Overkill, but. . .
Written: Jul 18 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Uncompromising sound quality, a pleasure to use
Cons: Expensive
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| mortalcoil's Full Review: HeadRoom The Max |
Headroom products tend to be reasonably priced (acknowledging the fact that a headphone amplifier is something most people never even consider buying), but The Max is Headroom's attempt at building a cost-no-object product. As far as high-end equipment goes, especially Stereophile Class-A stuff, it's not absurdly extravagant, but it is somewhat overbuilt.
The first thing you notice are the quarter inch-thick front and rear aluminum panels. These have no discernable function, except possibly making the unit resemble your amplifier or pre-amp, which will of course have very thick aluminum facades befitting their high-end status. I've never understood this particular fetish.
Also noteworthy is the very solid volume control, which may in fact offer some sonic benefits. It's silky smooth, with a weighty feel, and is supposedly backed by one of the best potentiometers money can buy. It puts the volume knob on my Conrad-Johnson pre-amp to shame.
The other visible features of this unit include two small recessed switches controlling the "Process" and "Filter" circuits (more on this later) and a pair of locking headphone jacks, allowing two to share the listening experience. There's also a red power LED, which is unfortunately much too bright. The unit as a whole is well-designed, so the fact that the LED is visible from a hundred feet away seems a glaring oversight, especially since in actual use you'll never be more than 10 feet from it.
Aside from the externals, what does $1300 buy you? In a word, nothing. By that I mean that the Max Headroom, when paired with a good set of headphones, puts very little between you and the music as it drives your headphones to their fullest potential. The unit adds no discernable noise or distortion to the signal, while palpably improving resolution and dynamics. Poor recordings may suffer, but good ones will sparkle against the Max's background of velvety blackness.
Besides amplification, The Max offers Headroom's standard signal-processing feature, which is designed to compensate for the most glaring artifact of headphone listening. This is the tendency for music to sound as though it's either playing directly into your ears (which it is, of course) or from the middle of your head. The point of the "Process" circuit is to create a more natural soundstage. This isn't as blatant as Surround Sound; it's actually quite subtle, but the effect is to convey a sense of space between you and the music, the illusion that the music is inhabiting a room larger than the size of your head.
In addition to the switch for enabling/disabling the "Process," there is a "Filter" switch that seems to make a frequency-response adjustment -- again, a very subtle one. I find that turning it on adds a slight amount of euphonic warmth, which may or may not suit your tastes. I generally leave both Process and Filter on; ironically, perhaps, the extra processing seems to deliver the most natural, artifact-free listening.
I can't say whether this is absolutely the best headphone amplifier out there. It is probably the best one that offers Headroom's signal-processor, which in my opinion is a very important feature. Still, like most audiophile equipment, it sits squarely in the territory of diminishing returns. Is it twice as good as another Headroom amp costing half as much? Of course not. But are you going to find anything significantly better than the Max at any price? Not likely.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mortalcoil
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Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 85
Trusted by: 9 members
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