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Another home run from headroom
Posted by Darellmatt from Minneapolis, Minnesota on 2011-02-11Posted on HeadRoom Portable Desktop Amp
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Unbelievable sound to size ratio, portable to boot, accepts multiple inputs, superb sound
Cons: Honestly I can't think of any.
I am a big fan of headroom products. I own their mammoth home amp and the sennheiser HD 800's. I use kimber cable interconnects and the J River media center playing flac files as my digital sound source. The sound from that system is magical and enormously satisfying. My only frustration is that my sweet behemoth amp is anything but portable. It's a pain to move it from room to room, much less take it to work. I had been eyeing the portable desktop amp for a while, but the reviews on this website were underwhelming. They were positive but no one seemed to focus on the amazing sound quality, which is what I experience with my home amp.
So it was with some anxiety that I finally broke down and bought the protable amp. I expected to be trading off something in terms of sound quality in order to achieve portability.
All I can say is....wrong! This amp is a gem. The sound using lossless flac files from J River and my kimber cable interconnects is pretty much indistinguishable from my massive home amp. True, my home amp will pretty much drive 4 pairs of HD 800's simultaneously. But this little powerhouse drives one pair with breathtaking clarity, and the soundstage to my ear is indistinguishable from it's big brother.
Listening to my iphone using the analog inputs was another revelation. OK, if you have been listening to the lossless files and you transition to the anolog inputs you can in hear a subtle shift in the dynamics, a slight compression of the soundstage. So yes, there's a difference. But after about 10 minutes of listening you fall into the music and a first class, very satisfying and supremely portable musical experience.
Really, I think this little beauty is the unsung hero of the headphone lineup. Don't fall for the trap of thinking you can't have it all: portability and absolutely stellar high end sound.
Headroom, you guys rock.
24 out of 25 people found this review helpful. Did you?
Key to Portable, High-end Audio
Posted by Road Warrior from Chicago on 2010-01-15Posted on HeadRoom Portable Desktop Amp
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Great sound. Digital and Analog inputs. Good battery life.
Cons: Volume knob loosens.
Match this amp with Loss-less digital music via the optical ports of your Laptop and a pair of good headphones for unmatched audio. I can finally bring my music with me when I travel.
Great product with great sound.
13 out of 18 people found this review helpful. Did you?
Everything I want in a nice, portable package
Posted by Adam from Sunnyvale, CA on 2010-01-15Posted on HeadRoom Portable Desktop Amp
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Sounds nearly as good as my Desktop Ultra
Cons: The battery electronics could use an upgrade, the switches sometimes get flipped in my bag
I've owned this little gem for a few years, and have never regretted the purchase. I spend a lot of time in a cubicle environment at work, and this amp creates a tiny island of concentration and wonderful music.
I most commonly pair this with my Westone 3 IEMs at work, but also use a bunch of other 'phones on an occasional basis: Sennheiser HD580, HD600, HD650, HD800, Shure SE530, Etymotic ER4 and ER6, and a few others over the years. It drives them all effortlessly, and produces a very nice soundstage. I'm a fan of the crossfeed circuit, which is not easy to describe, but does provide a noticeable improvement in imaging. The DAC is great, and works very well when paired with lossless audio from a computer. Some manufacturers have trouble with USB, but I've noticed no problems with my Headroom gear.
The one downside is that my batteries went out about two months before the warranty expired. Headroom support was wonderful, and had the problem diagnosed and repaired very quickly. The amp died again two months after it came back from repair, so I sent it back again. The second time around, they tracked down a bad capacitor that caused the battery problem, and the amp has been fine ever since. This may sound like a drag, but Headroom was wonderful through the experience, and I can't recommend them highly enough. A big thanks to Mike Olson for all of his help.
My only suggestion for future iterations is to improve the intelligence of the battery system. The batteries themselves are great, and provide a decent amount of listening time between charges, but the amp doesn't provide much in the way of overcharge protection. The recommended best practice is to fully discharge the amp between charges, and to unplug it as soon as a charge is finished. I've found it difficult to integrate these rules into my listening habits. These days, there are intelligent charging circuits that help with "battery hygiene," so I expect that they'll fix these problems in the future.
I consider these to be minor blemishes on an otherwise excellent experience, and would highly recommend this to anyone in the market for a headphone amp.
53 out of 56 people found this review helpful. Did you?
