Introduction Headphones are not a particularly glamorous product and are often overlooked by many consumers. For years, I have paid practically no attention to headphones or headphone amplifiers. I didn’t know what I was missing but, after experiencing the best in headphones, I doubt I will ever be without a pair of good headphones again. I spent time listening to two top-of-the-line dynamic headphones, the Grado RS-1s and the Sennheiser HD-600’s. There are some more exotic designs, including electrostatic headphones costing upwards of $10,000, but these represent the top-of-the-line dynamic headphones from two well-respected companies. I turned to Tyll at Headroom, a company specializing in headphones and headphone accessories, to get started on this article. I received a quick lesson not only in headphones but also in headphone amplifiers. I used Headroom’s "Maxed Out Home" headphone amplifier, as well as a Grado Reference headphone amplifier, in my testing. The Headroom amplifier has special circuitry that provides amazing imaging ...

Introduction Headphones are not a particularly glamorous product and are often overlooked by many consumers. For years, I have paid practically no attention to headphones or headphone amplifiers. I didn’t know what I was missing but, after experiencing the best in headphones, I doubt I will ever be without a pair of good headphones again. I spent time listening to two top-of-the-line dynamic headphones, the Grado RS-1s and the Sennheiser HD-600’s. There are some more exotic designs, including electrostatic headphones costing upwards of $10,000, but these represent the top-of-the-line dynamic headphones from two well-respected companies. I turned to Tyll at Headroom, a company specializing in headphones and headphone accessories, to get started on this article. I received a quick lesson not only in headphones but also in headphone amplifiers. I used Headroom’s "Maxed Out Home" headphone amplifier, as well as a Grado Reference headphone amplifier, in my testing. The Headroom amplifier has special circuitry that provides amazing imaging ...

Introduction Some of you may be a bit surprised to see a review of a video gaming system here in the pages of Audio Revolution. Home video game systems can be a significant part of home entertainment and are relatively inexpensive and easy to add to your home theater. The Sega Dreamcast is the current king of the hill and will not face any serious competition until Sony’s second generation Playstation is out (reportedly later this year). The Dreamcast is a technical powerhouse with many new and innovative features. The Dreamcast has a 200 mhz, 128-bit CPU. Coupled with the unit’s NEC VR chip set, this allows intricate three-dimensional graphics to be drawn quickly and smoothly. Most other console games have either 32- or 64-bit processing. The Dreamcast’s 128-bit processor allows processing of data in groups two to four times larger in size. The result is faster and smoother gaming. For audio processing, Sega went to Yamaha. Yamaha ...

Introduction From TMHLabs and the mind of Tomlinson Holman (creator of THX) comes a set of powerful test discs that provide a series of test tones for the calibration and performance measurement of two to 5.1 channel music and theater systems. The test tones were generated in the digital domain by computer programs that ensure accuracy and stability without actually needing tremendously expensive and hard-to-use instruments. All editing and mastering was conducted digitally, with no analog conversions along the way. The finished discs are guaranteed to correctly represent the original signals. Most acousticians and installers will tell you they need at least an AC voltmeter, an oscilloscope and a spectrum analyzer to do what this disc series promises. These discs were designed to make system tests simpler, requiring only a sound pressure level (SPL) meter that can be purchased at Radio Shack, a stopwatch (on occasion) and a functioning pair of ears. The Stereo and ...

Introduction With the growing dependence on digital sound from sources like Compact Discs, DVD, DSS, Laserdisc, DAT, Mini Disc and other sources, the high end audio and home theater industry has a newly found shortage of digital inputs. You see, most A/V receivers and lower - to mid-priced A/V preamps, can not accept more than one or two digital inputs. Redesigning all of the A/V receivers on the market is going to take the better part of a year, if not longer. So what do you do if you want to have all of the best digital audio and video has to offer without investing in a big dollar high end A/V preamp? Enter the MSB Digital Director. If you have already experimented with configurations of your DAC and CD transport you probably realize that you can't just use any old audio cable or adapters to route digital data streams from one component to another. ...