC, amp or just some kind of good synergy. I wouldn't call it dead neutral and I wouldn't want that with an amp.

This has also drive everything well enough for me. Everything from the K400, K500, K240 Sextette (600 ohm) to the HD-650 and 600 ohm Beyerdynamic headphones. It was especially good with the bass light DT-770 600 ohm.

My favorite headphones for it are the D2000, Q701, KRK KNS-8400. K501 and K601 are amazing with it. Same with Q701. I prefer the HD-580 on it compared to the HD-600 and 650.

The thing is built like a tank and i've stupidly dropped it more than once from a height of 4 or so feet. It's so small that it's easy to do this.

There's some cheap amps out there that are imported, but to me this has been worth every penny. Due to this amp I really haven't had any interest in trying more amps. Maybe when I get rich i'll upgrade to an even better model.

14 out of 17 people found this review helpful. Did you?

HelpfulUnhelpful

Show All Reviews