Total Airhead?

[Honus]

Every time I think I've decided on a portable amp; my mind is changed by comments or reviews in this forum. I've become curious about the Total Airhead. Headroom is a sponsor of this forum, and as such, I would like to support them. However, I've not read any posts recently about their amps. Should I consider the Total Airhead?

Other contenders are:
Portafile V2
Porta Corda
Xin Super Mini

Just waiting to lighten my wallet!

 

[justhavingfun]

I have been using Total Airhead for several years now. I have the older one and not the new one. It is the one with gold decal over black casing. This Total Airhead has been traveling literally around the world with me since I am an active duty US Army soldier. When I deployed to Iraq recently, having Total Airhead made my airplane travel and sleeping inside the tent that much tolerable. It is solid performer with excellent battery life. It uses two AA batteries and it is very easy to change. I paired it with Etymotic ER4S but this amp is capable of driving just about any quality headphones out in the market. If you bought Total Airhead, you will probably be very happy with its performance and Headroom's customer support is excellent in my experience.

Having said that, I recently had a chance to listen to Z-audio amp made by Ty Morita (Zemo) Lambda amp. Now this amp is clearly in another league compare to Total Airhead as far as sound quality goes. The price is about the same and little bit thicker in size but not necessarily bigger. And it uses two 9v batteries and little difficult to change but now Ty will include the DC jack and rechargeable capability. I haven't heard his two other less expensive amps (they are smaller than Lambda) but judging from Lambda sound, I bet they are compare to Total Airhead as far as sound quality goes. Clearly Headroom is well respected in headphone amp business and they have variety of models to choose from and they will back up their products in service. You can always return any Headroom models for full refund if you are not completely satisfied within 30 days. Good luck in your purchase.

 

[Honus]

Thanks for the input justhavingfun. I will check out Zemo.

 

[replytoken]

IIRC, there was a post (and mini-review) about a year or two ago when the newest generation Airheads and Bitheads were released. I have an older Airhead and the newest TotalAirhead. I do not use them much any more, but they (and Headroom) have served me and my Ety ER-4's well. I cannot compare them with other portables as I have not had any others for any length of time. They seem like the Toyota Camy of portable amps - reasonably priced, and they run forever and seem to do all things well enough. And if you do not like your Airhead, they seem to sell on the FS Board. Good luck!