Desktop flip years away, but what would you like to see when we do.
Jun 25, 2007 at 6:23 PM Post #16 of 23
Quote:

Originally Posted by thrice /img/forum/go_quote.gif
It would be pretty slick, with optional USB, optical, Coax digital inputs as well and great onscreen navigation.


Yes sir! Perfect. I want one.
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Go HR, Go!
 
Jun 25, 2007 at 9:30 PM Post #17 of 23
Most of this stuff is the future of audio and all electronics. Problem is making all of it sound good. Things like wireless streaming and Dolby Headphone are not aimed at the Hi-fi crowd, so I encourage your efforts to beef them up. For that matter, I think someone else mentioned that Headroom needs to step into the DAP market
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A couple years ago after I bought my Cyrus CD player there was some buzz that they'd liscensed the Apple iPod interface for a future portable product of their own. I was excited but it never happened.

Oh yeah, and for Dolby Headphone functionality you'll want to consider a full 5.1 analog input set, for high res formats (if they're still even a consideration by the time you do this). The high res stuff obviously won't output digitally, but I've enjoyed some DVD-A's on my computer before in headphone surround. It sounds pretty darn good.
 
Jun 27, 2007 at 2:16 PM Post #18 of 23
Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyll Hertsens /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Sorry I wasn't clear: What I meant was that the switches did different things dependant on the operating mode the box was in. A "soft button" is a programmable button. As for the mechanics of the switch itself, the button is just a bit of stylishly formed metal protruding through the face plate, attached to a circuit trace. When you touch it, a little circuit senses the capacitance change of your finger hitting the button and sends the push signal to the microcontroller.


I'm wary of cap sense keys. I've seen very few products where they worked well. I much prefer pushbutton switches with some mechanical feedback. Right now I'm working on a product that initially had cap sense and then dropped it because it was infuriating to use. That was a really expensive mistake.

To bring it back to audio, who has used the zen micro? The cap sense keys on that were absolutely horrid.
 
Jul 1, 2007 at 6:43 PM Post #19 of 23
I don't see a mini analog input. Maybe this dude keeps his desktop at the office. So someone comes over with their ipod and says "you have to hear this new song".
 
Jul 13, 2007 at 10:08 PM Post #20 of 23
I have yet to hear DSP effects that I like in standard products (e.g., the various equalizer settings, etc.) and usually avoid those products at all costs. I had to look past even the crossfeed circuitry of the Desktop Portable at first as it was almost enough to make me not get the unit.

If I couldn't listen critically to a DSP effect (like Dolby Headphone, which I generally dislike due to its strange flanging-like artifacts) before purchasing, I would likely not make the purchase at all.

I totally agree that any effect (EQ, etc.) should be able to be completely bypassed and removed from the system. Using a graphic display seems like it would reduce the robustness of the device.
 
Jul 22, 2007 at 8:23 AM Post #22 of 23
Hmm, some pretty blue-sky thinking in this thread! Some good, some I like less.

On the question of the remote control, I can see some value in being able to alter the volume from a nearby sofa, but other than that I don't like the idea at all: remotes are flimsy, irritating, they get lost and I've got too many of them. Given that most users are going to be tethered to their amp by a length of cable anyway, I don't see this as something that would make me buy one headphone amp above another; in fact, it's a slight dissuading factor.

DSP has a longstanding bad reputation with the hi-fi (let alone audiophile) buyers, and while I rather like the idea of having options to play with I also know that it's going to detract from the listening experience because I'll always be wondering whether tweaking a setting would improve the sound. The thing about the current crossfeed circuit that I like is that Headroom sticks its colours to the mast and says: "this is the best we can do, this is what we're hard-wiring into our amps". The danger with DSP is that it ends up looking as though you're saying: "Hell, this is all too complicated ... YOU figure it out."

If there are going to be DSP elements, I'd like them treated rather like they are on the Line 6 guitar products: pseudo-analogue, with notched presets and dials. Many people are already feeding their headphone amps from a PC; they don't need another PC on their amp, and the watchword should be only including what is essential.

That said: having all the switches on the front panel sounds good, I'd like a wireless connection option, Dolby Headphone yes please, and multi-channel inputs sounds interesting. A screen (with a "screen off" option please) would be fine, although really I go back to the point that if the amp needs any sort of screen then it probably has too many options.

Perhaps most intriguing to me is the idea of some form of music storage and playback, but that would need to go in another box and I'm not sure how economically viable such a player would be. I suppose that my ideal would be a hard disc recorder capable of accepting analogue and digital signals as well as capable of being filled directly from a PC. (Once you've got the ADC in there, you'd effectively have created the natural descendent of the Walkman Professional, and it could be used for a number of recording purposes. You could also have an "analogue passthrough" so that if you were recording, say, a concert, you could listen directly on headphones from the amp without decoding the signal twice.) I don't know why Headroom would want to get into that business (it sounds like expensive R&D to me) but having all this stuff in another standalone box might mean that Headroom could offer the bells & whistles on that box and leave the amp itself comparatively minimal.

So, I suppose that I basically incline to a Pre-amp/Power-amp combo, with whatever fancy stuff you want to put in on the Pre-amp and a Power-amp that feels exactly like an evolution of the existing line.

By the way: I'm 39 and spend a lot on technology, so it's not that I'm taking a Luddite approach to the digital side at all. It's just that by the age of 39 I've seen and owned so many flashy, poorly-engineered and quickly-superceded pieces of kit with a digital element that I've come to believe that there are some areas, such as music reproduction, where a fairly minimal and distributed system is far preferable.
 
Jul 25, 2007 at 5:07 AM Post #23 of 23
Actually something really simple, a docking station that the unit can plug into immediately, with no fuss and no muss. Basically I want to be able to easily disconnect the system from my desk at work, plop it in my briefcase/backpack, bring it home, and easily connect it to my desktop at home. Sort of like I do with my laptop now.
 

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