cancausecancer
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2009
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I bought a Pro-ject Headbox MkII amp here in Europe. Plugging into it reduces the quality of my sound from audiophile to averageville. I think I just learned that not all amps are audiophile.
I read up a lot about this amp and amps in general (like pretty much everyone does). What I expected was better sound over a non-amped situation. What I got was access to lower frequencies at the expense of clarity/detail/highs. The sound is easily better without this amp but that's the polar opposite of what I expected and what most other people would expect. I can't be alone in this. I leave the amp unplugged because there is no point in paying so much for headphones if they're going to play the same quality as a $100 pair.
Can someone else with this amp, a good source and a good set of headphones compare sound quality vs unamped? Or if someone has a good set of cans that also run unamped, can you test if your clarity/detail/highs lessen when going thru the amp?
Here is my review of the Pro-ject Head Box II, I tested using amp vs not-amp. If you don't want to read everything then just speed read the bold text only.
For it's size it's a heavy piece of equipment. I compare the weight to holding a 1 liter bottle of water in the hand. It's like a mini tank.
For testing it, my source is a Xonar D2X using foobar 2000 w/asio. I'm using HD 600 headphones, a FIM audiophile reference disc and McIntosh audiophile reference disc (both lossless).
Without this amp, with the HD 600s straight into the Xonar, music has a lot of clarity and feels very precise, it's easy to appreciate the sound. The xylophone in Canon in D - All Star Percussion Ensemble on the FIM disc sounds very clear and very distinct, it is easy to pick out the separate instruments and there is a lot of fun listening to everything in this piece. The violins in Starker plays Kodaly from McIntosh Audiophile Test Reference #02 sound beautiful. You get a lot of detail and it almost feels like you can see the strings.
When going thru the amp things change. The audio quality lessens and the clarity in the top range has disappeared, the highs aren't there like before. The xylophones don't sound as real nor distinct. The instruments blend in together a bit so it's not as easy to separate them by their sound and enjoy each one individually as it is without the amp. The violins in Starker Plays Kodaly on the McIntosh cd sound very plain, they've lost the luster and detail and there is nothing distinct to focus on.
The amp brings out more lows so you hear more/lower bass which is nice because without the amp you can see you are missing some of it (not enough to write home about though). I also did some comparing using a Christina Aguilera CD and the bass is better with the amp but I don't miss it when I remove the amp because the audio quality suffers enough that I may as well have loaded up youtube and used it for my source.
I would recommend this amp for people who listen to tracks of wind blowing or tracks of groups stomping their feet. If your headphones or source are low quality then you have nothing to lose and this amp will give you some nicer bass.
I would not recommend this amp if your headphones and source are high quality, the loss of quality will make it unusable. The more quality in your setup, the more you'll not want your setup to be brought down to the quality of this amp.
I read up a lot about this amp and amps in general (like pretty much everyone does). What I expected was better sound over a non-amped situation. What I got was access to lower frequencies at the expense of clarity/detail/highs. The sound is easily better without this amp but that's the polar opposite of what I expected and what most other people would expect. I can't be alone in this. I leave the amp unplugged because there is no point in paying so much for headphones if they're going to play the same quality as a $100 pair.
Can someone else with this amp, a good source and a good set of headphones compare sound quality vs unamped? Or if someone has a good set of cans that also run unamped, can you test if your clarity/detail/highs lessen when going thru the amp?
Here is my review of the Pro-ject Head Box II, I tested using amp vs not-amp. If you don't want to read everything then just speed read the bold text only.
For it's size it's a heavy piece of equipment. I compare the weight to holding a 1 liter bottle of water in the hand. It's like a mini tank.
For testing it, my source is a Xonar D2X using foobar 2000 w/asio. I'm using HD 600 headphones, a FIM audiophile reference disc and McIntosh audiophile reference disc (both lossless).
Without this amp, with the HD 600s straight into the Xonar, music has a lot of clarity and feels very precise, it's easy to appreciate the sound. The xylophone in Canon in D - All Star Percussion Ensemble on the FIM disc sounds very clear and very distinct, it is easy to pick out the separate instruments and there is a lot of fun listening to everything in this piece. The violins in Starker plays Kodaly from McIntosh Audiophile Test Reference #02 sound beautiful. You get a lot of detail and it almost feels like you can see the strings.
When going thru the amp things change. The audio quality lessens and the clarity in the top range has disappeared, the highs aren't there like before. The xylophones don't sound as real nor distinct. The instruments blend in together a bit so it's not as easy to separate them by their sound and enjoy each one individually as it is without the amp. The violins in Starker Plays Kodaly on the McIntosh cd sound very plain, they've lost the luster and detail and there is nothing distinct to focus on.
The amp brings out more lows so you hear more/lower bass which is nice because without the amp you can see you are missing some of it (not enough to write home about though). I also did some comparing using a Christina Aguilera CD and the bass is better with the amp but I don't miss it when I remove the amp because the audio quality suffers enough that I may as well have loaded up youtube and used it for my source.
I would recommend this amp for people who listen to tracks of wind blowing or tracks of groups stomping their feet. If your headphones or source are low quality then you have nothing to lose and this amp will give you some nicer bass.
I would not recommend this amp if your headphones and source are high quality, the loss of quality will make it unusable. The more quality in your setup, the more you'll not want your setup to be brought down to the quality of this amp.
