[Zoide]

Quote:

Originally Posted by greggf /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hardcore head-fiers seem to prefer tubes, I'm afraid. Even if there's no practical reason for it, hobbyists in any hobby tend to like to take the romantic or difficult path. Pen fanatics prefer fountain pens that leak and fade and smear. Tomato fanatics prefer to grow plants from seed rather than buying ready-grown seedlings from Walmart, and they prefer growing difficult heirloom varieties rather than sturdy hybrids. Audio ocd-ers like vinyl that they have to clean and get up and change rather than CDs, and they prefer tubes that they can "roll" and tubes that hiss and spit and overheat the room and need biasing. I think that if the point is the music rather than the simple killing-of-time-between-birth-and-death, then ss is just as good. Therefore the Headroom stuff is fine, and great, but it will sell to people who want first class music reproduction in the home, not to people who want first class music reproduction in the home PLUS something to admire PLUS something to fiddle with PLUS something that makes them feel a little bit special in what is otherwise a way too brief lifetime.

Beautiful post. Thanks, really

 

[MaloS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mrvile /img/forum/go_quote.gif Who said audiophiles wanted cold, hard sound? greggf just stated that most audiophiles use tube amps over solid state amps, which offer a completely opposite sound.

Aye, folks prefer tube warmth + SS resolution (to be stereotypical here) in one package, and majority puts priority on the first one.

I personally don't feel the Bithead held up to other similarly priced audio options on the market for specifically computer audio use. (the ever ignored emu-02 for laptops thwarts majority of the DACs under $300). The reason I spawned this thread was to see exactly what is thought of the high end Headroom products, and it seems the only hatred is about cosmetics >.< (I personally like the look of HeadRoom devices, they look extremely solid, and for small-form factor the semi-oval chassis is quite excellent.)

 

[mateo05]

Personally, I like the aesthetics of the whole line, including the big amps (I've seen and listened to the Home Balanced at a meet). I think, when you get up this high, you face a couple of issues that have been mentioned:

1. Tubes are the current trend
2. The integrated source (DAC) value becomes more and more irrelevant
3. Other balanced SS are out there for cheaper (GS-X, Rudi offerings, maybe future Singlepower, etc.). See #2 for why the Headroom amps don't make up for this outside of SQ.
4. Very limited impressions/ownership on Head-fi because of the above

On the portable end, you face competition from more ultraportable offerings, well mostly just the Tomahawk, which is ridiculously sweet. Also, I think people are moving away from the iRiver/MicroDAC route and just sucking it up and going straight from a DAP.

I used to own a Micro Stack, which I loved, and listened to a maxed out Home Balanced like I mentioned above. I loved the HD650 off of the big Headroom amp, and would have gladly settled with it if I had to (and there was a balanced R10, HE90/ES-1, and B52 at the same meet). Granted, I didn't directly compare the same headphones on other amps, but I really really liked what I heard.

Just some random thoughts on the whole thing. I'm surprised the Balanced Desktop hasn't gotten more play around here- I think it's revolutionary, and I've seriously considered it more than once just for the size/performance ratio alone.

 

[Vicomte]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mrvile /img/forum/go_quote.gif Who said audiophiles wanted cold, hard sound? greggf just stated that most audiophiles use tube amps over solid state amps, which offer a completely opposite sound.

Where in that post did I mention sound?

 

[TomH]

I still like the personably organic and practical styling of the portable and Micro line, never owned anything more expensive from HR. The feature/performance/price ratios on both lines are still hard to beat, IMHO. The friendly competition has accomplished phenomenal things in the last few years, esp. RSA, and we are all fortunate to have such innovative and sweet sounding variety in our options. To each his own, I for one like them all, which explains why my wallet has assumed the approximate character of a California raisin.

 

[Mrvile]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vicomte /img/forum/go_quote.gif Where in that post did I mention sound?

Wow I completely misread what you wrote.

 

[noseallinit]

other than some of the negative posters in this thread I myself tend to run across more threads with praise to Headroom products than negative. of which many threads led me to buy into the MicroLine over other amps I was looking at.

here is one HR amp I wish I could afford..

Abuse of Power
A Review of Headoom’s Balanced Desktop Amplifier
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=229312

 

[gtortorella]

I had a HeadRoom Home back in the late 1990s. It did not impress me. I do not know if the new Home has changed much, but, invariably, I find op-amp designs to be rather unimpressive (colored, veiled, slow, and darkish).

 

[elrod-tom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gtortorella /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had a HeadRoom Home back in the late 1990s. It did not impress me. I do not know if the new Home has changed much, but, invariably, I find op-amp designs to be rather unimpressive (colored, veiled, slow, and darkish).

I think you would find them to be a LOT different. I understand where you're coming from, as I had an old-school MAX back in the day. The newer modules are a lot more lively, though I did like my MAX (I would characterize that same sound as warm

)

 

[Murugesh]

I have MicroDAC now and I had MicroAmp once. IMHO these two products are simply superb and definitely worth the money I spent for it. I returned MicroAmp back to Headroom because the sound sigature did not match with my taste. I won't say the amp is inferior or not bang for the money. It's definitely very fine quality product and worth every penny I spent for it.

