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.