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Headphones Denon AH-D7000 Headphones and Headroom Ultra Desktop Headphone Amplifier - Page 6: Conclusions about the Denon AH-D7000 Headphones and Headroom Amplifier
Headphones Denon AH-D7000 Headphones and Headroom Ultra Desktop Headphone Amplifier - Page 6: Conclusions about the Denon AH-D7000 Headphones and Headroom Amplifier
Headphones
| Denon AH-D7000 Headphones and Headroom Ultra Desktop Headphone Amplifier - Page 6: Conclusions about the Denon AH-D7000 Headphones and Headroom Amplifier |
| Written by Chris Groppi |
| Thursday, 23 April 2009 00:00 |
|
Page 6 of 6
Conclusions Listening to headphones is a different experience that listening to loudspeakers, for sure. If you are looking for the best possible sound quality (i.e. frequency response, clarity, tonal accuracy, retrieval of detail, imaging, soundstaging, etc), at the lowest possible cost, headphones are unbeatable. The Denon AH-D7000s, when powered by the HeadRoom Ultra Desktop amplifier and DAC, offer world beating performance at something like 1/10 or 1/20 the price of admission for an equivalent loudspeaker based system. I covet the AH-D7000s and the HeadRoom Ultra Desktop amp. They make working at my desk a much more pleasant and relaxing experience. I will not be letting them leave. Comments (9)
Great review....
written by Roy , April 24, 2009 I have a question.....you state that you have ripped all your DVD-Audio files to Apple Lossless and/or FLAC. Might I ask how you did this? I've searched high and low to figure out how to do this. The best I've done so far is rip the Dolby Digital tracks to stereo WAV files and then convert them to Apple Lossless using iTunes. I have an Apple TV connected to my main system, so I'm hoping that I would even be able to feed high-res and/or surround sound to my system using the Apple TV as a wireless bridge. Any thoughts?
DVDA Explorer
written by CG , April 26, 2009 There is a program for Windows called DVDAExplorer that is capable of ripping DVD-A high res files to WAV, which you can then transcode to FLAC or ALC using Foobar2000, iTunes or whatever you prefer. This program can also downmix multi-channel DVD-A tracks to 2-channel if desired. This is what I did. Do a google search to find it online. Apple TV does not support high res audio, only 44.1/16 bit, at least the last time I checked. If this has changed, please let me know! To get high res to my home system, I plug my laptop directly into my DAC with a mini to toslink optical cable. I would prefer the Apple TV rather than draping a cable across my living room. At least apple laptops and desktops (including the Mac Mini) support at least 24 bit 96 kHz from their optical outputs.
Great Review....
written by Roy , April 27, 2009 Thanks for the info. I was able to locate DVDA Explorer and was successful at ripping both the hi-res stereo and hi-res surround tracks to WAV files. However, Itunes didn't seem to like importing the hi-res surround tracks (i.e., it wouldn't add them to the library). But I was able to get the hi-res stereo tracks into iTunes and was able to convert them to Apple Lossless. You're not mistaken about Apple TV....when I tried to sync the hi-res stereo tracks to Apple TV I got an error that it doesn't support those bit rates....bummer. Hopefully a hack exists somewhere (assuming it's not hardware limited) that will get Apple TV to play hi-res audio tracks (stereo or surround).
Nice review
written by Grant , April 29, 2009 You're making me drool here. For the money, are they that much different than say a $1000 set up?
That depends...
written by CG , April 30, 2009 You could get maybe 80% the way to this setup with the standard Headroom Desktop amp with DAC and the Denon AH-D5000 headphones. That would run you about $1500. You'd lose the super low, powerful bass of the 7000s, although the 5000s bass is still very good. Better than any Sennheiser I've heard. I have not spent much time with the standard headroom desktop amp, but my guess would be that you'd lose a bit of the clarity, speed and precision that the Ultra delivers. The standard DAC does not have the 24/192 upsampling feature of the Max DAC used in the ultra desktop, and the standard amp does not use the super OPA627 op-amps. Both amps bias their op amps into full class-A operation with a constant current source. To get down to $1000, you'd either have to get the desktop amp without a DAC, or go to headroom's micro line with the micro amp and micro dac at $666 for the pair. I have not listened to the micro line, so I don't know how much performance you'd lose. For computer audio on the desk, the DAC is very important, though. Analog audio outputs from computers are uniformly crap unless you already have a very expensive pro soundcard. Either the Denon AH-D2000 or Sennheiser HD-600 headphones would be a fine choice.
more headphone reviews please.
written by Rich , June 01, 2009 Good reviews, just wondering why there aren't more headphone reviews, since it is a Hifi items. Well I am looking at a new set of cans. If you guys can reviews middle-level and high end cans that would be great. Like Grado 325 & RS1, AKG 702, Sennheiser 6xx series.
headroom headphone amp, replace audiophile 2496?
written by Rick , November 10, 2009 I have and audiophile 2496 card in my computer right now, but i'm thinking of getting the headroom headphone amp, the 999 dollar one. Other than using it with headphones of course, it looks it would send a great signal to my mackie speakers as well, eliminating the need for the 2496 completely.
Hold on a minute...
written by CG , November 11, 2009 I would not replace the 2496. You still need to get a signal to the headroom amp. It has a USB connection, but 16-44.1 only. I use the audiophile 2496 to send a digital signal (with an RCA SPDIF cable) to the headroom amp. This is far superior to USB, at least with the headroom amp. Write comment
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