11/21/2023 0 Comments Benchmark headphone ampCompromises? What compromises, when everything was crafted with discrete components, biased into Class-A/B operation in a fully balanced quad-mono design, all driven by the smartest power supply out there. Offering some whooping 10 Watts per channel in 32 Ohms, 8 Watts in 60 Ohms and up to 1.6 Watts in 300 Ohms, OOR can drive pretty much anything, declaring war to most TOTL headphone amplifiers. OOR might look as the smallest unit of the bunch, but you should never judge a book by its cover, as it’s one of the most powerful units out there. Ferrum Audio tested waters with an intelligent power supply unit that got its own name and a few months later, they unveiled their top dog headphone amplifier. But there was a fourth player that entered the arena, as if their confidence was over 9000. Was it pure coincidence or the thunder god heard my prayers I was murmuring before bed time last year? Without a single doubt, 2021 was The Absolute Best year for headphone enthusiasts, as Flux Labs Acoustics released the kraken with their mighty Volot, Burson Audio outdid themselves with their Soloist 3X Grand Tourer, Enleum changed their hide (Bakoon Int.) and shooked the world with a brand-new AMP-23R current driven amplifier. As years passed, I’ve tried plenty of small and big headphone amplifiers, but the ones that were unlocking my imagination were all-discrete units, unshackled by the limitations put in place by tiny operational amplifiers (op-amps). Commercial headphone amplifiers didn’t exist and people as Pow Chu Moy (Rest in Peace), Jan Meier, Ti Kan, Kevin Gilmore and Tyll Hertsens started paving the ground for future designs, unleashing two decades of ground breaking innovations, creating a beautiful hobby for all of us. I was trying to push a pair of Sennheiser HD580 much further, unlocking their majestic midrange and at that time, it was the only option a headphone junkie could get. A tiny circuit board, a single dual op-amp, a couple of film resistors, two capacitors, a volume knob and a 9V battery was everything a headphone enthusiast needed to unlock the sleeping beauty behind his headphones. I felt so accomplished, as if I’ve done something spectacular, having learned the unknown. I’ve soldered it myself, I’ve put the cMoy in a card board box and wrapped it with tin foil, as an aluminum case was out of my reach in distant student years. I still remember as if it was yesterday when HeadWize (the first headphone enthusiast forum) started offering a simple battery powered headphone amplifier DIY kit that I’ve purchased out of pure curiosity.
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