Decware Zen Head

Stereocilia

Head-Fier
Pros: Easy on the Ear, Tune Switches, SQ, SS, Cross Feed
Cons: Custom built one at a time, 9V Battery Consumption
I own two portables amps the Ray Samuels Emmeline "The Black Bird" SR-71A and the Decware Zen Head. I really like the SR-71A, all the reviews on it do it justice. As good as the SR-71A is (like undeniably good sounding) the Decware Zen Head is better. The Zen Head is very very easy on my ears and this is why I love it so. I like the SQ so much that I can overlook the things that I don't like about the ZH. The thing I don't like about ZH most is the battery cover. No biggie but the cover to the battery compartment is a plastic slide lock design that takes a little getting used to, the cover feels delicate, forcing it might snap the plastic lock tabs off, the deal is this amp uses up 9V batteries relatively quickly, switching batteries is something I do often with this amp. They say the "experts" suggest that headphone aficionados should limit headphone use to about an hour a day, to protect your stereocilia from damage. The Zen Head and comfortable headphones like the HiFiMan HE-300 can easily extend my listening time to hours at a time. Hours at a time puts a drain on the battery life...is it the amp sucking up the juice or my listening habits...it's my listening habits. The Zen Head is as the name implies, Zen listening. Other than the battery cover and 9V drain time (because I'm addicted to it) this amp is genius! I'm taking the Zen Head to my grave that's how much I love it. 
 
Equipment Used:
 
Ray Samuels Emmeline "The Black Bird" SR-71A
 
Decware Zen Head
 
HiFiMan HE-300
 
iPhone 4s
 
Tidal Music streaming
 
ALO Audio 30pin dock cable
smial1966
smial1966
The plastic battery cover is an annoyance particularly when the rest of the amp is so well built. What battery life are you getting? Using Maha MHR-9V Powerex Re-Chargeable PP3 I easily get 20+ hours and cycle between two batteries, one in use and the other charging.  
knowhatimean
knowhatimean
A few years back I used this little "wonder" to very great satisfaction. I found that I preferred using lithium 9v batteries not only for longer playing time , but they actually sound better through out the battery life play time. With non lithium batteries the sound "sags" at some point during playback. With the lithium 9v it does not. They either play at full SQ or they cannot.
 
I tried the Rechargeable 9v I didn't think their SQ was as high as the lithium 9v !
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