[Audeze]

The Bascom King Designed-for-Audeze Hybrid Headphone Amp
Here’s a Chance to Buy Our Reference Headphone Amp at an Astonishing Discount!

It’s Good to be King
It all began when the Audeze team met the legendary electronics designer Bascom King in his design lab. Bascom has designed acclaimed amplifiers for Infinity, Marantz, Constellation Audio, PS Audio and others. He demoed a prototype headphone amplifier for us that incorporated elements of all he’s learned over the years. Even in prototype form it was the best headphone amp we ever heard, and we’ve heard just about everything. We were so excited that we signed Bascom on the spot to continue developing the new headphone amplifier exclusively for Audeze. 
 
The King Headphone Amplifier received amazing feedback at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest this past weekend, and now anyone can purchase one for an astonishing introductory price via Indiegogo. It produces a beautiful, natural, open, expansive sound with awesome power in the bass. It’s so clean and engaging you’ll find yourself turning the volume up to enjoy the incredible transparency. The utter pleasure The King delivers will bring you immense satisfaction, especially on the LCD-4.
 
The King is a two-stage hybrid design featuring two twin triode tube inputs (E88CCs), a differential P-MOSFET driver and MOSFET output devices. It uses NPN MOSFET output devices delivering perfect device matching for faster response times, far better than typical PNP/NPN output designs. The King’s symmetrical circuits won’t ring at high frequencies keeping it very stable, it’s servo-DC-coupled, and will offer years of trouble-free, adjustment-free use. The result is a low impedance, low distortion, wide frequency response with immense musical transparency, a real emotional experience.  
 
The Indiegogo Deal
The King is such a wonderful headphone amp that Audeze decided to get the word out to as many people as possible, and Indiegogo works well for that. We also wanted to offer a great price to our fans who’ve supported us as a way of saying thanks. It’s not just about money to manufacture the Bascom King amplifier as we’ve already paid for all the development. The big news is we can ship in about 8 weeks.
 
The retail price of The King is set at $3,995 USD. Audeze is offering it through Indiegogo for 30 days only at $2,950. But the first 10 buyers get an even better deal, only $2,750!  Get in fast for the best price on this groundbreaking headphone amplifier at insider prices.
 
The campaign starts today! Purchase the Sound of the Century at Indiegogo HERE.
And find The King on Audeze’s website HERE. 

 

[swjones3]

is the output impedance 3 ohms or 0.3 ohms? The website says both.

 

[Icenine2]

Too bad they don't offer the LCD-4 at a deal like this!

 

[kapanak]

I do wonder what Audeze gains out of crowdfunding a finished product from a well established company. Not saying others didn't do it, but I don't see the purpose here.
 
I personally never purchase an amp or DAC or even headphones without first listening to them, especially from a company that isn't really well known for making amps.

 

[Audeze]

  is the output impedance 3 ohms or 0.3 ohms? The website says both.

 
The output impedance is 0.3 ohms with an input impedance of 10K ohms. We'll have to correct that, thanks.

 

[ufospls2]

Stoked with my current amp and am not looking to upgrade, but would love to hear this eventually. It has sort of a classic look to it, which I like. Looking forward to hearing impressions in the coming weeks. No balanced headphone output?

 

[Audeze]

Even Indiegogo told us The King campaign was amazing, We've raised $40,792 in ten hours for our new headphone amp. We're 82% funded as of 5:40pm PST with 30 days to go. We want to thank everyone for their feedback both here on Head-Fi and at RMAF ths past weekend regarding the LCD-4 and The King. Without Head-Fi there probably wouldn't be an Audeze. Thanks all...

 

[Audeze]

Kapanak,
The Crowdfunding scene is changing quite a bit. Recently Dodge, Coke and even Microsoft used crowd funding for  some projects. Some of these are not just crowd funding mechanisms. They help reach a broader audience and also give great exposure to the brand. It also helps in getting an understanding about where people are ordering from and how. We wanted to test the waters and learn how it works. What better way to learn about it, than just doing a campaign ? It is a very eye-opening experience.

 

[kapanak]

Do you follow Indigogo policies of no refunds, or do all the purchases from this campaign have the same warranty and 30-day policy?
 
And please don't put Microsoft and Dodge's crowdfunding projects in the same bag as this campaign. This is a sales campaign. Microsoft's campaign was for family and friends to help students fund their own computers for college. Dodge's was similar in getting a car funded part by part by family and friends.
 
Quote:

  Kapanak,
The Crowdfunding scene is changing quite a bit. Recently Dodge, Coke and even Microsoft used crowd funding for  some projects. Some of these are not just crowd funding mechanisms. They help reach a broader audience and also give great exposure to the brand. It also helps in getting an understanding about where people are ordering from and how. We wanted to test the waters and learn how it works. What better way to learn about it, than just doing a campaign ? It is a very eye-opening experience.

 

[JWahl]

  I do wonder what Audeze gains out of crowdfunding a finished product from a well established company. Not saying others didn't do it, but I don't see the purpose here.
 
I personally never purchase an amp or DAC or even headphones without first listening to them, especially from a company that isn't really well known for making amps.

I think the point is just making it into a group buy.  Products can generally be offered for a lower price when bought in bulk.  And also to test the interest of risky product ideas without pre building a lot of a product that may not generate a lot of demand.

 

[LunaTikEDM]

Supported. My only question would be why does shipping only start in december?

 

[Erebuxy]

Hope there will be more discount for LCD 4.

 

[icebear]

  Stoked with my current amp and am not looking to upgrade, but would love to hear this eventually. It has sort of a classic look to it, which I like. Looking forward to hearing impressions in the coming weeks. No balanced headphone output?

+1, exactly my thoughts, too. A $4k headphone amp and only SE outputs? And yes, no desire to upgrade from my current set up

 

[bugstone]

Every time I compared SE to balanced outputs, I found a solid 20% sonic improvement from going balanced.  My body just relaxed more with the balanced.  What are they thinking?  I don't understand this decision.
 
Bugs

 

[Pale Rider]

  Every time I compared SE to balanced outputs, I found a solid 20% sonic improvement from going balanced.  My body just relaxed more with the balanced.  What are they thinking?  I don't understand this decision.
 
Bugs

I confess I was surprised by this decision as well [though I would be interested in how you quantify a "solid 20% sonic improvement" with so many other variables in play]. OTOH, my similar-price-range Cavalli Liquid Fire was also SE, and once I "got over it," it provided many hours of engaging listening. I have never found that SE or balanced kept me from enjoying the music, only that they are different. In my main audio system, the end-to-end balanced system seems to avoid hum and related issues better than my unbalanced home theater system. However, in my headphone rigs, I find the differences less noticeable. I think what really surprised me most about this was that the Audez'e team's high-end cans are so amenable to running balanced. oh well, the proof will be in the listening.
 
As a supporter [in fact, I think i pulled the trigger first], I am looking forward to trying out this amp. Bascom King's designs have always been amazingly musical. His latest for PS Audio is very impressive. I plan to order LCD-4s soon to arrive around the same time, so I can test the two together.