Dvdlucena
100+ Head-Fier
One word answer EQUAL ?!?
It has a dedicated headphone stage with the HDAM-SA2 module according to Marantz website. Wouldn't be surprised if they are exactly the same
A lot of these new compact lifestyle amplifiers also from the likes of Quad, Cyrus and Denon have dedicated and presumably good quality built in headphone amps. If you have speakers as well as headphones this means you don't necessarily have to have another box anymore. The features these amps have makes a lot of the headphone amps out there look very expensive. Of course a lot of people on headfi will remain dismissive of integrated amplifiers.
The CD player (see above) that has been added to the range also has the same module. Hence for someone (like me, mainly) who listens to headphones only via CD that's probably a nice one box solution as well
and how about sound quality? I saw that the dac chip is different from the dac 1 vs amp 1.
Have you or someone else made this comparison?
Thank you