Headphone Review
  • Headroom Micro DAC
  • Headroom Micro Dac
  • Headroom Micro DAC Internal Module
  • Feature Image

Headroom Micro DAC

The Good

Superior sound quality from either your computer or exisiting CD player at a price comparable to what audiophiles will pay for a single digital interconnect. Excellent build quality and reliability. Easy to set-up and configure. Addictive and a lot of fun. Portable.

The Bad

Might make you feel stupid that you spent so much on a CD player at some point. You will end up spending additional funds on a better headphone amplifier and headphones just to hear how good this thing is.

Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star The Verdict

One of the best bargains for someone looking to upgrade the sound quality of their home stereo or portable listening rig. Almost nothing to fault and more musical sounding than some expensive digital products we've heard.

Editor Choice

Headroom Micro DAC: Is That a DAC in Your Pocket or Are You Just Glad To See Me?

When I die, I want them to bury me with the Micro DAC so that I am already ahead of the game in the afterlife. No, Elvis...you can't borrow it.

Nobody has ever accused the folks at Headroom of being complacent, so when they announced the MicroDAC, it was not a stretch for those of us who are very familiar with the Headroom “sound” to have an inkling as to what this puppy would sound like. We knew that it would add a completely new dimension to the sound quality of the Micro Amp, but we had no idea how big that change would be.

The MicroDAC is designed to help you extract the most from your digital or USB source using the same USB chip that they use in the Total BitHead amp (the Texas Instruments/Burr Brown PCM2902). However, in the MicroDac, the chip is only used to convert the USB into an S/PDIF digital stream, which then goes into the Cirrus CS4398 DAC. The MicroDac also comes with a digital coaxial (very awesome dudes) and a digital optical mini-plug set of inputs. Either input can accept a 16 or 24-bit signal and will process those boring 0’s and 1’s at 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, and 96 kHz.

Setting it up takes about two minutes. The first minute involves connecting your digital source via a USB cable, optical mini-plug, or coaxial mini-plug. In our case, we ran a USB cable from my Apple iBook and it registered right away. The second step involves using a mini-to-mini cable between the MicroDac and the Headroom MicroAmp.

We spent the next sixty seconds rubbing our hands all over the case housing.

We are sick.

We know.

The MicroDac is slightly larger than a deck of playing cards and you should get about 7-8 hours of use from the two 9-volt batteries that are inside the unit. You can also power the MicroDac with the external AC power supply that comes with as well. The casing is a custom job for Headroom manufactured from heavy-aluminum and all of the neat looking marking and logos are laser-etched into the jet-black anodized finish.

Mucho sexy. Even for folks from Montana.

The urethane bezel that surrounds the front and rear panels has a foot sweep that fits into the groove in the top of the bezel which allows you to stack other Headroom Micro products.

One thing that Headroom does not provide is the cabling to get everything working. You will need to supply your own USB cable, optical cable, and a mini-to-mini analog cable. Cardas makes a really good one that we highly recommend.

How does this puppy sound?

Onheadphones columnist, Matej Isak, thinks it is the best value in portable audio and I would have to agree with him.

Look for our detailed comments in the coming days. We are putting some hours on this sucker and not getting a lot of sleep in the process.

Yes, it is that good.

Amazingly, it outperforms that Total BitHead by a rather significant margin.

Damn it.

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