Poor sounding and expensive Amp
Written: Apr 22 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great Volume control
Cons: Poor sound, Expensive
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| amir1234's Full Review: HeadRoom The Max |
After having excellent luck with the Airhead portable amp from Headroom, I figured I go all out and buy their top of the line Amp, the Max. Boy, what a disappointment. The Max sounds cold, lacking in low-level detail and resolutin when driving my HD-600 headphones (which are very inefficient). This was a huge step down in quality when compared to my current pre-amp, a Rotel. The Rotel has no trouble pushing the HD-600s to the highest levels desirable. Compared to the Rotel, the Max seems anemic, producing just moderate audio level. This is very surprising since the #1 function of a headphone amplifier is to boost the output level.
Beyond the low-audio level, the Max lacks low-level detail and generally sounds very cold and slight bright. The ambiance is all gone, and the sound generally unpleasant. This is quite amazing given the fact that the Rotel pre-amp lists for $995 and the Max for $1333.
Another problem worth noting is the unbuffered output connections. They are simply pass-through connectors from the inputs. So, anything that you hook up upstream of the Max will degrade its sound.
Now, it is possible that my sample is defective. I have contacted headroom but unfortunately, they have not yet returned my emails. Unless I hear otherwise, I will be returning the amp to them.
BTW, the Max got similarly poor ratings in a recent review of headphone amplifiers in one of the audio magazines. They said it provided no sonic value and sounded "cold and dark".
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
amir1234
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 2 members
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