I never really considered the need for headphone amps-- but then, before this, I also never owned a decent set of headphones. I've been using these with my Sennheiser HD580's, and it sounds amazing, and now I see the point.

A while back, I was looking for a new pair of headphones, and found the HD580's, which were right at the top of my price range. The recommendation was that they be used with a headphone amp, though, and so I looked around. I have to admit, I bought this because it was the cheapest thing out there, and because it had good reviews that didn't just say, "Well, it's cheap." As far as I can tell, it's the best thing you'll find for less than 200 bucks, though, and considering it's meant to be a portable device, with all the hazards of breakage and theft that that implies, I don't think I'd want to spend more. So, it's a good thing the Airhead amp fills that niche.

The audio image processing provided by the amp also makes a great deal of difference when listening through headphones for a great length of time. It has significantly cut the amount of ear fatigue I feel after listening to a few albums in a row, which is important to me, since I tend to sit at work listening to CDs through this amp. It also has a much longer battery life than I expected-- I change batteries maybe once every month or two, after listening to it for several hours a day. That's certainly acceptable.I think it has better battery life than my CD player, even (a Panasonic SL-CT470).

The only drawback is the case itself-- it's really cheap molded plastic, although it's a nice enough design that it doesn't really stand out as cheap unless you pick it up, when it becomes obvious how light it is. But heck, I'd rather they spend more on the electronics than on the case, personally. The markings on the case are a little hard to read, is all, since they're just molded in.

I'm quite happy with it, and I don't hesitate to recommend the Airhead amp to friends.

It also looks like it's been replaced in the Headroom product line with a higher-performance version for about the same price, and with a sticker on the case so you can actually read the labels for the switches. It looks like an improvement to me...



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 159