Great for portability, not audiophile grade
Written: Jul 29 '00 (Updated Sep 09 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Portable, decent sound quality
Cons: A little too noisy
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| mpanoff's Full Review: HeadRoom AirHead |
This is a great amp for portable use, I've used it on many occasion with both my laptop and my Dennon DCP-150 (the worlds greatest portable CD layer) paired with my Sennheiser HD495 headphones. It does what it's basically designed to do, provide adequate power to your headphones, which almost all portable devices fail miserably at. I was quite surprised how much of the sound is missing without a dedicated headphone amp. Music sound thicker, richer, and more dynamic. My major complaint is the noisiness of the unit. There is this persistent electro buzz, you know that annoying buzz that some electronic equipment loves to make (like a grounding problem). The degree of noise has a lot to do with what kind of headphones you use, for instance, the noise is somewhat perceptible with the HD495 but absolutely unacceptable with the Grado SR60. I bet it has something to do with the headphone load. Battery life is actually quite decent, about 20 CDs worth. It also has that nifty headroom processor circuit, which can be switched on or off. Bear with me, it can be difficult to convey how something "sounds". In 50 words or less, the processor re-spatializes the left/right centric sound of headphone listening to a soundstage closer to traditional loud-speaker listening. You get something that sounds a little fuller with things moving a little closer to center and somewhat spread across the soundstage. This is very noticeable with older jazz recordings that have instruments hard left or right, all of a sudden they shift slightly inward, providing, in my humble opinion, a less fatiguing more realistic listening experience.
Overall a good unit, not perfect, and not for the audiophile connoisseur. Maybe a little overpriced for what you get. Then, on the other hand, there isn't much happening in the portable headphone amp arena.
Quick note, headphone amps are designed to be used with quality headphones. I'm not talking about some cheap Sony cans you picked up at the local mega-super-home-entertainment-extravaganza store. Personally I'm a fan of Sennheiser headphones, comfort and quality... but that's another epinion.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mpanoff
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Location: Hermosa Beach, CA
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 14 members
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