much as the headroom is a nice amp, to be brutally honest you'd be better off buying a Sugden Headmaster. it is by way of it's effortless transparency, simply a better amp. i think it's worth saying too - it's twice as beautiful as the headroom. :)

Have had a full refund from Headroom for the returned product. So consider my former email undone. Vincent van Romondt

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Sorry to disturb the positive spheres some reviewers are in. I just want to say that I had an unpleasant experience with headroom when returning a product. I heard rumours of headroom staff not answering emails before. Well this happened to me to. After returning a product from the Netherlands I have in vain tried to contact the company. Emails are not answered and a confirmation of the return seems beyond their understanding. It is hard to imagine that a reasonable letter to the manager and president of the company is left unanswered. But that is a fact. So do not overly be impressed by their smooth return policy as stated on the internet or a number of positive reviews. Their consumer friendly attitude has a very short span. Very well possible ofcourse that another person has another experience. But mine is a fact to. I will inform you when I see some of my original investment of $500 back. Vincent van Romondt

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Sorry to disturb the positive spheres some reviewers are in. I just want to say that I had an unpleasant experience with headroom when returning a product. I heard rumours of headroom staff not answering emails before. Well this happened to me to. After returning a product from the Netherlands I have in vain tried to contact the company. Emails are not answered and a confirmation of the return seems beyond their understanding. It is hard to imagine that a reasonable letter to the manager and president of the company is left unanswered. But that is a fact. So do not overly be impressed by their smooth return policy as stated on the internet or a number of positive reviews. Their consumer friendly attitude has a very short span. Very well possible ofcourse that another person has another experience. But mine is a fact to. I will inform you when I see some of my original investment of $500 back. Vincent van Romondt

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Build quality, slam, detail, speed, blackness between notes, clarity, service, support, and warranty. The Max is also very versatile, and works well with a wide varity of different headphones.

Price, some of the switches are on the back panel, and no remote control.

This amp has the ability to be quick, and dynamic at the same time with very good clarity. The Max has great detail in the treble without over doing it like other solid-states I have heard. Most solid-state amps don't cut it in the midrange, but the Max comes the closest to the the liquidity, and richness of O.T.L. designs. It offers a balance between extremely revealing, and liquid smooth. There may be other headphone amps with more treble on the top-end, or boom in the bass, but none have the build quality, balance, controlled dynamics, speed, effortless drive, or versatility of the Max. Highly recommended!

Similar Products Used:

Sudgen Headmaster, Wheatfield HA-2, Headroom Home, and many more.

When it comes to headphone amps, this is the unit. Fast, tight, deep, wide, and black silence. No regrets, would recommend. Build quality and sonics are beyond reproach.

Similar Products Used:

Grado RA-1, Various Creek

superior to any off the shelf headphone outlet, doubles as a pre-amp

price, cheapie volume control, awkward dimensions, no source selection

Note: I own the Headroom "Home" model, not the Max - I'm posting my review here since there is no way to post reviews of the Home.

If you're very serious about headphone listening then the headroom amps are definately worth a try. I've been listening to The Home for a about a month now along with Sennheiser HD580's. The Home certainly sounds better than the outlets provided on recievers and some cd players. The sound is lean, very solid, and as grainless as I could imagine headphone listening to be. This is the only dedicated headphone amp I've used, so I don't know how it compares to others such as MF X-can, Creek, Grado, EarMax.

Headroom amps include crossfeed circuitry which bleeds and delays some of the left channel sound into the right channel and vice-virsa. When this processing is in action it makes the sound more full, but in a subtle way. At first you might not notice it, but try listening for a while and then turn it off - boy do you notice how flat normal headphone listening can be! Must-have.

Along with crossfeed it includes a filtering circuit. I'm not sure exactly what it does except it noticably improves the dynamics - it brings out the low level detail considerably. I leave it on all the time. I'm sure most audiophiles gasp at the thought of more processing going on in the signal chain. However, in this case it does improve the sound in a headphone environment to a degree that I feel it's worthwhile. Must-have.

