aragorn18
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2003
- Posts
- 62
- Likes
- 11
I've had my new maxed-out HeadRoom Desktop amp for 4 days now and I wanted to get some initial thoughts down on...ummm...paper?
Background: I have owned a pair of HD-600's since Dec. '03. I've never used them amped before. I also own a portable system consisting of an iPod, '04 Total AirHead and Ety ER-4Ps which I absolutely love.
Equipment: At home I listen to all of my music out of my computer. About half of it is stored in APE lossless format. The rest is MP3. Previously I used the headphone output from the SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro. This has an external breakout box that does the D-to-A outside of the computer case. I connected the Desktop through a Monster Cable coax from the digital output on the sound card.
The amp is HeadRoom's top-of-the-line Desktop with Max DAC, Max output stage, desktop power supply and stepped attenuator.
This is feeding a pair of stock Sennheiser HD-600's. The package I bought came with AKG K701's but they're still burning in so I'll reserve judgement on those until later.
Out of the box experience: HeadRoom packages everything well without anything flashy. There was no printing or artwork on the boxes. The amp and power supply are shipped in two identical boxes. Included with the amp was a very nice manual that had some cool HeadRoom stickers inside. I'm not 100% sure an amp needs a 12 page manual but it's a nice touch. Even if you buy the desktop power supply they still include the wall-wart transformer so I guess you could so some A-B tests to see the exact impact of the power supply.
The power supply comes with a substantial length of power cable (4-6 foot if I had to guess) so that you can place your amp just where you need it.
Sound: What I'm sure you're all most interested in. You'll have to forgive me because I'm very poor at describing sounds with words. I'll do my best. Also, I haven't listened critically to my entire collection so I only have a few areas that I really analyzed.
Detail was most definitely increased with the amp. But, it didn't really blow me away. Guitar chords sounded more textured. Background vocals that were always there came a bit more to the fore. However, this wasn't one of the moments where I heard things that I had never heard before.
Vocals are a place where this amp shines. Female voices sounded fuller. The upper reaches sounded like they had been hollow before and only now was I hearing it correctly. They had an almost resonant quality in my head when a high note was hit. Male voices weren't affected as much other than I was able to hear certain sub-vocalizations (breathing in, mouth changing shape) more than I could before.
Bass was something that I had always felt was lacking on the 600's so I was keenly interested in seeing if the new amp made a change. If I had to describe the bass in one word, it would be "authoritative". Running straight out of the sound card, I could tell when a bass note was played and then it was gone. With the Desktop the bass notes demanded to be heard. I felt them much more than I did before. Angel by Massive Attack went from a song that I listened to for the vocals to a bass extravaganza. I could feel as each note hit my head. Bass guitars especially sound great.
Percussion is perhaps the biggest change that I noted. Instead of just being a note I could hear the instrument vibrating. (I really hope that makes sense) Something I wasn't prepared for was the black between the notes. Percussion hits were very clearly distinguished from each other and I found that I liked the effect.
If there was anything that I felt as a whole about the sound it was that I was finally hearing the music as it was meant to be heard. This means that everything that was recorded is now in my ears. What it also means is that the amp is not coloring the music. It's neither adding nor detracting from what's there.
Issues: I didn't experience a complete shock at the quality difference between the sound from the Desktop and the sound out of my sound card. I'm not sure if any headphone amp could make the difference I was looking for, but I was hoping for more from a $2,000 investment.
The crossfeed circuit was a major letdown. I've been reading from TheSloth and others just how awesome this feature was in the new HeadRoom amps but I honestly just couldn't hear it. I even listened to some really hard-panned pieces and could not hear the difference between it being on and off. I confirmed that the circuit is working by generating two tones, one in each channel, but that was the only time I could tell. The soundstage was not affected at all as far as I could tell. All of the music still sounded like it was inside my head instead of an enveloping environment.
It may be niggling but I was unimpressed with the quality of the tiny switches on the front and back of the unit.
