Pro-Ject Head Box II

Hi there!

Im in the same position as you. So i went to my local dealer and borrowed their head box II for some days of testing. At first i used it with a nuforce Udac ( used as dac only )..The overall clarity got rather much better and overall control increased as well, but the difference was not that noticeable i was hoping for. I went back to the store and got myself a new dac to match the head box. The one i got was the Pro-ject DAC box USB. 

The result was even more clairy and low end control, the dac feels very solid and looks amazing stacked with the head box. I don´t got that much to compare this combo with except the nuforce Udac which this combo outperforms by far..

The amp drives my AKG k242 HD and my old sennheiser HD200 with absolutely no problem at all, very good control! again i think the highs are the strong side of this amp, imho they sound great. 

So for me the dac/amp combo is a keeper i think, i will give it some more days listening before handing over the cash, but for the money it feels like a good amp. Very good build quality with smooth volume pot and very sturdy outer metal casing.

I hope that i´m giving you at least a tad of help :P

it sure gives you some low end!

My akg k242 HD is very natural, what you feed em with they play, but still a very good low end punch and control. I also tried it with my sennheiser HD 200 which are more of the disco-side..Very fun combination i tell you! 

There are much better amps out there, but then again i think you need to look at your weakest linc..In my case i dont think that upgrading to a better amp and dac would give me that much more improved sound.

I was just researching this yesterday myself since I saw it on Amazon. All the old posts here on it say it's either the worst amp ever made...and some say it's perfectly great....very polarizing. I think I'm gonna pick it up soon and compare it to my E9. It's a great-looking amp from an aesthetic standpoint, imo...and it has actual RCA inputs (my biggest gripe of the E9 is the **** mini jack-lazy, Fiio, LAZY...). Be sure to post some more impressions here guys once you're more familiar with it-including what cans you're driving!

-Daniel

What would be a good alternative to this amp? I think that most budget amps looks like..Well not as good as this one! I live in sweden so i have a some what limited selection :( Dont know if i want to get something shipped world wide that i havnt listened to..Maby if its THE budget amp to get il consider it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JGOelfke 

If I wind up getting it I'll definitely post some impressions. I don't have a whole lot of experience in the amplifier area, as I only own the e9. 

 

BournePerfect...If you end up ordering one I'd be very interested to hear your comparisons with an e9 as well. I have had a lot more gripes with the e9 than just the lack of quality jacks! If I do end up ordering one it probably wouldn't be for a couple weeks or so...

Yeah I am actually gonna buy one in the beginning of August and do some testing between them and let the loser go.One of the reasons the E9 RCA issue irks me so much is the fact that probably 99.999999999999999% of people who bought it are using it as a headphone amp (GASP!) and not aa a **** preamp! (Which is where the true RCA jacks are). /rant

-Daniel
 

Another I've been looking at in the same range would be the Cute Beyond. I'm interested in that being as it's a Class A amp-not sure if the Headbox II is?

-Daniel