The unit's chassis is good, all metal and very solid. However I was a little disappointed that the volume control has the all too familiar cheap/light/plastic feel that so many low-end products have. Also the dimensions are less than idea - it's very thin and narrow, whereas if it were wider than it is deep it would be more convenient to place.

I think it's great they included pre-amp outs so you can add a power amp to drive speakers with it. But that just makes me wonder how difficult it would be to add a 2 or 3 source selector to it. That would definately help out in my case where I have a cd player and the computer to select between. I'll have to find a separate selector when I get tired from switching cables all the time.

But given these annoyances this is a superior product worthy of it's price tag if you listen to headphones a lot.

Similar Products Used:

headphone outlets of recievers and integrated amps

The purity of the music. No onset of listener fatigue even after extended periods of time. A very silent background. Has the potential to cause some people to subconsciously start grinning. Not the worst thing in the world that could happen.

A little steep money wise

I was never a headphone kind of guy but I needed something that I could turn up at odd hours of the night while I was in my apartment when I was attending college. That led me to make the decision to get a headphone amp and a nice set of headphones. I was basically looking for something that could play loud and distortion free without sounding stressed when asked to do so. So after reading about different headphone amps/headphone combinations in magazines and the 'net I decided to take some money from my college loan and go for broke. So I ended up ordering the Audiot package from Headroom.(Headphone.com)-which is The Max headphone amp with a pair of Sennheiser HD-600's. Figuring that they offered 30-day money-back policy if I wasn't pleased with the unit I felt okay going ahead with the purchase. To make a long story short,the sound was excellent. You could crank it and it sounded very clear. Quiet levels were soothing and highly detailed. Did you ever buy something and wonder after you bought it if it's a worthy purchase, is this item good,am I happy with it, am I wanting it to be good or is it good--that "uncertainty" factor? For me, this was a "Grinning with certainty" after the first song was finished playing. So that settled it. Lastly, teaming up The Max and HD-600's with a PS Audio P300 AC regenerator is the ultimate.

Great quality amp for Sennheiser's,or any headphones that need a special amp just to work O.K.

Headphone processing that is supposed to help remedy certain soundstaging problems with headphones does not work as well as the solution I normally use.See my review of Grado SR-60 headphones for a description of this equivalent to "cross-fire" processing,which also addresses the problem of lack of bass realism in headphone-listening as well...

I wanted to try out an amp like this in order to compare it to my own substitute for Headroom-type processing(described in aforementioned review).I do not think that the Headroom solution sounds better,at least not with Grados.But,the Headroom amp does allow quiet listening,which is what most people like about headphones.Not me,I think the opposite of most in that I sense overall superiority of sound with headphones,not speakers,and I try to work around the problems involved so that headphones can be the primary source of sound.The Headroom concept is better than nothing,and is a step in the right direction until better speaker and/or headphone technology arrives.

Similar Products Used:

Grado headphones,which do not need powerful amps to drive them,or to give them detail,bass,etc...Senn.580,600.

Keith's review is right on the money. But a one-dimensional plane in front of your nose? Either his mind is one-dimensional (I'm kidding) or he's being too strict. Headphones are no comparisons with good speakers, and no headphones or headphones amplifiers can image as well as speakers, but with some imagination and careful listening, they can be a good alternative for certain circumstances -- e.g., you want to be alone by yourself. With imagination, the HeadRoom Max is superb with the Sennheiser 600. Also try the Earmax if you could find it or the Cary SEI 300 if you can afford it for tube headphone amplifier nirvana. But don't give up the idea of speakers because there is no comparison. O.k., why not have both? But I would spend most of my money on speakers if only because they require more money for the right setup and the right room. Man cannot live on headphones alone! But how many of us make six figures? Isn't life great!