Price Paid:  $529.00 from headroom

Summary:
Headphones are usually given little thought. They come packaged with personal CD players and are widely considered disposable. This is unfortunate, as headphones can be so much more than cheap plastic speakers clipped to your head. A proper headphone system provides a listening experience of remarkable intensity, second only to a masterful live performance. When listening to a quality headphone system your world compresses, shedding all non-music elements, until the listener is left only with sound and self. Not at all like loudspeakers, which mimic a live performance; but rather headphones are a port to the ____ness of the recording. This means that a good headphone system demands excellent production, exposing every flaw and every scrap of gimmickry used to camouflage a shoddy vocal or clumsy instrumentation. The Wheatfield Audio HA-1 is a tube headphone amp that provides a listening experience unmatched by any solid-state headphone amp. It delivers every detail no matter how minute, yet is able to handle the broad strokes of bass and large percussion without sounding weak. Vocals are liquid and transparent, resulting in the impression that the listener is the microphone. It is ideal for listeners with far-flung musical taste, strings and ethereal vocals are unadulterated, while distorted guitars are given all the manic energy they demand; steam or tsunami, the HA-1 is perfectly adapted. Evaluated either on pure performance, or on performance-per-dollar the HA-1 is brilliant.

Strengths:
This amp is a direct broadband connection to the musician’s brain.

Weaknesses:
You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff that is floating around in there.

Price Paid:  $550.00 from headroom

Summary:
Very nice amp with grado-rs-1. sound sweet and dynamic for tube amp. need tube upgrade to perform their best. great match with meridian digital. (ac and rca by transparent cable) worth every penny

Strengths:
sound like good upper end amp. good dynamic sweet sounding 3d soundstage. ( good powersupply)

Weaknesses:
not well design volume control. unbalance at low level

Similar Products Used:
stax. headroom

Summary:
If you have a good pair of headphones and don't yet have a headphone amp to make them sing, this is a wonderfully good place to start no matter what kind of music you enjoy. I listen to blues, pop, rock, classical, jazz, and a lot of new age music. Everything sounds it's best through this headphone amplifier.

I enjoy listening to music on a variety of different systems, each a trade-off on price, size, and performance. However, even my best electronic preamplifier (NAD Monitor Series 1700), which succeeds in producing great sound from a wide range of amplifiers and speakers, including my own and those of my audiophile friends, doesn't have a headphone jack that can come close to the sound from the HA-1. The HA-1 has a lower output impedance (~30 ohms), a single gain stage, and generates the most open and effortless sound from my Beyerdyamics DT831s (a good choice in a closed headphone for taking out some of that unwanted background noise). If you wants something warm and lush sounding, try a CJ or perhaps the HA-2.

Get one, and rediscover your entire music collection. I did. And BTW, even though it is not the most beautiful piece of electronics in my collection, it does thankfully look a little better in person than in the photographs.

Associated equipment:
DT831 headphones (250 ohm impedance)
Sony Headphones (much lower impedance)
TEAC RWH300 CD player/recorder

Other equipment includes:
Rotel RCD855 CD player
NAD 1700 Tuner/Preamp (150 ohm headphone output impedance)
Carver TFM-25 Power amplifier (225 W/C)
KEF Reference Series Model 102 with KEF Cube

NAD C740 receiver, PSB Alpha Mini Speakers, Technics SLMC7 CD Changer, Parasound Z-amp (30 W/C), Outdoor speakers, various minisystems

Strengths:
Neutral, natural, musical sound. Drives most dynamic headphones easily, Preamp outputs, low noise.

Weaknesses:
Slight L/R imbalance at very low volume levels

Similar Products Used:
I've owned no other dedicate headphone amps, but many components with headphone jacks

Price Paid:  $529.00 from Headroom

Summary:
This was purchased in the feeble attempt to find a product that had both the incredible openess of the Headmaster and the lush sweetness of the Earmax. I have to admit the soundstage was quite good. Not as wide as the Headmaster but with the benefit of some tube ambience. It's all downhill from there though. This amps greatest sin is the midrange. It's paper thin, honky, and slightly forward up top. Vocals are downright nasal. The bass is nice and tight and goes low enough but suffers from the lack of any sense of weight. Treble is veiled and abruptly cut off. This amp would be right at home with the $270 budget amps, but at $529 it's incompetant at best. For a bit more money the Earmax is so much better it isn't even funny. Thank God for Headroom's return policy.

Strengths:
Open and 3d sound. Well built.

Weaknesses:
Severe lack of presence. Cheap pot. Ugly.

Similar Products Used:
Headroom Airhead, ASL MG-Head DT, X-Cans V2, Sugden Headmaster, Earmax Pro.

Price Paid:  $529.00 from Direct

Summary:
A very smooth sounding amplifier, with no detectable noise, great with the Sennheiser headphones, models HD-580 and 600. Great build quality and circuit layout, cabinet has plenty of ventilation for heat, sturdy, cream color with aluminum front panel. Something besides basic black, perhaps Mr. Millett will add black as an opotional color in the future. The unit does as its design is intended to give you the most musical sound for the money, which is a steal compared to other systems. Build quality is first rate and will last a long time. Amplifier uses the 12AU7 tube for the front end and the triode 7044 outputs, Highly recommended overall for ALL headphone load inputs!

Strengths:
Very musical, low noise, balanced sound from top to bottom, three dimensional sound stage, with very smooth midrange

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
Stax Pro