Sonic Survival Kit

I have not talked about the issue much on my blog - many find the topic boring or pointless - but I have been starved for good music over here. Not starved for good bands or good tunes, but listening through my iPod, I know I am not hearing it all. I took a big step forward this week with the arrival from Germany of a headphone amp. What!? Are you crazy!? I didn't know such things existed!? Why headphones, you ask, when clearly my heart lies in full stereo reproduction? The short answer is that I have to get this thing home next year. As an interesting side note to my research for the perfect amp; China's entrance onto the world hi-fi stage has vastly changed the scene. Now there are $300 Chinese tube amps that make a very strong challenge to $700 European units. Again, solidifying my view that technology and the market place are the great equalizers in hifi. But a tube amp, being a bit too delicate, would have been an absolute nightmare to get home. As it stands now, the Aria's small compact nature and military grade build will assure it's return trip in one piece. Also playing a roll in the purchase was the fact that most of my music here is in a digital format. The brilliance of this unit is that it has a built-in DAC (digital/analogue converter). This means I can bypass my Powerbook's dinky DAC and line-out through the USB and use my unit's better DAC. (Computer's are notoriously noise machines.)

But what does a dedicated amp do to headphones? First, it follows that one owns a pair of headphones that can benefit from a dedicated amp. I have Sennheiser 595s, which are about as high performance you can get without starting to see diminishing returns. (The first time I put them on and listened to Johnny Cash it put a smile on my face.) My amp has a nice power supply, which cleans the power coming into the unit. And while the amp is only slightly more powerful than anything found on a computer or iPod, it's frequency response is several times more accurate, dramatically increasing the resolution. Also improved are the dynamics. Quick changes from quiet and loud in music (and also, to a lesser degree, in the leading edges of notes) call for a lot of power to be accurately provided. Something most headphone units just aren't to up. Secondly, the benefit I get from a dedicated headphone amp is somewhat counter-intuitive. A dedicated headphone amp actually allows me to listen at a lower volume and still keep the entire sonic picture intact. (This being a long established fact in the hifi audio world.) Low level detail and dynamics are not affected by changes in volume which makes listening at lower volume (I aim for 60db) a much more pleasing experience, especially, if like me, one intends on enjoying the recorded arts for decades to come.