Every amp will have its own sound signature. If your expectation is not matching with them then it doesn't mean the product is bad. The build quality, features, power of MicroAmp are not second to any amp in that price range IMHO.

 

[Murugesh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by greggf /img/forum/go_quote.gif I do think it's true that Tyll and Headroom need to hire a first class industrial designer.

I really hate this comment. How knowledgable are you to comment like this?

 

[ralphp@optonline]

I'm one of the many older Head-Fiers whose first headphone amp was a Headroom amp. I bought my first dedicated headphone amp from Headroom back in 1994 and as has been stated previously in this thread, in 1994 there was Headroom and not much, if even anything, else.

Sure I had my fair share of headphones over the years prior to getting my first headphone amp but as I moved up the audio food chain into high end equipment less and less of my equipment had a headphone jack. And then there was issue of improving the sound of the various portable music players of the time which were either Walkman style cassette players or CD players. Headroom basically invented the portable headphone amp.

To clarify a statement from previous post, Headroom back in the early 1990s was not marketing to the general public but rather to the audio enthusiast, who they quite correctly saw as right consumer for their products. Jump ahead 10 years to the explosion of interest in headphones and headphone amps brought about by the popularity of the iPod and computer audio and there are now many headphone and headphone amp manufacturers and products to choose from.

In today's expanded headphone market Headroom still has a lot to offer their customers. Sure they're not among the less expensive amps out there and yes, their amps lack some of the "sex appeal" of many of the high end models from other manufacturers but that doesn't mean that the Headroom amps are not a good value. Headroom's informative web site, great customer service, many configuration options and 20% credit on trade-ins only adds to the value of their products. As for the Headroom's "house sound", well that's a more personal issue and not something Headroom can do much about other than redesigning their entire line to suit those people who don't like their sound.

On the other hand Headroom is constantly working on improving their product line. Sure on the outside the current line of Headroom amps haven't changed in several years but during that time Headroom introduced a new line of modules and incorporated these new models into their existing line of amps. After that they focused on building an affordable balanced desktop amp and as a byproduct to that work they now offer the new high current power supply in many of their other models.

Yes, the Headroom top of the line Max amp costs a great deal of money but since Headroom offers so many configuration options one can get a Max module in their Desktop amp for a fraction of the cost of the Max amp. And then there is the DAC option available in most of their amps which makes the amp a really nice value for those using a computer based audio system.

One thing I do notice around this forum is that Headroom amp owners seem to be much less inclined to "thread crap" on the many threads about other amps and equipment, something owners of the many other amps should learn to do. There will always be something new and exciting out there for people to rave about and many times that new product will do something as well a Headroom product and for less money but that just adds to the many choices available to the consumer. Plus Headroom is sure to respond with something new of their own, just look at the new balanced Desktop amp. Now it's the other manufacturers who have to catch up to Headroom.

One other thing, I use my Ultrasone headphones with my Headroom amps and they sound great together.

 

[gtortorella]

There are inherent limitations to op-amp designs. Here are some factual matters (regarding the signal path), presented by Justin of HeadAmp: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=211742

Also, op-amps tend to be very inexpensive, some costing $0.30 or less (yes, thrity cents). Thus, when discerning purity of design or the "best buy" among various contenders, I find the op-amp headphone amp with the high price tag difficult to justify.

 

[PhilS]

[Deleted by PhilS]

 

[greggf]

Murugesh,

As I understand it, an industrial designer is an artist who styles equipment sold by manufacturers. His or her job is to make stuff look better. To make it look downright impressive, if possible.

An example would be Raymond Loewy. Studebaker brought in Loewy, who was an independent designer and design consultant, to make its cars look better. Sexier. Hot. He had an independent viewpoint, compared to Studebaker's cornfed in-house stylists, and rapidly brought a stodgy line of cars up-to-date in the 1950's.

There's some gorgeous audio equipment. I'm thinking Ayre, just off the top of my head. Or Conrad Johnson. Or Sonus Faber. In headphone country, I'm thinking the Corda Aria (sp?), the Sugden Headmaster (what an S&M-like moniker!), the Lehmann Black Cube Linear, and the wonderful Gilmore Lite, which proves that "cute" can be a good thing and not just chintzy and babyish. The Gilmore is a delight that could fit into a museum's minimalism show and not be out of place.

Headroom plays in these manufacturer's league. The headphone business is evolving and maturing. Headroom is an upscale company now. They cater to top-tier consumers. Lord knows they've figured out how to price their products that way - Headroom gear is some of the most expensive line-by-line. The stuff needs to look that way. Headroom (and Melos) may have invented the business, but they've relied upon Wes Phillips and Stereophile far too long now.

I'm qualified to say it because I'm a human being with likes and dislikes, an artist and a writer, a consumer from birth who has been surrounded by a plethora of "bought items," a sentient creature who delights in items that give pleasure, and someone who can look at a $500 + headphone amp from one company and compare it to the $500 + headphone amps of other companies (sound aside, and value aside - those are yet more problems, and perhaps greater ones!).

Style is subjective, and likes and dislikes are subjective, but egads, how can someone take issue with someone else suggesting that hiring a design consultant might be a good move? Businesses do it every day.