Overall impressions: The HeadRoom Desktop is a very nice amp that is able to drive my headphones to a level that I haven't heard before. The power, clarity and texture of the music are head and shoulders above what I was listening to before. In the end, it just sounds better. Is it $2,000 better? I don't know, I've got 26 more days to make the decision
Background: I have owned a pair of HD-600's since Dec. '03. I've never used them amped before. I also own a portable system consisting of an iPod, '04 Total AirHead and Ety ER-4Ps which I absolutely love.
Equipment: At home I listen to all of my music out of my computer. About half of it is stored in APE lossless format. The rest is MP3. Previously I used the headphone output from the SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro. This has an external breakout box that does the D-to-A outside of the computer case. I connected the Desktop through a Monster Cable coax from the digital output on the sound card.
The amp is HeadRoom's top-of-the-line Desktop with Max DAC, Max output stage, desktop power supply and stepped attenuator.
This is feeding a pair of stock Sennheiser HD-600's. The package I bought came with AKG K701's but they're still burning in so I'll reserve judgement on those until later.
Out of the box experience: HeadRoom packages everything well without anything flashy. There was no printing or artwork on the boxes. The amp and power supply are shipped in two identical boxes. Included with the amp was a very nice manual that had some cool HeadRoom stickers inside. I'm not 100% sure an amp needs a 12 page manual but it's a nice touch. Even if you buy the desktop power supply they still include the wall-wart transformer so I guess you could so some A-B tests to see the exact impact of the power supply.
The power supply comes with a substantial length of power cable (4-6 foot if I had to guess) so that you can place your amp just where you need it.
Sound: What I'm sure you're all most interested in. You'll have to forgive me because I'm very poor at describing sounds with words. I'll do my best. Also, I haven't listened critically to my entire collection so I only have a few areas that I really analyzed.
Detail was most definitely increased with the amp. But, it didn't really blow me away. Guitar chords sounded more textured. Background vocals that were always there came a bit more to the fore. However, this wasn't one of the moments where I heard things that I had never heard before.
Vocals are a place where this amp shines. Female voices sounded fuller. The upper reaches sounded like they had been hollow before and only now was I hearing it correctly. They had an almost resonant quality in my head when a high note was hit. Male voices weren't affected as much other than I was able to hear certain sub-vocalizations (breathing in, mouth changing shape) more than I could before.
Bass was something that I had always felt was lacking on the 600's so I was keenly interested in seeing if the new amp made a change. If I had to describe the bass in one word, it would be "authoritative". Running straight out of the sound card, I could tell when a bass note was played and then it was gone. With the Desktop the bass notes demanded to be heard. I felt them much more than I did before. Angel by Massive Attack went from a song that I listened to for the vocals to a bass extravaganza. I could feel as each note hit my head. Bass guitars especially sound great.
Percussion is perhaps the biggest change that I noted. Instead of just being a note I could hear the instrument vibrating. (I really hope that makes sense) Something I wasn't prepared for was the black between the notes. Percussion hits were very clearly distinguished from each other and I found that I liked the effect.
If there was anything that I felt as a whole about the sound it was that I was finally hearing the music as it was meant to be heard. This means that everything that was recorded is now in my ears. What it also means is that the amp is not coloring the music. It's neither adding nor detracting from what's there.
Issues: I didn't experience a complete shock at the quality difference between the sound from the Desktop and the sound out of my sound card. I'm not sure if any headphone amp could make the difference I was looking for, but I was hoping for more from a $2,000 investment.
The crossfeed circuit was a major letdown. I've been reading from TheSloth and others just how awesome this feature was in the new HeadRoom amps but I honestly just couldn't hear it. I even listened to some really hard-panned pieces and could not hear the difference between it being on and off. I confirmed that the circuit is working by generating two tones, one in each channel, but that was the only time I could tell. The soundstage was not affected at all as far as I could tell. All of the music still sounded like it was inside my head instead of an enveloping environment.
It may be niggling but I was unimpressed with the quality of the tiny switches on the front and back of the unit.
Overall impressions: The HeadRoom Desktop is a very nice amp that is able to drive my headphones to a level that I haven't heard before. The power, clarity and texture of the music are head and shoulders above what I was listening to before. In the end, it just sounds better. Is it $2,000 better? I don't know, I've got 26 more days to make the decision
