Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

A Japanese headfier's monologue

Headphone amps

SR71A has just landed!

Posted 09-24-2008 at 02:23 PM by Sasaki
Updated 09-28-2008 at 01:27 AM by Sasaki

Long awaited SR71A has arrived

I have posted a quick impression on the forum.
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/4772227-post82.html

My first headfi experience was SR71. It was almost three years ago.
At that time, SR71 was already a popular amp among head-fiers.
And this time I...

Sasaki

100+ Head-Fi'er

Posted in Headphone amps, * RSA SR-71A

Comments 3 Sasaki is offline

Luxman announced new headphone amp P200

Posted 09-15-2008 at 01:31 PM by Sasaki
Updated 09-22-2008 at 02:34 PM by Sasaki

Today Japanese audio manufacture Luxman announced a new headphone map P200.

http://www.luxman.co.jp/presspro/e200_p200.html
Luxman home page (Japanese)
(E200 is a phono equalizer)

Luxman is known as a highend audio manufacture and Luxman had a headphone amp called P-1. Now some US stores carry P-1 and you may know its name.

P200 is a little brother of P-1, it would sell at 98000 yen and aimed to be launched around this coming October....

Sasaki

100+ Head-Fi'er

Posted in Headphone amps

Comments 2 Sasaki is offline

izo amp in the house

Posted 01-30-2008 at 01:59 PM by Sasaki
Updated 01-30-2008 at 02:05 PM by Sasaki

I auditioned izo headphone amp iHA1-v2 and its dedicated power supply iPSU-1 again at home.

iHA1-v2

Click small pictures to enlarge.

iPSU-1

One of the new specs for v2 is USB connection. I use USB connection mainly this time.
iHA1-v2 is a DAC/Amp combo and the internal DAC is based on PCM1796....

Sasaki

100+ Head-Fi'er

Posted in Headphone amps

Comments 2 Sasaki is offline

Musica announced a balanced headphone amp

Posted 01-28-2008 at 01:35 PM by Sasaki
Updated 01-28-2008 at 01:51 PM by Sasaki

A Japanese audio manufacture Musica has announced a balanced headphone amp HP200B. I think this is the first balanced headphone amp which is made in Japan.

Musica is an amplifier manufacture and their home page is here.
Musica has been producing good headphone amps since three years ago. This early January, Musica has already announced their new line of headphone amps HPA1000 and HP200 , I guess the HP200B is balanced version of HP200(almost 90000 yen in street price)....

Sasaki

100+ Head-Fi'er

Posted in Headphone amps

Comments 0 Sasaki is offline

auditioned new izo amps

Posted 01-08-2008 at 01:27 PM by Sasaki

I auditioned new izo amps at Fujiya avic store.
The setup was shown in the picture. Click picture to enlarge.
The bottom one is dedicated power supply, the middle one is their new separate DAC iDA-1 and the top one is the headphone amp iHA-1 V2. The DAC also provide sound into iVHA-1 tube on its right(tube lit) via RCA interconnect. I used Edition9.

iHA-1V2 sounds well extended into highs...

Sasaki

100+ Head-Fi'er

Posted in Headphone amps

Comments 1 Sasaki is offline

izo launched some headphone amps

Posted 12-29-2007 at 12:53 AM by Sasaki

Tokyo based company izo (read as eye-z-o) has launched some headphone amps.

(Japanese article)
Watch Impress

izo home page

iHA-1 V2 is a successor of former iHA-1 and iPSU-1 is dedicated power supply.
http://izo.co.jp/htm/iha1v2-intro.htm
iHA-1 is a DAC/Amp combo and V2 has a USB input.
The price of iHA-1 V2 is 89,800 yen(direct price). iPSU-1 is 47,800 yen.

iVHA-1 is a unique hybrid amp of tube and opamp. ...

Sasaki

100+ Head-Fi'er

Posted in Headphone amps

Comments 0 Sasaki is offline

My personal best portable amps of the year

Posted 12-21-2007 at 01:39 PM by Sasaki
Updated 12-21-2007 at 04:16 PM by Sasaki

This is my personal ranking from my purchases of this year.
It was not ranked with SQ alone, based on my personal preferences such as total value for the money and build quality as well.

1. CORDA MOVE

This is all round player and I found only major flaw is the wrong plug contact.
Especially I like its warm sounding and blacker background for UE11. UE11 and MOVE combo is my favorite on the later part of the year.

2. iBasso D1
...

Sasaki

100+ Head-Fi'er

Posted in Headphone amps

Comments 9 Sasaki is offline

SM4 coming back!

Posted 12-20-2007 at 01:38 PM by Sasaki

Finally, my Xin SM4 has back after the looong wait.

Since the wait was so long, I almost forget the previous SQ

But now I am trying it with UE11 and I found this is a good mate. Good job Xin!

Sasaki

100+ Head-Fi'er

Posted in Headphone amps

Comments 0 Sasaki is offline