Hey, HeadRoom, you need to ....

[twestby]

Originally Posted by TheSloth

Watch out Tyll, this guy is potentially even more of a HeadRoom nut than I am...

Guilty as charged, Sloth. Just got my Stax rig last week ... no one's EVER going to make a CDP with a sufficient number of output jacks for me, I fear.

[morphsci]

The balanced desktop needs to be rerworked with a preamp output so that it can fit into the audiophile desktop. Right now it doesn't work well in that kind of set-up since it does not have pre out.

[synaesthetic]

I know it's probably been said before many times but I passed up the Total BitHead because of its enclosure design. I really liked how it all came together, especially being one of the small handful of portables that doesn't use 9V batteries.

But the I/O jacks and the strange curved shape of the enclosure really put me off and made me go with another solution for my portable amplification.

[gilency]

When I was looking for a portable amp I checked the Airhead, but for the same price I was able to buy a better looking, getter designed (Headsix) amplifier, with better specs. Why aren't you guys competing head to head with all the excellent portables out there? From Pico to Ray Samuels, form Meier to Cute, their portables are much better looking than the Airhead. The Millet hybrid is 3X price of the LD Mk III, too much of a difference, don't you think?

[Pacific Microsonics]

Originally Posted by gilency

When I was looking for a portable amp I checked the Airhead, but for the same price I was able to buy a better looking, getter designed (Headsix) amplifier, with better specs.

The opamp in the total airhead is much more suited for driving headphones than that of the headsix.

The ad8397 in the airhead has relatively massive on chip buffers capable of driving inefficient headphones such as the K701/K501/HD650 with ease while the lone pair of ad8610's inside the headsix seems paltry at best. If by better specs you mean better battery life then you are right.

The ~100 hour battery life in the ~550mah battery shows just how little juice the amp pulls and consequently amplifies with while the ~40 hour battery life of the ~4000mah capacity in the total airhead's batteries lets us know the amp is not sitting around being lazy and is hard at work to pump power into your headphones.

To give a very rough estimate, the total airhead supplies around 4-5x the current compared to the headsix. While you might not need all that juice, it means the amp will most likely distort less because it isn't maxing out it's specs just to push a pair of headphones.

There's a reason many amplifiers that use the ad8610 are followed by buffers. To use just the opamp to do all the work reminds one of a cmoy.

Originally Posted by gilency

The Millet hybrid is 3X price of the LD Mk III, too much of a difference, don't you think?

Comparing the price of a product designed and built in the usa by a company that supports american workers to a product made in china is a bit unreasonable.

[synaesthetic]

I have no complaints about the Air/BitHead's sound quality, because I've never heard one so I have no basis. But the physical layout was enough to discourage me from ordering one. It's a shame too because I prefer using AA NiMH batteries to 9Vs.

[morphsci]

Originally Posted by gilency

When I was looking for a portable amp I checked the Airhead, but for the same price I was able to buy a better looking, getter designed (Headsix) amplifier, with better specs. Why aren't you guys competing head to head with all the excellent portables out there? From Pico to Ray Samuels, form Meier to Cute, their portables are much better looking than the Airhead. The Millet hybrid is 3X price of the LD Mk III, too much of a difference, don't you think?

The Pico is kind of a red herring as would be the predator as both will cost you in the neighborhood of $500. They do compete with those in terms of the portable micro amp w/DAC. It sells for about $100 more but also includes coaxial and optical input as well as USB.

[MusicallySilent]

I must agree, im not keen on the look of the mobile line, I would probably be much happier with it if the jacks werent mounted how they are (angled on corners) and instead were mounted conventionally on the front, I am afraid I would stress the jacks. I seem to have something against amps that dont have straight mounted jacks, I loved the minibox D size too, except the jacks were on the side which I was afraid of stressing.

[gilency]

Originally Posted by morphsci

The Pico is kind of a red herring as would be the predator as both will cost you in the neighborhood of $500. They do compete with those in terms of the portable micro amp w/DAC. It sells for about $100 more but also includes coaxial and optical input as well as USB.

Maybe I did not make myself clear: of all the portable amps out there, the Airhead is the ugliest. Look at the Headsix or the iBasso for comparison. I would have bought the Airhead if ot were a little more conventional and elegant looking. You may disagree, but I think a lot of people agree with me.

[kjpmkjp]

I have a suggestion. Can you offer different shipping methods to Canada? As much as I love FedEx [/sarcasm], they charge ridiculous handling fees. Maybe offer a cheaper/similar priced USPS option?

I know it's a long-shot, but what the hey.