[Born2bwire]

I have been wondering for some time about the differences between the current BUDA and the discontinued Balanced Home with Max modules and Balanced Max. The main differences that I can find are that the Home had the option of the stepped attenuator, MAX DAC, and it also had separate power supplies for each of the four channels. Is this true? Has anyone been able to compare the two amps in terms of sound quality?

 

[Born2bwire]

 

[Tyll Hertsens]

Sorry mate, yes, you got it right. There's not that much difference.

One other thing is the unbalanced input, the old Max or Home didn't have that.

 

[Born2bwire]

Thanks Tyll. What kind of impact do you get with moving from separate power supplies to the single power supply like the DPS? It is my recollection that the previous balanced amps all followed a more or less bridged configuration where the power supplies for each channel were separate (visions of the Blockhead dance into frame).

 

[Tyll Hertsens]

It's hard to say, I'd have to have them set up right next to each other and have a long listening session. My guess is that answer is not to much. There's lots of power supply decoupling and separate filtration for left and right. It's certainly in that 1% area.

 

[Hatmann]

I have the identical Max electronics in two systems: the Ultra Desktop Amp on my desktop and the Max amp in my big rig.

Same electronics with different power supplies. The Max amp has dual power supplies while the Ultra Desktop has the Desktop Power Supply, which does not have dual power supplies.

While the sound is pretty close (as it should be!), the Max amp does sound more powerful. Since the only meaningful difference is in their respective power supplies, you can draw your own conclusion.

Hope this helps.

 

[Born2bwire]

What do you mean by more powerful? Better bass? More gain? More impact?

As for the Max though. I was under the impression that it had more than just the max modules. You could get the Headroom Home with the max modules but it didn't make it a Headroom Max.

 

[Hatmann]

Both are top drawer, but the Max amp has a more powerful low end than the Ultra Desktop Amp, both with the same Max electronics module. Not night and day different, and you definitely have to go back and forth between the two systems. But it is clearly audible.

As to the Max and the MOH, aside from the electronics modules, the difference is in the power supplies, according to Headroom's tech people and data sheets.

In the Max, the power supply transformers are upgraded with two expensive, Avel-Lindberg toroidal transformers.

See for yourself: Here is the Maxed Home:

HeadRoom | The Maxed Out Home

And here is the Max:

HeadRoom | The Max

Hope you find this helpful.

 

[Born2bwire]

Oh, you're talking about the very old Home line. I was only considering the last iteration of the Home and Max lines: Products - HeadRoom - Right Between Your Ears

The old Home line has changed much over the years. I seem to recall that the old ones like what you linked were only class AB biased but they have done several incarnations of their Max and Home modules over the years. Considering that the Balanced Max started at $4K and could go up over $5K, I never considered it to be a proper comparison with the BUDA. But the BUDA/UDAC/DPS combo is along the lines of the price and functionality of the old Balanced Home w/ Max modules. So that was why I have been interested in comparisons between the two. They went out of production maybe half a year before the BUDA/UDAC were available so I have not seen any comparisons between the two. Rather odd I thought.

 

[Hatmann]

This was the Max amp from about 2002-2005, if I recall correctly.

But the Max electronic module is new, and identical to that in the current Ultra Dac Amp. It's like getting a whole new amp. And the Max amp is a tank. Compare the weight with that of current models.)

(BTW, if you have or can find one of these Max amps, you can update to the latest Max electronics module from Headroom for $500. You can see from my listening tests how favorably this combo compares with the current model amps, as long as you don't need a new DAC. It's a steal -- and the cheapest way to upgrade to the latest electronics and sound quality. Highly recommended.)

As for the comparison in my earlier post, my intent is simply to illustrate the audible differences between amps with a single power supply vs those with a separate power supply for each channel, such as the Max amp discussed here.