The Max Module
This little gold & black 'Max' electronics module is nothing short of an audiophile work of fine art found in our HeadRoom Home Amp, Home Balanced Amp, and Ultra Desktop Amp. A version of the Max module is also shoehorned into our tiny Ultra Micro Amp too.
This 'no-cost-spared' and deeply "Class-A"-biased Max module surface is practically littered with tiny audio chips costing well over $20 bucks a piece, 0.1% metal film resistors, and polyphenylenesulfide (poly film) caps that are silver soldered to 2 oz. gold-coated copper traces which blur into a glittering haze over a black solder masked four-layer circuit board. Speaking of circuit boards, this is the first time we have increased the physical size of our electronics module circuit board. But fear not, since it remains pin-for-pin compatible with our most of our older (post-2002 model year) HeadRoom Home and HeadRoom Max headphone amp units of yore. However, the Max module itself must always be mounted on edge due to heat dissipation issues, an intensely tricky and highly technical maneuver in older amps, thus making it an expensive retro-fit installation when done as an upgrade in our older HeadRoom units.
The 'Max' module uses what many hard-core audiophiles insist is the best and most musical audio op-amp available anywhere -- the rare Burr-Brown OPA627 -- for the internal input buffer, crossfeed, summing, and power amp voltage gain stage; it certainly is about the priciest! The output current buffer is our own HeadRoom-tweaked version of the very highly-regarded Diamond Buffer discrete transistor design originated by Walter Jung. All active stages are forced deep into full 'Class-A' bias with constant-current sources.
Writing this copy we realized the benefit statement of the Max module IS the features statement. Frankly, the advanced topology design, dedicated audio circuitry, and precise build quality of this module is simply out of this world, and when coupled with the finest of reference headphones and the most superb of audio front-ends, the results are pure transcendent sonic bliss as realistic as virtuoso musicians playing a private concert inside your head.